WMAC Meeting Minutes, June 10, 2010

Attendees:  David Crosby – Chair, Ann Carney, David Hearne, Paul Lauenstein, Rory McGregor – Secretary, Len Sekuler – Vice-Chair, Bob Weeks

Guests: Eric Hooper – Superintendent, DPW; Dave Masciarelli, DPW Water Department

1.  The minutes from the May 27 WMAC meeting were approved as amended.

2.  Len Sekuler reviewed the methodology used by his consulting company, Malcolm Pirnie, to evaluate and prioritize capital projects for client utilities that are driven by rehab/replacement, enhancement and growth issues.   See the WMAC May 27 minutes for details.

We started to apply this methodology to the list of capital projects in the Master Plan under preparation by Weston & Sampson.  The original list was grouped by project type: distribution network and tank improvements, well rehab/enhancements, and major projects such as new well development, emergency water connections to other towns, and leak detections.  Eric consolidated this project list to simplify the number of projects that we need to review.  (Should we attach this document?  If so, please email to me.)  

Len provided the template for scoring the individual projects.  He prescribed a system of rating project factors and issues from 1 to 5, with 1 being the least serious and 5 being the most serious.

3.  We reviewed and scored 3 projects:

A) Water main improvement for Pond Street (business district area).  Install 3600 feet of new 12” diameter pipe; estimated cost is $670,000.  Abandon 2,465 feet of existing 4-inch and 6-inch pipe; estimated cost is $125,000.  Weighted condition score for Probability of Failure is 4.0; weighted criticality score for Consequence of Failure is 2.5

B) Water main improvement (residential area).  Install 9,000 feet of 6-inch pipe on Brook Road.  Estimated cost is $1,500,000.  Install 4,800 feet of 6-inch pipe on Glendale Road; estimated cost is $800,000.  Weighted condition score for Probability of Failure is 4.5; weighted criticality score for Consequence of Failure is 2.8

C) Concrete water storage tank rehab at Moose Hill location.  Repair crack and spalling on portion of tank above ground.  Estimated cost is $75,000.  Weighted condition score for Probability of Failure is 2.5; weighted criticality score for Consequence of Failure is 2.5

The final step is to plot each project on a single graph with x-axis labeled Probability of Failure and y-axis labeled Consequence of Failure.  This provides a quick visual map of  how the projects rank in terms of importance and gives an objective way to rank overall priority.

4.  We will continue the evaluation process on the remaining projects at the next WMAC meeting scheduled for Tuesday, June 29th, at 7:30pm at the Community Center.

5.  Paul Lauenstein asked if any progress had been made on fixing leaks that seem to be increasing well pumping every month over the same month a year earlier.  Eric Hooper replied that there still seems to be a problem despite hiring an outside firm to search for leaks.

Respectfully submitted,

Rory McGregor