uh do we have a thank you uh good evening everybody my name is Brett Ramon I'm the vice chair of the lunenberg Sewer Commission standing in for Mike Mackin um I would like to uh ask everybody to join us in
the pledge of allegiance to start our meeting I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under Gody justice for
all thank you everyone and um I need to then State uh in accordance with the requirements of open meeting law please be advised that this meeting of the Sewer Commission is being recorded and will be able to be found on the lunberg
access YouTube channel after the meeting the following information is also provided from members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely uh to participate remotely from a computer please use the link uh to join the public uh meeting webinar found
on the posted agenda or from a telephone dial the toll-free number 888- 475 4499 and enter the webinar ID 831 874
9994 if you have not registered with zoom you will need to be uh you will be asked for your name and email address um note no participant ID is needed just press pound when and I will do a roll
call vote to confirm that all members or what members are here and I will start with Joseph Earley here and Scott D here and Mike Mackin is not present and I am
here as well also the staff when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Bill Bernard I'm here and Andrew Valerie I'm here I'm working on and Jane ramley here
thank you for being here and uh I'd like to ask is there any public present that would like to make a public comment there's no public online tonight in that case do any of the members or staff uh Commissioners or
staff would like to make any other comment at no or announcements at this time all right moving on we've got current business one of them being absent members um and I'm going to ask B
for an update on that one so last time I reported Eli told me he uh couldn't attend anymore and he was gonna send a letter over to town hall with his resignation to the best of my knowledge he hasn't done that yet so still kind of
stuck okay right well let me ask you this if this stretches out until June he's not there anyway right but of course we'd rather start looking for somebody soon why for the election have come and go you mean if yeah
actual vote okay um hopefully we can I know you have a couple other things to do on your plate normally but if you uh if you have occasion to do so maybe shoot him a quick hey you know it'
be nice to get someone else on the board kind of thing I will do that I appreciate it with all your free time Mr director um and then uh we have our fiscal year 2024
annual report discussion um has anyone uh read the report that Jan submitted yeah I read through it excellent and um do you have any questions on this report no seemed pretty well explained and
straightforward excellent and very good I don't have any questions myself um and thank you Jane for submitting that um and then uh let
again so before you vote on anything um I don't know if you noticed there's a few things in yellow so those are numbers we've used in the past so Andrew and I will trying to update these numbers I think I got a couple of them
but we got to fill in the rest so I think my recommendation is for you to vote on the report um guess with the caveat that Andrew and I will fill in the yellow numbers that
need to be accurate before it's du on Friday well as I understand it's time is of the essence right so we do want to vote on it tonight yeah yeah you should so what is the best way to leave the numbers
out um I I guess the most would be something like um you know accepted pending the correction of the finalization of numbers yeah these numbers is um that should think can we
send out a docu sign and we can just initial the changes that might make sense um do that I mean I'm thinking that that would be accepted we just have to before Friday yeah yeah the numbers are the mostart
party yeah exactly but we can preemptively have a motion and approve it without the numbers and just initial the changes in the numbers later that's I think that works is the proposed rate increase is that just a projection of the rate increases from
the neighboring towns taking the yeah is that how that was calculated yeah that was part of your the contract rates right by 24 we did go up because yeah where we send the the swords to be
cleaned mhm they went went up went up so so should I make for a motion we do we have more discussion to happen here um you I'm just trying to think of how we want to word
it can it be like Scott said about having a s later or we could vote on it pending signatures after the number like a doc sign that approves it but also certifies the vote our vote yeah I don't knowne the
details motion to to accept the document and with the caveat that if wants to reject the the changes that yeah pending the finalize changes before I mean I guess we have to sign
the by Thursday right uh I'll stck in the motion okay motion is made I don't know second hopefully it's we'll see if the public uh objects yeah doesn't look like
they are so take a roll call vote Joe hi hi and I for myself motion passes um and this is Thursday as it well deadine Friday submission so but
you probably well if you need to send it before just yeah on my email yeah so the still went hanging out there I think a couple of members have signed it and needed like one more
signature was it was it the chair I got to fix that maybe you can give me a hand after the meeting you could probably just print it and you can sign it if it's already has ours on it probably do that yeah we just hold them
down right yeah right so um what we have next is uh the updates from our DPW and SE business manager um and we'll start with the first one which is a second and third
quarterly billing demands uh an update Andrew do you have anything you can tell us about that um yeah I we did the quot billing that went out uh there were a couple of Errors just in uh the upload of the um file sheet that we put into
access in immunis it doubled some bills but those people have already called in and I've corrected their bills um hopefully I didn't when I was looking through all the other bills kind of scrolling through I didn't really see that there was any other issues everything looked decent to me um but if
there are any other issues and anyone calls in we will correct you know the bill um because the numbers that we have in Access are correct just munus kind of doubled some of them unfortunately um and I like I said double checked um other bills and they
look correct to me and I did have Paul as well helping me utilize this you know do this as well so um it's a I don't know exactly what happened for them not to be fully accurate unfortunately so so there might be if I understand correctly
there might be an error here and there yes here and there yeah yeah like I said but most mostly like I said out of the 911 bills that we sent out I think uh 11 of them that's a better percentage than we had before but
big way that's actually a very big step in the right direction so um so I think that's a good thing obviously um 11 people have called in so far um so and I've corrected you know double checked the numbers and said if anyone does have
an issue and I can look at that and see if there's an issue we'll correct it very easily I'm curiosity what was it all in favor in one way or another on um basically I mean you know the bills were
doubled so the people were getting you know they're like oh why is my bill you know instead of 133 27 you know 270 or they notice so it was a shocker um I would be um it was just an abnomaly and the data that
got uploaded unfortunately it captured it twice for some reason and some customers um if somebody didn't notice would it would it show that they have a a balance going into the next billing or would it just they they'd be out the
money no like I said it's the billing like I said we try to make sure the numbers are correct in there so basically everyone had mostly everyone has the 133 balance um for the most part um I just try to look at the numbers that are higher you know going through but I mean most people would look at
their bill and if there's something off they'd be able to tell you know from what their normal usage is but to your question if if they didn't catch it we don't catch it and they pay it then yeah I okay it's not like right right it should show up
somewhere eventually right well I think that the billing is just it's it's it's detached right it's just a piece of paper that goes out and then you paid it you didn't it's not like a a running balance like a bank account so would it get caught in the next billing cycle or is it just that's what I was
wondering no I don't I don't think so as long as the numbers are correct in next cycle uh and we know there's not a double upload of um a spreadsheet so what we were trying to do um we had to delete the spreadsheet then upload it
but for some reason in Access it got stuck on some accounts double for some reason um so that's the good news is people are apt to notice oh yes no for sure at the same time I mean the accounting at some point
is going to be higher than it should be if people paid it y they said people will notice if their bill is off and like said I'll here to correct anything that anyone sees Up Normally well we appreciate your efforts and follows as well of course
yeah any upates updates on the demands unfortunately that is something I just cannot I I don't know I've tried to ask U ask you know help from Unice um and I've I'm kind of in the dark but but demands with mun with munice and yeah I
thought there was somebody helping that a little bit we got a Little Help from Unice they fixed a couple things but they haven't fixed that yet no yeah that's been what over a year that
issue yeah it's been well over a year yeah it was a year November wasn't it when it's sending out the delinquent accounts yeah so if somebody doesn't pay after 30 days we send a demand letter
hey you're late there's a $10 fee and you still owe us this money plus interest it but we can't get those out so yeah people on saying oh shoot I forgot to pay my bill right yeah I've tried numerous things to try and get those to print and they just they just
don't they just won't just R review this unfortunately little town of lunenberg doesn't rate very high on their Spectrum yeah all right I love corporate moving right along thank you very much
no absolutely and yeah still a big step in the right direction and hopefully uh uh so I guess last question on that is um you must be working on third quarters uh well like said well like
we're going into third fourth quarter now fourth quarter yeah fourth quarter for billing that was a third quarter billing that we just process the demands I was trying we were trying to process Quarter Two so it's like we can't get to quarter three if we haven't done Quarter Two so
that's where we're stuck it's on the quarter too yeah so we do have a consultant coming in to help us he was supposed to come next week but he pushed us off a week so hopefully he can help us with that we'll see this the guy that used to
work for be nice yeah so if he could sit down with me with any of the questions that I have with what I have to go through well how do I do this here's if this is not working can we how do you fix this you know hopefully we can get you know I can
get an answer to that you know or you know there could be a ticket that could be put in so we can understand what's going oning human about it ex exactly would be great so you started a list of questions for him so oh sure yeah couple of pages
now not quite not quite almost well thank you very much gentlemen um all right then um let's uh I'm going to ask about the assistant to the business manager position to give Andrew some extra help if it's possible
yeah Andrew you want to go um yeah so we did interview one person so far uh what was her name Marsha Mara yeah I think yeah um she was nice she had a lot of experience um in you know municipali yeah yeah um which
was great more so than me so I think she would be uh you know a good fit um but like so we're waiting for we have another interview tomorrow morning at 10: so we just want to do that process first and then go from there uh make a
decision would be yeah I mean we definitely don't want to rush this right but but you know these people are looking at other jobs and are worth that you know we were supposed to interview the second candidate last week right yeah but uh I was out sick all
week so it didn't work out so it's tomorrow lot of that going around yeah so okay I appreciate the after the interviews what's the next counter pacing item is HR has to call references
yes and that's like a mandatory part of the yeah I find the references have had less and less to say over the years that I I don't tend to get too much out of them but policy is policy yeah that's that's
what we do all right okay so uh excellent so uh regarding the manhole repair um I'm guessing that's still in a holding pattern I know on my job sites I
got some Frost that's literally 2 feet deep on one spot and I had to discon the excavation there so I can't imagine there's any interest in trying to move forward with that yeah it's a springtime Joe I should have a little more time to deal
with these guys now I'm going to set up a pre-construction meeting yeah so we can get that plan and yeah we'll go from there so abut I think this morning's cold helped one when I left so yeah any Frost is going to be
Perma Frost soon enough yeah well you know we were bound to have a New England winter at some point we were due yeah but uh is there any other questions uh regarding that
no no great um how about some general discussions uh General items um for uh anything from you Andrew or Bill well part of um Andrew's condition
of employment was we came up with a list of um what do we call them contingencies contingencies is that we call so it's basically I took some of the main job
functions and um put some criteria to where we want Andrew to be at certain points so the first review was on January 31st and um in my opinion Andrew's doing a great job right so we hit all the
goals that we had set what really impresses me about Andrew is he's not intimidated by munice he's intimidated by munas right he just jumps in there and tries and tries you know right the first couple time days he
come to me and say it didn't work I follow the instructions to a te and it didn't work like well that's how munus is try it again and you go back and try it again and it didn't work and then they try it again and all of a sudden it works W so you know unless a person would say I'm dealing with this crap and
you walk away well that's definitely a big yeah so positive right there yeah definitely kudos to you thank you so glad to have uh somebody so determined on board yeah I'm definitely motivated appreciate it so well it's um
you know it's a frustrating situation and it it does said challenges like I said when I can't when I feel like I can't get I I do whatever I can to try and correct any think that I'm doing yeah yeah so you see a challenge as
something to overcome yes obviously a big one so that's what we like to hear spinning you off yeah right has he been shown up every day every day yes somebody had to
ask even when he's sick it's great it's great well it's great to have you on board and thank you seeing the effort you're putting forward it matters glad to be here thank you and know I don't see how we could ask for more than that
so glad to have you thank you and know was um we're on a general um items list so um do you have anything you wanted to add or talk about that's at the moment no not really I I
mean I'm doing the best that I can here I'm grateful for Bill honestly I mean any questions that I have um then we have Samantha that's very helpful very sourceful with you know other questions that I may have so everyone's been very
helpful to me uh trying to help me uh with anything that I you know have a question on or I'm stuck on or you know yeah so yeah I mean I get a feeling you're definitely more comfortable than you were I'm definitely more comfortable
than I was my first week my first week I my my brain was kind of spinning a little bit but I'm I'm getting that this is good though all right um did you have anything you want to talk about no
gentlemen well then uh it looks like we're already on um future agenda items and we should restart that um obviously s of this will be back on there the
um you know we should should we uh probably just another update on the billing um just to hear from you again where where we were at and uh secondly of course the assistant business manager
position um and we can keep the manholes on there just because we know what coming and any meetings you might have between here and there would be great to know about um trying to think of anything else
I there can't be any one installing anything right now so uh any new applications no but people are sniffing around so that they're asking for tie cards and you know copies of plans and
stuff so people are getting ready this um one of the contractors came in met Andrew today so he was talking about at least three locations no kidding trying to line up so I think come spring
you know April 15 might let people open up the road so I think we'll have a few applications right then cool I'm guessing that'll be a little bit more of an interesting part of your job seeing what people see what everyone's doing yeah got planned and that kind of
thing learn the perit process that point yeah that's great um excellent and um can anyone think of anything else we want to put on the next agenda no not at all very good um well moving on
um I could ask about old business but that was pretty much covered already um and then I am going to ask for any public comment which we may not have public NOP no public and um does the uh any Commissioners or staff any have any
additional comment I would like to say um I just wanted to extend our best to Mike Mackin and that um wish him well and um that kind of thing get well soon
getting into it but um uh and also uh hope that we are able to clear our uh our candidate Our member that doesn't show up and so that we can replace him
with somebody more motivated and I thank you gentlemen for being here consistent um and I'm done with that comment so upcoming scheduled meetings we have February 25th and that's going
to be 6: pm on Zoom um also following that would be March 11th uh 2025 at 7 p.m. hybrid meeting at this location at the DBW building March 25th will also be a zoom meeting at 6: p.m. and April 8th
we'll be back to another hybrid meeting here so I can't believe we're even talking about April for you Works outside I got to say I find that inspiring Little Ray of Hope so um I am
happy for all of sers and skiers that have been waiting for this year um so moving along um I'm going to ask for um a motion to adjourn the meeting a motion to adjourn can to get a second I'll second the motion all right
we've got a motion to adour the meeting it's been second um roll call vote Scott hi Joe hi and I for myself and this meeting is officially adjourned thank you lber and good night