Why don't we get started? So, good morning everybody. Welcome to the LEPC meeting. First let me start by apologizing for the postponements in the recent past. The scheduling has been a little tough. And then I missed the agenda deadline by a couple of hours. Not really I thought it was 24 hours, but apparently it's 48. So, I apologize
for that, but here we are. Let's start with attendance if we could, please. I have Amy Dazo. >> No. >> Oh, okay. >> I thought I Were you going to start in counterclockwise clockwise? >> Yeah, you go >> Nicole Parker, COA.
>> Sabrina Fuller, Conservation. >> Eileen Simons, Health Director. >> Rich Balser, DPW Director. >> Ashley DeMaris, Springfield Water and Sewer. >> Brett Vanish, Chief of Police. >> Mike Taggart, Lieutenant of Police. >> Richard Stedman, Fire Chief and LEPC Chair. >> Bob Weaver, Springfield Water and Sewer.
>> Deena Barsch, Wastewater Treatment Plant. >> Are you sure you don't want to join us at the table? Okay. All right, fair enough. So, good morning everybody. Um did everybody have an opportunity to look at the minutes that were Okay. >> Motion to approve as written.
>> So, any discussion on the motion? No. All those in favor, we'll do a roll call vote. Richard Stedman, yes. >> Nicole Parker, yes. >> Sabrina Fuller, yes. >> I'll believe I'm a voting member, yes. >> Rich Balser, yes. >> Brett Vanish, yes.
>> All right, very good. Thank you. They passed unanimously. All right, very good. Um so, again Lisa Anderson is our treasurer our secretary but we'll be sure to get the follow-up minutes out to you. Okay. Um so, this morning uh Ian Wisel was kind enough to set up
and reach out to Springfield Water Works to get an opportunity to have them come in and do a quick presentation. So, Ashley I'll let you take it from there. >> Okay, very good. I just need to share my screen. It says the host uh waiting to let me in on the Zoom.
Sorry. That's okay. >> It do it. >> It's fancy that you're cable system here. >> [laughter] >> Real high-techy. >> Thank you. >> And then I think I need to make you a host co-host. >> Um I don't even know if anybody else is online to be honest.
>> Yeah, I didn't see anybody online. >> Oh. Okay. >> I don't know why riveting riveting information. >> Life it is. And they're missing the best meeting of the year. >> It's okay. I got it up I think. We're good. >> This will be fine cuz the with the recording it'll coincide with everything
anyway, so. >> Perfect. >> Okay. >> Do you mind if I stand up? Okay. The only thing is I'm going to have to I'm going to just have to stand near my computer just to move on to each slide. >> Okay. >> Um so thank you everyone for letting us
join the meeting here today. Again, my name is Ashley DeMary. I'm the Deputy Director of Field Services at Enfield Water and Sewer. Um Field Services is I I just want to pause for a minute. That screen is a lot smaller than mine.
>> Oh. >> Let's see if I can change the layout. >> Well, is it in the upper right you might be able to >> Um I think I did. >> If anybody wants to >> Show me um >> I don't know. >> Go to the right by two symbols and hit
the square. That might blow it up. >> This? >> Yeah. >> That's me hitting the That that maximize that, but it doesn't >> I don't know if it's much bigger than that though. I can make it a full-size screen if I leave the Zoom meeting and just join with HDMI. >> I think we're going to be okay for that. We can see the screens there.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah, that's okay. >> Yeah, that's fine with Zoom. Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. Um So we're here today uh well, like I said, I'm the deputy director of field services and a lot of people go, "Well, field services, what is that?" Basically, it's everything with our
water distribution system and our sewer collection system between construction and metering, cross connections, water quality. All of those different areas fall under um our department. So, including uh with uh with industrial pre-treatment. So,
Uh and so, we're here today to discuss a hazard mitigation plan that we started about a year and a half ago with Weston and Sampson, an engineering consultant. It's our very first time developing one of these, and it's actually what we learned is that
Springfield Water and Sewer is the first public utility in New England to require one of these, a regional public utility. So, uh it's a big deal for us. So, and I appreciate you guys giving us a moment here to talk about it. I apologize that I just not able to There
we go. Okay. Figured it out. So, the hazard mitigation plan, I know, is an uh it's a document that's approved by MEMA and FEMA for review. And with that, it's basically preparing utilities for
municipalities for natural disasters and having grants and funding available to help with uh being proactive with mitigation items to help minimize the downtime in the event that you do have a disaster. And I know it was only recently that we just recognized, I
believe it was 15 years ago, for example, when that tornado went through downtown Springfield. Um I remember it well, too, back in 2011 in October when we had that big ice storm. I know I I grew up in Westhampton, and I we were without power for a week. Um
and I know uh I wasn't working Springfield yet at that time. I just started actually in Amherst, but during that time, it was a week as well for them. I was home with like the pump stations being offline and having to run the portable generators around to keep the wet wells down so
we don't have backups in the system, things like that. So, this is a been a great opportunity for us cuz again, with once this gets submitted in the fall from FEMA and FEMA to review and hopefully approve the plan, it will open us up to opportunities for grants
that we previously were not eligible for. Um which is great because then it means we're not going after state revolving funds and then we're not putting the burden on our rate payers either. So, and of course, the biggest thing is improving public safety.
Uh so, it's been quite a journey. Like I said, it's been about a year and a half, but we are wrapping it up and getting close to the end. Um but these are just the different required sections of the plan that we've been developing. A lot of it was us meeting together as teams
to discuss uh by sector of different types of assets that we have, what would be some examples of, you know, threats to that system and what could we do to help be more prepared and make sure that we can continue to provide, you know, these resources.
Um and then this is just a nice little quick fact uh for every dollar that you spend on mitigation, you send you save $6 on the recovery side of a disaster. But this was before COVID-19. >> [laughter] >> So, I'm sure it's quite a bit of a
different span now. We're all feeling it no matter where we are right now. Uh >> [laughter] >> So, with this, um and I know Southwick, for example, uh we sell wholesale water to the town of Southwick. We have three
interconnections as I understand it. Of course, if there was like in the summer months, you know, a lot of air irrigation, that you know, it's hot and dry and there There be more demand. We do have, you know, the ability to provide >> more water. >> No water. >> Yeah. >> [laughter]
>> You got to sell, sell, sell. >> [laughter] >> Uh so this is just I know and I apologize. I know it's so small to see this, but this is just to give you an idea of how vast an area the commission maintains in terms where our assets are located. So everything in
green is where we have wholesale customers or you know retail with you know Ludlow and uh Springfield obviously you know is direct uh sale of water and sewer services and then we have our wholesale customers. We even uh treat waste water for a part of six uh
Chicopee on the southern end of by the Connecticut River as well. And then everything in blue is again where we have assets. A lot of this is watershed that we own. We have over 18,000 acres of land that we maintain. We also have the Ludlow Reservoir with watershed in
there and we also have uh dams in the area as well. So that's just to give you an idea of spanning the city from oldest to all the different towns. It's a lot of miles. So we uh what does it take for us to maintain a system that provides services for over a quarter of a million people?
I will read some of these for you cuz I can tell it's very tiny on the screen. Uh I mentioned you know how much acres of watershed we have. We have 11 dams, three reservoirs, two treatment plants, water and waste water. We have a power plant. A lot of people don't know that. It's actually a
hydroelectric power plant. Uh it's at the from Cobble Reservoir before it gets to the drinking water treatment plant. It's all gravity which is fantastic, but that has turbines in there that produces electricity and we have a contract with Holyoke Gas and Electric and they maintain it for us. And we're actually
looking right now to do a big upgrade of um rebuilding all those turbines. It's it's time, so and it's a great investment cuz when there's like blackout periods or high demand and they tell us like we need to run it at capacity like if the grid is calling for it. It's a big uh
payout in work and money as well. So, it's something that's definitely worth to keep investing in. We have our drinking water storage tanks, and then this basically kind of almost in order of how it goes through the system. We have over 600 miles now
of water distribution piping in the system. We have about 500 miles of sewer piping that we maintain. So, all together in over 1,100 miles. We have over 6,000 hydrants, roughly 20,000 valves, 23 combined sewer
overflows that are mostly on the eastern side of the Connecticut River and the Chicopee River. And then we have 27 sewer pump stations that we maintain in Springfield and five booster stations for drinking water, which is when the outskirts of the
distribution system enters Ludlow. We have those booster stations in Ludlow again to help with the fire flow to make sure that the pressure is maintained. So, I know that's Ludlow. I wanted to read that for you cuz it's hard to see. >> Most people in Ludlow get their water
from Springfield, but I get mine from the Quabbin. >> Oh, are you like a border county like you're on the outskirts or >> Yes. >> Nice. So, MWRA then? >> Yeah. Most of my street, yeah. >> Nice. Uh so, while we were going through this plan,
a couple of things that have been really beneficial for us is the public outreach. This is an example of what the LPC means that we've been attending for all the various towns, but another part of it was us reaching out to high hazard dam owners. So, speaking of the Quabbin >> [laughter] >> with MWRA, we actually just had a recent
meeting with them um and I'll touch on that in just a second. So, I mentioned we own 11 dams. Out of those, six of them are rated as high hazard. Uh our largest one, of course, being the Quabbin Mountain Reservoir. Uh Uh, high hazard is based on the risk of loss of life and the
amount of property damage. So, you use [clears throat] your inundation maps, which are available to the public, so we reviewed them for all of these high hazard dams in the area. And then, anything that did have any impact on our infrastructure, we reached out to those owners to let them know that we wanted
to be added to their emergency response plan and if they have any trainings in the future. So, that led us to speaking with the Quabbin with MWRA and we actually just had a meeting with them. It's really interesting. So, for example, the our Quabbin Mountain Reservoir,
it holds 22 billion gallons of water. If it was to stop raining today, we have about a just over a 2-year supply of drinking water, which is fantastic. However, the Quabbin, they hold 412 billion gallons and I think they said they can go 4 to 5 years with no rain to
still supplying all their customers and there's a lot of them, so. Um, but yeah, so when we looked at the inundation maps, we were following, you know, what the impacts would be. So, the largest ones is up in Huntington with the Knightville Dam, Hobble, and Quabbin. Those were the most disastrous and we're looking at the worst-case scenario when
we're looking at these inundation maps. Um, so yeah, so we reached out to all of them and we asked that we be added to be given our contact information and then it was just a great way to open up the floor to ask questions and we actually are looking to set up tours with MWRA to
give them a tour of our reservoir as well as get a tour of theirs and then we're going to start up some trainings with them next summer. Cuz it was interesting when we presented like showing them our inundation maps of what assets are impacted, they had no idea like how much that we maintained
and what those impacts were, so it was really beneficial to have that discussion. Um, so with FEMA, they draft all the different types of natural hazards. There's 12 total and what we learned when developing this plan is you have to
have a mitigation item for every type of natural hazard. And with us being specifically water and sewer services, some of these were a little more tricky for us, but we were able to come up with something for each of them. Some much more than others.
So, we have a a very vast um IT group with a GIS um team and we also have drone team. We have people with licenses to fly drones. So, we do a lot of inspections with
those, but you know, it also is a great opportunity to get some different aerial shots. So, this is just a picture of a Cobble Mountain. And some examples of, you know, a natural hazard that we would see with this could be something like wildfires, you know, with the drought
period and how do you get access to those? But then start obviously would be like runoff from the ash, you know, let's say you know, you lose a lot of your forest along the banks of the reservoir. You have all those organics coming in and then to treat that, it's a it's going to be a lot more difficult to
remove them. Um so, that was one thing that we discussed. And of course, invasive species, whether it's, you know, insects or vegetation. And we do have a lot of land stewards that are always surveying the land. We even have state police that uh work around the reservoir for us um
to make sure that it's closed off to the public. So, we're preventing, you know, like ATVs and things like that from getting into our watershed and potentially causing pollution. Uh this is a picture from a few years back when we started uh constructing
a new section of our drinking water plant. I don't know if you guys have been up there recently, but now all of our old uh slow sand filters out here are all being removed as we speak um to make room for the new drinking water plant. It's starting to be online hopefully
at the end of 2028, but we'll see. You know, there's always delays with construction and hiccups, so um but something that we talked about here, you know, for potential hazards is loss of power. Um it comes down through the mountain. I I
don't work at the drinking water plant, so I'm not an expert about it, but I was told the new treatment plant is actually going to get its power from Westfield Gas and Electric, which is going to be new for us, but hopefully it will create some redundancy as well. Um and then uh
flooding, but not from the dams that you saw there. We actually have like a sedimentation basin here along here as well, and these are actually our rated and classified as dams, so let's say, you know, we have some erosion, you know, from heavy rainfall, things like that, that could
be a possibility. And then again, just following through the chain of the water flow from the reservoir down, this is a Raven Mountain where we have our water storage tanks for the treated water. Three out of the four are online. One of them was taken off, I don't know how many years
ago that was. Uh I'm not sure myself, but the biggest thing we talked about with these is earthquakes would be something that we'd be concerned about just cuz they're underground. This is actually also considered a dam. Uh it's rated as a dam, but when you
look at the inundation maps, it's very minimal. The flow would go down the northwest side of the hill here and down over to a water body nearby. I've learned a lot going through this cuz as you can see, like there's a lot
of different assets that we maintain. So then again, following the flow of the water, it enters our transmission mains and then leads down to the distribution system throughout, you know, for our wholesalers and then for directly to our customers in Springfield and Loveland. Um some of the biggest things that we
talk about for natural hazards, you know, threats that we face for this one, uh, extreme temperatures. I don't know if you guys recall like but this past winter was extremely cold. A lot of cold snaps and unfortunately, it was one of our highest records for main breaks as
well because of that. So, we I will say we have a really robust, um, construction team and we're always replacing and, you know, water main, you know, to ductile iron, but we still have fair amount cast iron in the system and
about 35% of the system is still over 75 years old. There's many pipes that are well over 100 years old still in the system. But, when you're talking about 1,100 miles, 35% being over 35, that's not bad. We're doing well. We do a lot of capital projects every year as well
where we, you know, contract it out, but in-house we also are always doing replacements as well. Uh, we're laying down new main in Ludlow as we speak today. And then lastly, uh, my old stomping grounds, Bondis Island. I worked there for 9 years. Definitely a wastewater person.
Uh, so the biggest thing I'm sure you that's, uh, you know, sticks out for a threat would be flooding. So, you have the Connecticut River here and then the Westfield River along the north or southern side technically over here. Uh, there is a dike, uh,
a wall here. It's actually not rated though as a dam. It's only good though for a 100-year flood, I believe. I don't think it's rated for a 500. And we when we looked at the inundation maps for Cobble, Knightville, and the quadrant, the whole area was under water. >> Mhm.
>> And that was taking into account those dam. That's about it. So, uh, it's definitely, you know, you know, that would be very impactful. Obviously, when we're talking about worst case scenarios like that, the biggest thing, the priority of course, is, you know, the safety of our
staff and the public. This is more just thinking about after, like post recovery. How are we going to get the system back online? What are we going to do? So, we talked about like our EOC, the Emergency Command Center. We're actually moving that from Bondy's to the Operations Center where I work on Fulton
Street, just because that's not in a flood zone. Uh we're we're working on getting a generator actually installed this summer um to provide a backup power. But, yeah, so that's a big one. And then I will say there are two feeds of electric lines that come in to feed the
plant. And Veolia, previously Suez, but Veolia manages the treatment facility for us. That's who I used to work for. And they um are required to do all the operation and maintenance at the facility. But, when they got a new contract in 20
20, a new 20-year contract, there were a lot of initial capital improvements that we conducted. And one of them was uh separating the feed lines in the manholes throughout the plant uh because unfortunately one of them out here by the primary basins got filled with water
and it blew up one of the lines, but unfortunately the other line was right next to it, so that one blew up. And then it we lost all of our aeration system. This happened like Actually, it might have been on my trajectory to leave at that point. But, anyway, uh >> [laughter]
>> But, yeah, so I was told, you know, it was a scramble obviously to find generators, uh multiple generators that can power this cuz our aeration system, which is the blowers, um that is takes up over 50% of your electrical demand for the entire plant. That's
that's your bread and butter where all that power feed is going into. So, uh but that was, you know, lesson learned and they've already upgraded all of that. They've done other improvements as well, but that's a big one, so. And then lastly, we have our Lovell Reservoir. This one is open to the
public, uh which is great. So, our biggest thing is always thinking about public safety and means of access and if there's an emergency. So, uh our land stewards and our staff that work there are always maintaining the pathways, inspecting trees, making sure you know there's there's no dead trees in the
area, but we're also looking for invasive species. And another threat, of course, again, would be wildfires. So, when we're coming up with mitigation action items, there's three things that we have to ask ourselves as we were developing them,
which is what is the vulnerability, how is it significant, what the impact would be, and then what are some ideas we're brainstorming of what we could do to lessen that severity. Uh so, we had a quite a list that we were drafting, but we
consolidated to about 50 items. And what I learned is with the hazard mitigation plan, you have to have this item listed in your plan in order to use grant money for it. So, it's a little bit of a balancing act where you need it to be broad enough, but you also have to
be a somewhat specific enough to do up-updates on that item or asset, whatever it may be, to use that grant money. So, as we were, you know, consolidating it, I just wanted to provide like a couple examples
from that list. The first one is our cell phone and internet communications. Uh we are actually part of a public safety priority service now for our cell phones, which is great. I did see it firsthand. I was down at Bonnie's not that long ago.
Maybe it was last fall, and I was trying to get in contact with people at Veolia, and it wasn't going through. And it turned out Verizon was down, but all the commission phones were fine, but we couldn't get a hold of the staff at the wastewater plant cuz they were they weren't on the priority service. So, it does show that it works, which is great.
Um I I know AT&T has something similar called FirstNet. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. My husband's like that. Um I I like their customer service. I'll tell you that. But anyway, uh so uh something else that we're exploring
which Bob and Kristen for our emergency response team has been developing for us are uh radios. So, we used to use them, but it's been a long time and we wanted to explore that again. You saw earlier in a previous map like how far of an expansion we have to reach our staff.
So, we've been exploring and we're actually looking to install radio towers as well and even rent out additional space on those which is great as another way of, you know, generating revenue at the same time. So, uh we we're getting close to it, but I'm not sure where it stands right now. But we've already done
trials with them and they do work. So, it's just a matter of starting to get that process going. And then another example um is just the brim of the version gates that we have up at Cobble Mountain. So, we do have uh ports for generators to hook up to those gates so that we can
operate them in the event that there's a power loss, but we were exploring with the idea of having permanent generators on site instead just to provide again a quicker response time. And this would be I mean, we have some time in general
like for something to impact the reservoir, I'm thinking like hurricanes. You know, our capacity right now even in a drought we're like at 96% right now 96%. But when we know that there's severe storms coming, we will purposely open up the gates to let water out of the reservoir
um so that we can gain some capacity before, you know, we're faced with flooding issues, things like that. So, we're already discussing that as well. And again, like I said, this a big part of this is just, you know, public outreach, having an opportunity to speak
with everyone and just learn more about, you know, what we do on a daily basis to serve our customers. And we always like to take a moment at the end just to see if there's, you know, suggestions or practices that each community has that they find is uh something bene-
beneficial that we can implement. Uh I can give you some examples of things that we do now. So, Tighe & Bond is our consultant for our dams. Uh we do training exercises every 2 years in person and we invite all the communities. I don't know if Southwick I'm hoping Southwick has been part of
those in the past. I'm not sure. >> yeah. >> Okay, great. >> 2 years ago. >> Perfect. Uh yeah, right at the Westfield office for Tighe & Bond, which is great. We also have Everbridge, which is a reverse 911 system that we can use internally or externally with our customers. Um we use it right now just
for planned maintenance or if there's service you know, disruptions, hydrant flushing, or water quality. But I try to explain a lot of people find this interesting that we cannot directly call MEMA and to issue like a boil order. We have We're not part of the
city. We are a regional utility. So, we have to go through the city of Springfield through Tighe for the emergency response team, and then they contact MEMA. But that being said, [clears throat] we have a really good relationship with Scott out of the MEMA office in Agawam and we coordinate
with him on a lot of things. So, and we always our communications department already have templates for everything like ready to go, but I'm sure you guys recall we had a boil order not that long back. Uh it was in 2023
with St. James Ave Abbey Brook. Um that one took some time. I'm not to throw the government under the bus, but they weren't exactly prepared for that either. Um but again, we had templates ready to go, but before we could issue the boil order, they have to review it and
approve it. And that process took a little longer than we would have liked. I think we got it out in 6 hours, but you technically have 24 hours to report it for a boil order. But, you know, we want to be as quick as possible with things like that. So. Uh and then some
other examples, um somebody asked me about cybersecurity. We do have Well, first of all, our team is always looking to advance things. Like the multi-factor authentication system, unfortunately, that's not good enough anymore. That these hackers are always finding
some some new way to get access to, you know, your information. So, they're actually I I'm not a computer person, but they're finding a new way for us to do, uh you know, a sign-in authentication process. Uh we also hire a third party um to test
our system. We basically are paying them to try to infiltrate infiltrate our our system to see if they can get in. And I'm happy to report that it's a you know, it's very uh well-versed and, you know, secure. So, we also are air-gapped with our SCADA
system for the treat- treatment facility. So, nobody has a way to access and control the plants. That's not possible. So. Uh but yeah, anyway, I mean, I know that's more on the security side of things than emergency response, but just in general, if there's things that you guys have for suggestions or you want to
be included in more exercises or trainings that we do, you know, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. >> Sure. >> And if you have any questions for me, cuz I know it was a lot of information, but if you're just curious about anything, >> I have a couple of questions for you. Um first of all, in the event that you do
have uh an immediate emergency, then as defined, let's say there's a a breach in one of the dams, what's the communications process to the immediate contiguous community? So, if there was a problem at Cobble, how does Suffolk get notified? >> Yeah, so we have a emergency response
plan. And in that plan, it has a phone chain with a a command basically of like who has to contact who. >> Okay. >> So, when the executive director is contacted, at the same time, our emergency response team, you can Bob, Kristen, and Jeremy, they are starting
to contact all the towns, but more importantly also NEMA and all the LPCs. So, that's how it starts is up through phone calls, but we also will launch our EOC online through Teams as well to start internally giving updates and then
at some point depending on what the situation is, we could be including the uh you know, the local municipalities on those two systems. >> So, you don't have a system in place right now that notifies local municipalities. So, if there was a >> Not an automated system. >> Okay. >> No. The this is not an automated
system, but it's it can't be relied upon to contact. We want to make sure we're verifying that we're speaking to somebody and we have backups for each town as well. >> We'll go right through our notification chart, which you guys are in. There's a number of us that are making
the phone calls. So, it will happen pretty quickly. >> Okay. >> Then we'll contact your emergency manager. Then we like >> Okay. Who's that going to? >> We notify everybody. >> This also I mean, all right. Cuz just as an example, uh down in
Connecticut, they have a whole entire task force for the fire department and because we're so close to to Southwick which is pretty much in Connecticut, part of it, we're part of that that team. And so, we get email notification text message notifications that they're activated like almost instantly. So,
>> Yeah. >> to do those types of notification box. >> It would be NEMA. >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. >> Just And unfortunately, that boil order that we had before >> Yeah. >> NEMA had somebody new at the desk that day and unfortunately, they sent out a
notification to like a lot of New England's area. It was a large span instead of being pinpointed to specific locations. So, But yeah, so we had like a many people in Connecticut calling. Our customer service lines were like maxed out. Like
our system like crashed at one point, which we worked on that as well after fixing that issue. Um you know, people calling they don't even they have well water and they're asking if they can drink their water. People just don't know. >> Right. Right. >> They don't know how the the structure works. >> And then so
you you said the plan itself has to be approved by FEMA. Does FEMA just look at it and trust that FEMA did a good job or do they get their hands into it, too, and >> That's a good question. Uh Western Sampson would be more uh the right person to answer that, but I will tell you that we had a lot of
setbacks with getting in contact with in contact with them in general for both parties because there was a lot of furlough going on and here and there with them being in and out of the office. Uh but she finally met with them because we had a lot of questions, too.
This some of these requirements don't really make sense for us again as a water and sewer utility versus a municipality. So, we reached out for more clarification. And they say overall it was good. It was positive, but they did say we're still not doing enough
public outreach. They said these LAPC meetings are great. We did surveys online and nobody not really surprised nobody filled one out, but we did put a lot on our social media and online. But they're saying uh we need to do more. So, you might hear from us again soon.
We're working on a contact list, but in October when we have another board meeting with our commissioners we're going to open that up as a public meeting as well for all the you know, the local wholesalers and customers to be able to attend that and listen and on a presentation. It might be a little
different than this one. I'm not sure. I won't be presenting that one. Western Sampson will take care of that. That's fine. That was good. Great question. >> And but I have one more question if nobody else has a problem. Does this open us up for potential grant
opportunities because we're part of this? You guys did all the legwork. I understand that, but you know, obviously for dotting the i's and crossing the t's is part of those those grant processes. >> Well, also the reason like we went to pursue
getting our own is that if we stayed Southwick and hadn't pursued this, we would be relying on the city of Springfield to share funds that they get from these grants through their hazard mitigation plan. So, let's say there's a natural disaster and it impacts all of the city,
but we can't control what they're going to give us, you know, they they can decide, "Okay, we'll give you, you know, like 5% of what we were what we received." We have no voice in it. So, that's why we wanted to pursue getting our own as well. So, we can apply for these and not just waiting for a
disaster to happen, like I said, for being proactive with all the infrastructure that we have to maintain, especially the dams. Uh it's something that we're always looking to improve on our monitoring systems that we have for those. Um but I I can't say for sure every town I
I believe Southwick has their own. Am I Am I mistaken on that? >> So, we have Oh, yeah, we have a state response and hazards mitigation plan. In fact, it's just been time It was revamped probably 2 3 years ago with Pioneer Valley Planning. >> Okay. >> And uh we work closely with them. But, we went through the whole thing. We had
the public uh address, the public appeal, and the processes there and finalize that and we addressed quite a few things in in that plan. >> Yeah, I guess I can't fully answer that question, but just from an outsider perspective, I feel like if there's collaboration on a grant for, you know,
towns to join forces on something that's, you know, again, to help reduce recovery downtime, I don't see why we wouldn't have that opportunity to to share something. >> Honestly, you know, we we had a presentation from uh probably about 2 years ago if the dam were to fail, and we realized Southwick's going to be
okay. Westfield, not so much. Um yeah. So, we'll send get you fire, get you paddle. Um but, we would obviously be directly impacted from a disaster response long term. >> Oh, yes. Yeah, a lot of recovery. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Good.
>> Any other questions? About the infrastructure or anything? >> Very good. >> Mhm. >> Very good. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Thank you very much. >> Yeah, great presentation. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Can you share this uh >> Yeah. >> Yes, absolutely. I can email Sure, I can just email it all of us and uh >> Yeah, just send it to me and I'll make
sure it gets to the right people. >> Okay. >> Cool. Great. All right. And you're more than welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting if you'd like, but we're just going to stay >> [laughter] >> All right. Thank you for we had our first meeting um yesterday with Rick Johnson for the
motocross that's coming on July 11th. Um Red, if you would just want to go through some of the early details so people, you know, the parking plans and the new placement. >> I mean, it's basically the same as it's been the last few years. Uh the race itself is going to be on Saturday. Uh
we'll have some events. Small stuff. Um people coming in on Friday and after Thursday night. Um >> Filling up our hotels. >> Yeah. That's all. >> Filling up all of our hotels. >> Yeah, all. Yeah, all.
Filling up the woods basically over here, but um we'll be going out the Thursday before to start setting up all of our uh traffic signage and everything. I believe you guys are going to help and I believe your people are going to help a little bit, too. So,
um hopefully about half a day or so, that'll all be up. Uh we're going to have details over on the ground starting on Friday, followed by Saturday, Sunday. There'll be nothing. It'll be a ghost town over there hopefully for the most part. So,
as usual, um expect heavy traffic in the morning as people file in and then uh later in the day, we'll be reducing Powder Mill Road to one-way, two different directions. So, that's usually last
hour and a half these days hour hour and a half 6 to 7:30 usually Yeah we've been clearing them out pretty good we got it down over the last you know 15 years now so >> I think I think in last year everybody was out within 45 minutes >> Yeah it depends on the weather too I
mean if it's sort of lousy out it clears out a lot quicker if it's hot it clears out a lot quicker if it's nice out people tend to lag around a little bit so we have to shoo them a little bit but overall I don't really expect any any big surprises I know speaking with Rick the other day he said that the
attendance has been up on all the events actually we just got a text last night that the they had a zoom yesterday and attendance at the last national that they had just had was up as well so they're expecting more than usual see if that pans out here or not but um
we're we'll be ready >> We we do have the parking capacity for that as well as a facility capacity but we're kind of maxed out right now with emergency services so I'm I'm notified all the area departments you know they they participate as well too we do rely on some resources from
Granville but it's becoming more and more popular it's also two weeks later than it normally is so it's going to be that much hotter in July so that's definitely our biggest concern is the amount of heat that we'll be dealing with on that day so we've trying to come up with a couple
locations for some cooling tents as well so we're trying to make an effort there to see if that can help with any but you know kind of true emergency not just people walking by that are hot you know so we'll have a water station there as well and a couple other things just bottled water we're just going to be handing out for people if they need
it and but if they need it >> spray hoses >> We have a fan that has misting on it yeah misting so yeah so we're going to have something like that small benches and things like >> that like it's a stand up hose and it just mists like my patio if everybody's
hot or something. >> You got to get water to it. Do we have to come to your patio? >> You have to get water to it. >> That's the rub. Yeah. >> Oh. >> Um so that's pretty much what we're looking at. Um we will have a command post set up again different location this time. Um we're hoping it works out
better this location than when it has in the past. Um that was done the relocation was done to accommodate the increase in vendors that want to come in and be part of this event. Um this is the smallest track of all the circuit but it's also everyone's favorite. So it
really is a a fan favorite as well as a rider favorite. So you get anybody here. Um and apparently according to Rick there's some really good competition this year. And so that'll bring in some additional fans as well. The last couple of years the Lawrence brothers have been leading by thousands of points and nobody can even catch them. So there are
people like why bother? So I'm watching it on TV and just check the points the next morning. So this should be a pretty good year for it. But we're ready. >> So it'll be streaming on Peacock. >> It's streaming on Peacock. Yep. Not the whole race. They do they do in the last 250 and one 450. So they do one of the lowest the smaller
bikes and the bigger bikes. Yeah. But it's still the whole thing is is recorded and available. Um but it is a very popular sport on Peacock as well too. All good. Puts Suffolk on the map. All right. Um we did review our emergency plan there as well. We still have a couple of things to work out with VEMA but we've
been building that plan every year and it's gotten better and stronger. So we're excited to see how this year goes. All right. Um next item for new business was a resignation of Ian White. Ian served as the uh emergency medical emergency manager
director here um for some some time. Um was able to kind of just kind of get the the continued a lot of the programs that Russ Anderson had Russ Anderson had started as well as uh try to get some other additional people involved. Um so the next step will be up to the town as
to how that position is filled. Um but right now in the event that there's obviously an emergency that chief of police and myself could handle anything that comes our way, um, and we'll go from there. Um, we had just a quick update on the town-wide notification systems. Um, I've
been looking at multiple services and systems and I think I've landed on one. It's called Go Gov. It's a very cool, um, program. They actually create an app for you. So, you can download the app and you can have all kinds of features on there and on that app you can add
other things like bill pays and not just notifications, but you can get meeting updates and things like that that are happening in your town. It can link to our social media. It can link to the Facebook to websites as well and so we're looking at that as a really good option, um, and it's it's affordable.
Uh, it's just about the what the implementation would look like. So, I'm working with them very closely and hopefully we'll should have something by the end of this week in place and ready to go. Um, town-wide radio system is moving forward. We've had a couple of bumps in the roads, but we seem to get over all
of those pretty quickly. Um, we're hoping for completion in October. That was the date that, uh, we were promised by Motorola, um, and, uh, Norcom. So, we'll see. Uh, all the equipment is available. The new tower's going in. That's moving along. That should be completed probably within the
next 3 weeks. Um, there's a little bit of a hiccup on the power side of that with Eversource, but we're working through that. We'll have more on that, um, probably in the next 2 or 3 days. Um, but overall it's going really well. The second phase of that project will be getting DPW over to the VHF system and
that's pretty much the system's already in place and up and running. So, it's a matter of installing a couple of radios in the vehicles and testing everything else. So, that should go pretty quick as well, too. So, um, we had Ironman um, 2 weeks last weekend and it was very, very successful. It was kind of bizarre.
There were, uh, I think about another 300 riders on top of what we normally had. Um so they had quite a few riders. Um and it was kind of funny cuz you can tell the experienced riders from the novice riders. Um the And so there were a lot of novice riders. Um they again didn't have the swim section in it um
because of water concerns. We're not quite sure what that all comes down to in the Connecticut River. >> I'd like to know if you guys >> I'd [laughter] like to know because I always get vague answers. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> This is 2 years now that they've had to do it. >> Two years Yeah, cuz this got brought up at the East Longmeadow LAPC meeting last week as well. Guy Scott from EMA was
there and he explained he got a lot of phone calls on that night. So the DEP, and I apologize if you already know this, but just going over it. The DEP requires a public notification now when CSOs are activated. And you have
2 hours to give out that notification. A CSO combined sewer overflow is when our storm water is entering the sewer system, which it's still is a combined system in Springfield. And it's it's funny because the commission, we own the sewer mains, you know, we
maintain those, but the city, the DPW, maintains the storm drain system. And people have said, "Well, why don't you separate the two?" Well, if you have a billion dollars, go for it. It It's just It's not possible. But what we have done is like with the York Street pump station with the river crossing, I'm
sure you guys saw that going on. That has almost doubled our capacity of the pumping capacity to send all that water in the sewer interceptors across to the treatment plant. So by doing that, like I mentioned before, all the main CSOs
are along that eastern side of the Connecticut River. There's nothing you can do to stop it from overflowing. Once It's just a It's all it is is just a brick weir and maybe sometimes there's a regulator valve there as well. But once you you know, you get to a certain volume and it it
starts to spill over and go out to the river. That's just how it's designed. There's nothing to stop it from doing that because I guess people from Iron Man were crying, calling up staff at MEMA saying, "Why would the commission do this when they know we have the Iron Man?" Our hands are tied. We have no
control over that. If it rains, odds are maybe one of them is going to activate even with the capacity that we've doubled with the pumping at the York Street station. So, we also have a mapping system online through our website, and everyone is welcome to sign up for the
notifications. That's how it goes out. It's all automated. So, we have a third company, third party. They make They write do all the calibrations on the flow meters and all the rain gauges that we have throughout the city. And they will determine if it's an active CSO or a dry weather overflow. If
there's no rain, which means there's some something worse is going on. So, those automatically will engage within 2 hours once it's once it verifies this is an active CSO, it automatically will send out an email notification to anybody that's signed up
on that list. The Board of Health of Agawam and Springfield are on that list, as well as multiple contacts for Iron Man. We did verify that cuz this happened, like you mentioned, the previous year. When you go to that map, it will also show you which ones are all activated. Anything in green, it's not active. Yellow, it was active in the
last 48 hours. Red, it's active now. So, it's all a color-coded system. We honestly have the best public notification system, I think, in Western Mass. Um and again, this is a requirement. Um so, >> is non-treated water. Correct. going into the river
directly. >> Yes, but if it's raining, that means it's a lot of it is storm water. Not so much sewer, but yes, it's combined with the sewer. And this, you know, >> all of New England was already separated. >> Oh, no. Holyoke, Chicopee, they all have
CSOs. >> spending a fortune doing it. >> Well, unfortunately, I well, I shouldn't speak on that. They are not even sending out public notifications. And their waiver ended a while ago. Did you not do that? So. Um >> That's too bad.
>> Yeah. So, anyway, um that's all just to provide, you know, feedback cuz I guess you know, the commission was thrown under the bus and a post meeting about this and we weren't even aware there was a meeting, but we weren't contacted again during the Ironman, but there was nothing we could
have done regardless. So. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Now we know. >> Yes. So, there was an overflow happening and that's why people couldn't go into the park. >> Okay. >> But there was also an active CSO in Holyoke and people still swam one year. So, it's yeah.
Just saying. >> [laughter] >> It all goes downstream, right? >> Yes. Eventually it all winds up in the same place. >> And I just want to reiterate too that this is nothing new. Like any Ironman event, they have to test the water quality. And even in water bodies where you don't have CSOs, many times if the
bacteria level is too high for them to swim. It's it's not unfortunately anything new. So. >> Yeah. Well, it's unfortunate for the competitors because it really, you know, if you're a strong swimmer, that's your that's your mojo. You're you're already up against that eight-ball trying to get on the bike. And we saw some of those
people on the bikes like thinking, oh, I wanted to do a swim. All I want to do is swim cuz it'd be that much more ahead of the block. But it's still a good race nonetheless. Um it's very popular. We do have a debrief meeting coming up. Um and they've been um a good partner. I don't think we didn't you didn't have any issues.
>> We had really no issues. Uh we had I believe details out there. So, I mean that's that was a lot of cops. >> paid in advance. So. >> No incidents on the course. There was you know, nothing. >> Really? Couple >> Couple of breaking down and all in Westfield. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah, they did have a an increase in crashes this year. Um not cyclists versus vehicles, actually cyclists just hitting the ground or cyclists hitting cyclists. And so that totaled six transports this year and a couple of them had to be >> Yeah, guys do one of them, right? Just over the line. >> Yeah, just over the line. We helped out.
Yeah. >> But it was a good event all the way around. It really was. Um well planned. Um so all good there. Um was there any other business from anybody? Nope, hearing none. I'd like to thank everybody from Springfield. Um Springfield sewer and water, right?
Municipality. I one time had a summer job working for Springfield water works. >> Oh, yeah. >> Back in the day, Bill Whitman was the superintendent back then. At least you probably know her. Herb, right? Was the the general foreman. Yeah. >> Where did you work? >> Rugged guy I never met in my life.
Digging holes in the city of Springfield. >> I got him on the res. >> They had him at the reservoir. >> Oh, no, no. Well, my brother did. I kind of got the reservoir. >> Nice. >> Cleaning out filters one year. Yeah. >> He said, "Never again." Ever again. That was >> Well, that was a rain demolished.
>> I'll have to send him a message. You go, "Hey, remember those filters?" >> Yeah. >> Yeah, that was a lot of eating sand. >> Saving >> not like that job. >> [laughter] >> So he complained so much they put him on painting hydrants the next year. >> Oh, yeah. >> I think he should have just shut up. Seriously.
But yeah, that was a long, long time ago. But yeah, again, thank you very much for that. Very informational. And you can send me that yeah, beautiful. You're terrific. Thank you. Anybody else? >> Motion to adjourn. >> All right. Seconded? >> Seconded. >> All right. Meeting adjourned. Our next meeting will be on the 5th. By the way, we are scheduled for November 19th. I'll
send out something. All right. Yeah. Another phone wait. You agree. At least I'll send you the recording as soon as I can so you can have the first part of the >> You said Send me what you just Okay, okay. >> They people okay? >> December 19th is a Saturday.
>> November November 19th. >> I was like, "No, it's a Saturday." >> We are meeting on Saturday. I'm sorry. Get better attendance then. But yeah, the 19th November 19th. >> So it's like every 6 months generally you guys do >> So we actually take the summer off. We
try to do a table top as well. So that might fall in that time. So we we do January, May This May meeting, this is our May meeting. We keep postponing. January, May, November are scheduled and then we'll throw the fourth meeting in as a a table top somewhere. Yeah.
>> Excellent. >> Yeah. We'll just need to find a new emergency manager. So when that happens, we'll do our table top. >> No ideas. >> [laughter] >> All right, thank you. >> What's that? >> When do you get the new emergency manager? >> Yeah. Well, if you know anybody that might be interested in a low paying, low
demand, high demand things, you know. >> Low paying, high demand. Maybe when he retires, he can >> That's it, you know. He can work it for a couple of different communities. You know, that's the way you do it. One plan, just change the name on the top. >> [laughter]
>> I guess it would Did you stop the zoom? >> Of course. Excuse me. >> Um