meeting is being recorded it's um town of Westport infrastructure oversight committee meeting for information on the mumber loop on the mumal um I'm going to call to order 6:30 with Pledge of Allegiance yep
[Music] take it over Roger okay thank you m thank you m Mr chairman good evening everyone um my name is Roger Fernandes obviously uh on behalf of the uh
infrastructure oversight committee U the Town Administrator myself thank you for taking the time to be here today um we've got a little presentation uh won't be too long just want to talk about U the water main work that's TR uh
that's taking place right now and uh some other initiatives that are on the table so let's get started again welcome and um prepare prepare this agenda to talk about a couple things one is to update you on the progress of the project um the project again uh is the
installation of a water main in sections of Route 6 in the town as well um uh Root 6 being of course in the state layout um we also want to uh give you a brief explanation in terms of how the project is being funded and discuss uh
connection incentives um within the service area so first I I'll start off by defining the service area the service area in this particular case are the is the are the location or is the location where water main is being installed uh
the work is started uh the total project consists of about 12,125 ft with segments of that water M uh being 8 in and 12 in and the reason why we're installing 12 in is because the project considered um any future expansion so in Route 6 for example
that's that's a 12in water main it'll serve as a sort of a water main trunk line and the second of gford Street that's receiving a water main is is is also going to be a 12 in again the intent there is to accommodate any future uh water uh water demands um
in Westport um so in terms of where we are uh progress wise the project uh started we uh broke ground in November of last year uh ostensibly all of gford Street and Osborne Street uh has been uh
completed um and the the uh project is now uh uh working through some uh permitting with Mass DOT uh for for the next uh portion of the work to begin route six um and we're also beginning to look at uh um placing laterals in uh
preparing for service connections which we'll talk about a little more detail um further down in the in the presentation the overall goal is goal is to have the U installation uh complete uh and operational with all connections
ready uh the summer of uh this year 2025 with final uh Paving and sort of project close out uh by 2026 and again I just the in terms of the the the uh rendering or the picture that you see up there all the locations
um that have color are highlighted are uh are going to receive a new water M and this includes I should add East Brig Street at this point we add East breaks to the Project based on the available funding so funding um the uh in terms of funding the main
installation costs uh there won't be any cost to the property owners um for that work at all um the uh water main installations being paid uh through a combination of State federal grants so there's no local
money um being applied to the project uh so westport's taxpayers won't face any extra costs there are no betterments this this should not be confused with some of the budget topics that took place at 2004 town
meeting um in terms of connection fees um and again we'll we'll we'll talk about this a little more momentarily so operational connection connection fees apply if if the property owners choose to connect to the new water M these fees are for extending the service from the
water water I'm sorry the main line to the individual properties um so as part of the project we're installing the water main but we're also installing what's referred to as curb stops we'll have a rendering that'll sort of help explain that that brings the water M up
to or the service up to your property line that that's going to happen everywhere regardless if you choose choose to connect to the water itself the water main itself and what that allows is it allows you at some point down the road if you do decide to connect you won't have to dig
into the road you'll just have to dig basically up to your property line and connect that water so when we submit for these grants you know we we have to identify needs and and and we also want to talk to you about why this is you know we feel like it's a good thing uh for the town of
Westport obviously we receive the grant that's always good right the the funding was there for the project but it uh but the intent is to provide um better water quality to Residents and businesses in that service area compliant water um and
by compliant water we know or you should know that the water is tested regularly uh both in the town of Westport and uh in Fall River um so it also addresses the past contamination um with designated U
infrastructure to meet those health and safety standards if you're if you're not familiar with past past is is a form of um contaminant that's found in water sometimes it's referred to as a forever chemical um it's detected um in some of
the uh services on some of the wells um in the area and because of that we were able to apply for this Grant and obtain funding um so so there's uh also an economic development we feel you know having reliable water can enhance uh
property values and uh boost the real estate values and a and a small uh benefit of course is it removes the cost of maintaining uh your private well um in terms of community benefits uh new water mains increase the efficiency of fire
suppression systems now in this particular project along with installing the water mains we're installing fire hydrants so most f folks in this area don't have access to a fire hydrant so as part of the project approximately every 500 ft a new fire hydrant is going
to be installed and what that potentially does is it might lower your insurance premium uh because water is now um reliable and available near your home or business so a moment ago I talked about
terminating the water at your property line um that termination is is is terminated at what we commonly refer to sort of in the business as a curb stop that's where um all projects all the all the property owners will see there'll be
a termination at your property line but we're also uh considering or discussing uh connection incentives uh the town May fund extensions of water service from the property line to the buildings uh covering both the commercial and
non-commercial potentially Pro properties as part of the infrastructure project contingent upon available funding so what is a town doing well we we're looking for um to understand if we have early adopters and when I use the term early adopters here it's it's it is
folks that want to connect soon now um uh so in order to do that we need to um understand that there's an interest on your AP part and there is a survey um here at the at the at the table where you you can fill out if you haven't
filled one out already showing that you may be interested in connecting to the uh water service or the water system uh but even if you're not intending to connect we ask you to to fill that out just no there there are no interest your parts are connected this time so if you
wouldn't mind if you haven't and you're in the service area uh filling out a uh survey at some point so um so what does it cover so it covers uh the excavation for the Serv connection from the property line to the foundation or
possibly through the foundation so again we stopping at your proper line what this incentive uh would do is continue that pipe through your lawn if you will um up to your home and your foundation and potentially through your
foundation what it doesn't include um um is uh well I should say we'll also provide a new water meter uh up to 1 in if you're commercial property you might require a water meter of a different size and um if that's the case those
larger water meters tend to uh cost uh more money and we're trying to establish some equity in terms of how we Dole out the incentives um it excludes uh pressure reducing valves that may be required for some properties uh whether
or not your property will require one will be dependent on what you hear from the uh the building department um and what that does is it just assures that the pressure that's coming into your home or business is suitable for your home or
business um the last thing important to note is that this this incentive uh encourages connections through a First Comm first serve basis based on funds so once the funds are are gone then we
won't and if you decide to connect at some point further down the road from a timeline standpoint there may not be funds available to help you with your with that service connection um and a large part the reason for that is you should know that when we're dealing with these grants um
these grants not only have to be committed but the money has to be expended by a certain time so it's just not sitting there waiting otherwise it' be great to be able to put that somewhere for any folks that decide to connect down the road that's not available to us we're also working with the contract and contractor with a
finite amount of time for doing this work um so the owner's responsibility would would consist of interior Plumbing costs um it must connect within 3 months of service availability otherwise for
deferred connections again uh deferred connections of those folks who decide I don't want to connect you're not going to pay anything you don't have to do anything um in those situations a curb stop as we discuss uh or shut off will be installed as part of the regular
project um and at the property line and the homeowner will be responsible for any uh future work to connect the public water system to your home so again if you if it's at your property line you have to dig across your lawn to bring that
service to your home if you're a deferred uh connector um then that those costs will fall on you um so what we what we would need is as part of um doing that work for you as
part of the early adopters would be to ask you to sign some type of right of agreement uh I'm sorry right of Entry um that just says that you're going to allow us to go onto your property and then the restoration would consist of a maximum of lawn related repairs little
Loom possibly a little little seed if you have Hardscape um uh lawn uh decorations or elements in in your in front of your house we're going to try not to dig through those or walls we'll try to line up that service connection so it's the path of lease resistance but
if any of those other things like bushes require um replanting or repair this Pro this um incentive would not cover those costs so here's a little illustration to give you an idea of what an early
adopter again early adopter is the folks that want to connect all the way up to their homes on on your let's see yeah your left um the in this case you can see where the property line shown in red exists and the town's responsibility in
this case would break be from bringing that pipe in the road all the way up to your property line and then extending it up to your foundation if you're a deferred connector if you're someone who decides not to connect then we would bring that curb stop right up to your property line
so at some point down the road if you decided to connect again you wouldn't have to dig all the way into the road to to uh to tap that uh uh water m so some of the uh key details regarding the connection incentives uh the uh
early connection incentives available on a firsttime uh first serve basis due to limited fundings I'm sorry fundings funding um so we're also applying some Equity consideration so that means the
allocation to town supported costs are contingent upon keeping individual service connection costs re reasonably to avoid excessive consumption of funding for complex uh service connection so that's a long way of saying if one property
costs $10,000 for that work on your property and another property cost $5,000 we can't apply 5,000 to one and give someone else 10 right so we want to try to uh estimate some sort of Equitable
approach to making sure that everyone sort of gets the same value um and generally speaking if you're a commercial property chances are that that cost is going to be higher so there's likely if if if the town eles to support commercial properties as well as
part of this incentive those costs tend to be a little higher so we we want to make sure that we find some Equity there um the uh again just to really restate this so there's limited time for funding the town uh through uh Project funding
will pay for some private Water Service connections this support is limited by available funds um pounds coverage uh provisions of new water meter so again we're going to provide you with a new water meter up
to a 1 in meter which a 1in meter incidentally will support all just about all residential applications um and you as an owner if you decide to be an early adopter
someone who wants to connect now you're responsibility would be for whatever inter interior Plumbing costs would be required so again if we'll Supply you with the meter we'll Supply that water line up to your property and possibly through the foundation depending on the circumstances it'll be your plumber's
responsibility to connect that line to the water meter and into your internal Plumbing um if you if you require again an internal pressure reducing valve that that would also be responsibility of the property owner um and we are looking for
some commitment in terms of the time of conversion from your wells to the public water system which would be uh what we're targeting 3 months um for that connection um so again future
connections after this period must be financed and administered by the property owner so here's a nice slide that kind of breaks it down a little bit so your first option is remain on your well your water installation m main installation cost is zero your
installation of curb stop is zero installation of your water line from the curb stop to your foundation is not applicable because you don't you decided not to do that there's no water meter needed no water meter needed obviously and you don't have to be you don't have
to uh be concerned with the internal Plumbing because there is no internal Plumbing that's going to be required um your option two is to be an early adopter someone who does want that Water Service uh connection um we again provide the water main installation
we'll uh provide the installation of that curb stop no cost to you and uh we'll install that water line from the curb stop to the F foundation and we highlight the fact that it's going to be again dependent on the complexity of the
connection um so no no cost of the water meter and then the interior uh Plumbing depending again on the complexity of your plumbing within your home or business um obviously businesses would likely cost more but we we're estimating that that would be somewhere in the $800
to $1,500 range option three is connect to the public water in the future so you get you've get the watermain installation in your road you've get the installation of the curb stop at your property line and then at some point down the down the
road if you decide to bring that that service across your lawn and it towards your foundation there's an added cost that you will as a property owner have to absorb um the water meter again that there would be no cost there and then you would still of course have to do some of the internal
Plumbing so in terms of ongoing costs uh with respect to being on the public system for as an average uh current yearly operating cost for a single family dwelling is about $813 a year and that's based on a uh current average
consumption um and the current uh rate uh per 100 cubic foot of water um that you can anticipate paying and of course there's a yearly administration fee that goes along with that so again steps for funding um just
be with me one second okay steps for funding so we'd ask you again to complete the survey on those that survey is here if you haven't completed one already um and express your interest one way or the other yes or no even if you don't want it we'd
like to know that um and then uh just you know await confirmation of the survey receipt and subsequent Eligibility Assessment based on your responses and project criteria so at some point Bas you'd submit the survey and we someone would reach out to you um
if approved you'd receive some sort of notification detailing the funding allocation for the specific conditions again we discussed there might be some different complexities and so depending on your project uh we talk to you about what we could offer for that service connection uh we coordinate um with you
uh to schedule that plan and plan the service connection um we would supervise the installation to ensure standards are met and participate in a post installation review to confirm service quality try to make sure that everything was done
properly and uh final steps would be to address any post installation issues or if there are any any other items that we would need to consider as part of that service connection and last thing would be you enjoy the benefits uh of the enhanced Water Service uh once connected so um again Property Owners
within the service area that's where the you know that larger uh rendering was with all the pipe the pipe in your is in your roadway so you would be in the service area have received the survey so you should have received the survey by mail um and determine eligibility for
early adopters um um for those deferring connection no immediate action is required uh property owners who choose not to connect at this time and not required to take any action again a curb stop shut off will be installed at your property line and any future connection
will be at the owner's expense so we'd ask you that you stay engaged maintain communication with the town and its officials throughout the process um early adopters again uh uh benefit from prioritized service and potenti reduction in
costs uh and the project really does accommodate uh all Property Owners so it offers the flexibility for everyone whether you want to connect whether you don't want to connect or even whether you want to connect at some point in the future So to that end I'll open it back
up to the chair Mr Sor um so um another thing that that people you know everybody's looking at their insurance rates on their horses going up and like we we have the school here that we're going to be bringing fire service into the school so there's another thing you might want to look into um with your
insurance companies let them know you get a fire hydrant within a proximity of your house now um Jimmy did you ever get a chance to look into if we were going to have any savings on our insurance now we were looking at those issues on the select board I didn't get back they didn't get back to me as of yet we posed
the question now we're looking at the school here to see if we'd have some savings with our property insurance as well here for the town but I don't have an answer so I mean that's another thing on the fire protection on this these this neighborhood's kind of densely populated so it you should be able to see some savings on your on your
homeowners insurance um and again the service is going to be in front of your house if you if you later down the road find that you need it it's there but it's not going to cost you anything to get it in front of your house now just a couple of comments quick
comments um again this is a first serve first come first serve program right if you guys want to tie in and you're looking for the incentive the sooner you get the information to me and to Roger the sooner and the better chance you'll have of us being able to provide that funding for your service um there's a
benefit to the town the more people that tie in um the more economically overall project is not only to uh maintain but to service throughout the years um it also keeps the water moving in the line which is a benefit as well so we we would like as many people as possible to
to tie in um and I just want to take a step back the reason why we sto out of this project was we we found contamination in some of the public water supply Wells and those are private Wells that serve the public right so they could be at a restaurant it's here at the school they're considered public
water supply Wells there was high magines here on some of the public water supply Wells along Route 6 they found high levels of Pas that's what incentivized the state and the federal government to uh a water us a $4 million Grant to put this water line in um so
that's big the other thing I I want to point out now I believe the contractor installed Blue Stakes in front of your properties not along Route 6 yet but along gford Road Osborn Street and uh East Briggs Road maybe not East Briggs Road yet but at least Osborne gford and
Greenwood um that is where they're planning on putting the connection so if you see that blue steak and you feel that it's in the wrong location for whatever reason your Well's on the other side or there's a septic system there and and it should be moved to a different location you need to let us know on this survey there's an email at
the bottom of the survey um you can email them and email Roger and I'll let him know that you know the Blue Stake is in the wrong location and we'd like it moved please include your name your address and your phone number so we can make sure that we get back to you um we
can check that off um again the sooner you get this information back to us um the better it's going to be for you Roger mentioned some Equity if you know somebody's got a house that's back you know a th000 ft from the road they may have to pay a portion of the connection uh for the majority of
the Residential Properties we feel that we'll be able to um offset those costs going into the foundation there are exceptions but I think for the majority will be able to do that that's that's all I have all right one more thing on that on that on that
note on um the service and and the reason we're able to provide it so in this past Grant there's there's some money left over from what we proposed on the on the water main but it has to be used in this cont contract and it had to be allotted to this project so one of
the things that's why we're reaching out and we need early people coming in because whatever money is not going to be used up for that we're going to use to extend water main like we're trying to get it under 88 over to the Briggs fire station because they have a problem with the with the well over there so
that that's we we're providing this to people that want to tie in right away and but we we're going to need to utilize all of these funds on this project so that's what we'll be looking at if if people side they don't want to tie in we won't be providing that money won't be here down the
road question in the back so one side is a commercial other side is a residen so how you going to connect the water system I think if if you fill out the survey that you're interested we're
going to have to go out um the engineer is going to have to go out or Roger is going to have to look at each individual property especially the ones with commercial and residential and see if they they can be served by one connection or if it's going to have to be more than one yeah and same
time decide what kind of commercial yes yep so so if you're if you're um a commercial property when we put together the plants uh we identify those service connections coming out to
those properties as 2in lines right now so you're going to get a little bigger line in case you have if you're a restaurant maybe you need dishwashers and you have that kind of so that's that's what you can expect um and then you have typically for example with this school we'll bring in what's called a manifold and there'll be two lines just
we just seek of example this building were a commercial building one line would be available with the shut off um at the end of the run at the end of the one pipe coming in would be available for fire suppression system that needs to be typically a 6in pipe
could be a little smaller and the other one would be a domestic so there still be one pipe coming into your property potentially if you have a business with two connection points one for fire suppression if you decide to introduce fire suppression a Sprinkle system into your building and the other would be
typically for domestic does it does it there's an email on the bottom you can give it to us tonight if it's it's ready I'd be happy to take it tonight or you can mail it to the town hall we'll take it be happy to take it
time no not yet all set y thank you I'm [Music] sorry that's correct yeah yes sir and another thing which I already have this of my house but before they the they
surve property know exactly what where that is to be no so there was no survey so what they did is is part of the the uh installing that stake to determine where that pipe is they went probably by
look at the well and somewh around there inside exactly around that bik well they they they they identify the location trying to do a couple things avoid walls avoid a driveway go towards your well and avoid a septic system
exactly and that's the limit uh based on what we you can see from the roadway that's the limit of the information we could have gathered but as Mr haret said if you see the Stak and as Property Owners you have more information say hey no that needs to be 10 ft this way r or
10 ft that we that's not a problem we can make that move and uh when that day happens if it happens will we get atifi earlier when the day do the service yeah well in terms of the curb stops no no no if you going to run the
service to house oh yes yes I'm sorry yes yep yep thank you I'll say one the service is not going to be run to your house unless you're requested and there's like there's a lot of lot of people here that didn't take surveys so if you happen to be not in this immediate area where the
water be is being being um installed at this time but you think you have a need for water service when we expand it down the road it would be it would be helpful to us to know exactly um those people that have a need for the Water Service
even though that's not front of your house now and it's going to be down the road um it would help us in future trying to attract and obtain future grants to continue expanding the surface in the area that needs to be serviced
sure is all of the $4 million in gr money in hand and if not good question risk that it might be subject to the Federal it's a very good question right so we don't have it's a reimbursement program we have a contract with the state with
mass D they've wed a contract to the town uh stating that they would reimburse us up to $4 million for this work so the work's been approved through this program um I know there's been an order that was issued today on a lot of the federal funding um we're going to
have to wait and see um we sent up reimbursement today for for the EXP expenses that we have to date um and we'll have to see going forward I'm I'm hopeful that it it's not going to impact this project um you never know yeah Manny this guy on the right is
had his hand up for a while just two quick questions the first one was if we do decide Do It um can we provide our own plart for the interior hookup or does it have to be like off a certain list or like as long as the uh plumber is
certified you can have your own plumber and my second question was um this might just be a rumor I heard but I heard something about if we were to sell our property and we didn't opt in um we would be responsible to hook up before we could sell the actual property is there any truth about R that's a rumor
as far as I know yeah would just have to be a licensed plumo this if you don't live at the property you live off away from West will you have a chance to
meet with the people who are doing the work before work gets done I'm going to have question so confused yeah so once you f contact once you fill out the survey you'd be the owner you'd be the contact
person for that property okay do you have copy of this information that you're providing tonight I will post it we have the uh we have that we will post the uh PowerPoint presentation on the website
for the uh thank you to and it'll be onv in the the existing well they have intentions that's a good question so we discussed that a little bit and it's
going to depend um so the answer is yes is a potential that you can intercept potentially your uh your existing line that goes to your well but I think on um in this case it's going to depend on each individual property and how we sort
of do that okay my other question is well have to be put out of service Al together can we still keep it say fill a swimming pool what are our wants Ma I'll answer that question so so when you when you tie into this this Municipal public
service it's it's a it's a different type of pipe than you well so it's it's a um it's a 200 PSI pipe the well pipe's a little bit different than that so we this service going to your house will can you can not interrupt your your your
well if you want to keep you well for irrigation or something else um it's not going to it's you're not going to be able to use that same pipe cuz it's a totally different pipe into the well pipeline anyway right the well pipeline is you know they use they use you know
it's not high pressure so this this stuff's 200 PSI asdm 200 PSI pipe the well pipe's a little different they use close clamps this anyway it right my drive
everything no that's that's exactly why they put those Blue Stakes and it's really important for anybody even if you don't want the service but you know what's on your property so basically that's what's going to happen when the contractor is going to come to stall into your into your property you're going to have to things that that they
don't know that aren't on the on the you know stuff at the Town Hall and stuff you're as built for your own personal property and you know what you buried in the property how you got your stuff in the property you're going to have to let them know iuss yes yeah they're going to have to cuz they have separations from the sewer
you know from your septic um they have to maintain Ser certain separations just don't want to come in right and that and that's why it's really important to to to get in touch with any but if you want it you know and if you don't want it and and it's in the wrong location later on down the road if you have a need for it
it's better to have it in the right location though so so I'd suggest on your survey form on your survey form if you can just write on the top uh move stake or just you know just so we know give us a heads up and you'll have an opportunity after
that as well but at least we'll know okay if you want to stop by later I can Mock You Down than Glenn he's been trying are there going to be minimum use requirements for residential propertys and commercial
property minimum use not quite sure I understand so you identified on there you know what the average use was for residential property for yearly use would there be any differences between minimum requirements such that you're going to get build a certain amount whether you use the water or not whether
it's for residential so you expect to do that and the second thing is so man I heard you say that they can clearly maintain use of their well you know if they get connected to the system well I mean the only thing the only person so if it's it would be
considered you know if you have contamination in well it's non-potable and you can't drink it but it doesn't mean you can't use it for irrigation and so forth cuz if sewer comes down the road later you got sewer user fees and you really probably wouldn't want to use the water for that but if it's you know
you got different you got drinking water standards and then you got you know irrigation you know you could possibly use it for irrigation but it'd have to be La labeled non-portable and so forth I don't think I think the Board of Health would have to uh you know you if it really had a lot of contamination you
probably have to abandon it but if it's not really that bad it's not going to be a problem and um you copy the contract you talk off use with the property owners on who work from the street to their house have yeah we we're working on that we should have
that hopefully in the next week thank you I want to do that I want to go right to my well line and I so that and first I was told that you can because they're not sure if the line
that comes from your house what condition is the state it is they don't want to use that at this point I have a 1 and2 in well line he says what we can do though is through right your line so I can
disconnect from my will I am going to try to set up Irrigation in the back which means I'm going to have to run into the house instead of a compression tank or have some sort of underground compression tank which freezes which is a nightmare but you would have to do that you could but you do have to
separate it from your house but you can run it and that's the easiest way and my St is on the side and they're really good about moving wh you see that's a better shot your we so they're really easy to work with so I I
think I I'm glad you said that CU I think it just raises the point that when we say it depends we're not trying to avoid you have different situations at each property and so we're committed to working with everyone to make sure we do
the best job we can to get you get the water to your home so again it just a lot of it will depend but we're going to the only thing we need from you is that communication because we don't I don't know where and I'm not we don't know what goes on in everybody's basement
with everybody's well it's just not realistic so we need that collaboration from from you as business owners or residents or Property Owners so thank you that that was an excellent and I appreciate you making that comment so one of the one of the other things on
that is they can um if you if you determin that you didn't want that service and you want to come in the same location as well like what you said there is also possibility with this company this is all they do and they do you know you go into areas where they're redoing L services and stuff and what
you said was um if they go down the same line they can actually pull the service through your line even if it was a different if if it was a different size and that would prevent all the disruption in your laan which they under this contract they'll be fixing all that stuff anyway but it is better if they could just pull it through the front
yard yes my house is I've got a half of my Foundation is above the other below it would be a nightmare we couldn't figure out how the only way do it is to go up to the well L and he came and saw yeah they they they can actually they can if they can get a line through
it they they'll pull it right through in the same spot it doesn't have to be sleeved but they can pull it right through what street what street was that he's on East braks you said you want East braks did you I'm sorry did you say you saw Blue Stakes out there
yeah St on one side of the street the only uh that Jim just brought up a good point it might be just them locating the uh fire hydrants locations for the fire hydrants or they didn't finish East break street so it's one of the two things to be honest with you I'm
not sure uh which one of those two it is but if they but east Brick Street might not be completely laid out for the service well I know they're not laid out completely for the service connections yet it will but it will be yeah yep I got I got a question on op two and
three which is now or later let's say you go on option three which is going to be later the stop will be up to the edge of your what they call Private prop will you need a police to dig up your yard and bring the water line in something the home can
handle normally you don't need a detail for that this water oh we right right now we're we're um we're renegotiating our contract with forever so they have the water to supply us and one of the one of the things on this is this is going to give us a
threshold to um negotiate a a better rate for the town on what they've been charging us in the past and um it's it's a plus for us and it's a plus for all the existing customers that we now have like on Davis Road and stuff like that um we're
anticipating and we'll know we'll know a little bit more in the next in the coming weeks but we're anticipating that the rates will will go down the more people that tie in the the better rate we'll be able to get for the town when is uh they you to start on East
breaks when are they starting yeah East breaks um real soon I would say within a week we should see some activity on East briak Street um and it'll take about install the main down the road which is about 1,700 ft they're installing
anywhere from 5 to 600 fet a day so it's within a week they'll have most of that made installed on East Brick Street okay and how there's an option on here that says if is available would you be interested in having your well tested
when will we know if funding is available and we have our wells potentially so so if you fill out the uh application we see how many people are interested based on the interest and uh we would still need approval from Mass D to uh make sure that they would cover
the testing um it appears that they will but I don't have confirmation yet do you know if there is like what the best way for us to have our weal tested if it's not covered is there does it go through health is there private company what do you do normally normally do private
companies okay there's a few out there and I think the Board of Health has a list of uh companies that they've used or that uh service Westport okay I Jimmy I I think on um so what we got a past grant for this um we have we have some
other areas in town also that have this this issue I think that the D was requesting to test people's Wells and knocking on doors so I I think there would be a service to the D that we we should look into um Jimmy on I think
anybody that that would like to have their well tested that's in this area Town should have their well tested and and I I believe we should be able to get funding from the DP to test you well I mean that's why we're moving forward with this because we've have identified some contamination and and uh also Roger so
when they're going down east Briggs Road um are we looking to go under 88 in this contract to service the bricks fire station 's how's that coming along well right now it hasn't been identified as part of this contract uh but it's a good point so we have we're working with as
we noted the pasas and some arpa funding uh both of those again require uh commitment and expenditure by a certain date um and we we continue to re-evaluate if there any if there potentially any other areas that we could service um but we've got a couple
of outstanding items that we know are going to cost a little bit so just trying to make sure we have a good feel of the budget before we look at some of these other locations so as of right now we uh East Briggs was an add-on and there's potential for some additional add-ons but it's going to be contingent
on uh what we have for uh available funding so one of one of the reasons that we're looking to get across 88 to East Briggs is because the fire station's well is contaminated so that's that's a reason that we need to get it across 88 I guess that's why we need to let
people test their Wells I have question assist of with of PL be high efficiency better for the electricity that no the answer I guess is no we have not
looked into that um but it's certainly something any private homeowner could look into I I encourage them to do that anyway whether it's for the water but just the uh the savings and the incentives that they have on other issues it's it's good to get involved in that program next the same the
houses yeah so it's usually separate so the main gets installed first it's that 8 in main down the middle I shouldn't say down the middle of road down the road um they'll uh complete that um and then um Circle back um and do any
laterals um but generally speaking to answer your question the last thing they do is the uh service connection to the curb stop and then after that would be whatever uh direct service connections to your homes uh would take place after that work
so that's typically the sequence so down are also yeah it's a good question actually so not green yeah yeah so I'm sorry so we we're
trying to create Loops right so you want to keep the water moving and and it can also gives you options if you have a problem you have a leak in the pipe you have you can shut off one side and still provide service so that's the intent on all these where we can that's another good question yeah as Jim as Mr Hart
indicated so uh the approach um isn't arbitrary so they were there's um uh there's some thought that goes into that and is and by creating these loops and connecting and you connecting it keeps keeps the water moving maintains the quality of
water if you ever wonder why they flush hydrants one of the reasons is that the water's been sitting in the pipe for a little while and they want to get that new water into the pipe so those Loops are important to maintain that water quality thank
you is this meting just for the water or is this me for the water in the sewer well this is an informational meeting for people to connect in and was you know like right now one of the one of the things was this this whole tast Grant was for um because of the Walk The
identified public well supplies and and the the private public well supplies did tested and they found the contamination so that's why the DP got involved and said we need to do a grant and at that time we realized that we had problems here so we we did the testing here and we need the service here and we got
bricks fire station then we getting calls from some residents they have problems with their water so that's why it's this was called the ma Loop but was really to go down Route 6 we're not in Route 6 right now we we're having some issues with with our design with with the design with Kleinfeld that some
things weren't didn't meet Mass Highway specs you know like the gentleman um over there with a service on Route Six and wondering how they're going to tie it in so one of the things that mass highway is telling us they want the hydrants out of the middle of the road they want domain in different locations
and and uh our our engineer design engineer is trying to work those things out right now so that this contract contct can continue down Route Six but um the contract has started and we should have the ma Loop once it's once it's um connected it'll be chlorinated
brought up on online and then the service connections can come off of this but hopefully while that's happening we can get Route Six issues with mass Highway clarified and they can continue to work down Route 6 to to hit those Public Water Supplies that they're all pre-existing non-conforming Public Water
Supplies cuz in today's day and age the cone of influence for Public Water Supplies somewhere around 500 ft and these are all existing on small Lots you know or restaurants and different things that are out there are outside where it is like the restaurants before um say Westport Credit Union the all those
commercial properties are already tied into the into the um service from for River the restaurants after that are on all on private public water supplies the that spot my interest is is if you were going to run a s pip on luk 6 which is called the
you'll need to extend the water line and from o down to almost to the line yeah I I think we we we're looking is this past Grant was bringing right up to Washington Street and and we think that we we might have enough funds to bring
it right to the right to the D line which would bring it closer to other other places that we we have issues you know you got you got nool Village that's you know it's it's a housing project I say one first went in I was a little B
confused about the CB they didn't have any Stakes out there so I wasn't sure where it was going to go so I called it down and they said it was going to go where I didn't want it to go so I was really worried when they but they don't put the curve stops in when they running the main line they put that in later
right so you don't have to worry about where your C going the main line going and now you're going connect now you need about where you are so even I'm saying if you don't want to connect now you might want to make sure you got your curve stuff where you want it for in the
future so that when you do have to dig a ditch it's where you're the easiest way to get your would be yes when they when they install the main line like like we were saying before is they they're going to press a test it chlorinate it flush it and it'll
be online at that point and then that's when services will be connected after that the services are tied in when the line's already pressurized and it's called wet Taps and they'll tie them in that way you clarify this mean is about water line water loop and Water Service connections it's not about the sewer
that's being proposed down correct correct this is this is about offering the residents along this line a way to tie in if they want to tie in now that's what we're looking to use up as much of this money four we use it to run more main
down Route 6 versus anybody that has a need and they want to do it now cuz cuz the one thing that we do want is we want as many customers as we can as we can so when we get the water usage up it brings us above that threshold in Forever which this neighborhood should do that that will lower our rates in our negotiation
coming up in the next couple of months that we've been you know we've been working on this with for for about seven or eight years right now and and we've been charged a higher rate because we we didn't negotiate with them yet so we so with regard to the design of waterline
one on Route Six are those plans available for where it's now being proposed because original plans that I had from our earlier discussions on sewer um show the water line and the sewer line and it was some information that I had and I was now I'm hearing that the water line might be in a different location I just want to make
sure I understand where that's being position in relation to the line that was proposed but I understand it's not currently being you know fured at this point right well this is this is so the water main part of this the the the
whole project Northwest Port sewering water trunk line down Route 6 that's this water means for that the problem with the route 6 installation of the water main now is when we went for our utility access permit it doesn't meet Mass
Highway standards so now they're they're working with the engineer we just if you notice they did some test pits at the bread and cheese Brook for that that Co that the the aqueduct that goes from from Lake nooke to for River um they were looking
to possibly sleeve under that because they believe there was Ledge in the bread and cheese under the bread and cheese Brook but the utility company out there doing the the Geotech work found that there's 20 ft of sand underneath the bread cheese Brook so it's no problem to push the watermain where it needs to be so one of the problems with
mass Highway standards is they have separations to sewer and water so if you have a proposed location for SE and water you have to make sure that the water main is is put in the location also and so I think that's part of the problems right now I I didn't review all the reports on shops on what what was
the issue and some of them like they want all the fire hydrants out of the middle of Route 6 I don't know whether they want to have a water man on both sides of Route 6 you know that might be an issue cuz unfortunately our engineer didn't didn't talk with them before they did the design we just went in to get a
permit when we need utility access cuz the access is is um where the town is water missioners and we're the ones that have to apply for the utility access in rout six to our water main and when we did that mass Highway kicked it back cuz I designed in the meet their
specifications so just to follow up on what the chair said so the original design showed fire hydrants in the center Island similar to the rest of Route Six that has water so the engineer was following that but Mass Highway he's correct Mass Highway wanted it outside um closer to the edge of the layout so
that was done as far as the plans that you received they're almost identical if they're not identical the water is in the same location the hydrants may have moved um but the water line is in the same same location so the issue with mass highway is not location of the waterline it's
simply with the fire hyds that we their position yes it's the fire hydrants and um we're trying to agree on a way to get under the culs there at bread and cheese Brook um the the other comment that they had was they wanted the water line down
5 1/2 ft instead of 4 1/2 ft um so we made that change as well so that was another Mass Highway specification that Kleinfeld had incorrectly so my property above bread
and cheese gr two sides so what does that mean no it it won't affect you this was just Mass yeah this was just Mass Highway standards the service will get will be in front of your house the curb stop will be in front of your house it's just how how we you know they they were
also entertaining the idea to try to use this the existing sleeve in Route 6 um which is a 42in RCP pipe to sleeve the pipe under the bread and cheese Brook um there's not a need for that it's it'll be able to be put in the location that
they originally designed because it's the Geotech Works shown at this well we have to make sure sure that it's designed the mass Highway specs it's their roadway and and they won't let us do the work until we meet their specifications just just want to make
sure that folks understand it's if we put the pipe this way that way upside down when you go to your property line we'll figure out how to get that water to your property line at a location that makes sense and then we'll we'll navigate all the other stuff in terms of
where the water line goes in Route 6 or Gord but the important thing for you to focus on I think think uh is to make sure that these service connections going to your property make sense we need your help with that because we don't know all the inner workings of
your particular home or building so the rest of it you're in good hands we'll we'll we'll figure that out thank you after the project is you guys have any idea question the project you you know how
much what's going to be the set of the F yeah so we've uh another good question you must be in business so so we um so we we we have we tested we mentioned in in the presentation the potential need for pressure reducing valves uh but as
we've been installing the water main we've done periodic checks of the pressure in the pipe so typically you want to be below 80 psi in a residential application even 80s a little high so right now we've tested on gford at CVS s and at 115 gford and we're we're ranging
right around 72 psi that's a that's a long way of saying that's exactly where we want to be and we're going to continue to take those measurements there may be some locations and we'll let you know if you happen to be one of these locations that may require a pressure reducing valve and all that is
a small device a small uh that would be in your basement um uh not terribly expensive you know they actually sell them at uh Home Depot lows somewhere in the range of you know $400 um that would just make sure that
the pressure coming into your home isn't too high uh because all the fittings and all the stuff that's in your house is rated for certain pressure but for most folks I'm thinking and we're going to continue to develop that information you're probably not going to require one but we'll let you know if you will
require but 72 psi is to answer your question see what side are you going to be in and out of any those small areas there say that
again I believe are you going down Johnson well well right now this was again this grant was to um extend Route Six and and right we we want to get everything all the main that's going to be
installed in Route 6 out of the highway layout and that'll be not taking you're not taking care of any any roads that are going off except the the Greenwood and Osborne right at this time so like like if you have a location that's on that main and you're side street off the
main and you have a need for water cuz one of the things that we're going to need to do is we want to you know like some of the other towns you every year they you apply for Grant say we got to need we need to do this street that's it's already out of the highway layout we don't have to deal
with mass Highway connections we can take each individual Street and neighborhood on an as needed basis and say hey we need to put our resources here to help out these homeowners that need the service my other question is is the water going down the middle the highway no no
yes yes not the middle not the middle it's going it's going down the um the island with within the island going to go down the island going down the island so why is that that the town is taking responsib the I mean you're saying they want the water
on but then you want the hyd on the side that's standing is am I correct well the the reason they they want the hydrants outside the highway layout so the water m is going to be in the island because that's the easiest way to put it in so it's going to be in the island but there's there's also a proposed SE line
in the island so you need a separation from the SE line in the island so that's that's going to be maintained and they're still going to put the water M down the grass strip but they Point At what point does shouldn't the state have a little Stak in this if they've got to move these these hydrants from the
center they don't want them on the center of Highway where they're at right now so should they be responsible as well to get well the problem with that is it's that's going to raise a whole so so we're not we're not moving any existing hydrants the hydrants that are going to be outside the island will be
the new hydrants so it's it's not going to be an issue we're just going to stub to the new new hydrants from the main in center of the island so you're not going to have any additional just saying you're not going to have any n on the center of6 that's correct so you're going to have maybe where it comes down
from Osborne Street you might have one maybe Greenwood right yeah so so they have they have the distance where the hydrants were so like like we were saying before Kleinfeld designed the system with the hydrants down the middle like what's existing and then when when we applied for the utility access permit
Mass Highway reviewed it and said no you have to remove the hydrant outside the high way lay out so the water main like the existing water main in Route 6 now belongs to the town it's our pipe work um this one going in is going to be the towns it will be in the mass Highway
layout and that's why they're telling us you know how we need to do it because it's in their layout then we we need that permission anytime we want to go inside to service it or connect to it or all of that so like a lot of those streets in the in the first when the when the water main was done for Davis
Road and stuff it didn't get Tak taken out of layout and it was costing the small businesses that they couldn't afford like a small restaurant can't afford to get out of layout right now you're looking it's probably if you want to get a get a 6in fire service out of out of the mass Highway layout it's probably going to cost you 70 or
$80,000 so that's why it's pretty important for the businesses and for the residents to get this outside the layout and sitting in front of their house if there's ever a need that they need it the existing fire Hy will still have to be mov well I I mean I'm I'm like I said
I looked at the shs no you you don't know what's going to happen with mass Highway that's why we're going back and forth and we don't have permission yet we can't say that mass highway is not going to tell you you got to get it out of there I did speak to a transportation secretary from the state sometime last week and she said they were waiting for
West [Music] to same people over excuse me honestly I don't have a crystal ball but you know they've been there for 30 years um we have not been asked to move those they said the new hydrants that
were looking to put in they wanted to make sure that they were not in the center Island and it may have been because their regulations changed over the years um it it actually provides more fire services for the residents because we're going to have to install a few more hydrants on both sides sides of Route 6 um so overall it's beneficial to
the town and to the residents but it's going to cost a little bit more money I'm just really hoping for some am I correct in assuming that the streets that run off osor are not part of this project there won't be
any there there's all on this this project on the main line that's going in right now on the loop every street will have will have a gate T off that main to go further that's similar to the service connections to the residence so if
you're going down Osborne um say Celtic Drive should have a have a gate at the entrance to Celtic drive if there's ever a need to to go down the street they're not going to do a so if you put a gate in now versus to do a wet tap later of an 8 in to an 8 in it's that's why they
put it in now and it the stuff in Davis Road um for Davis Road down Route Six they did that back in the day they put te's and gates in the middle of the highway but they didn't bring it outside the layout and then when they went back a lot of cases they didn't even reuse them so that's why I we're trying to get
the correct location for all this stuff and that's like we were saying on the service Connection in the red and a little blue steak in front of your yacht that's those are the kind of things that we need to do this was all all this line was engineered Kleinfeld designed it it
and it was all designed for future expansion so you're going to see a lot of stuff for future expansion so at the end of six yes yes those are all Loops that we need to do like if you look where the Cozy Nook is cozy Nook bring in the water service at their own expense when
they built that building um out of mass Highway layout and it's dead ended right at the restaurant and the matter of fact that's where the city of for River tests the water quality right there on a dead end so that that will eventually have to be looped up at the gfed road all those side streets when this project is
finally completed they'll all be serviced by water so on Osborne in particular right there's a few short dead end streets um off of Osborne um what I would suggest is that you fill out the survey and express your
interest um as the chair said we're going to be stubbing into each one of these side streets and if it's close enough to the stub you may be able to tie in without extending the main further down the road so fill out the survey and it'll be something we can take a look at you mentioned the
H old know uh the root Route Six is is all um it's all duti Lon so there's also the aqueduct like I said was a 42in RC P pipe that was draining back into the Wata that's right in the center line
Center of route six um the the the ductile Lon that was put in I believe cotti actually did the work back in the early 80s um and that was also for the same thing for past and um they handed out drinking water to to the residents
bottled water and those residents are all tied in um now what will the service H made it's going to be PVC do do we have a a Renaissance person working you know from the town
Consulting with the state on any of this project Roger's our project manager he's right here tonight but you in charge of engineer and did the designing that who's behind all of that well I I think I think I might just say that you
know if you maybe you have uh excuse me gone through the process trying to obtain permits from Mass do dealing with the D it's a piece of cake I can tell you you don't have have to worry about it they give it to you just like this the in truth is uh sometimes it's um
depending depending on who's still there uh meaning the folks that maybe have retired are a little easier as you get to some of the newer folks they become a little more stringent uh definitely you know some of these things I would agree with the chairman that maybe could have been caught but a lot of these things that just um curve balls that came out
us you you can break that down by saying speak to the person in charge because we raised a couple of good questions here tonight do the fire hydrants have to get moved that's really a yes or no question the other half is is Route 6 a shovel ready project for both sewer and water I
think we discussed a problem somewhere around the bridge side of it uh the permits were supposed to be put in place last June so we're running about s eight months behind schedule at this point here I guess that's one way to look at it another way to look at it is the
town's gotten about $5 million worth of Grants we're presenting something to you that would bring the water right to your property the project is ahead of schedule in terms of gford and Osborne I don't know it's U it's the largest I think it is the largest past grant that
State's issued um but it is I uh you know these projects are not with without their challenges it's just not it's possible they all have their challenges but I think we're we're drawing closer to getting the uh the thing completed and um I think overall it's a good thing
right I hope so who would be the person to speak to that's deal that's handling the upper hand on the state half of it in other words who's the person you're supposed to be Consulting with besides the engineer that we've hired say for
instance so goad you want so obviously we're working with Roger Roger's been involved in this on a daily basis State though I'm asking the question is who are you dealing with in the state that that we've end up in these big signals
so so the state has a I I don't say it's a new process but it's been a revised process right so you don't really talk to anybody at the state you file everything online uh you file through the shops program you file a permit that permit gets distributed through a number of departments and agencies at the state
you know you can have environmental you can have Geotech you can have traffic you can have you know there's probably half dozen to a dozen agencies they submit the comments back to the engineer the engineer responds to those comments through this shops program they comment again comes back to the
engineer they respond to those comments you send it back they comment again and what's happened some what happened sometimes is the people that commented originally are no longer there and you have new people that are reviewing it and they're coming up with different comments so we've been pushing to get this done for GE over 6 months now um
you know we challenged a couple of the comments um you know we wanted to put the water man in at 4 1/2 ft instead of 5 1/2 ft cuz that's where it was designed and it fit better with the aqueduct in the sewer line so we pushed back on that mass highways said stopped pushing we're not going to Grant it so
we we gave in we redesigned it for the five and a half feet so we've been working with mass do but it's it's it's a process and it's not just us anybody that files these permits with mass do they have a very intense very ex extensive review process that they
submit to a number of departments and it's not it's not easy they have some very difficult regulations I I've worked with mass do on a number of state and federal projects um and some of these things take 3 to 5 years to design to get them through the Mass DOT process you know it's it's just the way they
work um when the Project's done when they when they give that permit every box is checked every eye is dotted and you know it's right but to get there it's it's it's a struggle but we're getting there I think we're pretty close we had a mass uh a meeting with mass do about 3 weeks ago um and it's difficult
to get a meeting with them um but they they they set one up um they know what our situation is they've been trying to work with us the last time we sent comments back in they got back to us within a week which is um very fast so I think they're they they know the importance of this project and they're trying to get it done as quick as they
can now so it's basically you and Rogers Renaissance versus State I don't know if I I would say that we're doing what we can well the the select Board of weather water Commissioners um so this is called the
utility access and and the utility access the owner of utility applies to mass Highway for this so we the town and the and the select board are the water Commissioners we own the utility so this permit we're requesting this permit so
our contractor I mean our engineer which is our our design contractor um needs to design it to mass specs and they they they want it designed before you apply because they don't want to design it for you they want they want you to understand what the specifications are
design it and submit it to them and they approve your ASC so the problem comes in when when you have an engineer that's in Boston where you know doesn't have boots on the ground over here and they're just crossing the wires but we're we're we're getting close to resolving that but it's
Mass Highway what Mass it's Mass highways layout and we can only do what Mass Highway allows us to do we broken up this perit separated it between water well it has to be cuz it's a utility the utility access that's what it is it's so this permit that we're going for right
now is for we're not rebuilding Route 6 westport's not rebuilding Route 6 right now we're expanding our water main down Route 6 that's our utility access that's all we're looking at right now is to get this pipe built if if if the SE line project comes online somewhere down the
road we have to do the same process for the SE line but right now it's just the water line and that's what we're trying to get pered rece F million yeah that that was complete and that's part of this this plan that was submitted Mass Highway for the utility
access was that plan and those are the problems that we're coming up with now we did pay that company a million something for the design and that's what's going on you're welcome thank you very much can