05/16/2019 SEWER COMMISSION Minutes

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Mashpee Sewer Commission Meeting Minutes Thursday, May 16, 2019 Present: Tom Fudala, Joe Lyons and Brad Pittsley. Also in attendance was Andrew Gottlieb, Executive Director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. Meeting Called to Order: 7:05 p.m.—Ockway Meeting Room, Mashpee Town Hall, 16 Great Neck Road North, Mashpee, MA 02649 Approval of Minutes: Joe Lyons moved to approve the minutes of the March 21, 2019 Sewer Commission Meeting with one minor correction. Motion seconded by Brad Pittsley. VOTE: Unanimous (3-0) Status of Final Plan: Mr. Fudala informed fellow Commissioners that the Watershed Nitrogen Management Plan has received all the necessary approvals. No Implementation has begun other than limited shellfish propagation and preliminary designs for the WWTP. Natural Resources Director Rick York has received the results of the 2018 Waquoit Bay watershed testing, which show very good improvement to the water quality. Seed from the shellfish has been making its way out to Waquoit Bay, increasing commercial harvest there; however, more shellfish is needed. Mr. York has a new piece of state of the art equipment that identifies larvae,which will be set-up in Popponesset Bay. He does not yet have the water quality results for Popponesset Bay or the Mashpee River, FY 2020 Budget Status Report: Mr. Fudala reviewed the status of the Sewer Commission Administrator position, which has not been filled. Town Meeting did approve $10,200, and the Town Manager has indicated he will set aside $25,000 from the Town's Legal&Engineering budget for WWTP preliminary design value engineering. Town Meeting also approved the DPW Assistant/Engineer position,which is intended to provide support to the Commission as an alternative to the Sewer Commission Administrator position. GHD WWTP Preliminary Design Project: Mr. Fudala reviewed the status of Selectmen and finance team discussions regarding financing and organization of wastewater system Implementation. Both funding articles for the final design of the WWTP and the design of the collection system were submitted for inclusion on the Town Meeting Warrant, but both were taken off the Warrant prior to Town Meeting. The preliminary design project itself is moving along, Survey stakes that were placed in the vicinity of the Transfer Station sparked concern among residents in the area, and the subsequent spread of false information resulted in a lot of opposition to the proposed articles. At the most recent joint meeting on economic development, inquiries were made with private Mashpee developments with sewage treatment plants about odor problems from those plants, and the response across the board was that there were no issues. We need to get word out that we are building small contained facilities that will not smell. Mr. Lyons asked what was delaying the Waquoit Bay IMA with Falmouth and Sandwich, and Mr. Gottlieb responded that he has not yet had the time to dedicate to it. Part of the delay was due to each town engaging its own technical consultants to do the load sharing calculations. The towns have agreed to the form of the agreement, which will parallel the IMA for Popponesset Bay. A DLTA grant from the Cape Cod Commission (CCC) was used to reimburse Sandwich for legal costs associated with the preparation of the agreement for Popponesset. Mr. Gottlieb shared his opinion that the analysis prepared by the finance team was inadequate, biased, and appeared to him to be intended to scrap the project. It overemphasized negative assumptions and undervalued positive ones, creating the most expensive possible scenario and assuming no revenue. Additionally, it attempted to look at the first three phases of funding, as opposed to the first five-year phase of funding,which made the numbers appear big and unaffordable. He and Selectman John Cotton met with the finance team, and Selectman Gottlieb provided comments. The finance team agreed with some but not all of their comments. A re-draft of the analysis will be presented at some point in the future. The analysis did serve to bring up the fact that there are a number of policy questions which need to be decided—such as connection fees, betterments and rates—so that the Commission can provide guidance that will allow the finance team to start to plug the revenue streams into a financial model. In the absence of those pieces, the assumption Is that it is all borrowed money, adding to the Town's overall debt burden. Mr. Gottlieb stated that, while at this point we do not know what the numbers are to plug.in, we don't want those numbers to look bigger and scarier than they necessarily need to be. 1