Agenda – Plymouth Select Board 1-25-22 Agenda

Official Minutes – Plymouth Select Board 1-25-22 Minutes

Please note this transcription is unofficial. If you find an error, use the contact page to notify Plymouth On The Record.

[0:00:05]

Dick Quintal:

Okay. I’ll open up the meeting again. Back to open session for Tuesday January 25th, 2022. Welcome back, everyone. The first order of business will be our water and sewer update. JB, welcome.

Jonathan Beder:

Good evening, everybody. I’m Jonathan Beder, Director of Public Works. It’s a pleasure to be here in front of you all this evening. I am here with Sheila Sgarzi, our town engineer, who you’ve met. Peter Gordon, our water superintendent who you’ve met. And then we have two new faces who you have not had a pleasure of meeting, Doug Pinard, he’s our wastewater manager. Doug has been with us for about 10 months now. He comes from a whole different type of background, municipal and private sector. And then we have Kendra Martin, our water and sewer engineer, who used to be Sheila, and Kendra’s been here for a while now and Kendra comes from a very strong private background.

So, we’ve been asked to do a 10,000-foot of water and sewer. We’re going to get into water and sewer first. Water first and then sewer. Really, we’re here to present and have a very informal discussion on is capital projects, where we are from the regulatory perspective and then operations. And there’s a ton of really good stuff going on. Too much, actually. So, I’m going to turn it over to Pete Gordon and Kendra. They’re going to run through the water and then Doug will do the sewer with Kendra and Sheila and I are happy to answer any questions and just kind of fill everybody in. this is great for the board as water and sewer commissioners and it’s also great for the public to really understand what we’ve been up to and where we want to go in the next couple of years. So, with that, I’m going to turn it over to Pete. Okay? Thanks, everybody!

Peter Gordon:

Thanks, JB. Thanks everybody for giving us this opportunity to give you an update on what’s happening on water and sewer. It’s a little bit of a dangerous proposition giving me a format to talk about the water system in Plymouth because I guess I am passionate about it and I can talk all day about it but stick with me. We’ll get through this and I’ll do it relatively quickly.

When I sent a memo attached to this presentation to JB, I mentioned that Plymouth water system is complex and dynamic. This is a nice, easy, compact way to describe the system but it doesn’t tell the whole story. And there isn’t time to tell the whole story night so we won’t get into it. But some of the dynamics will come later as far as the complexity. I just want to talk a little bit about that upfront before we get into the presentation.

So, as a public water supplier, Plymouth pumps groundwater from 13 wells from 11 locations. We utilize 4 booster pump stations and 1 valve control station to distribute the water. We send that water to over 250 miles of water main from 2 to 20 inches to approximately 15,000 water accounts. They serve about 43,000 people and businesses as well.

We store about 8.5 million gallons of water primarily for fire protection in 10 water storage tanks in 6 separate pressure zones. Now, this represents a tremendous amount of infrastructure and it’s a lot to operate and maintain. And this presentation is designed to give you an overview of how we approach this task both now and in the future. So, let’s get into it.

So, the regulatory portion of this presentation mostly refers to the oversight that we get from the Mass Department of Environmental Protection and of course, their federal counterpart, the Environment Protection Agency or the UPA. These are the primary governing bodies for our public water suppliers. They govern things like withdraw appointments. So, Plymouth gathers water from a sole source of aquifer. You’ve probably heard of it. It’s called the Plymouth/Carver Aquifer. I’ve also heard to it referred to as the Plymouth-Carver-Kingston-Duxbury Aquifer and so on and so forth. This aquifer has multiple reach out areas known as basins. The Darby Pond Well that we operate and the federal term as well I mean, what’s known as the Buzzards Bay Basin but that one is a Plymouth wells allocated in what’s called the South Coastal Basin.

The Department of Environmental Protection determines what a safety yield is from each basin and then they issue their permits to the municipalities for their determinations. The withdrawal one is a conditional. They will give you water but you do need to meet certain benchmarks such as projected growth, unaccounted for Water Residential Gallons per Capita Day and so on and so forth. There are quite a few conditions that they put in the requirement and it can be tricky to follow all of them. The permits are renewed every 20 years. And Plymouth’s South Coastal Basin permit was renewed in 2019. We’re currently working through the process of renewing the Buzzards Bay Basin with the folks in DEP. I don’t want to give you an exact timeframe for that finalized permit, but if it’s 60 days, it’s probably a pretty good ball park estimate for when we expect to see that permit finalized.

[0:05:08]

Peter Gordon:

So, there’s two other documents that kind of came up on the regulatory. The town recently completed an update of the risk and resiliency assessment as well as the emergency response plan. The risk and resiliency assessment, it requires us to take a very close look at our system and evaluate it for weaknesses. This may be vulnerability to things like weather or vandalism or maybe a terrorist attack. The emergency response plan is a larger document. It outlines protocols to follow under a wide variety of scenarios such as an outbreak of waterborne illness, God forbid, or how to operate in a hurricane scenario or possibly a blizzard. It’s essentially an instruction manual for running the system under both normal conditions and crisis situations. And while the ERP is updated annually to reflect personal or operational changes, both documents require updating and certification by the Environmental Protection Agency every fifth year. Both documents were updated and certified in 2021.

So, now, we can talk about UCMR. The EPA and DEP are constantly on the lookout for potential contaminants in the drinking water, and one method they use to identify these contaminants is a program called the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule or UCMR. Every three years, the EPA produces a list of contaminants that may be present in drinking water. Public water systems that serve greater than 3,000 people are required to participate in the sampling and reporting on these contaminants. So, the goal is to determine whether or not these contaminants are actually present in the drinking water. And if they are, are they in sufficient quantity to warrant the removal or the reduction of these contaminants? In 2022, Plymouth will participate in the fifth round of UCMR and the contaminants they’re going to be looking for are once again PFAS and this time Lithium.

Now, in the previous round of Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring that we did, we did look for, I think it was 18 compounds that we tested for PFAS. This next round, they’re going to be looking for an additional 29 compounds of PFAS. I don’t expect that there will be a tremendous difference in how we test out. We had virtually no PFAS in the first round and I expect the results to be similar this time around. And so, that brings us to rules and regulations.

So, rules and regulations, this is a town thing. Obviously, it’s not a state or a federal thing but in 2018, the water division underwent the process of updating the rules and regulations document. For this purpose, we enlisted the services of Weston & Sampson who were instrumental in compiling necessary information for this document. The previous document hadn’t been updated since 1957, and it needed quite a few revisions to reflect a modern standard for the time bring us up to date. The new document was adopted by the Select Board acting as water commissioners in March of 2019. Although, it is a complete document, it was put forward with the intent that any additions or modification would only need the approval of the board and wouldn’t require us to completely rewrite the document. The work has already begun on updating that document and we’re going through the articles and making some changes and revisions. We hope to put that in front of the board sometime this year for a vote.

The operational section of this outline, we’ll touch on just a few of the updates and the changes in the way that the water division functions. One of the ways we function is through the use of SCADA. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. Some of you may have heard of SCADA before. The water division operates the SCADA program as well as the sewer department. This program allows us to monitor and control aspects of the water system such as starting and stopping pumps, operating valves, adjusting pumping rates, setting tank levels and so on. It also allows us to see data such as PH and chlorine residuals throughout the system. It allows us to monitor flows and pressures out in the system and we get real-time data back on our SCADA system such as that.

In the spring of 2021, we began a complete update of the SCADA system. The update included replacing unsupported equipment such as PLCs, computer components, transmitters and receivers and a lot of this was geared at improving cyber security. Now, all remote access to SCADA requires two-factor authentication at this point. If I want to log in to SCADA at home, I need to first log into a VPN before I can even look at the SCADA system. So, this is good stuff and it means good things for the town in terms of keeping that system safe.

[0:10:10]

Peter Gordon:

And then we have the Flushing Plan. The Environmental Partners group uh was retained to update the town’s hydro flushing plan. Hydro Flushing is a function of water quality and it’s necessary for the health of the distribution system. The Flushing Plan currently utilized by the time it was developed in 1993. Amory Engineers put together that plan. As I’m sure you can imagine, there’s been quite a few changes to the distribution system since that time. A lot of new roads built, a lot of new cul-de-sacs, just a whole lot of changes.

Environmental Partners, they maintain and routinely update a digital hydraulic model of Plymouth’s water system and they’ll utilize this model to help develop a plan which will optimize our flushing efforts and we expect to receive this plan in late winter or early spring of this year. So, they’re just about done with that and we’re looking forward to getting that plan.

In 2019, the Water System Master Plan recommended we install emergency power in certain locations. Currently, all but one of Plymouth’s pump stations have backup generators. All but one of Plymouth’s booster stations have backup generators. The two locations currently without backup power are the Darby Well Pump Station and the Cedarville Booster Pumping Station. The design phase for emergency power at Darby and Cedarville is nearly complete and we’ll expect a construction to begin pretty soon. Emergency backup power in these locations will support the continuity of water supply during power outages, storms, things of that nature.

None of Plymouth’s water storage tanks have emergency backup power. The tanks use power to send radio signals. They use it to repeat other signals and report things like tank levels and temperatures and things of that nature. The reporting of the tank levels to the SCADA mainframe is what triggers the pumps to start to stop. The storage tanks where the levels tell the pumps to start and stop are what we call controlling tanks. So, we’ve submitted a letter of interest to receive grant funding for emergency power for those controlling tanks and we intend to pursue this grant funding also in 2022.

Now, I don’t think infrastructure requires much of an explanation but here are some of the ways we’re improving and replacing it here in town. A contract was awarded to a construction company called Diggett [?] in late November of 2021. This contract was for the replacement of the water mains on Doten Road and Winter Street. Doten Road suffered from frequent service interruptions due to the failing cast iron water main that was installed 90 years ago. The Winter Street Main was recently discovered to be composed of material produced here in Plymouth over 100 years ago. This material is known as jacket water main and is well beyond its useful life. If you’ve ever heard of jacket water main, you probably know of the issues that we’ve had associated with it. Construction on Doten Road was completed in mid-December and we’re pretty happy with the work. We got other bigger construction company out there but Winter Street is going to have to wait until the spring because it may require a bypass main which has to be protected from freezing. This isn’t something you can do in the winter.

If you’ve been up Stafford Street recently, you might have seen this pic and you might have seen this tank looking this way. The Stafford Street water storage tank is a 1.5-million-gallon welded steel tank. The rehabilitation of this tank started last September. It was about mid-September. It’s been plagued by issues since it began: delays in materials, weather-related issues, a couple of those windy storms we had, COVID related setbacks, you name it. They pushed the completion date of this project back. We hope to have the tank filled and back in service sometime in early February. However, the cold weather prohibits the curing of the exterior coating and the painting company is going to need to return in the spring to complete the project. The next tank scheduled for rehabilitation is the Pinehills Tank. This is a concrete tank so the process of rehabilitation is somewhat different, but this should take place somewhere around FY24 or FY25.

Now, as far as pump station upgrades go. A phased approach to upgrading pumping stations was another recommendation that came out of the 2019 Master Plan. The planning and design stages the South Pond Wells and North Plymouth Wells is complete and construction should begin in mid to late February 2022. The upgrades will include valving, new flow meters, upgraded chemical speed pumps, analyzers for PH, Chlorine, you name it, painting and sealing will happen on the buildings, just general upgrading to these facilities. We hope to continue upgrades to Darby Pond Well, Ellisville Well and the Pine Hills Booster station later in 2022 or early in 2023.

[0:15:07]

Peter Gordon:

So, we’re really trying to bring our pump stations up to speed and make them more functional and more efficient. That’s the whole idea behind these upgrades. So, there are two somewhat large water main projects on the horizon. One of them is the Federal Furnace and Hill Dale Water Main project. So, again, you’ve heard me talk about this but the 2019 Water System Master Plan was developed by Environmental Partners and it’s been the drive up for the majority of our capital improvement requests. The plan has recommended a phased approach to replacing our asbestos cement water means and there’s quite a few of them in our distribution system. So, this is going to take a while to do it so you got to start somewhere.

Water Division has submitted a capital request for about $5.2 million dollars to replace the mains on Hill Dale and Federal Furnace Road. The water mains on Hill Dale and Federal Furnace are comprised of asbestos cement main. This stuff can become pretty brittle when it’s saturated and it can break pretty easily. A lot of it is vinyl lined. The vinyl line does best to cement can cause water quality concerns, which require bleeders. The bleeders actually let water out of the main so it doesn’t sit there too long and this is called reducing the water age in the pipe.

There are two bleeders on Federal Furnace that collectively discharge slightly over 2 million gallons of water each year. By replacing this main, we kind of hope to not throw those two million gallons of water away. Replacement of this pipe would also reduce leaks on the town’s side of the pipes. It would support improved water quality, prevent future risks of failure to be as best as main and do a lot of good things in terms of getting this out of our system and getting a better newer pipe.

The other water main project is the Manomet Pressure Zone Pipe Replacement Project. After securing some EDA grant funding and appropriating some additional funds at the spring annual town meeting of 2020, the town underwent the selection process for a consulting firm to engineer the Manomet Pressure Zone Pipe Upgrade Project. There currently exists certain hydraulic deficiencies within the Manomet Pressure Zone relating to pressures and flows. There are flow restrictions from older or undersized water mains within the zone that will experience high pressures during pumping cycles that fill the South Pine Hills tank. These flow restrictions can also create lower pressures in parts of the zone where the water is being drawn out of.

The flow restrictions limit the amount of water available for firefighting in portions of Manomet and they also cause the pump stations to use far more energy than they should to kind of force water into that tank. The solution to these problems is to upsize the water mains on portions of Bartlett Road, Brook Road, Manomet Point Road, White Horse Road and Rocky Hill Road. Upsizing these pipes will lead to more equalized pressure throughout the zones, no high- or low-pressure spikes. It will lead to shorter run times with the wells, which will actually equate to more increased capacity within that zone in terms of how much water is available to us. This is a pretty sizable project and while it’s still in the design phase, it does have a projected start date of august 27th, 2022 and we’re looking forward to the start of that project.

So, moving on to new source exploration. Again, Plymouth operates 13 wells on 11 sites. We institute seasonal outdoor watering restrictions as a condition of our Water Management Act withdrawal permit and we always seek to promote conservation as with the creation of the Water Conservation Committee. As a municipality, we’re reasonably well supplied with water at this point. However, we do not have the surplus capacity to sustain the continued growth that we’ve seen over the last 10 years or so. Even if growth were to slow significantly, our abilities to supply water would require augmentation. As the wells that we currently operate age, they suffer from reduction in yield and water quality. Wells can only be redeveloped so many times before they suffer from diminished capacity.

As a public water supplier, we do have the responsibility to the ratepayers to ensure that water will come out of the tap when it’s open and to that end, it’s prudent to identify new sources and develop them well in advance of the actual need. The citing, construction and permitting of a new source can take up to 10 years. So, now is the time to identify a new source. We have contracted the services of the Horsley Whitten Group including a very knowledgeable local hydrogeologist to help identify potential sources. Their tasks include things like GIS site screening, groundwater modeling, desktop analysis and of course, field exploration where we actually go out and put holes in the ground and find out how much water we can get out of it.

[0:20:12]

Peter Gordon:

There’s a lot of challenges involved in citing a new source and they include the ability to control the area around the well, the zone 1s and the zone 2s. Obviously, the proximity to the distribution system is a big concern as well and we’re hoping to probably request funding for a new well somewhere just after FY27. I think we’ll be looking to do that.

And finally, we’ll just talk for a second about the Water Conservation Committee. In the fall of 2020, the Select Board voted for the creation of a committee to explore ways to conserve water, promote the responsible use of the resource and protect the sole source aquifer where we draw all our drinking water from. The first meeting of the Water Conservation Committee happened in early November of 2020 and the committee has been since working very diligently to create policies and practices. The committee hopes to publish their findings in a document called the Town of Plymouth Water Conservation Plan. If the plan is successful, it will be a road map to reducing water production and consumption by as much as 15%, which is pretty significant over the next decade.

The DPW Water Division has been working closely with the committee to devise strategies. The committee has seen success in creating awareness, investigating and implementing conservation programs and exploring public outreach. Access to consumption data has been somewhat of a barrier to the research necessary for the creation of a meaningful conservation plan. The committee and the water division as well as the DPW continue to look for ways to quantify seasonal usage and maximize the conservation efforts. And I applaud their efforts and look forward to continually working with them in the future. That’s about what’s going on in water. I’d be happy to answer any questions if they exist.

Dick Quintal:

Any questions for Peter, Mr. Gordon?

Peter Gordon:

If you think of something later, I’m available anytime.

Dick Quintal:

Well, I have a couple. Not so fast. I was listening to you when the next well is 2027, if I understood it right. Do you have like a master plan in place or something so-called as we grow? Do you have different sites up for water, and if you do with places like the planning board, maybe the zone and board of appeals even, I have these sections of town that are seriously seeing growth like Red Brook for instance and stuff like that.

Peter Gordon:

Red Brook being separate, I don’t think we’re going to put in a well anywhere near Red Brook because it’s just so far from the municipal distribution systems that it wouldn’t make a ton of sense. The master plan did recommend that we continue looking for a new source and while I said that we would probably approach town meeting in FY27 for funding, I think that’s reasonably accurate. But even if we were to secure the funding in FY27, it would probably still be another year and a half to two years or more before that well actually went into production. So, I think the timeline is accurate. I hope that Horsley and Whitten can help us cite a new source that’s in the appropriate pressure zone or in reasonable proximity to the distribution system so that it doesn’t include the installation of the thousands of feet or God forbid miles of water main to connect it. I hope that that gets close to an approximation of an answer there, Dick.

Dick Quintal:

Yeah, it is. It wasn’t so much the Red Brook question but areas of new development. I mean, is it matches the land? I don’t mean put the shovel in the ground and stop but like say for instance Holtec has 1500, 1200 acres over there. It’s the X amount of acres that the town’s interested in for a while in the future, a possibility. I think having a list something like that to keep on file with everybody so we know as these projects come up, ‘Well, wait a minute you know this could be a well site in the future.” Something like that. That’s really what the question was.

Jonathan Beder:

Can I jump in on that one, everybody?

Dick Quintal:

Sure.

Jonathan Beder:

I’d like to jump in on that. So, again, Pete mentioned during his presentation, we have Horsley and Whitten working on a new source exploration. We’ve been working with Horsley and Whitten for well over a year. I do expect that we will be in front of this board again relatively soon. Hopefully, within six to nine months. What we have been doing is we’ve been looking in terms of preference of a ton of land close to the system and then private land with clean sites preferably not impacting other existing zone 2s that other wells that are influenced by those Zone 2s.

[0:25:07]

Jonathan Beder:

So, we’re aware of that. Sheila works with DMEA. I know you know open space, all of those groups. We have these kinds of blips on our radar and we do plan on getting back in front of the board very soon but I do want to say as part of this presentation, everybody because we are concerned with development. We’ve been dealing with a whole influx of major projects over the past couple of years especially in West Plymouth. Our two biggest pieces of the puzzle were really the Darby restriction and the Manomet pipe upgrades. Both of those have come to fruition over the past real quickly, the past year if you would. Once that Manomet pipe project is complete, we’re really looking to analyze and see firsthand what the changes are with the West Plymouth in terms of that pressure zone because we’re not we’re not sure how the water is actually going to move.

We have presented information to this board in terms of maybe a valve station working with Holtec on that off of Rocky Hill. That’s a priority. But our goal is to basically really sustain the needs of the water system, really lock it up for the next 10 to 20 years. So, that’s our goal. But I do think we’ll be back in front of the board relatively soon with an update in terms of those well locations. And as Pete mentioned, you’re looking and not having something online until 2027. It takes years. If you at what happened with Forges Field, that took us a good solid five to six years for one-million-gallon supply. We’re looking for something along those lines.

Dick Quintal:

Charlie?

Charlie Bletzer:

Yeah. Going back to what Dickie said, JB. I learned something last week from Sheila about the conservation land. We’ve got a lot of land that we want to develop into open space, but we have to be careful not to designate some of this well land where you can have good wills and make them conservation because we can’t take a well there. So, that’s something that after learning that from Sheila, she talked about you can’t put a cemetery, you can’t put any digging once it’s designated conservation. So, I think we have to identify parcels of land that are good well sites and make sure they don’t get restricted like that. So, that’s something Sheila Sgarzi brought it up in the meeting and really, we got to be careful of that.

Jonathan Beder:

Yeah, we’ve been running into that as a roadblock for a while now where the town has done a great job in terms of acquiring open space, but a lot of their open space has conservation restrictions on it. So, we can’t utilize them for water supplies.

Charlie Bletzer:

It’s important. Sometimes we’re going to look at water is so important to us, so.

Jonathan Beder:

Agreed, but we’ve had conversations with Bill and David and Kim and all the powers that be that are acquiring this open space knowing firsthand that we need another water supply. So, they’ve been excellent in terms of working with us in terms of not putting those CRS on those properties. So, I think the lines of communication have been really well opened up, if you would. So, I think everybody knows the goal of DPW in terms of acquiring land for a water supply, Charlie.

Charlie:

I want to say I appreciate being proactive looking down the road. So, we don’t have another disaster like we had, the $48 million dollar disaster. Also, Manomet getting that done, that’s very important. We all know what could have happened and could happen and now we got your project coming up on the waterfront that we know what could happen if that burst. So, good work. It was a great presentation. I appreciate it.

Jonathan Beder:

Just real quick, Charlie, just to kind of summarize that. I don’t know if Pete was here but Sheila and I was. In 2016, we went through it. We had to go issue a water declaration of emergency. We had the secretary of Environmental Affairs here because we went through a major drought and that’s really what opened up our eyes in terms of what the town needed to do, Charlie.

Charlie Bletzer:

And you opened my eyes up when you told me, you opened my eyes up.

Jonathan Bletzer:

We’ve been proactive ever since because we will never go through that. We don’t want to go through that again. I feel terrible for any municipality that has to go through that process.

Charlie Bletzer:

A lot of people in town don’t even know how bad it was, which would have set off but you did so good, your whole group so.

Jonathan Beder:

Thank you. All right. So, if everybody’s all set on the water side, I’m going to introduce Doug Pinard, your Wastewater Manager. He’s going to run through the same type of presentation on the sewer side of things. So, thank you.

[0:30:10]

Douglas Pinard:

Hi, everybody! I’m Doug Pinard. Like JB said, I’ve been here about 10 months. I’m the sewer manager. Just to kind of give you a rundown on some of the projects that we got going on. Pete, awesome job. Did a great job. Tough back to follow that, Pete.

So, some of the projects that we have. We have a few regulatory things and some operations and some infrastructure. Some of the regulatory things that we have we’re working with all sewer on a groundwater discharge. We got a couple other regulatory things with sewer regs and FOG regs, we got CMOM. So, those are a few of our regulatory things that we’re all going to be talking about. And then on the operation side, just like the water we have, SCADA for monitoring and then something that we’ll be working with our current operators with current with is this piece of equipment called Greasezilla, which we’ll get into. Some of the infrastructure stuff which I’m sure a lot of you are aware of, the water street interceptor, the flood wall, flood barrier on the water street pump station. We have at Camelot Drive sewer extension and then also, we’re working out at the Plymouth Airport on the treatment plant that’s out there.

So, to get started with the groundwater discharge, like I said, we’re working with Horsley Whitten. The treatment plant right now, we treat an average of 1.5 five million gallons a day. We’re permitted to discharge out to the bay 1.75 million gallons a day without the outfall down on near water street. So, what this is doing now is we’re looking into permitting going groundwater discharge, and what that impact would be if we had to do that on a more permanent basis. So, we have monitoring wells that are out there and we sample those quarterly and we’ll look at what the nitrogen impact, phosphorous impact would be if we had to go to the groundwater discharge permit only and what the impact would be to not only that area of impact to like the Eel River and things like that and in the surrounding areas.

So, part of this process is we have to do what we call an ENF. It’s the Environmental Notification Form, which is part of that groundwater permit. This is what we’re working with mostly written on and looking at these and graphing these when we sample the monitoring wells and what those are going to tell us and what impact that would be if the treatment plant had to discharge permanently to the discharge beds.

After that, we have the FOG Program. So, currently, Kendra and I are working on a FOG Program and sewer regulations. So, FOG is the fats, oils and grease and not just Plymouth but a lot of municipalities are having trouble with grease. So, the SBI, I don’t know if you can see from the photo on the slide but you get that a lot of fats and oils and grease that float on the top and it impacts the treatment plan and our process.

So, we’re going to be trying to come up with a better program with cleaning, the collection system, doing monitoring at the plant. Another thing is what I talked about earlier and I’m going to be talking about is the Greasezilla. That’s going to be another possibility to reduce the fats, oil and grease that come into the plant. We take about an average of up to 100 gallons a day of septage. That septage which is loaded with grease could come from restaurants, could come from homeowners, residential and commercial areas, things like that and that’s introduced into the plant besides the flow that we get from the towns. So, this definitely impacts the treatment plant and our refluent and just like a lot of other municipalities, we have to try to do our best to regulate it and get it under control.

[0:35:09]

Douglas Pinard:

So, we’re working with Woodard & Curran on a program. Kendra and I were going through it. Not just the FOG but even with the sewer regs to reduce that impact. Along with the sewer regs, like I said that we’re working on, I think that they were brought in front of the board a few years ago and we’re just trying to streamline those and get those up to date and that’s another thing that Kendra and I are working on is reviewing those and bringing those up to date.

The CMOM project, that ties in with the FOG as well. We go out, we clean, jet rod clean, power wash if you will, all your collection systems which is what carries waste water to our lift stations which ultimately pumps to the treatment plant. So, we’ll clean these, we CCTV those. We’re monitoring also not just for grease and things like that but also for disrepair and what we need to do whether it’d be lining or spot repairs to address these issues.

Plymouth is as we know very old and just like its water system, the sewer system is very old. We do this as a preventative maintenance. So, we do this project. We see where we can line and possibly prolong whether it’d be a sewer main or lateral or manhole and we also get out there and we can inspect manholes, do those repairs, things like that. So, it’s a big part of a healthy collection system. And if you have a healthy collection system, you’ll have a healthy plant and when you have a healthy treatment plant then it helps us make permit and things like that. But this is part of a requirement to the EPA. This is going to be a program that we’re starting over. I believe in 2017 it was finished; I believe and every 5 years we have to update that. We do about 60 miles of the sewer system. We got 1500 manholes that we’ll reinspect and reevaluate and hopefully, we can get some of these repairs done and update some of this in town.

Moving on to the SCADA System. Just like Pete, we use the SCADA System to monitor pumps and chemicals, PH, pressures we can log on remotely to make changes, tank levels. It’s important for infrastructure. We’re going to be replacing a lot of outdated communications and bringing in the SCADA system and we’re working with Woodard & Curran on this project. It’s very similar to the water system. We have a two-part login for security if you want to log on remotely from home. But really, it’s just bringing the system updated for security and getting rid of upgrading the treatment plant and the pump stations and just try to modify and increase the savage security and just do a better job with monitoring and be able to make changes remotely and things like that. That’s where we’re at right now.

Next on my presentation is Greasezilla. So, this project we’re working with Woodard & Curran. So, this this project is going to be funded by Woodard & Curran and we’re going to be hopefully looking at revenue not only bringing in and accepting grease with this program but even possibly matching some of those rates with acceptance receiving. Right now, we charge 6 cents per gallon for septage and I believe, it’s 8 cents for sludge.

[0:40:06]

Douglas Pinard:

I think that with the grease with this program, we could be expecting maybe 12 to 15 cents. So, we’ll probably have to bring the two closer together. So, one is not trying to pass grease into a cheaper revenue. So, I think it’s going to bring revenue because we’ll be accepting grease from restaurants and things like that to help the plant and to help the community and help the collection system. It’s going to be revenue for the town and like I said not only will it be revenue for the town by accepting grease from Holland and other companies, but it’s also going to help us bring up our septage cost as well.

So, it’s a standalone as you can see there. It’s pretty self-sufficient. The goal is to bring in grease and turn that into reusable oil which we could possibly sell. This is all new phase and we’re still working on that. This is early on in the phase of working with Woodard & Curran. We still have to figure out the exact revenue that this is going to be cost for the town but it’s an exciting project and I support it. It’s going to be good, I think.

That moves us on to some infrastructure: water street, etc. I wasn’t here the last time obviously, but I know that there were some issues. I think we’ve kind of learned from that and we’re going to move on and get that that sewer main off the beach there and up into Water Street. It’s about 1300 feet of gravity sewer. We’re looking at a few different options: the micro tunneling and the conventional trenching. So, part of this project is bringing the main up Water Street and abandoning the one that’s on beach there on the intercoastal.

We’re in the process of this project right now. We’re expected to hopefully finish by fall of this year and this is an exciting project. I’m kind of hoping that we lean towards the micro tunneling. I think that’d be the safest way to go and most interesting way to go but if we did something like that, a 30- inch main could be I think it was about 20 feet deep, which we all know that there was some water issues down there with the aquifer. So, I’m hoping that this project will go smoothly but it’s exciting, it’s good stuff. It’s good stuff to get that off the beach there.

And then the next project that we have is the flood wall around the pump station there on Water Street. They just finished up a big rehab. Part of that new force main, they rehab this station and this is the pump station in town. All the area pump stations flow to this one pump station and this is what leads the treatment plant. This is a very important building and part of the infrastructure of Plymouth. So, this is going to be a very important project. Ultimately, what we’re looking at doing is putting a flood barrier wall around this building. It’s under design based on the Water Street pump station and the proximity to the harbor with the flood zone, like I said, it’s under design right now so we’re not sure what the height is actually going to be but it’s going to be what’s best to protect the lift station. It’s another important project that that we got going on. What else?

What else? The Camelot Drive. The Camelot Drive, the sewer extension over there on Camelot Drive.

[0:45:02]

Douglas Pinard:

This project will see that whole area: 30 commercial buildings, industrial properties on Camelot Drive. That’s about a one mile of gravity sewer and some force main. This is part of the infrastructure and it’s sewer expansion unlike the Water Department where the Town of Plymouth has a lot of water, connections to the sewer department is a lot smaller and this is part of bringing in more revenue for the town and betterment.

We’ll have a new pump station that will take all the flow in this area and like I said, it will supply the new sewer service for the 30 properties that we have over here and we’re working with Woodard on this project and we’re actually reviewing design and the completion and bidding of the design is nearly complete. So, this is another interesting project. We have an old lift station there – I lost my train of thought- Long Pond Station that’ll be removed and we’ll have a new lift station located right there on Camelot Drive.

The Plymouth Airport. This treatment plant is 20 years old. I think I’ve seen some pretty bad treatment plants and the age of this treatment plant, it’s seen better days. It’s really outdated, it’s not efficient, all the equipment is worn and it’s kind of just hung together with the shoestring but we got it operating. It’s making permit. Right now, we’re working with BETA engineering group to help us renew the permit and design a new treatment plan for over there for the Plymouth Airport and those two lift stations. There’s two lift stations out there: one in the plaza. Construction, hopefully by the end of the year and this is one of the last projects that we’re working on.

If you have any questions? I mean, I didn’t do as well as Pete. Pete did a great job but hopefully that was a little summary of some of the things that we got going on. Any questions you might have now or later on, if I don’t know I’ll try to find out and get you the answers you need.

Dick Quintal:

Any questions or comments from the board? Harry?

Harry Helm:

Doug, you did great. Don’t worry about that.

Douglas Pinard:

Thanks, Harry.

Harry Helm:

On the airport replacement, Doug, JB, I know that there were thoughts around it because we have a new station, we’ve increased capacity to possibly expand the sewer system commercial properties on the other side of Federal Furnace Road. And I was kind of wondering–not Federal Furnace Road, sorry about that. I was kind of wondering has there been any discussion on that?

Jonathan Beder:

I’ll take that, Doug. Yeah, Harry. I will say Sheila, Kendra, Doug and I have met. And the goals right now as you all know town meeting appropriated funding for the design of the wastewater treatment facility. It’s in really rough shape and we move forward since that design and we’ve secured ARPA Funding for the full rehab of that facility, which all those things are going along perfectly.

Kendra has done a design for a sewer extension out to South Meadow Road. And for us to do that, we have to basically modify our comprehensive wastewater master plan which we’re going to do. Our goal was to get the treatment plant in out to bid, get that ready, get the Plymouth County funding secured and then come back to this board and present those modifications. So, basically to answer your question, Harry, yes, we can get sewer out to South Meadow. We have put together some schematic plans in terms of how many facilities we could collect or pick up.

[0:50:01]

Jonathan Beder:

Kendra, if you want to jump in, if you’re comfortable to touch base in terms of what we’re may be looking at for flow or is that too premature?

Kendra Martin:

A little too premature for that. Like I said, we’re dealing with a very preliminary schematic right now. I will say gravity sewer, you won’t quite make the side streets further up South Meadow like Matthews Trail, you won’t be able to make it up that far with gravity. So, it kind of involves a more comprehensive look at it to look at whether we’ll need pumping stations and whatnot. So, it’s a bigger question than just how far can we extend gravity sewer in relation to that treatment plant, if that makes sense.

Jonathan Beder:

Thank you, Kendra but we do know we can generate additional revenue from collecting flow to offset operational costs at the airport and that’s the goal there. So, we will be back at some point to discuss that issue. Okay, Harry? Mr. Chairman, if you don’t mind, Doug did a really good job. I just want to kind of touch on it really quick to kind of wrap it up because I think I can kind of predict some of the questions the board may have.

So, the airport, the sewer interceptor, the flood barrier wall and the skater are all APRA projects. Okay? Those are all moving. All of those were under contract for design. We’ve learned a lot about ARPA CARES Act money in terms of process. We’re working with council to make sure we follow federal procurement. So, all of those things are happening now, which is good.

Capital, we’ve already been in front of CIC. We’re going in front of FINCOM on February 9th and then we’ll be back in front of you guys at some point in February to talk about Greasezill as Doug mentioned. And again Woodard & Curran is going to be funding all of those costs, which is great.

The two projects I want to talk in particular about is the ENF for the beds. And as you all know, we have a three million gallon a day treatment plant that’s our design. We take about 1.5 million gallons of flow a day. The outfall as Doug mentioned is permanent for 1.75. We’ve been having conversations with the Harbor Committee, Division of Marine Fisheries, FDA, we’ve been through this for probably about a year now. We were hopeful that the ENF was going to be submitted to MEPA in September. It’s an extremely cumbersome project. Neal Price from Horsley & Whitten worked in the permitting of the original design of the plant. We’re hopeful we get that in the next couple of months. That’s really the first step we need to take to modify our permit. That permit needs to be adjudicated basically. So, what we want to do is utilize the beds on site for the full free MGD. So, that’s all in the works. We’ll be back in front of you for that discussion as well hopefully sooner than later.

And the last one I want to touch base on is Camelot Drive Sewer Extension, as Doug mentioned. Design is almost complete. We have not applied for any outside funding on that project yet. Once we have the design and the bid and the plans ready to go, I really plan on meeting with the new manager to have a conversation as far as how we’re going to assess that neighborhood. If you remember, we did our first sewer betterment, sewer assessment, we extended sewer on Samoset. So, we’re very cautious as far as how we put sewer on Camelot Drive in terms of getting grant money then trying to meet the middle of the road here in terms of do we assess these businesses? Do we not? So, basically, we’re putting together a whole presentation and a plan and we’ll be back in front of you for that as well.

So, on the sewer side, there’s a ton going on. All good, but we will be back in front of you for the ENF, for the outfall. We’ll be back in front of you for the airport and then definitely for the Camelot Drive Sewer Extension. So, thank you and we’re happy to answer any questions.

Dick Quintal:

Any questions from board members? Any others? I just have one, JB. On the sewer plant, if you will, that we’re redoing over. Was that shortened any because of the lack of maintenance, in oversight or is that just normal age? I mean, because the other one is not doing that right or is it the surprise coming?

Jonathan Beder:

I’m going to ask Harry because Harry was there with us and he started first hand. No, I won’t do that. I think it’s a combination of a number of things. One, it was the original design of the plant. This has come up before. All of our infrastructure, we take a really hard look at long-term design and sustainability. I’m not going to look at prior administrations, everybody. I just think there were some pieces missed in terms of quality. And then absolutely, lack of maintenance.

[0:55:02]

Jonathan Beder:

It’s a recurring theme and we’re trying to do away with that. Hopefully, now, we are involved working very closely with Tom and what happens at the Airport and I don’t see that changing. So, we are doing everything we can to make sure we do preventative maintenance and we’re proactive across the board for all of our infrastructure. And if you take a look at all of our stations, everything you’ve seen tonight in terms of the presentations on the water and sewer, you’re going to hear it a second on the roads for article 10, that’s what we’re doing. And now, we’re finally getting there with the buildings as well. So, we’re very pleased with all that. Thanks.

Dick Quintal:

And my last question, there’s been a PFP release from the county on the Woodlat. Do we have more room in the Camelot Sewer facility, if needed, wastewater treatment facility?

Jonathan Beder:

We do. We were just talking about that today, because we’re all meeting in my office preparing for this evening and we’re talking about the design because there’s going to be two force mains and Kendra and Doug were explaining it to me. Because we want to make sure we don’t repeat what happened to the wastewater treatment plant where you have an oversized force main that never takes full flow. So, the wet well will be sized accordingly for future growth. You’ll have two force mains that’s sized accordingly for future growth. So, all of those undeveloped parcels and adjacent properties will be able to flow into that Camelot Drive Station.

Dick Quintal:

Okay. Thank you. Any more questions to JB and the gang? Seeing none, JB, I just want to reach out to you quickly and Charlie might want to touch on it. I mean, thank you and the staff for all your assistance today with the county COVID test kits. I believe there were thousands of them like 26 pallets were delivered and I heard you they called out to you and you were great out, you and your staff.

Jonathan Beder:

Yeah. We were happy to help. DPW did a great job unloading that. And then I believe we’re having another shipment in a couple of weeks. So, all good things. All good things. We’re happy to help out every weekend.

Dick Quintal:

That’s great. Okay.

Jonathan Beder:

I think Charlie has some–

Dick Quintal:

Yeah, he does. You’re muted, Charlie. There you go.

Charlie Bletzer:

I got a call from Matt Hanley from the county. He was actually down at Camelot. Your guys were down there with forklifts unloading 400,000 test kits and he called Lee. Lee set it up with you and you guys accommodated him and he wanted to call me to thank you guys for what you did. So, there’s 400,000 and I guess, some of the towns are going to be picking them up Thursday and Friday. Lee, you can probably speak more. I think we can get ours right away, our test kit. So, it’s a great thing and cooperation with the Town of Plymouth and the county, and I love seeing that stuff. So, thank you.

Lee Hartman:

We already have eyes. Thanks to JB, yes.

Dick Quintal:

Mrs. Cavacco?

Betty Cavacco:

Yes, question. And this has nothing to do with water, just we already have ours and how are we going to distribute those?

Lee Hartman:

I was going to talk about it little bit at my town management report, but I’ll mention it now. So, we’ve got 21,150 test kits that came to us. So, we’re still talking about it. We talked about it on Monday. Our plan is to do a Saturday session between here at the town hall and then one in Cedarville at the emergency management where we have one day on a Saturday where it’s open to anyone in the public. We want to keep it to town residents only. We’re not sure we really want to set a limit on what somebody can pick up but if it becomes a problem, we’re thinking about no more than six kits per person for town residents and just do the best in one Saturday and then make them available probably in both locations during normal business hours. And again, I think at this point, what we’re talking about is just show some kind of proof that you’re a town resident to receive those. But then we have a second the upper shipment that you’ve already approved. If that comes in, we’ll have another two pallets of these to make available also.

Betty Cavacco:

Thank you.

[1:00:00]

Dick Quintal:

Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none. Again, thank you very much for your presentations.

Peter Gordon:

Thank you all.

Dick Quintal:

Article 10: Road Preservation.

Jonathan Beder:

Thank you, everybody. Mr. Chairman, I’m going to present Article 10. So, again, Article 10 is a capital request that’s coming from DPW administration not engineering. We sent correspondence to the board back in early January. We’re in front of Finance Committee where we received unanimous support last week. And as I’m sure you all know and just to recap, this has been a consistent approach we’ve had since 2012. And what this does is this is a $5 million capital request and this really supplements your Chapter 90.

So, your Chapter 90 allotment the apportionment is about $1.45 million. As we know, that money is not enough to basically maintain or improve your road network, your road rating network. So, years ago, we put together a whole road program and that road program covers your accepted streets, your unaccepted streets and even your sidewalks. A town meeting receives special legislation where we could spend public monies on private ways. So, this whole concept really comes together nicely where it’s a 70/30 split, which is really the same makeup or distribution of your road network in terms of accepted and unaccepted. So, that represents a $3.5 million contribution towards your accepted roads and a $1.5 million contribution towards your unaccepted roads. And that’s in addition to the 1.5. And that’s been able to really allow DPW to really put forward a great road program in terms of how many road miles we do in a year, in terms of paving, how we’re able to maintain and reconstruct roads. As you know we did Beaver Dam and Long Pond this year. Some really outdated road projects that we’ve been waiting to do. Over the past couple of years, we were in front of you guys I think in the spring to really highlight our road program. We’ve been able to really upgrade your roads and we have a low 70 in terms of a rating now, which is pretty good. We’ve come a long way and we’re looking for your support in that front. I will tell you that after the finance committee, the question was raised about the stabilization fund. As you know, your finance director came up with a very creative approach to fund the program where she uses excise tax. So, those funds really cover your principal and interest for these borrowers and it’s a very nice program. And we can’t say enough good things about it. And Sheila and I are happy to answer any questions. So, thank you.

Dick Quintal:

Any questions for JB? Guess not. Okay.

Jonathan Beder:

All right. Everybody, have a great night. Thank you.

Charlie Bletzer:

Thank you.

Dick Quintal:

Thank you, JB.

Jonathan Beder:

You’re welcome.

Dick Quintal:

So, we’re going to be presenting Article 13.

Lee Hartman:

Dickie, do you want to do a motion to support that?

Dick Quintal:

Absolutely.

Charlie Bletzer:

I’ll make the motion.

Betty Cavacco:

Second.

Dick Quintal:

Second. All those in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Hi, Lee.

Lee Hartman:

Thank you. Here’s my hat too. I’m putting on my planning director’s hat now. So, if I could, this is the town’s annual appropriation for the promotion fund. In 1992, we had a special act that requires 45% of the hotel-motel tax to be set aside. We’re one of the few towns in the Commonwealth that actually has the foresight to save, put money aside to promote Plymouth as a tourism destination. So, this year, we’ve seen quite a bump up from last year due to COVID. Last year was a little lower. We have a 117% increase in revenue compared to what we had last year. So, a big jump and it’s actually also the most we’ve ever received in any given year to date even greater than 2019.

So, as I said, 45% of that which is $1,109,928 will go into the promotion fund, and that money is used to support the visitor center and the advertising that Lea Filson does through See Plymouth. And then it’s also used to support many of the various events that go on in the community and also our matching funds to distinguish visitors of fun.

[1:05:11]

Lee Hartman:

So, the memo you have just gives a little overview of some of the things that were supported last year. And I would also just point out just a couple things. One is we keep talking about what impact did the short-term rentals have on this? Surprisingly, it’s only about 4.5% of the proceeds. So, still the vast majority of this money is coming from the hotels and motels in the community. We do see an increase from the short-term rentals but it’s not as significant as I would have guessed.

And then finally, as we look at this additional money that’s in the account, the biggest pressure we see on some of these events is how we deal with a post-9/11 and some of the terrorism activities we’ve seen in other communities over the years. So, more and more the need for funding to make our events safe becomes a bigger and bigger pressure. So, I think this money is going to be great to be used through Lea Filson for additional advertising for the town and also to hopefully support some of those initiatives. We need to make sure any events that are happening in Plymouth are safe.

And then the final thing I want to point out whether it’s for Lea’s group or if it’s for all the other events that we support, the money we provide is leveraged by about 75%-80% funds from other groups. So, this just represents a small amount of what’s invested in the community for tourism. And so, when we look at this money, it really is a great way and a great example to show how we can take a chunk of change and really match it by about 75% from state private businesses, other groups, donations that are used to support tourism in the community. So, I think with that, that’s it. I don’t know if Lea has anything she would like to add.

Lea Filson:

No. I’m certainly willing to answer questions. I do know that all of the research that we’ve done in helping us to buy advertising, I think probably contributes to the numbers growing higher because when you can look at actual science before you make those decisions about who to advertise to, how to advertise, what to advertise, etc, it really does help you to bring more and more visitation and raise those tax revenues. Any questions from the board? If not, I await a motion. Charlie?

Charlie Bletzer:

I just have one request, Lea. I know you do great work, obviously. I know you very well and you do great work and you’re very important to the businesses in town. I just have one request if you could work closely with the PGDC on all your events. You guys are in the same building and I hope that you can just work together closely when you’re doing events. That’s just a request I have, if you can do that. And I know you do now. Lea, they have the best interest in Plymouth and they work hard for Plymouth just like your group does. So, that’s why I love having you in the same building. So, that’s my request. And I’ll make a motion.

Dick Quintal:

Patrick made one before you.

Patrick Flaherty:

That’s okay.

Dick Quintal:

So, give me a motion, somebody.

Charlie Bletzer:

I just did.

Dick Quintal:

Okay. Do I have a second?

Patrick Flaherty:

I’ll second the motion to support Article 13.

Dick Quintal:

Discussion? All those in favor. Unanimous. Thank you, Lee and Lee with A, thank you. Article 17: Sign Zoning. Is that you two, Lee with an E?

Lee Hartman:

Yes, sir. With an E, with two E’s and two N’s. So, our signed bylaw was created almost 40 years ago, 1970s. It’s largely very much the way it was when it was created in the 1970s. And full disclosure, this is the most confusing part of the zoning bylaw. I’ve worked with it for over 34 years and I don’t understand it. I have always deferred to the Building Department and they don’t understand it. It’s a very complicated bylaw we have today.

[1:10:00]

Lee Hartman:

Also, as you recall last year, we had some issues with the free speech: political signs, non-commercial signs. So, we had indicated that we would be looking at this bylaw to address some of those free speech issues. So, we’ve worked with the building department, my department and then town council to revise the bylaw. We have also worked with Attorney Serkey who has offered to give us some input as somebody who has worked with the bylaw for years. Zebra Signs and Brenner Signs, we reached out to all of those. We also had asked for any comments that we might have had from the Historic District Commission. So, we went through and talked to a lot of different people about the bylaw and suggestions.

What we’ve done is eliminated any of the issues related to being content neutral for free speech. We have updated the content. We have reduced the number of tables from 5 to 1, the number of pages from 12 to 6. So, not only have we addressed some of those free speech issues, we’ve really simplified this bylaw. Just to point out that when it’s a non-commercial sign where we really can’t regulate what content is in that sign but we can certainly still regulate where a sign is placed. So, if a political sign is placed on town property, we have the right to remove it. If a political sign is on private property and it’s obstructing whether it’s pedestrians or vehicle view, we still have the rights to remove that too.

The other thing I would point out, the other change we’ve done is we had a bylaw that pretty much prohibited highway billboard signs. So, we’ve actually now just made it clear that those signs are prohibited and not allowed. All the requirements for size, lighting, quantities, they all remain the same as they were. So, I would say in the end, I do not expect to see any difference with the way we do the bylaw. We’ve done this in such a way to maintain the way we regulate signs in the Town of Plymouth for commercial signs. And again, we know that we have limited control of what we can do for non-commercial signs. So, again, I think in the end once this is adopted, we’ll actually have a bylaw for the first time in my career that I can understand and give advice on. And then secondly, once this is done, I do not anticipate seeing any change in the way signs are regulated in the town or the types of commercial signs you see in the Town of Plymouth. So, with that, I would look for your support. It has been supported by the advisory and finance committee and by the planning board. Thank you.

Dick Quintal:

Thank you, Lee. Any questions for Lee? Seeing none. Do we have a motion?

Betty Cavacco:

Motion.

Charlie Bletzer:

Second.

Dick Quintal:

Second. Discussion? All those in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Ice skating rink: food truck. I believe, Mrs. Cavacco.

Betty Cavacco:

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This discussion isn’t necessarily to have food trucks but more the option to have whether it’s a non-profit, a girl scout, boy scout, someone with a little hot chocolate stand, maybe a local business but our bylaws are fairly strict as what we can allow in those areas. So, I just wanted to see if there’s something that we could do temporarily for the season when the rink is up and running for some type of little whether it’s one of those things to have like a little hot chocolate, coffee stand.

Lee Hartman:

If I could, we’ve talked a little bit at the staff level on this and just a few things. So, if we wanted to select a vendor, that’s a bidding process and that would take time. So, we can’t simply just select one vendor. We did talk about it and there were two options for something for this season that could happen. One would be to simply just say if somebody wants to do something there, they can go without limiting. I think this time of year, you’re not going to see a lot of people. Most of those food trucks and vendors are not operating in the wintertime. So, one option would be wait and bid it for the next season. One option would be to just simply say, “Hey, if you want to have your food truck down there, here, you would set the hours of operation. Go on down and do it.”

[1:15:01]

Lee Hartman:

The third option would be and we’ve done this before where if there’s a non-profit who wants to come forward and do a special event, so that special event would be Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the skating rink. So, if that non-profit came forward seeking a special event then this board would have the ability to grant an exclusive license to that non-profit and then that non-profit would pick the vendor to do it. So, just some options to consider if the board wants to go ahead with this. Thank you.

Dick Quintal:

Comments from the board or questions? Charlie?

Charlie Bletzer:

I’m all for a non-profit all for that or even a local business all for that too. Again, we have a bylaw that doesn’t allow food trucks on public property and it’s a great bylaw because I’ve seen it, I’ve seen hot dog stands, sausage carts try to set up in the waterfront area and it didn’t work. We actually chased them away years ago and it’s not fair to the restaurants. Okay? They are there 12 months of the year, serving the people and struggle in certain months. Because what will happen is June, July, August all the busy months, it’ll open up the doors for these food trucks. And I got nothing against food trucks. Food trucks are great but they’re great to do private events on private property. There’s plenty of catering events out there for the food truck. So, that’s my feeling non-profit, local business, I’m all for it.

Dick Quintal:

Mrs. Cavacco?

Betty Cavacco:

Yeah. Just so you know, Charlie, we have allowed food trucks. And like I said, it’s not a food truck thing for me. It’s just somebody to be there. But we have a lot of food trucks on Nelson Park and other areas for whatever event or for a weekend. Like Nelson Park has food trucks all summer long. So, one of the things–

Charlie Bletzer:

They’ve been on that spot it’s because the vendor that was there didn’t want to renew his agreement and I know he’s on the festival but they pay the festival, the Chamber of Commerce for that. We’ve allowed that. I know that. I’m not crazy about that, to be honest with you. I know it makes the festival but all those businesses right around here, I think they suffer a little bit from that. They probably do some business from the people walking around but I’m just telling you my feeling with that. I just don’t want to see push carts and vendors out on the street. So, that’s why I’m always very careful when I hear food trucks.

Betty Cavacco:

This is very specific to the skating rink. It’s not other places. And I’ll guarantee you, there will be no ice skating in the summer months.

Charlie Bletzer:

That was impressive. If we had it there, why can’t we go here? I’m just telling you how I feel.

Betty Cavacco:

I understand. And like I said, it’s not a food truck thing for me. It’s just being able to have. If somebody wants to go there to have the ability to do that.

Charlie Bletzer:

This is my restaurant background. I’m protecting the restaurants. I’ll be very clear about that. So, if somebody want to call me pro-business, I’m protecting the restaurants when I say this. So, thank you.

Dick Quintal:

Mr. Helm?

Harry Helm:

Having actually gone up there during a very busy, busy day, I can see the value in some sort of concession there whether it’s a charitable organization that’s going to serve hot chocolate, coffee and tea or something else. I see the value for the residents. And also, knowing the area very well, this is not really serving snacks, hot, chocolate, tea. I don’t think it’s really going to impact the restaurants or the businesses around there. It’s fairly isolated to a certain extent.

[1:20:05]

Harry Helm:

People are not going to be walking up state road to Manomet Center from there. I do kind of see the value in something. I’m not exactly sure what.

Charlie Bletzer:

Harry, you’re missing my point. My point is you’re going to set a precedent if you allow food trucks to go up there. You’re missing my whole point on it. Okay?

Harry Helm:

Well, one thing about food trucks, if you’ve been there, Charlie when it’s busy, I’m not really sure food trucks are the answer. There’s good amount of parking but it was totally parked up. Some people were double parked. I’m not really sure unless they’re parking on the grass that food trucks. That’s why I said I’m not sure what the answer is. I understand about precedent but Lee mentioned a way that this could happen through a special license. But Charlie, I mean, in reality you see the variation of weather that is going on. And the reality is, is that nobody can predict if there’s going to be able to be skating on any weekend or any Friday night or any day.

I’m fairly familiar with the restaurant business and particularly in this time with getting employees very difficult. I’m not sure how a restaurant would actually or an operator of a food truck would actually be able to do this because you would have to schedule without knowing what the weather is going to be. And then if the weather doesn’t cooperate, you would likely have to pay the people who were manning it anyway and there would have been supplies that would have been bought. So, I think that honestly food trucks themselves as a concept aren’t really an option for this. I’m kind of thinking that Lee’s plan and Betty just raised her hand, she’ll weigh in on this, are the way to go.

Charlie Bletzer:

And I said I would support them, but not food trucks. I would support non-profits and local business.

Dick Quintal:

Mrs. Cavacco?

Betty Cavacco:

Yes. So, the whole point of it is we don’t know who’s going to come in front of us to say they want it or if there’s anybody. I’m just saying the option of having the availability for people to do it is kind of what we’re looking for because if it’s someone that’s going to come in front of us or in front of the town manager then that has to be approved. So, it’s the ability to do something.

Lee Hartman:

Dickie, and again, my recommendation would be if you find somebody to have them as a non-profit to file. And Charlie, I meant that could be a non-profit looking to have a food truck as well but we certainly understand your concern or a non-profit looking to do some other form. And same thing for Harry, I think if they came in and said, “We want a food truck.” We have to talk to police, fire and DPW to see if that’s even a safe thing to do and that might come back as no. If the non-profit said, “Hey, we want to do a coffee stand,” or whatever it is we would look at whatever that proposal is and make sure that all the departments would sign off on it and then say, “Yes, you can do that as a special event for whatever time.”

Dick Quintal:

Mr. Bletzer?

Charlie Bletzer:

I agree with you, Lee but just keep in mind, Plymouth is a tourist town. Okay? Everybody wants to be here in the summer. Everybody including push carts, sausage carts, vendors. Believe me, if we set a precedent, it’s not fair to all the merchants. The merchants as well as the restaurants because you would open the door for people selling merchandise too. So, I want to be very careful. I think it’s a great bylaw that we have that prevents fending on the streets on our public streets. So, that’s all I want to say about it. So, thank you.

Dick Quintal:

Any other questions or comments? So, Lee, just so I understand it if–I’m sorry, Patrick. Did you want to go? Go ahead.

[1:25:01]

Patrick Flaherty:

I was just going to say I’m on board with if anyone wants to come forward and set that up, all the power to them. To set up a non-profit to get volunteers to sell water at the Waterfront Festival through the Rotary Club, it’s not like this just comes together. I bet it’s doubtful that there’s going to be a group that wants to do this, but I think if they want to, we should not raise a ton of barriers. If it’s this type of thing, let’s just let them do it. I think it’d be an excellent thing to have: the coffee, the concessions there. And I don’t see the slippery slope argument of that transforming the downtown waterfront as a concern that I have. I think this is an isolated thing that we have the power to give approval for and I don’t see this as being a precedent that would affect anywhere else.

Dick Quintal:

So, the precedent you were talking about, just so I’m clear is the one that would come before the board to get the dates approved. Is that what you’re saying? Like Lee had mentioned, that’s what I was going to ask Lee. Could you do this? That’s just a scenario, Lee. Just say there’s a group, some individual in town puts in an application for Friday and Saturday for the month of say February and we can put it on and vote it as a month now. If they don’t show up, well.

Lee Hartman:

So, it would be kind of two options. Normally, you do not see the special events. We just do that internally. So, what I would suggest is if it’s a special event and it’s the Kiwanis or it’s the Rotary or some other local non-profit that’s looking to do something other than a food truck, we would just handle that through our internal process and just allow it. I would say based on this conversation if the Kiwanis comes in and says, “We’ve got a sponsor of a food truck and we’d like to do it. I’d bring that back to you and see what you’d want to do on that.”

Charlie Bletzer:

I would be all for that. All for Kiwanis, some non-profit. As volunteers, they’re selling things going to a charity. No problem with that.

Dick Quintal:

I don’t think that’s what he was asking though. He was saying if the Kiwanis came and applied for the license for the ice skating rink, that’s what I–or am I wrong? I don’t know.

Lee Hartman:

So, if at the ice-skating rink, we’ll use the Kiwanis. They came in and said, “Look, we normally will put up a tent and we’ll sell the things you’ve seen us sell at the waterfront. We’d like to do that.” We’ll run that by police, fire, DPW, parks and if they all sign off on it, we would allow them to do that for whatever times they had picked from the nights or days they picked. What I’m saying is if the Kiwanis said, “Hey, we talked to this food truck that wants to do hot dogs,” that I would bring back. It has to be a non-profit. It can’t be just anyone. And so, if the non-profit said, “We want to do a food truck,” that I would bring back to you and have you discuss that piece. But if it was just like what you typically see for the Rotary or Kiwanis Club, we would just handle that internally.

Betty Cavacco:

This is a lot of effort for a little hot chocolate. Let me tell you.

Charlie Bletzer:

I think it’s a good idea for a non-profit to raise some money. I really do.

Harry Helm:

Do we need to motion something to–

Lee Hartman:

I don’t believe so. I think we have a process that already works and we’ll do that. I’ve got I think a consensus from this board that if it includes a food truck, it comes back to this board. Now, if a food truck just happens to show up there on a Saturday and we don’t control it, then there’s only so much I can do about that. But again, if they go through the process, we’ll bring it back to you.

Harry Helm:

If that happens, Lee, I’ll call you.

Lee Hartman:

Okay.

Dick Quintal:

All right. Town manager’s report.

Lee Hartman:

We just have a few things. In addition, as we talked about earlier, the test kits that are coming in and I think that’s great. We’ll have thousands of those available for the community. I’ll report back to you once we finalize the date to distribute that. I think we want to do it sooner than later. At this point, we were waiting to see because the initial comment we had was that we’re getting 235 cartons. So, we weren’t really clear what a carton is, but now that we know we have 21,000 test kits, we’re going to move ahead, pick a Saturday, we’ll report back to you on that.

A couple other things. I have worked with some people in the community. We’ve gone out and talked about the Conservation Commission Regulations.

[1:30:00]

Lee Hartman:

I have selected the BFC Group to be the consultant to do the peer review and we’re in the process of engaging them. They have a Boston attorney on board also to provide a legal review also. So, again, I worked with some of the concerned citizens, the scope came from them not from the Conservation Commission or me. And so, we have a scope. We have selected the BFC Group and we’ll be moving forward with that peer review and certainly report back to you as that progresses. Just a comment about what goes on in the procurement office, they’ve done some incredible work. They’ve had the highest volume they’ve ever done in that office: 52 bids in 2021, 68 contracts, 4,500 POs. It’s a 40% increase in what they’ve produced in that office compared to last year. So, really just incredible. And then the final thing I have is that the fire department, Ed Bradley was able to receive a grant for $26,128.77 for safety equipment for the department. So, that’s for personal protective equipment, for turnout gear for the firefighters. So, another great grant that we received through the hard work of Ed Bradley and his staff. And that’s what I have for today. Thank you.

Dick Quintal:

Thank you very much, Lee. Any questions for the acting town manager, Mr. Hartman? Seeing none. Chris, is there anyone wishing to speak on the public comment?

Christopher Badot:

Not that I know of. But it’s a good time to mention, if you do want to speak, just click the raise your hand icon at the bottom of your screen and I will let you in. And we do have someone: Irene Caldwell.

Dick Quintal:

Okay. Thank you.

Irene Caldwell:

Okay. Thank you. My name is Irene Caldwell and I’ve lived in Plymouth for 16 years. And for the last 70 years, I’ve been one of those activists that have lobbied against nuclear power plants coming into a community because no one has ever figured out what to do with the disposal of the water from a retired nuclear power plant. So, next Monday, January 31st, our community is going to discuss and put up a little fight about whether we want to accept one million gallons of nuclear radioactive waste into the water supply. I cannot believe that there is not one sign in Plymouth, not one sign on the banners of the highways, not one sign protesting the fact that we are even considering putting radioactive waste into Plymouth’s Bay.

All of the things that you have talked about today, taking care of this item or that item has nothing if we cannot use our bay to swim, to catch fish, to play in the sand because of the compounded effects not only of our power plant but all the power plants that are destroying our bodies of water. All of the problems that you have encountered with the sewer plants and the water plants, can you imagine a hundred years from now when they are dealing with the combined effects of all of the nuclear power plants dumping their radioactive waste into the water? Now, I am tired, you’re tired, our whole community is tired from the pandemic. They are tired from political fighting. They’re tired from every single thing that we have had to deal with in the last 70 years that I’ve been alive. But for there to be silence from the whole community about whether or not that we would even consider dumping radioactive waste into the waterways is frightening. And I’m not talking about all the great people who are out there fighting: downwinders, Pine duBois, all the whole nuclear power community that has been fighting. That’s not who I’m talking about.

[1:35:07]

Irene Caldwell:

I’m talking about the average Dick and Harry in the community who doesn’t even know we are considering allowing that radioactive waste to go into the water. I have an idea that I think would stop it. It was an idea that we used when I lived in California. The people in California wanted to save some land so they got out there and from all the hills and valleys, people went and marched up and down and saved the last little bit of land in on the California Bay. When I lived in the Hudson Valley, they wanted to erect a landfill or a municipal solid waste incinerator and all of the people in the Hudson Valley band together and protected each other’s communities so that we would not have a negative impact. But where is the world? Where is the United States communities that produce nuclear waste? Why are we not all protesting and being upset? It’s because our minds and our hearts are tired of fighting. We are tired of losing the battle over and over and over again. And now, on the eve of deciding whether Holtec will go through with the right that they have been given. They have been given a right to dispose of radioactive waste by the NRC. What is going to stop them? You’re not going to stop them. I’m not going to stop them. Only a massive public outcry when all the communities that produce radioactive waste will stop them. Maybe that even won’t stop them. When we have to deal with Fukushima and the accident that inadvertently happened and their water went into the bays around Japan or when a nuclear power plant is built on a fault, on an earthquake fault and it’s okay and then we have to deal with that waste. And we have to deal with waste out in Washington that’s just having to deal with a link. Does it mean we don’t care anymore? Does it mean that there is so much waste going into our waters that when Holtec asked to dispose of a million gallons of water, there’s no public outcry? I understand that the environmentalists, the people I associate with are protesting but besides us, who is out there jumping up and down and screaming?

Anyway, I know you’re tired. I’m tired. I’ll answer any questions that you have. I wish you have the power to call up all the media stations in Massachusetts, in the United States and in the world and to say for the next six days at five o’clock in the afternoon or six o’clock or whatever day each time you say, how much radioactive waste can go into our water? How much will you tolerate? How much will you allow those little microscopic cells that float up and down in the water column? How much are they allowed to receive? How much how much do the stripers get? How much do the seals get? How much do those nice beds in Doxbury? How much are they allowed to get? When does it become a problem? Does it become a problem when one-tenth of your great grandchildren have abnormal limbs? We’ll never be able to prove that it came from the dumping of the waste. But each of you right now have discussed all of these political issues and economic issues and tourist issues about Plymouth, I wish that you could shake every media station and ask them to say. At the same time, people of Massachusetts, how much nuclear radioactive waste will you allow to come in? And then when the kids go down at White Horse Beach and they’re playing in that sand that maybe is contaminated and maybe it isn’t, but we’re not allowed to talk about it. We’re not allowed to talk about it because we don’t want to scare the people of Plymouth. Well, guys you have to scare us. Whatever it does, please think of a way to stir the pot and stop the spread.

[1:40:07]

Dick Quintal:

Mrs. Caldwell, thank you very much. And I can assure you that we’ve had these discussions. I just can’t discuss everything here right now but that is going to be part of our plan. So, I tell you to stay tuned and we will need your help and we’ll need everybody’s help. And we do want to involve other communities. So, just to let you know we’re on the same page with you at the moment. All right?

Irene Caldwell:

Thank you.

Dick Quintal:

I’m saying it publicly and I see Harry’s head going up and down so we’re looking right into this now.

Irene Caldwell:

Thank you very much.

Dick Quintal:

You’re quite welcome. You have a nice night.

Irene Caldwell:

Thanks! Good night.

Dick Quintal:

Good night.

Harry Helm:

Thanks, Irene.

Dick Quintal:

Anyone else wishing to speak on a public comment, Chris?

Christopher Badot:

Not that I see.

Dick Quintal:

Okay. I’m going to move on to the licenses and administrative notes. We have Spectacle Management is a One Day Wine and Malt License for a concert on February 9th, 2022 from 7:00 to 11:00 PM at Memorial Hall.

Charlie Bletzer:

Move it.

Betty Cavacco:

Second.

Dick Quintal:

Discussion? All those in favor? Unanimous.

MAR Promotions is a One Day Wine and Malt License for February 5th from 5:00 PM to 12 AM also at Memorial Hall.

Betty Cavacco:

Second.

Dick Quintal:

Second. Discussion?

Lee Hartman:

Dickie, it’s 12:00 PM not 12:00 AM. 12:00 PM.

Dick Quintal:

Okay. Because that’s what it says here, I’m sorry. Thank you, no problem. Okay, good catch. Just beating off the vapor. All those in favor?

Lee Hartman:

That would be 12:00 AM.

Charlie Bletzer:

It’s 12:00 AM. That would be midnight.

Lee Hartman:

Right. I think Dickie said 2. It doesn’t matter. 12:00.

Dick Quintal:

5:00 PM to 12:00 AM.

Lee Hartman:

Yeah.

Harry Helm:

Dick will be there so make it 2:00.

Dick Quintal:

I will be there, anyway. Discussion other than that? All in favor? Unanimous. And we have one more: Comprehensive Entertainment Liquor Francis Guianos [?] of Plymouth doing business as Ocho Café and Tacos and Tequila, Colony Place Anna Michael, manager, holder of Annual All Alcohol Restaurant license is requesting the following license: Comprehensive Entertainment group one, radio and TV.

Harry Helm:

Motion.

Charlie Bletzer:

What’s the name of the place, Dick? I don’t have that on my–

Harry Helm:

It’s the Ocho Café.

Charlie Bletzer:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Dick Quintal:

Discussion? Charlie?

Charlie Bletzer:

Yes. No, I’m in favor.

Dick Quintal:

It’s motion.

Charlie Bletzer:

So, a restaurant or a food guy.

Dick Quintal:

Discussion now, if you can hear me. All those in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Any questions on the administrative notes? There’s two. Motion?

Betty Cavacco:

Move as a group.

Harry Helm:

Second.

Dick Quintal:

Second. Discussion? All those are in favor? Unanimous. Committee Liaison? Designee updates? Old business? Letters? New Business? Wow. Motion to adjourn?

Charlie Bletzer:

Motion to adjourn.

Dick Quintal:

Thank you. Thank you for watching, everyone. Have a good week. We’ll see you next week. Thank you.