A.     MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 3:06 P.M. BY COUNCILMAN LICCIARDI

B.     ROLL CALL

MEMBERS PRESENT

Council President Gosselin  

Councilman Licciardi

Councilwoman Williamson (Absent due to quorum)  

Acting Town Manager Colonel Mark Knott

Superintendent Harrison Songolo

Assistant Superintendent Jeff Chapdelaine

Director of Administration Christine Suvajian

James Geremia, James Geremia and Associates

C.     QUORUM ON RECORD DECLARED

D.     MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

Tabled

E.      REPORTS

1.     Plant Manager’s Report

3.     Industrial Pretreatment Program for the month of January 2021

Significant Industrial Users                                

·     Rhodes Technologies, Amtrol, Immunex and Bradford Soap and Warwick Ice Cream all submitted their quarterly self-monitoring reports and all were in compliance.

·     New England Testing Laboratories, Ethide Laboratories, Cal Chemical, Dryvit, Rhodes Technologies at 500 Washington Street and Rhodes Pharmaceuticals all submitted their semi-annual self-monitoring reports and all were in compliance.

Private Wastewater Treatment Facilities                                

·     The lines were cleaned at Cowesett Corners and found to be in good condition.

·     The Wolohoojian line which services Marketplace Center was also cleaned and found to be in good condition.

Food Service Inspections

Six inspections were conducted this month and all but one were in compliance.

·     Zeng's Kitchen, Inc. - 975 Main Street, West Warwick

·     Applebee’s - 300 Quaker Lane, Warwick

·     Masala, LLC - 35 Quaker Lane West Warwick

·     Subin, LLC d/b/a Masala Pakistani and Indian Cuisine - 35 Quaker Lane, West Warwick

·     Emilio's Bakery Inc. - 35 Quaker Lane, West Warwick

·     Chick-fil-A, Inc. - 1500 Bald Hill Road, Warwick

·     Zeng's Kitchen, Inc. still has not applied for a sewer permit.  Upon inspection we found one of their grease recovery devices was not functional and the other was not operating correctly. The owners were instructed to submit an application and correct the deficiencies. As of the end of the month their application had not been received.

Maintenance and Repair Facilities

The following facilities were inspected this month and all were in compliance.

·     Scrub-A-Dub - 1390 Bald Hill Road, Warwick

·     Inskip Mini - 1515 Bald Hill Road, Warwick

·     Inskip BMW - 1515 Bald Hill Road, Warwick

·     Inskip Car Wash BMW - 1515 Bald Hill Road, Warwick

·     Inskip Infinity - 1085 Centerville Road, Warwick

·     Inskip Audi - 1515 Bald Hill Road, Warwick

·     Inskip Auto Mall - 1515 Bald Hill Road, Warwick

Food Service Permits

·     His Fruits of Coventry, LLC d/b/a Tropical Smoothie Café - 2350 New London Tpk., Coventry

·     China Star - 1028 Tiogue Avenue, Coventry

·     Wise Guys Deli House LLC - 289 Cowesett Avenue, West Warwick

E-Permitting Systems

·     The Program continues to work with the new testing laboratory on James Murphy Highway.  The company has hired an engineer to review the sewer design and make the necessary modifications to meet the requirements.

·     Council President Gosselin asked Mr. Geremia about the $700 fee being charged to Zeng’s Kitchen sewer applications.  Mr. Geremia replied all the restaurants in Town pay that fee. 

·     Ms. Suvajian stated there are two applications, the Commercial Pretreatment application is $300 and the Food Service application is $400.

·     Council President Gosselin stated they’re questioning these fees because this location was already a Chinese restaurant and they just took it over and changed the name.  He asked Ms. Suvajian to contact Paula in the Clerk’s office regarding this matter. 

F.      CAPITAL PROJECTS SUMMARY              

1.     Centrifuge

·     Mr. Geremia stated the Centrifuge project is coming along.  We’ve met with the WWTF staff to go over some issues and make some modifications.  This project should be completed within the next month.

·     Mr. Geremia stated there will be a change order.  During excavation for the foundation they encountered conduits that were buried in the concrete.  These will need to be relocated.

·     Mr. Geremia stated Mr. Songolo and staff asked to have the conveyors in the back looked at and possibly add additionally conveying to a central location. 

2.     BAF Inflow Pumps 1 & 2

·     Mr. Songolo stated BAF pump #1 was delivered and installed.  A few tweaks had to made.  At first installation the shaft wouldn’t turn.  They had to pull it out and take the bearing for sizing.  At second installation the pump ran for a few days then began making a knocking noise.  The vendor determined it was the wetwell level was too low which was causing cavitation.  Adjustments were made by the vendor and the pump has been fine-tuned is functioning well.

·     Mr. Songolo stated the vendors came in to remove Pump #2 and were able to remove the motor but encountered problems removing the shaft.  The WWTF staff worked on the shaft and were able to prepare it for removal.  The riggers were then contacted and they came back on February 1st and removed the rest of the shaft.  So, the pump, the shaft and the motor have been picked up for inspection analysis.

3.     Drain in Sludge Collection Area

·     Mr. Songolo said this project is postponed because of the weather and the vendor being unavailable to start the project.  Once the vendor becomes available he will report back to the Sewer Subcommittee.

4.     Phenix Avenue Sewer Repair

     No discussion took place.

G.     OLD BUSINESS

1.     DEM consent Agreement RIA 432

·     Mr. Geremia stated the Sampling and Monitoring Plan was sent to DEM and he is waiting for their review comments.  We are on a holding pattern until we receive said comments.

2.     Fusion Odor Control

·     Mr. Songolo stated he and Ms. Suvajian have researched where the money would come from to pay for Fusion and they found there was money available in Wages due to all the open positions.  Ms. Suvajian found approximately $148,000 left in that account which can be used to pay for Fusion for the rest of the fiscal year.

·     Mr. Songolo stated for next year’s budget, we will be able to cutdown on odor control purchases from other vendors and utilize that money for Fusion’s services.  Last year we spent $22,794 for the drums of Vaporscent from another vendor.

·     Councilman Licciardi asked if Fusion’s product will cut down on the number of odor complaints outside of the plant or is this more of an internal thing?  Mr. Songolo replied this is an internal thing for the wastewater that comes into the facility.

·     Mr. Songolo stated what we’ve been doing is masking the odor(s) already in the air that comes from the H2h in the wastewater.  Fusion’s product cuts down on the H2h in the wastewater which helps prevent odor(s) so this is a better approach for dealing with odor(s) from the plant.

3.     Providence Street Private Sewer Line

·     Council President Gosselin stated well over a year ago Ms. Nersesyan came to the Council with questions regarding her sewer line.  She has provided paperwork stating she is connected to the Town line which he said ultimately, she is.

·     Council President Gosselin is requesting the Town incur the cost to replace the main line and the homeowners connected to this line incur the cost for the laterals and the backflow valves.

·     Council President Gosselin stated there have been questions and comments at Town meetings stating the Town had caused some damage in Ms. Nersesyan’s line which is why her claim was paid by The Trust.  He said he has questioned why The Trust would pay this claim if it was a private line and he found out that we had gone in that line and caused some damage.

·     Mr. Songolo stated we were in the manhole close to her location but also close to our Town sewer line.  Council President Gosselin asked it that was our manhole.  Mr. Songolo replied he cannot answer that with absolute surety.

·     Council President Gosselin said Mr. Songolo has told him several times this is a private line but now can’t answer whether or not the manhole is ours.  He said Mr. Songolo then turned this matter over to the Town Solicitor who stated we should not be on private property doing work which Mr. Songolo agreed with.

·     Council President Gosselin stated the problem is we were on private property with our auger and we cleaned out their main resulting in damage to their property.  He said the pictures Mr. Songolo provided were unclear because our hi-definition camera was too big to fit in the line and could not be used.

·     Council President Gosselin stated now Ms. Nersesyan’s neighbor Ms. Padula is also having problems.  He said due to the fact that we did do work on that sewer line we should be responsible for repairing it then we can relinquish any further responsibility for said line. 

·     Council President Gosselin said what do you think would happen if this went to court.  Mr. Songolo replied he is at a disadvantage because there were letters written to the homeowners but he has not seen or been provided a copy of said letter.  As for the manhole, he doesn’t know who owns it.  He admits to doing work in the private line and cutting some roots as a good faith effort to try to help the people connected to the line who were having problems. 

·     Mr. Songolo stated the point remains if someone doesn’t have a backflow preventer it will create problems for the person who lies at the lowest point anytime there is high flow or paper or roots in the line.

·     Council President Gosselin stated he agrees with all of that but it’s been three weeks since he asked for numbers from our contractor and he’s disappointed that we still don’t have them.

·     Mr. Geremia asked if he wants to start at the top of the line.  Council President Gosselin replied no, just from Ms. Padula’s lateral to the manhole behind Ms. Nersesyan’s property because that’s the only place we did work.

·     Council President Gosselin stated once he gets the numbers he will bring this before the Council.  He will also be looking for those residents to sign-off and state we are not responsible for that sewer line in the future.

·     Council President Gosselin said the WWTF does a great job dealing with blockups and problems in the Town’s lines but we should not be working on any private lines due to the liability.  He said it would cost more to go to court over this than to just fix that portion of the line.

·     Mr. Geremia suggested the homeowners should sign the agreement prior to beginning the work.  Council President Gosselin agreed but said we need to get the numbers before we can discuss that.

·     There was some further discussion about the construction aspects of replacing the line and when the project can begin due to weather restrictions.

·     Ms. Padula said she had four toilets backup on January 10^th and she can’t wait until the end of the year to have this problem fixed.  She had to pay Roto-Rooter another $1000 plus take off some of the rent for her tenants because they had to clean up raw sewage.

·     Ms. Padula stated she had the line camera’d again which she has on a CD and it showed everything was clogged and full of roots plus some cracked pipes.  She said this problem needs to fixed sooner than later or she will have to put her tenants up in a hotel.

·     Mr. Songolo thanked Ms. Padula for being so gracious and patient.  He said he will work with the contractor and try to get this job done as quickly as possible.

·     There was a brief discussion about drawing up the agreements and getting the parties to sign and agree to the terms.

4.     Questionable December Odor Complaint

·     Councilman Licciardi said there needs to be better communication between the plant and the Sewer Subcommittee.  He stated the Subcommittee needs to be informed of certain issues and things going on at the plant.  For example, they thought the BAF pump was already out to the vendor a month ago.

·     Councilman Licciardi said he sent Mr. Songolo an email two weeks ago regarding about whether an odor complaint was or was not reported to the plant in December.  He said he never received a reply back from Mr. Songolo.

·     Councilman Licciardi stated staff from WWTF has called him saying there was an odor complaint reported in December and Mr. Songolo is saying there wasn’t one.  He asked what the procedure is if someone rides by the plant, smells an odor and calls the plant to complain about it. 

·     Mr. Songolo referred to the BAF pump issue first.  He said he sent a lot of emails updating everyone regarding the status of the pump and he will forward them to Councilman Licciardi if he didn’t get them.

·     Mr. Songolo stated there are a number of things that need to be recorded when an odor complaint comes in, time, date, wind speed, name, phone number etc…  We need this information to follow through with the complaint.  If a call comes in on off-hours the Operator will take the call.  He then calls the Assistant Superintendent to go through a checklist of things such as, are we processing or transferring, is there a sludge box in the back, is the scrubber down, etc…  If all checks out at the plant the Assistant will review the information from the caller and take a ride to the area of complaint to investigate.  If the person calling doesn’t give any contact information or location the complaint does not get recorded.  Only the complaints that can be investigated and are our odors are recorded.

·     Mr. Songolo stated the lady that called in the odor complaint on December 21^st didn’t give any details so we didn’t record her complaint.

·     Councilman Licciardi said if he called tomorrow and said he was riding by St. Joseph’s School and it smelled would his complaint be investigated.  Mr. Songolo replied yes, because you gave a location of the smell.

·     Councilman Licciardi asked what happens with the complaint once it’s been given.  Mr. Songolo said during office hours it’s recorded by the Sewer Clerk, after hours the Operator will fill out an odor complaint form and give it to his Chief who then gives it to the Superintendent or the Assistant Superintendent or to the Sewer Clerk for recording.

·     Mr. Songolo stated if it is a form that has all the details we’re looking for it stays on file and also gets logged into a spreadsheet for recording to DEM at the end of the year.

H.     PUBLIC COMMENT

·     Council President Gosselin asked Mr. Songolo about the approval for a smoke shop located at 350 Providence Street.  Mr. Songolo stated they were inspected and there are certain requirements they still need to submit.  He will send the list to Paula in the Clerk’s office.

·     Ms. Suvajian stated if a business is not pretreatment they only need to fill out the application for informational purposes only.  They will not be charged the fee.

I.       ADJOURN

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Councilman Licciardi and seconded by James Geremia.  All in favor, none opposed.

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