HomeMy Public PortalAboutTri-Town Groundwater Protection District -- 2016-09-07 Minutes ORLEANS, BREWSTER, EASTHAM GROUNDWATER PROTECTION DISTRICT.
BOARD OF MANAGERS MEETING
SEPTEMBER 7,2016
Board Present: John Kelly,Chairman, Orleans; Mike Embury, Brewster; Martin McDonald, Eastham.
Others Present:Tom Parece, AECOM;Jim Nowack, District Treasurer; Cathy Doane, Orleans Finance
Director.
1. Meeting called to order at 9:00 a.m..
2. Contracting outside Clerical &Bookkeeping services for the District:
• John Kelly asked the Board how to proceed with bookkeeping and clerical services for the
District through the closure of the Plant.Jim Nowack has indicated he is not interested in
staying on as the District Treasurer. I did talk to Cyndi Bachman last week and she did
submit a proposal if the Board is interested in using her services on a part-time basis for a
fee of$35.00 per hour,with no benefits. I did indicate we don't know how long she would
be needed and work would be on an as needed basis. I have an office in my Planning
Department that she could work out of. I told her we would discuss this today so we need
to address the issue of clerical and treasurer. In talking with my Finance Director,Cathy
Doane,we might be able to obtain a bookkeeping service from an outside firm. I do have
reservations on being the signature on checks for the District and I have not changed over
the District's bank account. Being the Chairman of the Board, I am not sure I want to go
through the process of being bonded, signing the Treasury Warrants and then signing the
checks. If we get a new Treasurer,we could have that person sign the checks. I have a stack
of mail in my office for the District,so bills need to be paid and Meeting Minutes need to be
done.We may have ten hours a week for clerical services.
• Mike Embury stated he doesn't have a problem with Cyndi's proposal since she is familiar
with the District and the format. My bigger concern is the Treasurer position. Even with an
outside agency we are still going to have to insure them. I agree with you not taking on that
responsibility. is there a potential for one of the towns using its finance offices?
• John Kelly stated from this point going forward, we are going to have to prepare a Warrant
each month of the Districts bills and distribute it to the three Finance Directors,for one-
third payment to the District, and the District will deposit those checks and pay the bills. I
don't know if one of the towns would take on that responsibility. The three towns are going
to have to pay for the Employee Retention Bonus that Jim Nowack has calculated for us
which is$76,081.20,and has not been paid yet. I added that amount with the
decommissioning costs of$40,000 paid by the towns,the$170,000 which includes the
permitting, design and bidding, paid by the towns, and what we should have left and the
post closure costs,which includes$39,000 for unemployment,$46,000 for retiree health
insurance, and security, utilities, and insurance for the fiscal year for$75,000.Assuming all
get paid in their entirety, I had a balance of$72,900 as being left at the end, and cash on
hand of $25,000, we will have a total of almost of$98,000 that will not have been used by
the three towns.So as far as cash flow is concerned,we are in good shape.We have some
money available to pay for clerical services.
3. A motion was made by Mike Embury to engage in services with Cyndi Bachman on an as
needed basis at the hourly rate of$35.00 as submitted for the remainder of the fiscal year.
This motion was seconded by Martin McDonald and approved and passed.Vote:3-0
• Martin McDonald stated Cyndi is looking for work and what happens if she finds another
job?
• John Kelly stated I see the job going through the fiscal year.At this point if the demolition
design is approved at town meeting, and since we have funding in place for the fiscal year,
we will certainly have work through the fiscal year. i don't know how many hours she will be
needed each week, but I don't see a four hour a day job. I do need someone to come in and
do the work.She cannot be on payroll. Regarding the Treasurer's position,Jim Nowack
indicated he was working six to eight hours a month as an independent contractor.We
would hire a bookkeeping firm and have them provide us with a certificate of insurance .At
this point,we don't have any District staff and most of the accounts are closed.We would
want the Treasurer to handle the reimbursements from the towns and process the checks
going out, interfacing with Barnstable County Retirement taking the health insurance,
contributions from the District's retirees and paying Cape Cod Municipal Health Group,
and that issue will continue going forward with the new IMA.
• Mike Embury stated maybe we can contact one of the auditing firms that one of the towns
use.
• John Kelly stated there are local firms.We could ask the auditor for the District to see what
services they could provide for us.The other issue is the signature on the checks.Jay
Burgess was signing the checks as an employee.We could ask Cyndi if she would be
interested in being bonded for the Treasurers position as well. He stated each town will be
provided with a Treasury Warrant asking each town to pay one-third of the total bill. Each
town has separate accounts for this and the money on hand gets used through May for the
demolition and construction, which hopefully will be funded by the three towns.
• Martin McDonald stated when we get to construction, we will have big bills to pay and
Cyndi may not be available at that point.
• John Kelly stated the total deconstruction costs for the facilities is 2.1 million dollars and
there is an additional cost for demolition for the compost shed.Jim Nowack provided an
estimated cash requirements for September which includes the three month retention to
the warrant, and have ADP process that payroll this month.
• Martin McDonald asked if the retirement insurance issue has been resolved.
• John Kelly stated he asked Jim Nowack this morning and talked to Mike Ford who is going to
be setting up a call with legal counsel, Kopelman and Paige. I did get an email from Jay
Burgess asking how was the retirement system dealing with the three month retention
bonus and whether it would be credible towards his retirement service, and the answer
was no.That was a concern Jay had about reaching the January 201h date when he reaches
his next increase. Mike Ford and I discussed that yesterday, and when Mike has his
discussion with Kopelman and Paige,they can address that as well.As soon as I have a draft
IMA I will circulate it to the three Town Administrators which would go into effect January 1.
We can then discuss it at our next meeting, and have a recommendation to our Boards of
Selectmen to consider signing it.That way we would have the framework in place when the
current IMA expires on December 31,2016,and have a successor agreement in place to
address the employee retiree health insurance contribution.That was the main reason for
the Special Act in 2012.
• Martin McDonald stated we have employees as of the end of September for retirement.
• John Kelly stated the employees are not on the payroll as September 1, 2016, and I signed
Lay Off Letters for all employees stating as of August 31, 2016 they are laid off.The question
Barnstable County takes into consideration is the buyback of vacation time which would
extend out a retirement date. Last week Jim Nowack took out the employees share of health
insurance for October, November and December from their last paychecks.
• John Kelly stated Tom Parece sent us copies of some of the outstanding items we were
looking for regarding the decommissioning.
• Tom Parece,AECOM, stated most of the items on the checklist were done.There is still a 55
gallon drum of sodium hypochloride on site,which was not taken back by the manufacturer
because it was open. My suggestion is to dump it into clarifier that receives the run off from
the compost building and the scale house.There were also a couple of safety issues that
were not completed.There are some entrances to tanks, clarifiers with no locks and there
were no metal straps put on the hatches.These tasks were most likely not done because
those were the last things they were working on and they simply ran out of time.There is
also 390 gallons of diesel fuel in the generators.One tank is a buried tank and the other is
not.They should be removed because you do not want to have a fuel leak.You can pay to
have it hauled off or you can have trucks bleed some of the fuel into their trucks.Securing
the hatches and safety locks, and cleaning out some of the tank needs to be done. I suggest
hiring someone like Robert Our Company come to the plant for one or two days and
providing them with a list of items that need to be done.
4. A motion was made by Mike Embury to authorize the Chairman to ask Tom Parece to bring
Robert Our Company in to address the safety issues at the Tri-Town Plant,the entry into the
tanks,the no lock issue,the hatches that are not secure,and to vacuum out the tanks,and
authorize Tom Parece to secure a proposal to get this work done, and to authorize the
Chairman to approve the work once the proposal is written.This motion was seconded by
John Kelly and approved and passed.Vote:3-0
5. John Kelly stated the decommissioning has been completed and AECOM has billed us for the
$40,000 for the decommissioning and issued the first bill for the demolition design work.
6. Tom Parece stated the next phase is the design phase, hazardous waste assessment,site
assessment and environmental assessment.We are creating PDFs of the original plans to build
the facility by LEA,the upgraded plans that were done by Wright-Pierce Engineers,
with documents, photographs,along with site assessments, permits, hazardous waste.That
would be in addition to require a mandatory site visit for any contractor.So that they would
have all the information that we have. In the next week and a half I am hoping to have all
the specs put together. We will start the bidding process in November,and have bids in
hand in late February with a month for discussion, and have the information ready for
town meetings. He stated he will be providing a Change Order for the bidding phase.
7. A motion was made by Mike Embury to sign the decommissioning and demolition Change
Order No. 1 with AECOM in the amount of$36,400.This motion was seconded by Martin
McDonald and approved and passed.Vote:3-0
8. A motion was made by John Kelly to amend Treasury Warrant No. 3 to add the severance
post closure 13 week payment to the District employees in the amount of$76,081.20,and add
two bills from AECOM Invoice No. 1a for$40,000 and Invoice No. 1b for$29,000 with a grand
Warrant total of$264,289.15.This motion was seconded by Martin McDonald and approved
and passed.Vote:3-0
9. John Kelly stated the other two member towns DPW departments can coordinate with Tom
Daley for the keys to the Plant to see if they are interested in any tools or any other items and
provide a list in writing to the Board and we can vote to surplus those items to the towns.
10. A motion was made by Martin McDonald to adjourn the meeting at 10:20 a.m.. This motion
was seconded by Mike Embury and approved and passed.Vote: 3-0
Respectfully submitted,
r�
CynddBachman
Secretary