HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-11-21-CEC-min
CEC minutes - 21 November 2000 (approved)
The meeting was called to order at 7:34 PM by the chairman.
All members of the committee was present: Tom Griffths (TG), Shirley
Stolz
(SS), George Burnell (GB), Narain Bhatia (NB), and Charles Hornig (CH).
Visiting were Bill Hadley, Peter Chalpin, David Charbonneau, and Brian
Gilbert of the DPW.
The minutes of the meeting of 7 November 2000 were approved as
corrected.
The bulk of the meeting was devoted to presentation and discussion of
the
DPW capital budget. We took these up in NB's priority order. These
notes
should be read with the DPW capital requests.
Roads:
DPW proposes spending $1.0M-$1.2M/year on road maintenance. They
believe
(hope) this is enough to keep the average road quality where it is now.
There will be more focus on arterial streets than in the past few
years.
They expect to resurface some streets which they would have considered
to
need reconstruction in the past.
DPW proposes spending $3.5M/year on street reconstruction. The $3.5M
figure
is pretty arbitrary (enough to do all the reconstruction over 5 years).
The
catch-up resurfacing seems to not be in the plan anywhere.
After much discussion, we determined that this should be considered the
"street improvement" program to go with the "street maintenance"
program
above. The committee explained its proposal from last year to do both
the
catch-up resurfacing and reconstruction over 9 years, with resurfacing
happining first. DPW will come back with a proposal containing both
components over a more reasonable period of time.
DPW Facility:
DPW proposes $1M in FY02 for design, $12M in FY04 for construction.
This
assumes using the Hartwell Ave. site. The new facility would be ~80K
sq.
ft., about twice as big as what they have now. DPW is redoing the study
funded 2 years ago and expects something to show in a month or so. The
committee expressed some feeling that $12M was an unreasonable amount
to
spend.
The committee explained its proposal from last year to replace the barn
and
renovate and slightly expand the newer building. DPW will come back
with an
estimate of what a plan like this might cost.
Sewer I/I:
DPW has determined that the I/I program as most recently proposed will
not
pay for itself in reduced MWRA assessments. The new plan is to fund a
repair
and maintenance program ($800K/year) which will focus on major problem
areas
(wetlands, etc.) rather than doing the whole system.
Landfill:
DPW intends to close the landfill using a licensed site practitioner,
using
the hazardous waste regulations rather than the solid waste guidelines.
They
need $100K for the additional design on this approach. They expect the
cost
to be much lower in the long run. The real cost won't be known until
next
year.
Buildings:
Sidewalks:
This proposes new sidewalks where none now exist. Sidewalk costs very
widely. Repair of existing sidewalks is done out of the DPW operating
budget
as possible.
DPW Equipment:
Drainage:
Work needs to be done on drainage. The out year estimate is essentially
a
guess.
Traffic Signals:
GIS:
DPW is gradually digitizing their existing data as time allows. The
$70K
will let them get a lot of this done. The big cost ($250K) is for a new
base
map. The existing ones were done in 1972 and 1986.
TMMA would like the committee to be involved in a capital-related bus
tour.
CH will work with him on this. We don't want to put a lot of effort
into
this at this point.
Meeting schedule:
11/29, 7:30PM, Room 111: Schools
12/6, ?, ?: Summit
12/13, 7:30PM, Room 105: Library, Fire
12/19, 7:30PM, Room 111: Conservation, general discussion
The meeting was adjourned at 11:13 PM. Minutes were taken and submitted
by
Charles Hornig, clerk.