(3/16) With those simple words, Woodsboro Councilman Bill Rittelmeyer put to rest the growing angst of many residents concerning the status of the Town’s water & sewer system at the Town Council’s March meeting.
The anxiety was created by a list of recommendations from the new water and sewer plant upgrades from the Prostart, the facilities’ new operator. The recommendations were a result of an assessment of the facilities done by Prostart’s management following their assumption of duties.
Upon completion of the assessment Prostart provided the town with a list of what they considered needed or necessary upgrades based upon their experience and industry best practices.
Barnes first alerted the public to the list back in September, but said he was hesitant to release the list until Councilman Bill Rittelmeyer, the Town’s Water & Sewer Commissioner, had time to go over the list and sort out what ‘must be done’ and what were just ‘nice things’ to do.
The planning meeting between Rittelmeyer, Barnes and management of Prostart was delayed until February of this year due to unavailability of Rittelmeyer due to health issues.
In a wide ranging, yet highly detailed talk at the March council meeting, Rittelmeyer described how the facilities were operated prior to the hiring of Prostart, how Prostart operates them, costs and budgets, and how all that factored into the final disposition of the contents on the list of upgrades and repair recommendations submitted by Prostart.
"My first question to Prostart management," Rittelmeyer said, "was, are we in full compliance with all State MDE, Federal regulations, is everything currently fine? The answer was an emphatic yes. There are no issues with the water and sewer treatment plant ... and we are not in any dire straits of falling out of compliance."
"The list totaled $440,000," said Rittelmeyer, of which, "$175,000 are priority items; $150,000 are nice to haves; $75,000 were long [term] preventive maintenance items; and there was one $15,000 item that neither us nor the operators could figure out why it was on the list."
One of the ‘nice to haves’, he said, was the recommendation to enclose and heat the wastewater discharge sand filter area as opposed to simply insulating the piping to it. When asked what that would cost, he was told a little over $100,000. Rittelmeyer said he told them "we are not going to build a building over it. We never had one, don’t need one."
Another item they wanted to replace, which the town is passing on, included a control panel, which Rittelmeyer recognized had just been replaced three years ago. When pressed on why the town should replace it, he was told newer control panels had more features functionally. "We don’t need more features functionally," he said, "what we have right now works perfectly fine… it was $60,000 to replace the one we have, we don’t need to replace it after 3 years. We don’t need a Cadillac version; I’ll take the Chevy or Buick. We need stuff that works with a hard budget."
Another item the town is passing on is a $50,000 recommendation to reinsulate and install heat tape on the piping going to the sand filters. "The pipe currently has insulation on it, yes, its dirty, but we never had a problem with the pipes freezing, water is flowing all the time, so this is a nice to have item, so it’s not on our short-term list. If we get another million dollars from the government, then we may consider it, but even if the pipe freezes, all that means is the wastewater will sit in the tanks for a few days until the pipe unfreezes." Rittelmeyer said.
The largest ticket item on the list is $100,000 for a plant wide data acquisition and monitoring system. The town currently has data acquisition and monitoring system on each of the wells and wells only, but not on the pump houses or any of sewer infrastructure. According to Rittelmeyer, "the system we have today works, it works well and has been working well. It monitors the wells, which has been the priority of the town… right now I don’t see that as a high priority. The critical piece - which is, are we pumping water into our water tanks, and keeping water in the town, that’s all being monitored, and being monitored quite well. What they recommended was an upgraded system that offer just more feature functionally, but we have no issues with what we have."
Items that did make the cut include $75,000 for preventative maintenance on the aeration and mixing equipment in the three SBR tanks [the tanks in the wastewater treatment plant that allow waste to settle out]. Rittelmeyer explained that over the years rags have entered the systems which are now clinging to the aerators, making the motors that turn them work harder. Prostart recommended draining the tanks one at a time, removing all the rags and other debris, cleaning the tanks out and pull the motors so they can be refurbished. "This is an issue that has been going on for a while and corrective actions are long overdue," Rittelmeyer said.
Another item that made the near-term ‘to do list’ for the town was $50,000 in preventative maintenance and upgrades to the sewer pump station on James Street. "Instead of reacting to it when it breaks, we are going to look to get that addressed."
Long term preventative maintenance items recommended by Prostart, and accepted by the town, include $75,000 for the replacement of control panels and electrical connections across the systems. Rittelmeyer stated many of them are in poor condition and the town will work with Prostart to prioritize their replacements.
Rittelmeyer added that while the contract with Prostart to operate the plants was more than double the prior contractor, the Prostart contract includes not only all the required testing, but 25 hours per week for maintenance related tasks which is saving the town over the long run. "They are actually fixing things on their own when they have spare time."
The fact that maintenance is now ongoing has resulted in higher efficiency of the facilities’ equipment, resulting in the need to run them less, which means less electrical use, said Rittelmeyer.
The cost of electricity for the two facilities is one of the larger line items in their budget, and while Rittelmeyer doesn’t have the most current usage figures yet, he expects that due to increased efficiency, electrical costs which last year was $108,000, will drop.
Under the prior contract, if a pump failed the town would not only need to purchase the new pump, but have to hire another contractor to come and replace it. Under Prostart, while the town still must buy the pump, Prostart will install it for free. "Over time, not having to bring in another contractor to do repairs will save the town money," said Ruttlemyer.
Rittelmeyer also made note of Prostart’s management of the sludge extracted from the wastewater treatment facility. The sludge is sent to the county for final disposal for which the town is charged based upon weight. Under the old operator, the sludge was liquid in nature, so the town was paying the weight of both waste and water. Under Prostart, the sludge will be dewatered prior to being sent to the county, which will result in less disposal costs to the town, therefore saving the town additional money.
"So while they [Prostart] cost more, they are doing stuff to save us money that we never got before … so if people have concerns about the management of the water & sewer treatment plant – it is being managed at a far, far better level than it ever has been in the history of this town," said Rittelmeyer.
Rittelmeyer closed his presentation by saying the town’s water and sewer systems are in better shape now then it was before hiring Prostart. "We are not in critical need, the water and sewer plant are not falling apart, and even thought we have some fairly high-ticket items we need to put in the budget, most of that is preventative maintenance or repairing very old hardware. I think we are very well positioned."
Rittelmeyer went on to say that if emergencies do come up which require the town to spend money, that the town had $256,000 in the water and sewer fund which it could use, not to mention over $1 million in the town’s general fund.
Barnes pointed out that last year the Town budgeted $120k for repairs and maintenance. "So we budget close to the amount of repairs expected annually anyways."
Residents in attendance at the meeting expressed pleasure with Rittelmeyer’s detailed briefing saying it addressed most, if not all their concerns, and put many issues to bed.
