Link to Minutes –> OLSBA-WPCA-August-Meeting-Minutes
OLSBA – WPCA
MEETING MINUTES
When: August 26, 2021 7:30pm
Where: Virtual Meeting via Zoom/Teleconference
The meeting was called to order at 7:32 pm by Al Roy, WPCA Chairman.
WPCA Members present: Al Roy, Dede DeRosa, Tom Annulli, John Cunningham, Bob Palazzo, Matt Merritt (ex-officio). Absent: Sue Mahoney
Approximately 10 additional OLS residents were also on the call.
Chairman’s Opening Remarks
Al opened the meeting with the following statement to the OLS membership:
I wish to reaffirm with all OLSBA residents and BOG members that your WPCA remains committed to advancing the goals and objectives of the sewer project established by our association over ten years ago. The WPCA is responsible to the BOG, who in-turn, has fiduciary responsibility to all OLSBA members. We continue to seek a suitable path forward to comply with the DEEP Unified Consent Order in a responsible and cost-aware manner. As has been said repeatedly, our residents will not be asked to increase the previously authorized bonding capacity. The WPCA and BOG appreciate your continued interest and understanding.
Approval of minutes of June 24, 2021 meeting
Tom Annulli made a motion to approve the minutes from the June 24th meeting, John Cunningham seconded the motion. Minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s Report
Tom Annulli, WPCA Treasurer, reviewed the financial end-June and end-July financial statements. As our fiscal year ends on June 30th, the June report reflects our 2020-2021 year end status. Tom also reviewed our current liability per household should the sewer project not go forward. Based on loan and grant money provided to OLS from the State of CT to day, each household would owe $4177.71. This number is understated and does not include the money that would be owed to neighboring towns and other beaches through contractual agreements. The financial statements are attached to these meeting minutes.
Dede DeRosa made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s reports from June 30, 2021 and July 31, 2021. John Cunningham second the motion. The Reports were approved.
Shared Infrastructure Project Update – Pump House, Force Main and Gravity Trunk
AMTRAK approval was finally received 7/30/2021. This was a long, arduous task with a notoriously bureaucratic agency.
As reported at the OLS Spring Meeting, the June WPCA Meeting and in the WPCA July Summer Update, the Shared Infrastructure bid was divided into three separate pieces in preparation for re-bidding:
1. Pump House and Bioxide Station
2. Force Main (sewer pipe from pump house to 156 to East Lyme)
3. Gravity Trunk (sewer pipe along shoreline to pump house)
We are cautiously optimistic that we will receive far more reasonable and rational bid responses due to: expected broader response from responsible contractors; manageable project components within their staffing capabilities and areas of expertise; far less reliance on sub-contracting (mark-ups); moderating goods and services indices in certain market sectors and/or increased contractor familiarity in this “new normal” contracting world.
The new timeline is as follows:
- DEEP completed review on 8/13/21; formal approval to advertise was received on 8/17/2
- Project was advertised on Friday, August 20
- Bid advertisement schedule (shared)
- Pre-bid meetings 9/11; bid opening 10/5; analysis 10/5 – 10/14; F&O recommendation 10/14
- IF FAVORABLE, obtain DEEP approval to award 11/3
- The DRAFT contract award schedule is entirely contingent upon extensive review of multiple factors at that time
- Draft schedule will be extended if any contractor requests an extension from 45 to 60 days
Al reviewed the status of adding the Town of Old Lyme to the Cost Sharing Agreement (CSA) and Inter-municipal agreements (IMA) with East Lyme (EL) and New London (NL). NL was actually added with the amended CSA in July of 2020 with requirements to complete several conditions; of late only two were remaining – IMA with NL was completed on 7/24; Old Lyme/East Lyme IMA is in progress.
We became aware of a potential upcoming Old Lyme Zoning Commission regulation change that could potentially impact the project. New regulations governing off-site staging areas in support of construction was requested by local residents. Upon our inquiry, we learned this topic was taken off the agenda for discussion at a special meeting of the Zoning Commission on August 12, and deferred to the September 13th meeting. We have reviewed the proposed regulation and don’t foresee this being problematic to our projects.
At 8:00pm internet service was interrupted for all ZOOM participants due to what we later learned was a brief but wide-spread multi-state outage. Several WPCA members were able to reconnect and it was decided to end the meeting without rescheduling since we were through more than half of the agenda items. It was agreed that the WPCA would include the content to be covered in the remaining agenda items in the meeting minutes. Please note that there will be a WPCA update provided at the OLS Fall Meeting in September and the next WPCA regularly scheduled meeting on September 23, 2021.
The Following are updates on the remaining agenda items NOT covered in the ZOOM Meeting:
OLSBA Internal Sewer Project
DEEP is completing their review of the OLS Bid package. We are working with them to accelerate the advertisement schedule so we can obtain concrete numbers on the OLS portion of the project in addition to the Shared Infrastructure components. We anticipate advertising on September 9th with a 30 day bid window. This would allow F&O to provide us with a recommendation mid-October.
As previously reported in our July Update, we completed extensions on our Interim Funding Obligations with the State of CT for both the shared and OLS projects. This will provide time needed to formulate going-forward strategies.
Cost Sharing Agreement (CSA) Group Update – Collaboration with other Beaches
A letter was sent to Elected Officials requesting grant and/or financial assistance given the potential for costs to be prohibitive for the impacted beach residents. This letter is posted on oldlymeshores.org. On August 19th a very favorable meeting was held with Joe Courtney’s grant cordial who will pursue funding on our behalf. Additional contacts have been made with Senator Murphy’s office and with State Representative Devin Carney. Initial discussions have been encouraging but will take some time to mature.
The WPCA Chairs and Beach Association Presidents have agreed to pursue a contractor outreach strategy in an attempt to increase contractor participation and bid response. A list of 30 potentially interested contractors was identified and CSA members called them to ensure awareness of the project and our approach to the re-bid.
Exit Strategy/Contingency Planing
Initial consideration has been give to “What-if” scenarios since receiving the potentially show-stopping bid responses in May. Two members of the BOG offered to assist in exploring options. For now, we would like pursue two initiatives:
Legal review of OLSBA obligations and legal options
Alternative strategies for compliance with the DEEP Pollution Consent Order
BOG/WPCA leadership determined the best approach is to conduct these initiative in parallel with ongoing efforts of the WPCA which is focused on bringing the project to a logical conclusion. BOG leadership is at the initiation stage with this and will sponsor these initiatives. An update is planned for the Fall Meeting.
WPCA Board Vacancy
We need your help! Anyone interested in contributing their expertise is welcome to contact Al directly or discuss their interest in doing so with any WPCA member.
Technology Update
As previously reported we are now using “Mail Chimp” to distribute WPCA updates, meeting agendas and minutes and other important information. More than 40 new documents have been posted on the website.
No resident correspondence was received prior to the August Meeting.
Link to June Financials –> WPCA June 2021 Financial Statements
Link to July Financials –> WPCA July 2021 Financial Statements