Water and Sewer 2/3/25

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Water and Sewer Minutes 02-03-25 137 KB

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Town of Richmond
Meeting of Water and Sewer Commission

Minutes of February 3, 2025

Members Present: Jay Furr, Erin Farr, Bard Hill, Morgan Wolaver, Lisa Miller
 

Members Absent: None

Staff Present: Superintendent Steve Cote; Town Manager Josh Arneson; Assistant to the Town Manager Duncan Wardwell, Finance Director Connie Bona, Town Clerk Linda Parent.

Others Present: The meeting was recorded for MMCTV Erin Wagg, State Engineer David (Todd) Hindinger from Heritage Engineering, David Sander.

MMCTV Video: MMCTV Erin Wagg
https://youtu.be/JjoINf6zu5M?si=9oWZgOX69Uq3jY9N

Call to Order:  6:00 pm
 

Welcome: Wolaver

Public Comment: None

Additions or Deletions to the Agenda: 
Timestamp: 0:00

Approval of Minutes, Warrants and Purchase Orders

Timestamp: 0:00

Minutes:

People who participated in discussion: Wolaver

Hill moved to approve the Minutes as written on 01/21/2025. Miller seconded.

Roll Call Vote: Wolaver, Hill, Furr, Miller, Farr in favor. Motion approved.

Purchase Orders:

Furr moved to approve purchase order number 4914 to M & T Bank / Wilmington Trust for the Phosphorus Loan in the amount of $22,220.18.Hill seconded.

Roll Call Vote: Wolaver, Miller, Hill, Furr, Farr in favor. Motion approved.

Miller moved to approve purchase order number 4915 to the Town of Richmond for Administrative Services in the amount of $43,394.00. Farr seconded.

Roll Call Vote: Wolaver, Hill, Furr, Miller, Farr in favor. Motion approved.

Farr moved to amend purchase order number 4974 to Simpleroute for IT Services to a total of $23,001, noting that the Water Resources Department only pays a portion of this total because it is split with the General Fund. Miller seconded.

Roll Call Vote: Wolaver, Hill, Miller, Furr, Farr in favor. Motion approved.

Warrants:

Furr moved to approve the warrants as presented. Hill seconded.

Roll Call Vote: Wolaver, Hill, Furr, Miller, Farr in favor. Motion approved.

Items for Presentation or Discussion with those present

Consideration of holding the second Commission meeting in February on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 to account for the holiday on Monday, February 17, 2025

Timestamp: 0:06

People who participated in discussion: Wolaver

Farr moved to hold the second Commission meeting in February on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, to account for the holiday on Monday, February 17, 2025. Hill seconded.

Roll Call Vote: Wolaver, Hill, Furr, Miller, Farr in favor. Motion approved.

Wolaver mentioned he will not be here for this meeting.

Discussion of the water tank inspection report with the engineer
Timestamp: 0:07
 

https://www.richmondvt.gov/fileadmin/files/Water_Sewer_Commission/Meetings/2025/01/4b_Richmond_Water_Tank_-_Report_Heritage_Engineering_01-03-2025_Reduced_File_Size_for_email.pdf

People who participated in discussion: Wolaver, Hindinger, Miller, Cote, Hill, Farr

Hindinger wrote the report and elaborated that structural integrity of the tank is the most important. It’s clear that the tank is leaking because of the green color, but the cracks we have in this tank are quite small .004 inches. He believes these small cracks were present from day one. When you put water pressure on cracks like this you will get leaks. One way to seal such cracks is to use an epoxy that reacts with water; first you drill holes all the way up the crack and fill with epoxy that then reacts with the water and becomes a foam that fills the crack, this is a common way to fill cracks that occurred during construction. However, other cracks are newer probably due to temperature changes or if the concrete is restrained by the footing. This tank was built on a sloping hillside but there does not seem to be a lean or shift of the tank. Miller asked about the coating on the tank, which Hindinger replied that the coating is very brittle and not intended to seal cracks. Cote described the coating as stucco and that it’s peeling and chipping off. Hill asked about the reason for applying the coating, which Hindinger thought was for aesthetic reasons. He continued that drilled holes can be seen where there was leaking prior, he thinks the leaking is getting incrementally worse. The water coming out of the well is 10C (50F), while the walls of the tank, especially on the outside are much colder, so that temperature differential isn’t good for the concrete. Farr asked about water leaking from the roof, to which Hindinger concurred that this is indeed happening. Hill asked why the roof is flat and Hindinger said today he wouldn’t build a flat roof, but if there were a flat roof he would recommend a membrane on top of the roof. Hill stated he doesn’t remember the Water and Sewer Commission being asked if they wanted to have a membrane in the past, had Hindinger found evidence to support this in the documentation, to which Hindinger replied no. Cote asked is there an advantage or disadvantage if we insulated the roof under the membrane, since you said that the top of the roof is susceptible to the freezing and thawing more. Hindinger responded that installing an insulation system before a membrane is put on the tank is something he would recommend. The bottom line he said, you could put a liner on the inside and the membrane on the top, and then there would never be any leaking out through the walls. Then you could put some insulation on the outside and everything would be fine. At this point, putting a liner inside is going to be prohibitively expensive. Wolaver stated that in summary thinking about a membrane for the roof is important. Hill mentioned that in the engineering report a list of suggestions is included and in descending order, which he thinks the board could consider. Hindinger ended by recommending something minimally expensive, which would be to have some of the concrete tested by coring it in certain places and testing it. Farr mentioned that she looked back on the old meeting minutes from 2015 - 2016 and found that it mentioned concrete testing having been done in January 2016 minutes.

Furr made a motion to move the rest of the Agenda to the next meeting.

Hill suggested having an extra meeting at 6 p.m. next Monday, Feb. 10, 2025.

Wolaver, Farr and Miller all agreed to a separate meeting to finish the warned Agenda for this meeting.

Adjournment

Furr moved to adjourn. Miller seconded.

Roll Call Vote: Wolaver, Miller, Hill, Farr, Furr in favor. Motion approved.

Meeting adjourned at: 6:52 pm

Chat file from Zoom:  None