Arlington Wastewater Committee November 2, 2023 Minutes
Members Attending: Matt Bykowski, Steve McClafferty, Cynthia Browning, Andy Curtis, Jamie Paustian
Members absent: Andrew Rodriguez, Dan Harvey
Others present: Nick Zaiac
1. CALL TO ORDER at 7:00 pm
2. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None
3. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS: Motion to approve Cynthia Browning, Seconded by Andy Curtis. Approved 4-0, Jamie Paustian abstaining
4. NEW BUSINESS
4.1 General Update
Town Administrator Zaiac gave an update on the current status of the project. He noted that one appraiser dropped out leaving only one current bidder with pending effort to seek a second bidder for the appraisal of the Yellow Barn property. Member Paustian questioned what the easement buy-out ratio would be, with the Town Administrator noting that we would not know that until later in the process. The Town Administrator noted that the Highway Department will dig test pits to gather percolation data once the ground thaws. The Town Administrator went through the prospects related to new housing that could be added in the East Arlington area should wastewater be added, showing slides from the Homes for All event that had recently happened and discussing the effort more generally.
Members expressed dissatisfaction with the speed at which the engineer was working. The Town Administrator noted that there are both state regulator constraints and engineer time constraints on the project, including the fact that the same engineer is working on permitting for other water projects necessary to facilitate any wastewater solution. The committee broadly agreed to request the engineer provide a status update at the next meeting. The Town Administrator noted that he expects the engineer to complete most of the writing on the study over the winter in anticipation of test pit data.
On the matter of timelines, Member McClafferty asked about how the sliding timeline on this study would impact the long-term timeline to implementation. The Town Administrator noted that because any bond is not less than 18-30 months out, it should not meaningfully affect the long-run timeline. He asked about ARPA funds for implementation, to which the Town Administrator replied that there has at no point been any commitment from the Select Board of use of ARPA funds in this context.
The next meeting will be set for December 7.
5. ALL OTHER BUSINESS
6. ADJOURNMENT: Motion to adjourn Cynthia Browning, Seconded by Jamie Paustian, approved universally among members present. Meeting adjourned at 7:56 pm.
Respectfully submitted by Nick Zaiac