Arlington Wastewater Subcommittee
9/1/2022 Meeting
Minutes
Members Present: Steve McClafferty, Dan Harvey, Andy Curtis, Jamie Paustian,
Members Absent: Cynthia Browning, Andrew Rodriguez, Matt Bykowski
Also Present: Nick Zaiac, Don Keelan, Jon Ashley (DuBois & King), Robert Clark and Craig Jewett (Otter Creek Engineering), Jason Dolmetsch, Patrick Smart, and Nicholas Ratzer (MSK Engineers)
Call to Order at 7:00 PM by Chairperson Harvey
Motion to approve the minutes of the previous meeting as presented by Member McClafferty seconded by Member Curtis. Approved 4-0.
The town heard public comment from Don Keelan. Mr. Keelan quoted the Town Plan’s portion on wastewater to the committee, stressed the importance of this work, and thanked the committee for its work to get to this point.
The Town Administrator briefed the group on the task at hand. He had distributed copies of the list of suggested interview questions for such events in the state-suggested guide book available at: RCAP-Getting-Your-Project-to-Flow-Smoothly.pdf.
Each firm was given a chance to briefly present their general philosophy, and interviews would be kept to 30-35 minutes. Questions posed to each of the 3 firms covered the following topics.
How much experience does your firm have working with small systems?
What is your experience with modern wastewater technologies and approach to applying new technologies to projects as being scoped here?
Can you provide a timeline for the project?
What experience do you have with combining funding from multiple sources, and what work do you do as part of the engineering process for projects expected to have multiple funding streams?
How unique is Arlington with respect to other towns you’ve worked on wastewater projects in?
Please discuss your thoughts on the future wastewater regulatory environment and any regulatory developments you see that would impact wastewater projects in places like Arlington?
Following the third presentation, the group proceeded to file their individual rankings on each of the two equally weighted criteria designated in the RFQ. Votes were taken without a discussion of overall impression by the group at-large and filed by paper ballot with the chairperson. The chairperson proceeded to tally the votes.
The final rankings were reported as follows.
1. Otter Creek Engineering
2. MSK Engineering
3. DuBois & King
Motion to adjourn by Member McClafferty, seconded by Member Curtis, vote unanimous, adjourned at 8:57