Finance Committee - 2/21/2018 Page 15
Mayor Donchess
There is along history here. Briefly, | think to summarize, probably around 2014 it was discovered that a
previous superintendent had not been really properly managing the whole plant which is now about 30 years
old. There’s a lot of older equipment in there. The secondary treatment went in about 30 years ago. When
that was discovered, former Alderman Deane, former Alderman Siegel, and Lisa Fauteux, Director of Public
Works, began to focus on this plant very extensively. We had an audit review by DES. We brought in
engineering firms, and they made a lot of recommendations regarding upgrades, equipment replacement,
different procedures. As a result the operation of the plant has been improved considerably. There were some
problems with the chemistry in the plant as well. It’s just beyond belief the amount of stuff that is out there from
multi-million items to $20,000 items. There’s been a lot of replacement at the sewage treatment plant. This is
in a way kind of cleanup work. $20,000 is a lot of money, but compared to the other money we’ve spent at the
plant it is miner. | think now we still have a little work to do but the system and the plant has been upgraded in
a major way over the last four or five years | would say. You probably have looked back and seen some of
those reports.
Alderman Caron
| agree, Mayor. It was kind of shocking when we found all these deficits because this plant is 24/7. If anything
happened, it would be catastrophic for everyone and especially for the people who live in my ward at that area.
I’m glad to see we’re putting toghetrer a format so maintenance can be looked at a little bit more often so we’re
not coming in with $2 million price tags. This is a lot of money. It’s almost $150,000 for this, but | would rather
see it done now than have an emergency happen and we’re really in a pickle. Welcome aboard, and | think
you're right Mayor, we’re heading in the right direction for the sewer plant.
Mayor Donchess
Mr. Boucher came from Milford where he operated the plant there for a number of years. Now we have the
benefit of his experience.
MOTION CARRIED
From: Dan Kooken, Purchasing Manager
Re: SCADA Upgrades Project — Construction Change Order #1 (Value: $114,000)
MOTION BY ALDERWOMAN KELLY TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND APPROVE CHANGE ORDER #1
TO THE CONTRACT WITH ELECTRICAL INSTALLATIONS, INC. IN THE AMOUNT OF $114,000. FUNDS
ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT 169, WASTEWATER; WERF; SCADA
ON THE QUESTION
Mr. Boucher
The SCADA system is a program that allows the operators to control all the functions of the facility, all the
equipment and allows us to see things and control them from a centralized location. This system needs to be
upgraded. The software needs to be upgraded. The PLCs need to be upgraded. Electrical Installations was
awarded the contract. The original engineer on this project was Woodard & Curran, which they are no longer.
They were going to do part of this start up. They are also a company that does the computer software
programming. They were going to take over a portion of this work. Now that we aren’t using them as the
engineers on this project, we’re going to use Weston and Sampson, we’re asking that Ell do the part that
Woodard & Curran was originally going to do. They are doing it for a lower cost. The original cost that
Woodard & Current was going to do it for was $173,000. We're going into this at $114,000. This is tying and
testing the system once it is all installed. The benefits of having them do it is they were the original designers
and installers of some of the older program that was in the facility and have also done a lot of work within the
