Meeting Minutes January 13 2009

Minutes of the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association Board of Directors Meeting
January 13 2009

Board Members Present:
Gerald Budgar, Bob Reckman, Tim Fisher, Gloria Parker, Fredrick Zimnoch, Madeline Blanchette, Joanne Mackiewicz, Jim Nash, Marianna McKim, Lisa DePiano

Board Members Not Present:
Lola Reid, Owen Freeman-Daniels, Phil Sullivan

Minutes of the December 2008 meeting approved.
Treasurers’ Report :
1. No expenses since last meeting
2. No dues have been received since last meeting.
3. Balance in FSB no interest checking: $716.86 (check cleared)
4. List Serve for Ward3ab = 153 members.
Jerry gave an update on the Fairgrounds grant application:
The Board approved by email a letter supporting the city’s application for state money to complete the permit process for Fairgrounds construction. The letter has been sent to the state.
Bob provided additional detail about the Fairgrounds work:
The Fairgrounds Board has privately raised about $100k and will soon have all the permits in place. They have $4million grant from state for construction, but not design. In the spring, they plan to repair the riding rinks off Fair Street, and will need money for more architectural plans. The first stage is to take down the horse barns and replace them with three new 100-stall barns. They hope to get this done by summer of 2010. The entire reconstruction project is projected to be about $40 million. The Fairgrounds board open to becoming more involved with the neighborhood and the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association.
Jerry informed the Board about Lola’s scheduling conflict.
The Board voted that the 3b alternate will be asked to take Lola’s seat until Lola can return.
Jerry asked for an update on the Candidates Forum:
The committee for the forum will begin activities now that the national election is past. The committee is waiting for candidates to officially emerge. The number of candidates for the various open seats and offices will determine the makeup of the forum.
Laptop search:
Jim and Fred working on finding one.
Nominating/Membership committee report:
Jim: An interested candidate for the secretary position has been indentified and will hopefully accept it soon.
Committee on Bridge Street School:
The city’s Strategic Planning Committee report is almost finished. Indications are that it does not recommend closing a school, but offers little in terms of long-term strategies to deal with the budget problem. The Ward 3 Committee on Bridge Street School will analyze the report and recommend next steps for the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association’s participation in the situation.
Sustainability Committee:
1--Jim will apply for a position on the rezoning committee. Letter from board to support Jim’s application was approved with minor changes. It will be printed and signed by Jerry on behalf of the board.
2—Notre Dame presentation. (NCTV web page has presentation on it).The Northampton Design Forum will decide where to go from this point. It plans to:
A) Suggest that the rezoning committee recommend form-based zoning instead of use-based zoning, leading to practical ordinance changes.
B) Help the public and planning board consider other planning and zoning models.
C) Continue promoting public education and involvement. The Notre Dame exercise was a success because it tapped into the energy in the community for addressing and thinking about planning issues.
3—Northern Avenue Development Project:
The Sustainability Committee worked on how the Board should approach this issue. It relied on the language of Sustainable Northampton. Concern is that the discussion and stand-off between neighbors and a developer is not referencing the Sustainability Plan the way it should be. Sustainable Northampton should be a more open process. Owen and Jim compiled a document that assesses the situation and lists the questions that should be asked. A public forum was proposed; a sub-committee was created to draft a plan for such a forum and return to the board via email for approval in the next 2 weeks.
4—Zero lot line:
Planning board didn’t have enough info about zero lot line. Will take it up at second public meeting in March. Map showed properties that had met the criteria for zero lot line. Map didn’t identify properties that it would really affect. There are many pre-existing lots and structures. The Board discussed how the notification of these proposed zoning changes did not follow best practices guidelines.

Traffic Calming:
Canvassing of the neighborhood continues in an effort to inform residents of the city's Traffic Calming Program, to have residents sign the petition for the city to do a traffic calming study in the targeted neighborhood, and to sign up people for the pace car program. Signatures collected go to the Transportation and Parking Commission, along with other pertinent materials.

Exit 19
Next month Mass Hwy will sign contract with consultant; a month after that advisory committee will meet to discuss next steps. No new major developments, but keeping the committee active.

Legislative Update from Bob:
Proposal introduced to raise the littering fine in the Meadows.

Best Practices:
Draft report issued. Feb 11 at 7pm at JFK is the last public forum. More feedback asked for, review the document and the bullet points. How to implement the recommendations? City council is expected to take up recommendations.
Website for city board and committee minutes meetings. Volunteers needed to follow a city board and post minutes as they happen. The goal is to fill the void of information.

New business:
Fred gave a report on the pump station:
The Hocknam Road DPW facility has two separate functions.
1. Treating sewage from sanitary sewer system and pumping treated sewage into CT River.
2. A pumping station to pump accumulating water from the storm sewer system to CT River.
NOTE: The storm sewers and sanitary sewer system for Northampton are for the most part separate systems. Storm sewers are covered with a grate while sanitary sewers are covered with a manhole cover.
Pumping Station
This system was put in place in 1940 after the Great Hurricane of September of 1938. It’s basically a flood pound next to the sewerage treatment plant, a pumping station next to the dike with discharge pipes into the CT River. There are three large pumps (50kgals/min) each with an engine and one small pump run by an electric motor that pump storm water into the CT River when the river is too high for the storm water to naturally drain. The system has a back up gasoline generator that supplies electricity if there is an electrical power failure.
The 3 large pumps are original equipment. Each has an engine. One is an 11 to 12 year old diesel which cost $100K and the two remaining are Sterling engines for which parts are no longer available since the manufacturer has been out-of-business for years.
The pumps in the storm water pumping station run when there is storm water accumulating AND the river level at the pump station is above 105.5 feet. You can view the CT water level on your computer by going to the DPW site and clicking on Flood Control. Then choose the CT River Gauging Station NHMM3 to see the water level at the Pumping Station.

As reported to Bob Reckman by George Brehm “on clear days one pump might pump only every several hours to keep up with the constant storm water flow but I've seen times during severe storms where all three pumps were at full capacity. It is essential the City replaces the two remaining obsolete gasoline engines as well as the backup gasoline electric generator”.

Regular maintenances of pumps, pump engines, and backup gasoline generator is done by in-house personnel. When pumps are running the pumping station is manned 24 hours a day with two 12 hour shifts. While the pumps and two engines are nearly 70 years old they are only run when storm water cannot flow by gravity into the CT River. The problem is that if either Sterling engine breaks it can’t be repaired.

Consequences of Pump Failure

Failure to pump storm water would result in storm water accumulating in the storm water flood pond. More water would then spill over to areas on our side of the dike. As conditions worsen George thinks a very severe flood with failed pumps might have the possibility of knocking out the sewerage treatment plant.

George said that there has no money budgeted to replace the old engines in 2009 budget. And there is no line item for an RFQ in any future budget.

Additionally, George added that the stop-locks at dike crossing are old and composed of creosote soaked oak planks which would surely leak if used during a flood.

---Minutes submitted by Tim Fisher