MILFORD – Milford Town Council members refused to approve a change order for the wastewater facility project because of an engineering error.

Ryan Braun, of Wessler Engineering, said the change order covered two items – the first was replacing a chemical tube line that froze in the severe weather and the second was a chemical tank overflow.

Braun said the line freezing was due to errors in design where they didn’t have a hot water line to keep it from freezing. Braun said Wessler was going to pay for that line at a cost of $904.75 but they added another tube as a back up and the chemical tank overflow. The total cost of the change order was $2,919.

Council President Douglas Ruch asked, “Why should we pay for something you didn’t design? When we sign on with an engineer we depend on their experience to guide us through, so why should the town of Milford pay?”

Braun said Wessler was going to pay for their error and the second line was a back up for safety. He said perhaps it should have been there in the beginning but Wessler’s stance has been if something wasn’t in the original design it’s not their responsibility.

“If we had it in the original design the contractor’s bid would’ve been higher,” Braun explained.

They debated at length with Ruch not budging, although council member Robert Cockburn thought Braun explained it reasonably, and he said if the council would’ve paid for it if it was in the design originally, then they should pay for it. The items are already installed. Joellen Free agreed with Ruch. Braun said he’d take their dissatisfaction and opinion back to Wessler.

This action also caused a modification to pay application #13 to Mason Engineer. They crossed out the change order amount and approved paying $21,616.

GIS System Approved

Michael DeMory, of Thirty Nine Degrees North, gave a demonstration of Geographic Information System software for the council. He said the software was developed by ESRI; the company which he said “invented GIS.”

DeMory said they could set up four maps – cemetery, water, storm water and wastewater to help keep track of and maintain all the town’s underground assets. He said with the GIS online, if public works superintendent Steve Marquart was at a conference he could send information back to the office.

“From here it’s however far down the rabbit hole you want to go,” he said, explaining that they could set up viewer accounts for the council so they could see what’s on the system but couldn’t edit it. He said they could add tree assessments, whatever they desired. DeMory said they’d train Marquart and offer continuing technical support.

Marquart said, “I’m just trying to eliminate the guesswork I inherited” and asked Braun if this would be of assistance to Wessler’s when they engineer projects for the town and Braun said it would. Marquart reminded the council it will also be required to have an asset management plan to get grants in the future.

Free said, “I think it’s time to do something like this.”

The council approved Steve’s recommendation to purchase the GIS system at a cost of $12,902.50 with $7,015 to Seiler for the hardware, $5,387.50 to Thirty Nine Degrees North for the software and $500 for an iPad mini tablet.

Sewer Rate Ordinance

The council approved advertising the new sewer rate ordinance. Clerk-treasurer Tricia Gall said they’d be advertising at the rate of $50.07 as recommended by H J Umbaugh for what they’d need to maintain and also by the town council attorney Jay Rigdon.

Ruch said the council was of the consensus that the rate would be more in the neighborhood of $46.50 for an average bill. Gall said the study showed they’d need about $38,000 a year out of another fund.

Cockburn said in the past “We shot ourselves in the foot because we didn’t raise it enough – are we doing that again?”

Free said in the past they cut it in half and they weren’t doing so this time. A public hearing was set for the May meeting.

In other business, the council:

• Swore in three of four officers being added to the police department – Eric Kelley, Joe Denton and Sergio Soto.

• Renewed Chore Time Brock’s tax abatement.

• Accepted a certificate of substantial completion on the wastewater facility.

• Approved updating electrical panels by Middlebury Electric at a cost of $1,817.

• Approved the purchase of a 2019 Dodge Durango for police department from Button at a cost of $36,927, including upfitting for police package.

• Approved paying Cop Gear $585 for radio already installed in a 2010 vehicle.

• Approved an amendment to the salary ordinance for police personnel.

• Approved ordering buoys (in place of ropes) at a cost of $2,169.13 including shipping from E. Lifeguard in Florida.

• Approved increasing discretionary spending by department heads from $500 to $1,000.

• Approved street closings for Milford Fest as the same as last year.