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Select Board approves Change Order for SCADA rebuild and reviews water grants, consent-decree priorities
Summary
At its March 2 meeting the Blandford Select Board approved Change Order 7A to continue the town’s SCADA rebuild and reviewed several water-infrastructure grants and local-match needs tied to a pending DEP consent decree.
Blandford — The Select Board on March 2 approved Change Order 7A for the town’s SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system rebuild, clearing the way for revised construction after a technical redesign of the emergency-stop circuit and hand-off auto controls.
The board approved the change order after Weston & Sampson engineers described a contractor misunderstanding that prompted a redesign intended to improve operator safety and control. J. Coury moved to approve Change Order 7A and T. Cousineau seconded; the motion was recorded as approved ('All in Favor').
Why it matters: Town staff said the SCADA revisions and related equipment work are part of a broader slate of water improvements tied to regulatory compliance. The board reviewed multiple grant awards: $80,000 from Rural Development for a raw-water inlet replacement, $290,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for ozone-system construction, and $350,000 from Rural Development for design work and water-main replacement. Staff also discussed a $1,000,000 congressional earmark that requires a local match; the minutes record the town needs to provide a 25% match, listed as $273,000, and staff said match funds could come from retained earnings, town funds or other grants.
Board members and staff said they prioritized replacing the raw-water inlet, basket strainers and installing ozone treatment to address deficiencies cited in a pending DEP consent decree. The board also discussed the choice of a storage tank type to contain treated water: town estimates presented compared a blast-fuse steel tank at about $900,000 with a concrete tank at about $1,500,000.
The meeting also flagged a separate contractor-payment dispute: staff said roughly $22,000 is outstanding on the project and that the contractor had refused to start work until paid. The group discussed preparing a professional letter to address the payment issue and the contractor’s communications about late fees; the Town Accountant was working to process the payment.
What’s next: With Change Order 7A approved, design will proceed to construction. Town staff said they will continue prioritizing projects needed to address the DEP consent decree and will return with more detailed funding and schedule proposals.
