By Mary Macedo, Neighb News Correspondent
At its meeting on Monday 1/11 the Fairhaven Board of Public Works hired for an open position in the Highway Department, discussed fiscal year 2022 budgets for all the BPW departments, and decided to ask Town Meeting to put the Tree Department under the jurisdiction of the BPW.
All board members were in attendance with Cameron Durant and Marcus Ferro joining via Zoom.
The board first interviewed Sean Mitchell for Heavy Motor Equipment Operator for the Highway Department. BPW Superintendent Vinnie Furtado explained that he and Highway Superintendent John Charbonneau felt that Mr. Mitchell was the best candidate for the position. Mr. Furtado said that Mr. Mitchell currently does not have his CDL license, but is in school in New Hampshire studying for it.
Mr. Furtado suggested that the board hire Mr. Mitchell with the stipulation that he gets his CDL license before the end of May.
Mr. Mitchell explained to the board via Zoom that he grew up in Fairhaven and shortly after high school joined the Marine Corps, and was deployed to Iraq two times. After the Marines he worked in general construction for 10 years. He told the board he is currently in school getting his heavy equipment license and hopefully his CDL license soon.
Mr. Mitchell said he has always wanted to return to Fairhaven and give back to the town.
Vice-Chairperson Robert “Hoppy” Hobson said he was very impressed with Mr. Mitchell being a Marine veteran and a Fairhaven resident, adding that those two attributes put Mr. Mitchell high on the list.
Mr. Hobson said he is ok with waiting until May for Mr. Mitchell to get the license.
Board member Frank Coelho thanked Mr. Mitchell for his service and said that he and Mr. Hobson are also veterans, noting that veterans have priority. Mr. Coelho said he has no problem hiring Mr. Mitchell as long as he gets his license. Board members Cameron Durant and Marcus Ferro both agreed.
The board voted unanimously to hire Mr. Mitchell with the stipulation that he get his CDL by May 31, 2021.
In another the matter the board met with each department superintendents to discuss the FY22 budgets.
The board first met with Sewer Department Superintendent Linda Schick. She explained the budget had a few small increases with salaries, tools, and equipment repairs.
The board joked about throwing Ms. Schick a parade when she retires at the end of June 2021.
Mr. Hobson and the other board members brought up the issues and the cost of the digester. Mr. Hobson asked if Ms. Schick had any suggestions on what to do with it, since it now sits dormant.
Mr. Furtado explained that they are looking to see what can be done with the digester once the new plant is built. He said he is going to discuss options with the engineers. Ms. Schick suggested that the board have a cost benefit analysis done.
BPW Chairperson Brian Wotton said if the digester has parts they can use great, but the board was getting off topic and needed to continue discussing the budgets.
The board then met with Highway Superintendent John Charbonneau, who first discussed the Park Department which has no significant increases other than salaries.
Mr. Hobson asked Mr. Charbonneau’s opinion on the Park Department taking over the Tree Department.
Mr. Charbonneau said he would be retiring soon, but he agreed that the Tree Department is a problem. He said there have been a lot of issues with things not getting done that fall under the jurisdiction fo the Tree Department. He said he believed it would be a good idea if the Park Department took it over.
Mr. Hobson said he thought they should hire two employees in the Park Department to help with trees.
Mr. Furtado said the Parks Department has two projects coming up. They are asking for $90,000 to do the first section of the bike path from Weeden Road to the Mattapoisett line. They are also asking for $600,000 to pave the Town Beach parking lot.
Mr. Charbonneau said paving the beach parking lot is well worth the money because of how hard the parking lot is to maintain.
Mr. Charbonneau said the Highway Department budget stayed relatively the same.
Mr. Furtado said they will be asking for $400,000 towards roadwork, and the BPW will choose the roads later in the year.
The board next met with Water Department Superintendent Jeffrey Furtado, who said the budget mostly broke even.
Mr. Hobson asked about the new automatic water meter reading system. Mr. (Jeff) Furtado explained that the employees will be trained by an outside contractor on the new system. He said the meters are only read/billed twice a year, but they will be switching to four times a year.
Mr. (Vinnie) Furtado said they are hoping to bill four times a year, but probably will not be able to do that until 2023. He said the new system will be able to detect leaks, tampering etc., daily. He said the system is very user friendly.
In another matter Mr. Furtado discussed the Sanitation Department budget. Both Mr. Wotton and Mr. Hobson had questions about leaf pickup and town barrel pickup, but they agreed to move that discussion to the next meeting.
Mr. Furtado also announced that they had to close the BPW building to the public on January 11 due to a few employees testing positive for COVID. He said he also directed the clerical staff to work from home, they had the whole building deep cleaned.
Mr. Furtado also told the board he spoke with the engineering company about the independent study of BPW that the board has discussed at several meetings. He said he told the engineer that the study needs to be scaled down and explained what exactly the board wanted. Mr. Furtado said he though the study would still cost around $4000 or $5000. He will have the proposal for the next meeting.
Mr. Furtado also reported that an engineering study was done on Blue Point Road because there were a lot of accidents. He said they were approved to put stop signs there.
Mr. Furtado also informed the board that they have received a one million dollar grant from the state to repair Bridge Street from Route 6 to Mill Road.
Back to the Tree Department, Mr. Hobson asked if they would be putting in an article at Town meeting to take it over.
Administrative Assistant Becky Vento noted that they would be talking about the Tree Department in executive session, which was noted on the agenda.
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