Adams Looking to Privatize Wastewater Treatment Plant
ADAMS, Mass. — The town is looking to enter into a public-private partnership agreement to operate the wastewater treatment plant.
Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco told the Selectmen at its Wednesday workshop meeting that by October he would like to send out an request for proposals soliciting bids from private companies interested in running the plant.
"We have met with some vendors, we have done some research and we have talked to the union and at this point, I would like to go out to bid to select a vendor," Mazzucco said. "Then we will know what the numbers will be and who the vendor will be before we move forward ... I want to make sure we know what we are doing so when we go to the public we have answers."
Mazzucco said the town really can't take any action until it has selected a vendor. Once one is chosen, officials can decide if it will be beneficial to the town and to build out a contract.
He said there are only a few vendors in the state that can handle a plant as big as the one in Adams.
"There are only a handful of vendors that do facilities our size in Massachusetts," he said. "There are a lot of smaller ones that do the fully automated operations like in neighborhood treatment plants but we are too big for that."
Mazzucco said the town has been in contact with Veolia North America, which runs a number of wastewater plants in the state, about what private contracting might look like.
He said once a vendor is chosen, the Selectmen can tour other plants the vendor runs.
Mazzucco said the town would not be selling any assets but paying a company to run the facility, much like how it pays a custodial service to clean town buildings. He said the town can negotiate a deal where the vendor would have to hire all current employees at the same pay grade.
He said there should be savings because they would agree to a longer-term contract, he said this would also add stability to the budget.
Mazzucco said if the lowest bid came in over what the town currently pays to run the plant, it would be turned down.
Any agreement would also include repair amounts. If something needs to be fixed or upgraded and it's under a determined price, the vendor would pay. If it was over this threshold, the vendor would come to the town.
Mazzucco said ultimately the town will be responsible for big capital upgrades but with the stability of a long-term manager, it can continue to pay off current debt and prepare for some future capital improvements.
The town could do this now but it would only add to the debt from the 2004 upgrade. Also, the town can look at upgrading the plant so more of its functions are automated, however, this would mean reducing staff.
Mazzucco said some of the biggest savings would be in the removal of legacy costs. If wastewater treatment workers are in the private sector, the town does not have to cover health care and other costs after their retirement.
"The legacy costs are going to be huge. We had an employee that recently retired at the age of 60 and between the ages of 60 and 65 that employee will cost us $90,000 in health care," Mazzucco said. "So when we look at removing those legacy costs over time the town is going to save money."
He added that the town can easily revert back at the end of its contract if it so chooses.
Assessor George Haddad said he was worried this would lead to the town adopting a sewer fee. Mazzucco said he has no plan to adopt a sewer fee in congruence to privatizing the wastewater treatment plant. He added a change like that would need town meeting approval.
Resident Jeffrey Lefebvre asked who would be responsible for state Department of Environmental Protection fines.
Mazzucco said the vendor would be responsible unless a violation came from an issue that arose because of negligence by the town.
Selectmen John Duval and Joseph Nowak said they were concerned that the vendor could not guarantee retaining the current staff.
Mazzucco said they have to meet the same staffing mandates the town does and it should not be a problem addressing it in a contract.
He said they could fire employees, just like the town, if they are not fulfilling their responsibilities.
"If they hire our employees and they don't show up to work what do you expect them to do?" Mazzucco said. "We don't guarantee that either. No one can guarantee a job forever."
Nowak said he was concerned that they could "stack the deck" and bring in their own employees.
The Selectmen agreed many of these issues can only be hashed out after the town chooses a vendor.
Ultimately, town meeting would make this decision.
The Selectmen also agreed to change Town Hall's hours to Monday through Thursday, 8 to 5.
Six months ago, the Selectmen decided to try a four-day work week with extended hours on Thursday but found no one used the extended hours.
"From a time-keeping perspective and staff perspective that hour difference is more difficult than it otherwise would seem," Mazzucco said. "But from a customer service standpoint we are serving more people in the morning and more people in the afternoon but we aren’t seeing anyone later on. It’s a ghost town some days."
Town Clerk Haley Meczywor agreed and said she saw few people in her department during that extra hour. She added that she really heard no complaints about the switch.
"Honestly, when it first started people were coming in and thought it was great," she said. "I heard no complaints ... everyone that came in though it worked. Even the ones I thought would comment about it didn’t."
Treasurer Kelly Rice said her hours will be extended during tax season hours.
Mazzucco said there wasn't any huge savings but Town Hall did use less energy.
"I looked at just our kilowatt usage and it has been down ... not that there is a budget change or the tax rate is going to go down but we are at least seeing that we are using less energy," Mazzucco said.
The Selectmen will officially vote on at their regular meeting on Wednesday.
Tags: privatization, wastewater,
