Cavendish to be under water conservation notice Filtering media must be replaced at water plant

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC

On Monday night, Aug. 12, Town Manager Brendan McNamara told the Cavendish Select Board that the town would have to issue another water conservation notice from Tuesday Sept. 3 to Monday Sept. 9 to change the filtering media at the water plant.

The work was originally slated to take place in July, but the vacuum truck needed to perform the work broke down and replacing the sand used to filter the water was postponed. McNamara explained that the work takes three to four days and during that time the town would be limited to the water in its storage tanks.

According to McNamara, Cavendish uses a very complex purification system that uses specific bacteria as well as a very coarse, brown, pebble like sand to remove very high levels of naturally occurring manganese and iron. In the past, these minerals gave the town water a bad smell and brow hue. McNamara praised the work of Randy Shimp in running the “high maintenance” system, noting that the water must be tested every day.

In the event of an emergency, like a fire, McNamara said the town would suspend the work and restart the pumps to provide water.

Streetscape appreciation

Doris Eddy and Julia Gignoux appeared on behalf of the Cavendish Streetscapes Committee to present a plaque to the town. The plaque lists the names of people who donated for flags displayed along Main Street in Cavendish and Proctorsville.

Eddy said she thought the committee had been doing a great job and asked the board if it could arrange for vo-tech students to prune the trees on The Green. Noting that students from the program had worked on the trees on the Chester Green with beautiful results, Eddy said the trees on the Green in Proctorsville need attention.

Board member George Timko said he almost had a eye poked out by a low branch.

Acting as chair, board member Mike Ripley said he would contact the head of the vo-tech program.

Updates to town plan and water ordinance

The board scheduled a public hearing for changes to the Town Plan for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12. Such changes must be approved by Australian ballot and the town is required to hold a hearing to take public comment before a vote. McNamara said he hopes to have the vote on Town Meeting Day in 2020. A draft of the plan is available here.

McNamara also alerted the board that by the next meeting, he would be putting forth a draft for a new wastewater ordinance, saying that the current ordinance dates to 1988 and, with the new aeration system almost operational, the old document is “lagging behind.”

By the same token, McNamara said, the draft ordinance provided to the town by engineering firm Weston and Sampson is huge and much of it does not apply to the situation in Cavendish. “It’s overwhelming,” said McNamara noting that there are good pieces that he will pick out and merge with the existing ordinance to create the draft.

A revision to the current wastewater ordinance will require a select board vote to adopt it.

In other business

The town continues to be without an animal control officer. McNamara said that anyone interested in taking the job should let him know.

Finally, McNamara told the board that while the sewer line that was damaged during  construction work on the Depot Street bridge has been replaced and is operational and the large steel will be arriving ahead of schedule next week, Cold River Bridges is telling him that it would be a real push to get the bridge done by the end of the year.