Public Works Pipeline

from Construction Outlook March 2021

Safety Corner

An IntervIew wIth ChrIs BouChArd dPw dIreCtor – town of south hAdley

Chris Bouchard graduated from Westfield High School and worked as a mechanic/fleet manager for several large area contractors. He started his public works career in the Town of Longmeadow in 1999, where he worked for four years. Chris then accepted a position with the Town of Otis and worked there for 10 years, where he became Highway Superintendent and also earned his grade 4 wastewater operator’s license. In 2013, he accepted the Highway Superintendent position with the Town of Becket and worked there for seven years. Most recently in April of 2020, he began his current job with the Town of South Hadley as Director of Public Works. Chris has found the Public Works field to be very rewarding and challenging, where someone can grow and advance their career through hard work and effort. He thanks his peers in Berkshire County Highway Association, Tri County Highway Association, MHA, BayState Roads Program, and the MADOT D-1 State Aid office for helping him to grow and advance professionally.

Can you give us a brief description of

South Hadley regarding the make-up of the DPW, population, and infrastructure statistics?

South Hadley is a small town with a population of 17,300. As Public Works Director I oversee and coordinate six departments including Highway, Parks, Tree Department, Solid Waste, Administration, and the Water Pollution Control Division.

We take care of about 85 miles of road and over 100 miles of sewer lines and storm drains. The water system below our streets is managed by South Hadley’s 2 Water Districts, but the sewer lines, that service about 95% of the properties in Town is the DPW’s responsibility. We also maintain and operate five pump stations and our 4.2MGD Treatment Facility, built in 1960 and expanded in 1980, which is located, through inter-municipal agreements, in Chicopee. Above ground our DPW team takes care of 18 sports fields, playgrounds, and parks in addition to all public properties and the Town Common. South Hadley continued on page 43

has a transfer station, recycle center, and a capped landfill under our care and the DPW oversees curbside collection for 6,500 residences. We take care of trees and landscaping on public property and if you want to remove a tree you probably have to see us too. All of these operations are run quite efficiently by a talented (and very busy) staff of 25 DPW employees.

What do you currently see as the most pressing infrastructure needs for the Town in the next few years, and is there a 5-year Asset Management Plan in place to address those needs?

The most visible needs are always to repair and rebuild the roads and sidewalks, but we cannot forget about the piping infrastructure that is below the roadway and we try to restore roadways from the bottom up whenever possible. Annual budgeting for maintenance of roads ie., crack seal/surface treatments is always a must to keep our roads ahead of the curve and extend their lives. Like most DPW’s there never seems to be enough funding to tackle all of our project needs, but through careful planning and using the right road treatments we can set a course for success in the long term. We have a five year plan that we are currently updating and trying to incorporate into a single GIS platform for tracking all of our infrastructure assets to better forecast and predict needs so that we may coordinate with non-town utilities and vice versa.

How does your municipality normally fund infrastructure projects? Does the Town utilize the SRF Loan Program through MassDEP for water infrastructure projects?

South Hadley normally covers capital projects through annual budgets or bonds and grants i.e., Chapter 90, Massworks, Complete Streets, MVP, and DER. I have not used SRF yet, but I am looking into the program as a potential funding source for a couple of sewer projects that are in the planning stages.

Congratulations on your recent election as President of the Massachusetts Highway Association. Can you tell us what MHA will be focusing on in 2021?

MHA has been busy continuing to push increasing Chapter 90 funds and a multi-year release. We also have been busy working on the Mutual Aid program that will be rolled out this spring. We have had a few virtual events and given members a look at mutual aid and how it will work and also had some GIS workshops to show the different ways that it can help in Public Works. We are also continuing to plan events for 2021 and are hopeful we will get to go back to in-person events soon. I look forward to seeing my MHA members and meeting UCANE members as well. 2020 was a challenging year for all of us in public works as we strived to safely provide the vital daily services to the community that are sometimes taken for granted. We are Public Works Strong and will use 2020 as a building block/tool for the future.

UCANE’s Annual Industry Directory is distributed to key officials like yourself in every City and Town in Massachusetts. Do you find the information useful when considering material purchases, equipment rentals, and emergency repairs? I find the directory helpful to research vendors and products that I may not know about or to find out who my contact is when I do reach out for goods and services. n