An IntervIew wIth Fred CornAglIA CommIssIoner oF

Will you please provide us with some insight into your education, past experience, and history that led you into your current position?

I graduated from Taunton High School and then continued my education at Coyne Electric, Wentworth Institute, and then in the Army National Guard. I started my employment with Brockton Taunton Gas Company as a drafter and advanced through various positions, retiring after 32 years as the senior supervisor for construction and maintenance. I then worked as a Title Examiner at Wynn & Wynn for several years before I started a second career by accepting the position of street superintendent in Taunton DPW, and I was eventually promoted to Commissioner, where I have been serving for the past 18 years.

Please provide a brief description of Taunton in regards to population, area, responsibilities of the DPW, and some statistics on current infrastructure that your Department maintains within the City?

Taunton is one of the 26 gateway cities in Massachusetts, located about 40 miles south-west of Boston and 18 miles north of Providence, RI. The population is now 59,600 with a land area of about 46.7 square miles. The Taunton DPW infrastructure consists of water, wastewater, drain, trash services, streets and sidewalks, and vehicle maintenance.

The city has a wastewater treatment plant with a discharge into the Taunton River, 177 miles of sewer mains, 40 pump stations, and one combined sewer overflow. The City’s treatment plant also services the Towns of Raynham and a portion of Dighton. The plant is operated under contract with Veolia North American.

Taunton DPW has over 300 miles of city streets and 41 bridges under its jurisdiction. The city uses an asset management plan for prioritizing street work. The city is under a federal enforcement order to address ADA issues with the city sidewalks. Significant expenditures have been made over the past decade addressing the ADA related sidewalk issues.

Taunton DPW has a surface water treatment plant rated at 14 MGD located in Lakeville that it operates with city personnel. The City provides water to Taunton and Lakeville, and a smaller number of services to other abutting communities. Besides the treatment plant, the water system operates within five service zones and contains about 300 miles of pipe, five storage facilities, five pumping stations, a reservoir complex and two earthen dams. The reservoir complex is shared in part by the City of New Bedford, where they also obtain their water supply.

The Taunton DPW has an extensive MS4 program addressing the approximately 150 miles of drains. Trash collection and disposal services are contracted out. The Taunton DPW runs a convenience center accepting a variety of items and has a very active trash compliance and policing operation.

The Taunton DPW also operates a vehicle mainte -

• Pre-mark the location of intended excavation using white stakes, paint or flags.

• In MA, ME, NH and RI, notify Dig Safe® at least 72 hours in advance, not including weekends and holidays.

• In Vermont, notify Dig Safe® at least 48 hours in advance.

• Notify non-member facility owners.

• Maintain the marks placed by underground facility owners.

• Use caution and dig by hand when working within 18” of a marked facility.

• If a line is damaged, do not backfill. Notify the affected utility company immediately if the facility, its protective coating, or a tracer wire is damaged.

• Call 911 in the event of a gas leak, or if a damaged facility poses a risk to public safety.

• Know your state’s excavation requirements.

• Go to digsafe.com for educational material and current laws.

Public Works Pipeline continued from page 63 nance facility, and the fleet consists of about 100 vehicles with a full garage maintenance facility. The Taunton DPW has a Bagela asphalt recycling machine that allows city personnel to make their own mix when asphalt prices soar in the winter for pothole repairs.

What do you see as the City’s most pressing needs in regards to public works infrastructure in the next few years and is there a 5-year Asset Management Plan in place to address those needs?

The City’s capital needs are significant as the city made limited investments in the 1980s through early 2000s for repair and replacement of capital assets.

Starting about two decades ago, Enforcement actions by the MassDEP and EPA have driven significant improvements to the general condition of the wastewater system. Recent changes to EPA permit limits are now driving an additional $50 million expenditure at the WWTP for additional nitrogen removal, and some question its cost effectiveness.

The current City administration of Mayor Shaunna O’Connell has made significant additional investments in all DPW program areas both with city and ARPA funds. For example, a number of vacant positions have been filled; change out of older vehicles has occurred; new equipment has been added, i.e., a Vacuum Excavator truck for MS4 tasks, a specialty valve/vactor truck to assist with water valve exercising, valve box cleaning, and line flushing operations. We now have a remote operated slope mower for maintaining slope permit requirements issued by Dam Safety for the dams. The mayor has more than quadrupled the annual investment in road paving work. We are making progress in addressing these infrastructure needs as can be seen by the construction activity throughout the City.

How has Taunton historically funded their infrastructure projects? Does the City utilize the SRF Loan Program through MassDEP for water or sewer projects?

Taunton has used the SRF program extensively over the past two decades. The city was placed under administrative orders for wastewater that required extensive rehabilitation of the collection system. The City has spent upwards of $70 million on these efforts, and is now underway with an $86 million upgrade of the wastewater treatment plant funded exclusively with SRF funding. The City has continued on page 66

Public Works Pipeline continued from page 65 also funded an additional $30 million for replacement and upgrades of the pumping stations. Both projects will be completed in phases. We currently have Hart Engineering and Walsh Construction working with Veolia on these complex projects.

On the potable water side, the city has used SRF funding whenever it could qualify for the funding. Several millions have been borrowed in the past for the water treatment plant, the reservoir, water meters, watershed protection, and pipeline work. We currently have several water projects in the construction phase, including a $1.4 million job with UCANE member Celco Construction Corp. Recently, the City has appropriated about $6 million in ARPA funds for various water projects, which will soon be going out for bids.

The availability of Federal and State funds for Infrastructure projects is at an all-time high and looks to possibly continue that way for the next 5 years. Does Taunton DPW have some projects coming out to bid in 2023 or 2024 that will be utilizing these Federal Infrastructure funds?

Yes. The Taunton DPW and our consultants have been aggressively pursuing Federal ARPA funds and other sources of funding. Taunton’s water and sewer programs are both operated as enterprise accounts that annually provide a reasonable amount of funding for capital improvement work, and to service some of the SRF debt service. Subject to any lastminute competing budget needs, the DPW expects to continue its annual $3 million sewer rehabilitation program and the approximately $3 million annual investment into our water distribution system for 2023 and 2024. We are also under design with a new $5 million bridge project, for which a federal funded earmark was obtained for us by Congressman Auchincloss and our two Senators. The City is also likely to bid the estimated $20 million groundwater discharge facility for the wastewater treatment plant in late 2023 or 2024. n