Town of Raynham, MA -

The Highway Department has thirteen full-time employees, two part-time employees and two seasonal employees. Of the thirteen full-time employees, five are assigned to Maintenance of Public Ways; two to Solid Waste, three to Parks and Grounds and the remaining four are support staff. The support staff is made up of the Superintendent, General Foreman, Public Works Specialist and Mechanic. Our part-time employee is assigned to solid waste has been cut for budget reasons. We still have three seasonal employees working for Parks & Grounds and Maintenance of Public Ways who perform various projects such as but not limited to; mowing of parks and grounds, litter pickup on streets and around the transfer/recycling facility, cutback of brush along the roadways during the summer, facility maintenance and patching of roads. The use of part time employees is very important and cost-effective.

The MORE Grant paid for the entire road completed in 2010 at the Raynham Woods Commerce Center. Terms of the Grant funding required that our project be completed by the end of June. It was decided to make substantial improvements to Raynham Woods Commerce Center roads because of the condition of the roads and the economic growth new roads would promote. Additional conditions of the grant were that the Town would replace a culvert in Hill Street. This requirement was important to the economic development of the park because this improvement would encourage and allow build-out of remaining space because the drainage improvements would correct flooding conditions that park development was causing on Hill Street.

The Hill Street Culvert was designed and permitted by Nitsch Engineering of Boston for approximately $65,000.00. The project was advertised, bid and awarded to Lopes Construction, of Taunton MA for the lowest bid of $205,252.50. The final road restoration and paving will be accomplished by Aggregate Industries estimated at $64,000.00. The culvert is complete after the June Grant deadline because it was funded through chapter 90 funding for an amount of $268,880.23 and was not held to the conditions of the grant.

This was the year of many emergency emergency repairs due to a storm I am not sure how to define. I have been told that a 100 year storm was when we received 5-1/2" of rain in 24 hours. This spring we received three of these storms back to back. This storm has caused damage to town infrastructure at numerous locations throughout town. Repairs to this infrastructure had to be funded by our only remaining funds source, chapter 90. (State Aid Funding) This requirement caused reassessment of project priorities. As of this writing The Town has only $61,000.00 remaining in uncommitted funding and our legislature has not yet voted on the next road bond so we do not know the amount of our next apportionment or when it will arrive.

Road Settlement and Warping at Various Locations: As the result of the May storm and the high water table it cause not only resulted in flooding of many of our home but it also caused damage to roads, specifically over old utility trenches. The warping of pavement was extreme and cause hazardous conditions to the traveling public and especially our public safety vehicles traveling to emergencies. The locations were: Orchard Street; several locations on Leonard and Forest Streets; Judson Street; Church Street and Pleasant Street. The repair of these roads consisted of grinding the existing pavement down to the gravel base, adding gravel material where needed and grade and compact, following sub-grad preparations pavement was replace to match existing thickness in two lifts of binder and top. In areas less than four inches thickness existed, four inches of material was replace. This work was accomplished with G. Lopes under an existing contract for $108,782.00 and funded with chapter 90 with 75% of total expenditure reimbursed by FEMA. (Federal Emergency Management Agency of Home Land Security)

Pleasant Street: Even before the storm caused additional damage to the pavement this street was in need of repair due to extreme cracking and was scheduled to repair following completion of Thrasher Street. This road had a utility trench that was close to 20 years old and never settled until now. The road was in such bad condition it was felt it would not last through a substantial snow and ice season. The Board of Selectmen agreed to adjust priorities and make road improvement to Pleasant Street from White Street to the Bridgewater town line this year and before Thrasher Street. This work consisted of the following: Trench repair under the road settlement project; milling 2 inches of existing pavement, patching of break through location, stone seal entire milled surface with 3/8" emulsion stone seal; level where needed and placement of 2" compacted thickness of pavement with berm curb and traffic markings. This work was funded through chapter 90 for $310,201.81 plus a $70,000.00 road bond that was defaulted by developer who installed sewer in the the road. The State DOT paid for the milling and paving of approaches to State bridges under their contract that turned out was the same contractor the town had.

Carver Street Culvert: This project was emergency project caused by the May storm due to surging water washing out a 2 " diameter stone culvert and causing a 6 foot void under east bound lane. That lane of the road had to be closed and repairs made immediately. Work was performed by G. Lopes under an existing contract. Work consisted of replacement of stone culvert with a 2' diameter reinforced concrete pipe and pre-engineered block head walls on both ends of the pipe. Pipe was incased in concrete to avoid any settlement due to the fact the pipe had to be place directly over sewer main. The cost of this work was $31,972.33 and funded by chapter 90 with possible 80% reimbursement from Federal Highway Funds.

Leonard Street Culvert: This project was another emergency project caused by the May storm due to surging water washing out both headwalls and portions of pipe was destroyed. The reason for emergency action is because the drain pipe was directly over sewer pipe and we could not risk the loss or environmental damage caused by the breakage of the sewer main. We also could not risk the closing of road because of the large number of residents using this road to access their property. Work was performed by G. Lopes under an existing contract. Work consisted of replacement of the RCC pipe, both headwalls with pre-engineered blocks, guard rail and paved roadway. The cost of this work was $19,640.00 and funded by chapter 90 with 75% reimbursement from FEMA.

Oak Street Culvert: This was another emergency project caused by the May storm but discovered after the FEMA reimbursement opportunities has closed. What caused this to be an emergency is the collapse of both up and down stream head walls and damage to drain pipes under the road. Pipes were extremely old and deteriorated. This damaged structure threaten additional damage to the sewer main and closing of a heavily use road. This drain system was confined between the pavement and sewer main. Work was performed by G. Lopes under existing contract. Work consisted of replacing existing RCC pipe, removal of a dead tree near work, installation of pre-engineered block headwall, guardrail, and restoration of pave surfaces to existing thickness and stabilization of disturbed embankments. The cost of the project was $25,000.00 and paid for by chapter 90 funding with no reimbursement opportunities.

Traffic Painting: Painted approx 8400 lineal feet of crosswalk lines & approx 1200 stop bars, for an approximate expenditure of $18,32210. Note: Highway Dept. changed painting schedule to include crosswalks and stop bars in the fall before school started and street marking in the spring after streets are swept in order to get longer life out of paint lines. Snow and Ice operations wears hard on painted lines

(c) Jackson Street Washout: This project was another emergency project caused by the May storm but we discovered long after FEMA left town. What caused this project to be and emergency repair was a complete collapse and washout of a catch basin with surrounding soils to involve a 3-1/2 foot diameter tree. In the event this tree fell it would have closed the only access to a development, wiped out power lines to that development or landed on nearby homes. It also has an extremely deep washout on discharge end which was a hazard to children in the area. Work was performed by G. Lopes under an existing contract. Work consisted of the following: replacing the catch basin, stabilizing the surrounding soils, installing a discharge pipe with with erosion controls, backfill and stabilize soil embankments. The cost of the project was $12,165.00 and paid by infrastructure article with no reimbursement opportunities.

Leaky Underground Fuel Tanks: This project has had a minor setback with regards to getting the final release from DEP. One well at the tank site shown an elevated level of Aliphatics and Aromatics which exceeded the GW-1 Standard. We were so close to closing it out when this sample came up. Even though this condition causes “No Substantial Hazard” it does not qualify for “No Significant Risk” designation with the DEP. The “No Risk” designation would have discontinued future requirements for groundwater testing. Since we do not have that designation testing will need to continue. This elevated level is still consistent contamination issues found with unlined landfill even though this area is slightly up gradient of landfill groundwater flow. It is therefore been decided to incorporate the future site monitoring with the landfill ground water sampling program in order to reduce sampling cost. Unless and until higher levels of contamination appear the Town is now forced to continue testing another 5 years. This process also keeps the DEP file open so the Town will have to continue to pay the $800/year compliance fee.

Maintenance of the closed landfill belongs to the Town. Maintenance can be classified into two categories (1) routine maintenance, and (2) damage repair. Routine maintenance covers those activities that include but are not limited to mowing, removal of condensate, sampling and analysis of ground water, landfill gas and wellhead adjustments. Damage repairs include but are not limited to the following: replacement of vegetative cover where earth has shifted; adjustment of gas pipes where they have settled; repair of liner where it has been torn; and addressing gas migration and ground water pollution issues.

It is an unfortunate reality that a closed landfill requires maintenance and that work has an associated cost to the taxpayer. In the event that issues arise, the Town has virtually no choice but to respond immediately. Typically any correspondence or action with DEP contains a time line with penalties. In the event that unexpected maintenance comes up the Town needs to be prepared by having a dedicated account set aside for just this possibility? Article 10 of November 9, 2009 STM voted to establish a stabilization account for Solid Waste issues and facilities. This account could be use to make these emergency repairs. There is approximately $380,000.00 in that account as of passage of the article.

We continue to experience problems with flare shut down. The Town has an air quality permit from the State DEP for the flare. When the flare is not lit one of two things is happening. (1) Landfill gas is being vacuumed out of the landfill and disbursed into the atmosphere and not burned. This is in violation of our air permit and it could cause odor problems. (2) When the flare is not working and the air pump is shut down, this causes a build up of gas under the liner. Under this scenario and over time gas will migrate from under the liner around the perimeter of the landfill. As soon as gas is detected off the landfill site it becomes a violation of our landfill permit. Locating a leak some were in the miles of gas collection piping that is buried in the landfill vegetative cover is difficult and could be very expensive. The flare shut down has been an increasing problem during the winter months. The shut off system installed last year keeps emission in check, but off-site monitoring wells need to be checked more often to detect gas migration.

The Solid Waste Division of the Highway Department has under gone some changes to operations and funding mechanism. Due to financially difficulty, the Solid Waste Division budget was reduced approximately 10% in an effort of keep operational cost within the generated Solid Waste revenues. To accomplish this goal, the cost of operations had to be decreased, and revenue sources increased. This was accomplished by reduction department staff by one person and reducing the days of operation from six days per week to five days per week. Revenues were increased by raising permit stickers to $70 per car and Bag Tags to $2.00 per tag. These actions still left a projected deficit in the budget of approximately $20,000.00.

To address this potential deficit, the Town entered into negotiations with Waste Management for changes to the Waste Management contract of which we are 10 years into the 20 year contract. As of this writing, discussion is ongoing and we are hopeful it will result in some positive changes to address the hazardous waste requirement of the contract and will control Raynham disposal cost to a level of accepted revenues.

The Transfer/Recycling Facility at 1555 King Philip Street site remains fully operational. Our recycling effort has decreased in tonnage this year approximately 35%. This is significant and is due to changes in the paper and corrugated overseas markets. The down turn in the economy and apathy among residents for recycling continues to affect the overall tonnage. Values of recyclable materials continue to change as our revenue picture indicates. Stay the course and continue to recycle: it continues to avoid disposal costs of $80.00 per ton and provides revenues, saves energy, and natural resources!

A bag and tag program was instituted at the Transfer/Recycling Facility on January 1, 2000. This program was modeled after 75 other Massachusetts communities and has provided the same positive results in Raynham as the other communities. The State continues to push for more recycling, including food waste recycling. The revenues generated by the access sticker and the disposal tag will help to cover a portion of the operational cost of providing these facilities while the host fee covers the cost of disposal.

Raynham is recycling 53% of total waste tonnage, but that is someway skewed due to the fact that those residents who use contract hauler are also recycling with us. This year’s numbers depict a 24% increase in tonnage for MSW and 8% decrease in C&D. The percentage is also influenced by solid waste tonnage being significantly down and more residents now the Town’s recycling disposal site. Revenues for recycling are strong for metals, steady for paper and soft on most of the other commodities. Since metals are up in value less material is coming our way due to efforts of other do that recycling. Municipal solid waste volumes are up significantly at 24%, which we believe is a move by residents to the town’s less expensive disposal option. When one takes yard-waste out of the equation recycling comities are up slightly at 6.7%.

	Unit	2007	2008	2009	2010	Remarks
Newspaper	Tons	178.11	124	101.665	84.01	Delivered to recycling by ton
Mixed paper	Tons	152.10	156	139.27	142.48	Delivered to recycling by ton
Metal	Tons	162.51	159	189.9	137.45	Delivered to recycling by ton
Redeemable bottles & cans	Tons	X	X	X	X	Being collected by Giants Football
Glass	Tons	12.93	25	90.85	99.87	Delivered to recycling by ton
Plastic	Tons	30.61	44	38.46	55.77	By ton
Cardboard	Tons	195.43	110	104	103.3	Delivered to recycling by ton
Oil Filters	Lbs.	2.0 tons	1.5	2	2	55 gallon drums
Tires	Tons	9.57	5.07	7.665	5.3	35 lbs. Per car tire
Compost	C.Y. Tons	5200 650	2539 269.05	2000 300		Leaves & grass – 200 lbs/cy dry –300 lbs/cy wet and brush 500 lb/cy
Refrigerators / AC units	tons	7.6	4.6	4.2	4.8	refrigerators @ 100 lb ea. & 85 AC units @ 50 lb ea.
Paint (latex/oil)	Gallons	676	1407 gal 8.442 T	1320 7.96 ton	1392 gal 8.3 tons	@ 12 lbs/gal
Batteries	Tons	1.4	2.3	2.032	1.96	Delivered to recycling by ton
Antifreeze	Gallons	.972	0	0		gals @ 8lb/gal
Monitors / TV’s		19.36	10.6 tons	9.09	463+186	monitors + TVs
Fluorescent Bulbs	Feet Tons	3576 .056	3792 0.059	2040 .0032 ton	1987 0.031	@ .5 oz/ foot
Waste Oil Pumped	times	1.9	3.87	4	3	1000+ gal recycled in waste oil space heater for highway garage (7.6 lbs / gal)
Total Tons Recycled		1426.69	924.38	999.68	956.08
Municipal Solid Waste [MSW]	Tons	800.23	774.85	962.852	786.77
Construction & Demolition [C&D]	Tons	371.12	364.86	335.61	355.4

Revenue	Amount In 2007	Amount in 2008	Amount in 2009	Amount in 2010
Recycling	$60,647.56	$65,112.31		$46,898.37
Sticker + Tag Sales	$126,970.00	$107,695.50 - not complete	$57,730.00 not complete	126,680
Host Fee	$109,787.13	$98,243.13	-	89,883.65
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