That is what most of us should be doing at this point in the on going town wide mandatory water ban. We should also hold our breath because we are only an electrical switch or broken pump or even a broken pipe away from losing all of our town wide water production. With the Mill Pond treatment plant still down we are currently relying on the Vine Brook plant as well as a one million gallon a day connection with Lexington to meet our daily needs. If the Vine Brook plant gets knocked off line for any reason it will be a political and economic catastrophe for the town.
So far the Board of Selectmen and town management have been long on fretting and very short on explanations as to how we have found ourselves in this situation.The Board has responded with mandatory restrictions and turned the Police Department into water enforcement police while blaming residents for lack of enthusiastic compliance for a problem that is primarily of the board's and management's own making.
The problem begins in January when town meeting approved a $400,000 bond issue to finish the upgrades at the plant. The project was bid and initial estimates were that the work would be done during the peak of spring rainy periods to minimize impact and that the plant would be back online by May 1.
The central question that needs to be asked and thoroughly examined by the Ways and Means Committee or perhaps a special committee is how on earth could the town's water consultant, the new DPW superintendent, Town Administrator and Board of Selectmen have allowed the Mill Pond Plant to be taken off line without complete assurance that it would be back in production on the stated date?
Explanations are sketchy at this point but it seems that once the contract was bid and the work began, one of the sub contractors doing the electrical work found that he could not get the parts necessary to complete the job. If we were fixing a window or a truck or even a building such a situation can be worked around. When you are talking about one of the primary responsibilities and reasons town government exists that is another matter entirely.
If this were the private sector and we were soup factory as an example and the leadership of the factory planned an upgrade to the water processing facility needed to produce the soup and that project was delayed for 40 days beyond the projected completion and 40 days of soup sales were lost as a result what do you think would happen to those responsible?
This piece is not about pointing fingers at individuals. It is more about how and why this happened and how we can prepare to prevent such re-occurrences in the future. It is also about openness on the part of the board of selectmen.
None of the basic questions regarding this event have been answered or even broached publicly. What are the costs associated with this failure by the contractor? How much money in water sales has been lost? What is the total cost of water purchases from Lexington likely to be. How about the cost to the police department for diversion of man power from crime to water enforcement?
Is there legal recourse against the people who have brought this upon us and are they insured against such incompetence?
Even more importantly, from the perspective of the homeowner, has there been measurable costs associated with the loss of lawn improvements or garden and flower planting?
Perhaps these questions will be addressed or perhaps the new deadline of July 10 will be met without further incident and the selectmen will breathe a sigh of relief and hope the whole issue passes quietly into history.
