If Dhillon would have done is home work, take the equipment list and the age and would have followed the 10 year replacement program that was in place for most equipment until recently, yearly out lay for expenses would be at a more equitable amount and would not hinder the budgets. When we need a piece of equipment on the utility side it is likely other municipal departments would need it the same time {example: the Greencastle Wastewater Treatment Plant used Antrim Township's TeleHandler for a week and we talked about sharing this piece of equipment but when we need to use it they need it as well so they bought their own loader. Also if you look at the trade in value of the equipment {John Deere 7400 tractor & loader purchase 1976 $52,000 traded 2006 for $50,000 when the Township purchased the TeleHandler}. If you let the entire inventory age, then all will need replaced at the same time. At what replacement and maintenance costs? With no trade / re-use value.
Fired Antrim Twp. workers dispute report used to oust them
Page 36 paragraph 2
When Dhillon talked about work loads and no benchmarks for the utilities department, he should have asked for this information. Those questions were not asked. Also, when Dhillon spoke with me for a total of 40 minutes, in both interviews, there were no questions asked about maintenance records. He was at the wastewater plant for 20 minutes. Charlie Goetz dropped him off. I then drove him past two lift stations and the water treatment plant. We then returned to the wastewater plant. He then left. Dhillon did not spend enough time or ask questions on the operation of the plants.
Operations manuals are at the stations and at the plants. They are used for maintenance on equipment
Page 37
Antrim provides more than limited potable water lab services to Mont Alto at their facility. We also operate their plant! Also, plant operators are cross trained for the pump stations {The Chief Plant operator is on call for all pump stations} and all employees can rebuild pumps and install them as well.
The lab tests that are listed on Dhillon's report are for wastewater only. There are no ATMA water tests or Mont Alto tests listed {this was all sent to Dhillon via an e-mail}.
These tests can not be done by dropping a sample into a bottle or solution. They require an Environmental Protection Agency standard of methods. This must be followed as well as QA (Quality Assurance) testing. Antrim spent about $ 800.00 per year for DMR-QA testing, and more lab supplies were purchased to do daily QA testing. This all takes time. Also there was no time quantified for pulling samples and setting up the samplers.
Page 39 Paragraph 3
"With low daily flows in the line the workload is somewhat questionable?" With low flows in the line we have a greater problem with greases which means more cleaning and main line maintenance {example is the 15 inch main line on Hykes Road has no grease problem because flows are high. However, in a line on Pikeside Drive where flows are low, we have a greater problem because the grease just lays and clogs the main line. This requires labor time for cleaning with proper equipment.
Page 40 Paragraph 1
Again Dhillon did not ask for a schedule for Tuesday , Wednesday or Friday. He did not ask to see maintenance reports. There is nothing in his report about the inspections done for water & sewer connections plus the main line inspections and testing that is done.
Page 40 bullet #1
We have employees cross trained. That way our Lab Technician could be off two months and operations continued uninterrupted. We did fall behind on some activities that were caught up when the Lab Technician returned to work. With a lower staff, maintenance will be compromised in the future.
Bullet # 2
We can not do lab work for others as we are not certified by PA Dept. of Environmental Protection. We ARE fully accredited to perform our own lab testing. Dhillon should have known the PA DEP regulations. Being accredited for outside lab services takes an additional 18 months for certification along with additional lab equipment which had been a long range goal if interest was there from other municipal plants.
Bullet # 4
Greencastle is a 24/7 operated plant and may not be able to operate ATMA & Mont Alto with the staff it has.
Also in this report there is nothing said about lost income from Mont Alto if we stop running their plant and the effect on the water budget.
Page 41 Bullet # 1
"Eliminate water operator and train pump operators." This would take up to two years to be done for proper PA DEP certification.
Again Dhillon did not know PA DEP regulations in that you must have two certified operators for water and wastewater and the time it would take to get certified. Nor did the Supervisors know this at the August 21, 2008 executive session.
Page 15 Paragraph 1
