Reports: Executive Director’s Reports

March 22, 2005

  1. Tax Status - Charlie Lyons and Toni Pollak have both advised that Jim Hunt will have primary administration policy setting responsibility for the solution of this problem. I have emailed him with a description of the urgency of our situation, and requested a meeting. He just started officially on Monday. I will follow up with him later in the week.
  2. Budget Request - Our budget request is still being considered by the administration. It has been shared with Councilor Ross, Chair of Ways and Means. The Mayor will formally submit his budget request to the Council in April. The process then generally takes to about the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
  3. Current Fiscal Year Funding - According to Patricia Garcia, the $36,500 check for additional operating funds for this fiscal year will likely be mailed out by the end of this week. According to Henry Luthin, the BWSC board voted unanimously last week to authorize a $25,000 one time contribution to the Trust. The check should go out in early April.
  4. Existing Construction Contract - Christian has spoken with NH Boring to ensure that we will get the best possible construction crew, and that they will be ready to go on April 19. He will begin the process of getting BTD permits this week. We have 59 wells to complete on this project.
  5. 114 Well Contract - We have received authorization to contract from DEP. We are finalizing the contract to get it to NH Boring for signatures and have received the PIC permits. This work will follow completion of the previous contract and will hopefully start at the end of May.
  6. 180 Well Contract - Almost all well sites have been identified. We are planning to go out for bids on this contract in May, with construction to start after completion of the 114 well contract, likely in mid-August. If we can hold to these dates and have no unanticipated weather or construction problems, we plan to complete this contract before the end of the construction season in November.
  7. Meeting with Andrew Gottlieb - At his request, I set up a meeting between Andrew Gottlieb, the new Deputy Secretary of the Office of Commonwealth Development and community leaders. In addition to Tim and me, attendees included representatives of Beacon Hill Civic Association, Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, Fenway CDC, Fenway Civic Association, Bay Village Neighborhood Association, and the Groundwater Emergency Taskforce; several other organizations were invited but unable to attend after confirming. Also present from the Mayor's Office were Bo Holland and Nikko Mendoza. The meeting was a good opportunity to raise issues that concerned each organization. Andrew announced that we would be receiving a report on the MBTA's findings related to the Southwest Corridor (this was later confirmed by the T's consultant, Steve Poulos, but I'm still waiting). He is pushing for more information from DCR on their plans for the reconstruction of the Storrow Drive underpass. He also pledged to reconvene the State-City working group by late April. All of the attendees with whom I have spoken were very pleased with the meeting.
  8. Meeting with Boston Delegation - Reps. Marty Walz and Byron Rushing are working to set up a meeting of the Boston delegation to the legislature, scheduled for March 31, at which Tim Mitchell, Gary Saunders, and I can brief them about progress to date on the well program they have financed, future plans for wells, what we have found, and what we think should happen next.
  9. Permeable Paving Sidewalks - According to Para Jayasinghe, DPW Commissioner Casazza is not in favor of installing permeable sidewalk paving because of its higher costs. Para added that the Commissioner would be happy to meet with the Trust to discuss this in more detail if we want to make a stronger case.
  10. Press - The Boston Globe recently had a major article on the groundwater recharge efforts planned by the Columbus Center project. I had the opportunity to provide a fair amount of information for the article and was quoted in it. We also received some mention in an article on Columbus Center in the New York Times. There has been additional coverage of groundwater issues, featuring the Trust, in the Boston Courant. An article is planned for the Beacon Hill Times about groundwater issues featuring the Trust and also highlighting the Groundwater Educational Forum. The article in the Back Bay Station should be appearing in early April.
  11. Move to Wentworth - Jim Lambrechts has arranged with Wentworth for us to have an office for the technical coordinator there with all of the technical materials that we have been utilizing at Haley and Aldrich. We have formally requested this of the Institute and hope to hear back from them shortly with a move in by the start of their summer session.
  12. Office Equipment - We have added a copier/scanner to our office.
  13. BRA Scoping Meeting - I attended a BRA session on the change in use for the planned project at Two Financial Center, which will now be residential rather than office. The project includes a five level underground garage. The developer has agreed to turn over existing observation well sites to us, consult with us on any new wells that we feel should be installed, and to certify on an annual basis no pumping or draining of groundwater from the building.
  14. New Project - I received a call from the project review consultant for a new major project planned for 1330 Boylston Street in the Fenway. He was directed up front by the Environment Department to contact us before filing a Project Notification Form. We discussed what we would likely require from him. I expect that language reflecting that will be included in the PNF.
  15. Comment Letter - We filed a comment letter on the Small Project Review of the Gatehouse project in the South End. Based on a discussion I had with the developer and architect at their public meeting, as well as subsequent conversations with the architect, I'm pleased to be able to report that they modified their foundation design to overcome issues that would have caused groundwater problems.
  16. Website - Our website is now linked from the City's at multiple locations. Website usage has been rising for several months. March has been one of the busiest months for the site.
  17. Database - With assistance from Haley and Aldrich, Christian and Ashley have worked to convert our readings from spreadsheet to database form. This will make the data much easier for us to use and analyze. Ultimately, it will allow visitors to the website to pull up data from the map without going to the well tables. This change may be beyond the capabilities of our current web consultant. We are investigating alternatives.
  18. Visitors - We will be hosting a group of engineers from Sweden for a presentation by Jim Lambrechts at Wentworth on April 23. They had heard about our work and wanted to know how we were approaching the groundwater problem. I will also be visited by a group of graduate students from the UK on April 26. They are studying the environmental effects of the Back Bay land filling and wanted information on groundwater.