This last Mayor’s Corner of 2020 ends a difficult year on a positive note regarding wastewater treatment facility upgrades. The revised Plan of Corrective Action, required by Division of Environmental Protection, has finally been accepted. The POCA had been submitted and rejected numerous times, before being accepted. DEP stated that they would not accept a POCA without specific milestone completion dates. The inclusion of completion dates had been a major point of contention between the Town and DEP. More recently, the Town’s proposed POCA, submitted in July, had received a subsequent denial letter dated October 15. Having previously withheld these milestone dates in other revised plans, the latest was submitted with “tentative” language, which the Town submitted on November 2, 2020. But DEP would not accept tentative dates, as stated. They would only accept specific milestone deadlines. In any event, DEP has assured the Town that they are aware of the fact that the Town may need to seek extension of these milestone deadlines, due to circumstances outside the Town’s control. The not-so-good-news, with milestone deadlines now in place, the Town will need to monitor the milestones deadlines and seek extensions whenever we suspect a deadline is not achievable. Dunn Engineers will assist the Town in keeping track of milestones as they approach. Happy New Year, Sam
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