AMHERST — Employees at Amherst’s water treatment plants could soon be working at the South Deerfield Water Supply District on a temporary basis.
As a way to address inadequate staffing at one of the two water districts in the Franklin County town, the Amherst Selectboard Monday voted 4-0 to authorize Town Manager Paul Bockelman to enter into an interim intermunicipal agreement with officials in Deerfield.
Bockelman said the arrangement can begin as soon as town attorney KP Law has reviewed its terms.
The idea for assisting the nearby town came from Department of Public Works Superintendent Guilford Mooring, who noted that the water district is being scrutinized by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection for having insufficient staffing.
“In the interim they need a backup,” Mooring said.
The staffing there has been an ongoing problem, with several noncompliance findings in recent years, including not having a secondary operator from late 2015 to early 2016, failing to notify the agency about changing secondary operators twice in 2017 and early 2018, and failing to create and submit a completed staff and operations plan, according to a letter sent to Deerfield residents.
Mooring said Amherst is offerings its employees when the South Deerfield water district’s workers are out on sick leave, vacation or other previously scheduled time off.
“They don’t see us as becoming the South Deerfield water district people,” Mooring said.
The exact terms of the arrangement were not disclosed because of the continued review by KP Law, but a memo from Mooring to the Selectboard stated that no costs will be borne by Amherst.
“The compensation that is proposed will offset Amherst’s personnel and material costs so as not to adversely affect the Amherst water rate payers,” Mooring wrote.
Selectboard member Andrew Steinberg said his only concern about offering staffing would be if it impacted Amherst’s water system. Mooring assured him this wouldn’t happen.
In addition to the staffing issues, the South Deerfield Water Supply District is under some type of investigation by the state attorney general’s office, though the exact nature of that has not been revealed.
The other water supply in Deerfield, the Deerfield Fire and Water District for the northern part of town, is not part of the intermunicipal agreement with Amherst.