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The Select Board, at its July 16 meeting, celebrated the accreditation of the Sudbury Department of Public Works (DPW) by the American Public Works Association (APWA). During that presentation, we learned that Sudbury’s DPW is the third in Massachusetts to achieve accreditation. (35:00)
DPW Director Dan Nason explained that the accreditation was years in the making. An APWA representative emphasized just how difficult it is to achieve accreditation, in part because the accreditation focuses heavily on sustained, continuous improvement of DPW operations rather than one-time achievements. Nason credited the accreditation to the entire 30+ member DPW team.
The APWA representative also highlighted the communication work that has been done by the Sudbury DPW, including a new quarterly newsletter that informs residents about the work of the department. The APWA felt that was a significant innovation for DPW’s, and would be incorporating it into their “model practices,” with Sudbury being held up as the example to other public works organizations across the country.
On Wednesday, the DPW published a new video on Facebook explaining a proposed sewer project starting along Route 20. The video explained why the DPW thinks sewer infrastructure along Route 20 is necessary, and provided a high-level overview of the phasing of such a project.
The project would start with installation of sewers on Route 20 as part of Phase 1. Phase 1A would involve installing sewers on Raymond Road. Wastewater from those two phases would be pumped to a new wastewater treatment facility at the DPW facility on Old Lancaster Road. Finally, that wastewater treatment facility would pump to a groundwater discharge located at Curtis Middle School.
The tentative schedule for the project includes a possible article to fund the design of the system as soon as Annual Town Meeting in 2025. A town meeting article to fund the project (or some portion of it) could arrive as soon as 2026, with a goal of all the sewers being online by 2029 according to the DPW’s dedicated webpage for the project.