Posted on September 28, 2017
By Clarence Fanto, The Berkshire Eagle
There’s a new boss in town, hired to keep a tight rein on the $4 million cleanup project to dredge and remove invasive Eurasian milfoil weeds from Stockbridge Bowl.
The Select Board recently voted 3-0 to appoint contractor and former engineer Gregg Wellencamp, a director of the private Stockbridge Bowl Association, as a special town employee to oversee the multi-year effort aimed at restoring the lake to a pristine condition.
Wellencamp, who is volunteering his services, is president of Well-Kamp Enterprises, based in Great Barrington. The custom home-building company was founded by his father, Jack, in 1970.
The new project supervisor’s main mission is to keep tabs on the town’s contracts with GZA GeoEnvironmental of Springfield. That firm is tasked with completing engineering studies and with obtaining eight state and federal environmental permits for the dredging operation, currently slated for the winter of 2019-20.
Once the shoreline and the outlet channel of the state-owned lake are dredged and 22,000 cubic yards of sediment are removed, a 5.5-foot drawdown would follow in an effort to kill off the weeds.
The town and the Stockbridge Bowl Association had been involved in a billing dispute with GZA for additional work that had been done and invoiced, but had not been pre-approved in a work order. The issue was settled this summer through a revised contract and an additional, reduced payment of $157,000 to resume and complete the preliminary work.
At last week’s Select Board meeting, Chairman Donald Chabon announced that new contracts would be signed with GZA and that a memorandum of agreement will be completed between the town and the SBA.
“Seemingly, with the agreement of everyone, something rare for Stockbridge, I think, we will be appointing Gregg Wellencamp to oversee the dredging project as our project manager,” Chabon said. “He will have to complete some conflict forms, but I’ve been advised that should not be an issue.”
Wellencamp, who will be representing the town’s interests as the work continues, has been directed to advise the Select Board of “practices and procedures necessary to expedite the project in as effective and efficient a manner as possible,” said Chabon.
Explaining his need to fill out conflict of interest forms with the state, Wellencamp advised the board that he owns two properties on the lake. “If the dredging takes place, and hopefully it will, in theory those property values will increase,” he acknowledged.
According to the motion approved by the Select Board, Wellencamp’s mission includes “the authority to participate in project meetings with GZA, review submittals and invoices from GZA, reports directives from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the National Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP), and report all activities and make recommendations to the Board of Selectmen, who shall remain the sole entity with the authority to authorize changes in work instructions, contract extensions and other directives to GZA.”
The endangered species program seeks to protect a rare species of snail that is found in only two Massachusetts locations — Stockbridge Bowl and Laurel Lake.
Chabon had emphasized at a previous meeting that the town wanted a professional manager to oversee the entire project, reporting to the board and coordinating with Town Administrator Danielle Fillio as well as the Bowl Association.
“This is a town project, a big project, very important for the town,” he declared. “We feel the need and we have been advised multiple times that the town needs to have a manager over this project. Clearly, the Stockbridge Bowl Association is a vital partner in all of this.”
He told SBA President Richard Seltzer that “your background, experience and knowledge in all of this is, of course, essential but the management of this project, as complicated as it is, should be handled by a professional, from this time forward. We need to take the reins on this.”
So far, town taxpayers have approved $825,000 toward the $4 million project, while federal Clean Water grants total $910,000. The rest of the cost is being raised through more than $1 million in private donations from the 400-member Stockbridge Bowl Association, plus support from foundations and local businesses.
The association has paid GZA $485,000 for work since 2014. Settlement of the billing dispute included a $128,000 cut from invoices submitted by the company for work completed, but not pre-authorized by the association.
Source: The Berkshire Eagle
