OFFICE OF THE SELECTBOARD
Town of Halifax, Vermont
SELECTBOARD EMERGENCY MEETING MINUTES
November 3, 2014
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at about 10:30 a.m. Selectboard members Lewis Sumner and Earl Holtz were in attendance, as were Brad Rafus, Joe Tamburrino, and Peter Murphy (Sandri, on speaker phone).
New Business
Diesel Fuel Contamination
Brad Rafus shared the results of the Sandri technician’s visit on Thursday last to inspect our fuel tank:
- There was 1 inch of water in the bottom of the tank
- There were 3 inches of algae or sludge on top of the water
The technician installed a filter to remove particles from the fuel as it is pumped into our vehicles fuel tank.
He did not pump or clean out the tank, as Edee Edwards had believed Sandri was going to do.
Rafus also had samples of the fuel taken after our first Sandri deliveries from 3 different vehicles as follows:
- September grader fuel filter having about 1/3 water, 1/10 algae or foreign material and remaining fuel
- October Excavator fuel filter having about 1/3 water, 1/5 algea or foreign material and the remaining was a much darker looking fuel.
- The third sample was most recent and from the 1 Ton truck in which there was a very black layer of sediment on the bottom of the container and a very dark looking fuel content. The fuel had not separated yet. We wonder of this is a bio-fuel?
We have the following questions:
- Is Sandri still going to pump out the tank so we start from a known cleanliness level?
- What was Sandri’s understanding of there technicians analysis?
- What is causing the algae if that is what it is?
- Why is the fuel so dark?
We called Peter Murphy at Sandri and left a message to return our call, which he did at 11:15 AM.
He shared that he understood that the level of contamination’s in the bottom of the tank were ¾ of an inch which included water and sludge. He stated that the paste test was done, which Rafus confirmed and Rafus confirmed that he participated in the test and his data indicated 1” water, 3” sludge (algae).
Sandri will be sending their technician back to our shop on Wednesday morning to recheck tests.
Murphy confirmed that his vehicles use the same fuel to operate with and have not experienced this problem.
He also indicated that he has no other customers with this complaint.
We voiced our concern again and with winter coming our town could not afford any down time from this issue. He understood our concern and again indicated it would get resolved.
Adjournment
Meeting ended at about 11:45 AM. We will meet again on Tuesday as required for status update. No other business was discussed.
Respectfully submitted,
Earl B Holtz
Selectman