McLane Middleton - March 1, 2022

Request

From: Herman, Mary Jo [mailto:MARYJO.HERMAN@MCLANE.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 1, 2022 3:40 PM
To: Morris, Carmen <Carmen.Morris@Biddefordmaine.org>
Cc: Steven Hyde <steven@attorneyhyde.com>; Cote, Alexandra <Alexandra.Cote@MCLANE.com>; Walker, Jeremy <JEREMY.WALKER@MCLANE.com>
Subject: City of Biddeford - Notice of Claim and FOIA Request [MM-DB.FID1966349]

Good afternoon, Ms. Carmen.  Please see attached notice of claim, and FOIA request regarding the above.

Thank you

MJ

 

Request Document

  1. 030122 FOIA Request

Acknowledgement

From: Lamontagne, Danica <Danica.Lamontagne@Biddefordmaine.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, March 8, 2022 4:20 PM
To: Herman, Mary Jo <MARYJO.HERMAN@MCLANE.com>
Subject: RE: City of Biddeford - Notice of Claim and FOIA Request [MM-DB.FID1966349]

 

Good afternoon Ms. Herman,

I am the City’s Public Access Officer and manage all records requests to the City of Biddeford. This email is to acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Access Act Request dated March 1, 2022.

Staff has begun a review of your request and will be in contact with any further clarification that we may require.

 

Best,

Danica Lamontagne

City of Biddeford

Communications Coordinator

danica.lamontagne@biddefordmaine.org

207-282-8423

Request for Clarification

From: Lamontagne, Danica <Danica.Lamontagne@Biddefordmaine.org> 
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2022 3:54 PM
To: Herman, Mary Jo <MARYJO.HERMAN@MCLANE.com>
Cc: Cote, Alexandra <Alexandra.Cote@MCLANE.com>; Walker, Jeremy <JEREMY.WALKER@MCLANE.com>
Subject: RE: City of Biddeford - Notice of Claim and FOIA Request [MM-DB.FID1966349]

 

Good afternoon Ms. Herman,

 

Members of our staff are seeking clarification on several of the items listed on page four of your records request document. This request as interpreted broadly by our staff is expected to significantly exceed two hours of staff time to prepare a response. We aim to make this process timely, efficient and cost-effective for all by targeting the exact information you are seeking.

 

Please note that the City of Biddeford provides the first two hours of staff time associated with all Freedom of Access Act requests at no charge. A fee of $15 per hour is billed after the first two hours of staff time per request. This fee is collected to cover the actual cost of searching for, retrieving and compiling the requested public records. Our Public Works Department staff will be able to provide a more precise estimate of staff time and a calculation of the anticipated fee after clarification is provided.

 

The questions on the list below are numbered to correspond with the numbered items listed on page 4 of your records request.

 

1. This item requests “all records pertaining to the City’s sanitary sewer infrastructure, including but not limited to maps and diagrams of the sanitary sewer system”. Is this request specifically in regards to the layout of the sanitary sewer system? Additionally, is this request limited to the 24 State Street watershed?

2. Same request for clarification as #1.

5. As noted, this request as a whole is related to 24 State Street. Are you seeking records specifically about the watershed at 24 State Street, or all citywide improvement plans regardless of location within the City?  

9. Is there a specific date range for this item?

 

Thank you in advance for your clarification.

 

Best,

Danica Lamontagne

City of Biddeford

Communications Coordinator

danica.lamontagne@biddefordmaine.org

207-282-8423

Clarification Provided

From: Cote, Alexandra [mailto:Alexandra.Cote@MCLANE.com] 
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2022 8:19 AM
To: Lamontagne, Danica <Danica.Lamontagne@Biddefordmaine.org>; Herman, Mary Jo <MARYJO.HERMAN@MCLANE.com>
Cc: Walker, Jeremy <JEREMY.WALKER@MCLANE.com>; Steven Hyde <steven@attorneyhyde.com>
Subject: RE: City of Biddeford - Notice of Claim and FOIA Request [MM-DB.FID1966349]

 

Good morning Ms. Lamontagne,

Thank you for your e-mail.  As mentioned in my letter, we are happy to pay all lawful and reasonable costs associated with our request.  We hope that our responses to your questions will give you the clarity necessary to estimate these costs, but please do not hesitate to contact me if additional clarification is needed.

 

In response to your specific questions:

  1. Yes, this request seeks information pertaining to the layout of the sanitary sewer infrastructure.  Though not initially intended to be limited to a particular water shed, we would be happy to limit the request the 24 State Street watershed at this time.  If we find that additional information is needed, we will follow up with an additional request.  
  2. Same as our response to #1 above, but with respect to the stormwater sewer system infrastructure.

5.    This request is for all citywide improvement plans, regardless of location within the City.

9.    Please use a date range of January 1, 2000 to present for request #9.

 

Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to our FOAA request.  Again, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions. 

 

Lexi

Alexandra  Cote
 Attorney

https://www.mclane.com/wp-content/uploads/McLane-Middleton-logo-sig.jpg

900 Elm Street | Manchester, NH 03101
(603) 628-1255 | Alexandra.Cote@MCLANE.com

Fee Assessment

From: Lamontagne, Danica 
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2022 3:15 PM
To: 'Cote, Alexandra' <Alexandra.Cote@MCLANE.com>; Herman, Mary Jo <MARYJO.HERMAN@MCLANE.com>
Cc: Walker, Jeremy <JEREMY.WALKER@MCLANE.com>; Steven Hyde <steven@attorneyhyde.com>
Subject: RE: City of Biddeford - Notice of Claim and FOIA Request [MM-DB.FID1966349]

 

Good afternoon,

Based on your clarifications, staff completed an initial search this week for records that fulfill your request. In total, this request will take a total of 6 hours of staff time to complete. As previously mentioned, the first two hours of staff time associated with each Freedom of Access Act request is provided at no charge, and there is a $15 fee for each subsequent hour of work. Therefore, we have assessed a fee of $60 for this request (4 hours x $15). We do ask to receive the payment in advance of releasing records.

Payment can be sent to the following address:

City of Biddeford
 Attn: FOAA Request
 P.O. Box 586
 Biddeford, ME 04005

I anticipate that the search for records will be completed on Monday, March 28, so I expect to be able to provide the documents to you immediately upon receipt of payment.

In the event that the more limited scope of the request does not produce the documents that you are seeking, we will be happy to work with you to revisit the original scope of the request.

 

Best,

 

Danica Lamontagne

City of Biddeford

Communications Coordinator

danica.lamontagne@biddefordmaine.org

207-282-8423

Acceptance of Fee

From: Cote, Alexandra [mailto:Alexandra.Cote@MCLANE.com] 
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2022 5:02 PM
To: Lamontagne, Danica <Danica.Lamontagne@Biddefordmaine.org>; Herman, Mary Jo <MARYJO.HERMAN@MCLANE.com>
Cc: Walker, Jeremy <JEREMY.WALKER@MCLANE.com>; Steven Hyde <steven@attorneyhyde.com>
Subject: RE: City of Biddeford - Notice of Claim and FOIA Request [MM-DB.FID1966349]

 

Thank you, Ms. Lamontagne.  We will send payment in the amount of $60 to the address provided.  We appreciate your assistance on this matter.

Lexi

Alexandra  Cote
 Attorney

https://www.mclane.com/wp-content/uploads/McLane-Middleton-logo-sig.jpg

900 Elm Street | Manchester, NH 03101
(603) 628-1255 | Alexandra.Cote@MCLANE.com

Response

From: Lamontagne, Danica 
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2022 11:47 AM
To: 'Cote, Alexandra' <Alexandra.Cote@MCLANE.com>; Herman, Mary Jo <MARYJO.HERMAN@MCLANE.com>
Cc: Walker, Jeremy <JEREMY.WALKER@MCLANE.com>; Steven Hyde <steven@attorneyhyde.com>
Subject: RE: City of Biddeford - Notice of Claim and FOIA Request [MM-DB.FID1966349]

 

Good afternoon,

 

I have received your payment of $60 for the work associated with your Freedom of Access Act request. The documents that you requested are attached to this email using ShareFile, our file sharing service. Please let me know if you have any difficulty accessing the items.

While the City does not typically generate new narratives in response to records requests, our Wastewater Superintendent felt it would be helpful to provide the following context for some of the documents that were provided. The numbers on this list correspond with the numbers on your request:

  1. Map of State Street attached, more detail available here: https://gis.biddefordmaine.org/wa1/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=f8abf96bf21f46c9b64f1ce58979bed8&amp;extent=-70.496,43.4435,-70.3693,43.4965
  2. See item 1
  3. Current in-progress inspection/cleaning protocol is to scan all sewers on a 5-year rotation and clean areas flagged as quickly as possible.  CCTV inspection for structural issues every 10 years and repair as funding allows. There are no written policies to provide as a part of the document request. Past practice was that cleaning and repairs were done as needed.  Any area flagged as a trouble spot was added to a list for monthly inspection and/or cleaning.  After the backup incident, 23 State Street was added to the trouble spot list and has been cleaned monthly.  See list of trouble spot areas attached.
  4. Per new MS4 permit, all catch basins are inspected every 2 years and any basin with greater than 6 in of sediment is flagged for cleaning. A copy of the MS4 permit is provided here.
  5. Separation plans for the Mason/Bradbury sewer shed are attached.  Other projects are planned, but this is the only one that pertains to State Street.  Future projects also include separation on Cutts Street, downstream of State.  See List of Upcoming Projects in package for other planned projects.  If plans or details pertaining to all sewer-related projects from 2020 to present that don’t contribute to State St are required, as was requested prior to the narrowing of scope of the request, additional staff time will be needed to locate all relevant documents.
  6. See attachments for Sewer Backups Log
  7. See incident report for details on investigation work.
  8. See attached map and city GIS
  9. See attached NOV response.  Note that this notice of violation was not because of the backup, but because the City did not know at the time that reporting this backup was a requirement.  

Some additional documents were provided that we believed fit your request but were not explicitly referenced in the narrative above.

Please let us know if the narrowed scope of the request was not suitable for your needs.

Response Documents

  1. 20200630 State St Backup Incident
  2. 2021-07-08_State Street - Existing Conditions
  3. 20210722 SSO NOV Response
  4. 2021-12-09_Bradbury-Mason Storm Separation Plans - Final
  5. Bidd_2022_2027_MS4StormwaterPlan2021_08
  6. Email - Incident reports
  7. Email - NOV DEP
  8. Email - RE_ State street backup incident report
  9. Email - State st notes
  10. List of Upcoming projects
  11. Non-Compliance Discharge Incident Report
  12. Sewer Backup Logs
  13. Sewer Map - State St
  14. Smoke Testing Email
  15. Trouble Spots Checks Sheets BLANK