TRC PFAS Data Management Contract

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and details may be misheard.

What: a three-year contract of about $302,000 with TRC to put PFAS and other environmental sampling data (about 1,150 samples) into one database for defensible, reportable data. It is paid from an existing $1 million PFAS appropriation that has been authorized but not yet borrowed.
Where it stands: approved 4-1 on 2026-10-21 by roll call; one member opposed (roll call captions garbled, apparently Jill).
Next: TRC begins phase one; phases two and three are years two and three and are included in the total.

Staff (an official addressed as Andrew, surname not captioned) said data now comes from several contractors in different formats, often as thousands of pages of reports; the new system standardizes it. TRC holds the software license at first because that was cheaper; the town would own the data and could download it at any time. The license would be a continuing cost afterward, and staff did not have the figure at hand.
The contract did not go to bid; staff said other technologies were considered and were not satisfactory.
Jill (apparently) questioned the cost (about a third of the $1 million), asked whether the town could combine files itself, and objected to borrowing money for software licenses and studies as poor fiscal policy.
A resident asked whether well tests from real estate sales and health department records would be included, who would own the data and who would enter it. Staff said yes for new wells and property transfers, the town retains access, and TRC would do the entry.

About 12 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-21 - Select Board	12

2026-10-21 - Select Board — Contract questioned on cost, bidding and licensing; approved 4-1 by roll call.