City of Methuen Master Plan

Methuen Master Plan 2007
Treatment, the Superintendent of Highways, the Superintendent of Fleet Maintenance and the
Superintendent of Environmental Management. These divisions are responsible for the water and sewer
systems, managing materials recycling, maintaining twenty-one parks and Forest Lake, maintaining the
34 acre Elmwood Cemetery, maintaining the City’s vehicle fleet including police and fire vehicles,
constructing, reconstructing and maintaining roadways and associated drainage under the jurisdiction of
the City, and maintaining ten City buildings. The School Department builds and maintains its own
buildings, but the Public Works Department maintains its vehicles. The ten buildings maintained by the
Department of Public Works are:
The Searles (City Hall) Building
The Quinn Building (Police Station)
Four Fire Stations
City Yard Buildings
The Water Treatment Plant
The Water Distribution System Building
Some of the issues currently facing the Public Works Department include the following:
• The Osgood Street Park was destroyed during the May 2006 Flood. The City submitted
renovation costs to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and is awaiting a
decision. The City recently processed a large number of applications for emergency aid from
private property owners who suffered flood damage.
• 175 City-owned vehicles are maintained by the Department of Public Works. Many of these,
especially Department of Public Works and Fire Department vehicles need to be replaced.
• Contracts for trash and materials recycling have been secured through Fiscal Year 2009 with
no adjustment for changes in fuel prices. There is no plan to relocate the transfer station or
reuse the landfill, at least in the near term. Discussions have been held with Senator
Baddour and MassHighway officials about possibly constructing ramps off of Route 213 that
directly lead to the transfer station. This would reduce truck traffic on Howe Street and
create the possibility of inviting other communities to utilize Methuen’s transfer station (in
an effort to regionalize this potential revenue-generating function).
• Eighty-five percent of City roads have been resurfaced using one of the following processes:
• Reclamation and Overlay
• Hot Toping in Place and Microsurfacing
Methuen recently passed a $10 million bond authorization to support the road and drainage
maintenance program for the 180 miles of City-owned roadways. In Fiscal Year 2006 Methuen
expended $8,763,791 on its public works department and programs 29 .
METHUEN WATER SYSTEM
The Water Distribution System is headed by a Superintendent answering to the Director of Public
Works. There are thirty-five authorized personnel dealing with water systems that answer to the
Superintendent. The system has three major divisions; water treatment, the water registrar and a
maintenance division. The water registrar is responsible for water metering. The system has 13,600
customers served by 216 mile of water pipe. Virtually the entire City is served by the water system
29 from Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services
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