BRUNSWICKREGIONAL WATER & SEWER H2GO

REGULAR BOARD MEETING

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2011

OFFICIAL MINUTES

CALL TO ORDER:

Chairman, Carl Antos called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm, a quorum was present.  Chairman Antos lead the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance.

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Present from the Board of Commissioners were members Carl Antos, Chairman, John Crowder, Vice Chairman, Poe Butler, Secretary, Bobby Johnston and Jeff Gaskill, present from H2GO was Bob Walker, Executive Director, Russ Lane, Assistant Director, Scott Hook, Finance Officer, Brenda Thurman, Customer Service Supervisor, and Teresa Long, Clerk to the Board.

DISCUSSION/ADJUSTMENT OF AGENDA:

Commissioner Crowder said he would like to add Black Bear Hollow to Old Business, he said he would like clarification from the Director on the issue.

Scott Hook requested to add an invoice from Lee Fleming to his report, the amount being $25,000.00.

Commissioner Butler requested to add a discussion of the Christmas Party under New Business, he also requested to add the discussion of getting security cameras for the building addition.

Russ Lane requested to add Meter Change Outs to his report.

Commissioner Butler motioned to approve the agenda as amended, Commissioner Crowder seconded and the motion carried unanimously.

CONSENT AGENDA:

Chairman Antos stated that he had some minor changes to make to the September 27, 2011 minutes, he said on page two about half way down the word “was” should be replaced with “were” and on down, the word tract should have been track, he also said on page six third line down, “water rates” should have read “sewer rates”, lastly on page nine, the word “Sneed Farm” should have been “Snee Farm”. 

Commissioner Crowder motioned to approve the Consent Agenda with the corrections to the September 27, 2011 minutes, Commissioner Johnston seconded and the motion carried unanimously.

COMMISSIONERS REPORT:

Commissioner Butler reported on attending the National Rural Water Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, he said it was a very good convention and he brought back some ideas that he picked up that will be beneficial to the board and the district as a whole, he said he brought a booklet for the board to read.  Mr. Butler said he attended classes on Fraud and Building a Waste Water Treatment Plant and others, he said there were about 1000 vendors present.  Commissioner Johnston said they learned about reprocessing cooking oil and keeping it from going into the sewer.  Commissioner Butler said in one town in Alabama, they provide the citizens with gallon containers to dispose of their cooking oil, he said it would cost about $12,000.00 to get set up.  Commissioner Butler and Commissioner Johnston said in that town they are using the reprocessed oil to run their trucks and generators.

Chairman Antos stated that he, Commissioner Crowder and Commissioner Gaskill attended the Brunswick County meeting, he said it came up under Public Utilities that they were adding tiers to the industrial sewer grades, he said it sounded like their rates could go up considerably for industrial sewer so we should keep and eye on that.  Commissioner Crowder said the county is trying to be more competitive, he said they were in the middle of negotiations with Continental Tire on highway 74, so the county was trying to make it more cost effective for them.

PUBLIC COMMENTS:

Kevin Dillon was present to represent Carol-Lynn Estates, he stated that he was here to present the board with the petition from the residents of Carol-Lynn Estates requesting to have a sewer system installed in their neighborhood, he stated that they have accumulated enough homeowners signatures to qualify the neighborhood for the project, that percentage being 69%, he said with this being said he hoped that the project will move forward.  Commissioner Butler commended Mr. Dillon and others for working so hard on the project.  Mr. Dillon said he only had two property owners that said no, he said two or three said they wanted it and needed it but did not want to sign at this time.  Chairman Antos told Mr. Dillon that Mr. Walker would comment on the project later on if they wanted to stick around.

Joe Bryant of 123 Oak Lane, is present, he stated that he would like to know the status of H2GO’s plans for Wolfridge and highway 87, he said there is a defunct project that is located behind Carol-Lynn, he said this particular area has been projected to do well next year, he was wondering if that could be tied in from Carol-Lynn, he stated that he has 11 acres there that he would like to do something with.  Mr. Bryant said his property is about half a mile from Carol-Lynn, he said the Maritime Shores property is between his property and Carol-Lynn, however he has a 45 foot easement and he is not sure if that adjoins Carol-Lynn.  Commissioner Crowder instructed Mr. Bryant to come into the office and talk with our director Mr. Walker and he will find out what we can do, he said the first step would be to annex his property if that is feasible. 

Mr. Carl Sullivan is present to request an adjustment to his water bill, he said he had a leak in his toilet.  The board informed Mr. Sullivan that we could not give an adjustment for the water used and since the leak was in the toilet that water went into the sewer so they could not give an adjustment to his sewer bill either, they told him that if he had a leak somewhere and the water did not go into the sewer then they could allow for an adjustment to the sewer bill.

OLD BUSINESS:

Commissioner Gaskill motioned to move the discussion on the Grinder Pump Policy down on the agenda to Informal Discussion, Commissioner Butler seconded and the motion carried unanimously.

Wastewater Treatment Plant Phase I Bids:  Mr. Walker stated that we received eight bids today for Phase I of the Waste Water Treatment Plant, he said that included line re-location and clearing and grubbing of those areas that are going to be disturbed.  Mr. Walker said the apparent low bidder was B & D Utilities which was $71,000.00, he said the bids went up to $145,000.00.  Mr. Walker said Mike Calhoun was here from Vaughn & Melton, he said Mr. Calhoun took the bids and he will do a bid tabulation, review all the documents and make sure all the paperwork is in order, Mr. Walker said the Bid Bonds were in order and the Addendum’s were acknowledged, he said Mr. Calhoun will have a recommendation back to us tomorrow.  Mr. Walker recommended that the board take the bids under advisement and wait for the engineer to make a contract award at the next board meeting.

Transmission Study Payment Method Resolution:  Mr. Walker said that Mr. Pierce of the County sent us a letter last Friday stating that the other Partners were balking at the cost allocations in the Transmission Study so he wanted to go ahead and proceed with the issuance for the funding of the Treatment Plant Construction and he wanted us to commit to our preferred method of funding and then work out the transmission allocation costs at a later date.  Commissioner Antos said that was like putting the cart before the horse, Commissioner Butler said it’s like signing a bill before you know what is in it.  Mr. Walker said that Mr. Hook had prepared a Resolution for the entire project, however he said it is staff’s recommendation that we table the proposed resolution until after the Partnership Meeting next Tuesday.  Chairman Antos stated that at the last Partnership Meeting, there were some statements made that he disagreed with, he said we were nice but at the next meeting we should state our objections.  Chairman Antos stated that the Transmission Study Payment Method would be tabled until the next meeting on the 25^th.

Gary Garst:  Mr. Walker stated that Mr. Garst’s property is adjacent to one of our main force mains, and it is not a low pressure force main.  Mr. Walker said our regulations are not very clear as to what is termed available sewer, but it not prudent policy to allow people to hook up a grinder pump to one of those main force mains, he said staffs recommendation is not to allow Mr. Garst to hook into that force main, Mr. Walker said he will write a letter to Mr. Garst to that effect so that he can take that to the county and get a septic tank permit.  Commissioner Butler said our regulations should state that no grinder pumps will be allowed to tie into a main force main.  Mr. Walker said the only exception to that would be if a force main was designed and permitted to allow grinder pumps to tie in.  Mr. Coble suggested that we put something in the files that specifically identified why this letter is going out, that it would be attaching to a force main and that we are in the process of reviewing this issue and changing policy as such.  The board generally agreed to the actions set forth by Mr. Walker and Mr. Coble.

Carol-Lynn:  Mr. Walker said the next step in the Carol-Lynn Project will be at the next board meeting, he said the board will be presented with a Preliminary Assessment Resolution for their approval, he said this resolution will include estimated project costs and certification of the required number of signatures.  Mr. Walker said after that Preliminary Assessment Resolution is approved by the board then we will have to advertise and hold a public hearing, the public hearing will be for anyone who wants to oppose the validity of the petition, he said after the public hearing there is an eleven step process to go through this special assessment project financing.  Mr. Walker said he will go ahead and advertise for engineering service proposals but the contract cannot be awarded until after the public hearing, he said the design will probably take 60 days and then three to six months for DWQ approval, he said it will probably be nine months before we start moving dirt.

Black Bear Hollow:  Mr. Walker said we discovered that there were five grinder pumps put in this development that were put in prior to the rest of the sewer system being put in, he said the low pressure system there was never deeded and dedicated to the District.  Commissioner Gaskill asked who fixes the sewer lines there if they get cut, Mr. Russ Lane said H2GO fixes them, he said the owners put in the grinder pumps themselves so if we replace the pumps we bill the customer.  Mr. Butler said if we are responsible for the lines then they should be deeded and dedicated.  Mr. Crowder asked if this low pressure system is under one of our permits then don’t we have a legal responsibility to maintain it, Mr. Walker said he believes it must be deeded and dedicated first because we will not accept it until it meets our standards.  Mr. Lane said that originally there were five sewer lines put in underneath the road that were tied into the force main there, one went to the day care, three went to the houses there, he said when they engineered the other sewer system there, they hooked into that fifth line that was open.  Mr. Coble said pursuant to General Statute 15A, if it’s a low pressure system and they have a grinder pump then we are responsible for it.  Mr. Walker said he does not believe these five grinder pumps were a part of the permitted low pressure system, he said if lines in the ground are not owned by H2GO then we are not responsible for them, however if in a low pressure system a grinder pump could effect the rest of the system, therefore it would be our responsibility to maintain it.  Mr. Coble said if we are going out and doing work on private property, he would like to see some kind of liability waiver.  Mr. Walker asked Mr. Coble if we could include that on the back of the application where the customer acknowledged that waiver  by signing, Mr. Coble said we could.  Mr. Walker said they found a grinder pump in our system on Village Road which was put in under the grant, he said it was put in by a contractor hired by H2GO and it was not wired properly, he said he thought H2GO should be responsible to go out and fix that before the house burned down.  Mr. Coble said if it was a contractor hired by H2GO then we could have a huge liability.  Commissioner Butler said there should have been an electrical permit issued.  Mr. Walker said he is going to get the homeowners permission and then we will hire a licensed electrician to fix the problem.  Mr. Lane said we have already hired an electrician to fix two that Courtesy Plumbing put in, he said this is the last one that we have found that Mr. Hall is concerned about.  Chairman Antos stated that we should fix everything out there that might be our responsibility.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT:

Mr. Walker said he heard some things at the National Rural Water Convention that he wanted to look into such as the cooking oil recovery program and pharmaceuticals recovery, he said we would have to work with local law enforcement because we can not handle any recovered drugs, he said law enforcement would have to do that in conjunction with the EEA, he said we might be able to get these programs started and get some positive press from them while doing a good community action.  Mr. Walker said that by law Hospice must flush any left over drugs down the toilet.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR’S REPORT:

Mr. Lane said the board is aware that we are having trouble getting the meters in for the change outs, he said in the last few days we have changed out 128 meters, he said we just finished route three.  Mr. Lane said we have about 1400 to 1500 residential meters to change out and less than 100 commercial meters. Mr. Lane said we are having some problems with the antennas on top of the meter box, he said he is looking into a new way to anchor the antennas on top of the meter box.

TECHOLOGY AND COMPLIANCE SUPERVISOR REPORT:

In Mr. Lewis’s absence, Mr. Hook reported that they used the on call system and sent the call out to people on the turn off list about three or four days in advance and it did work like it was suppose to and the number of turnoff’s were considerably down, he said we only had about 60 turnoffs where we normally have about 100.  Mr. Lane said it cut down on the time that staff had to spend on turning off and turning on water.

FINANCE OFFICER’S REPORT:

Invoice-Lee Fleming; $25,000.00:  Mr. Hook said this is for the services that Mr. Fleming has performed over the last two months.  Commissioner Butler motions to approve payment of the invoice from Lee Fleming for $25,000.00, Commissioner Johnston seconded and the motion carried unanimously.

First Quarter Financial Report:  Commissioner Crowder questions the 49% on Utilities, Mr. Hook explained that this was for the electrical on the water storage tank pump, he said both pumps were running for quite a long time to keep the tank full, he said we are at 60% of what we had estimated on irrigation usage.

ATTORNEY’S REPORT:

Mr. Coble said he did not have anything specific for Executive Session.  None of the board had anything to discuss either so Chairman Antos cancelled Executive Session.

NEW BUSINESS:

Christmas Party:  Commissioner Butler said he would like to see us have a party this year, with gifts and music, and not at a restaurant with other people, he said we need to go ahead and book a room.  Mr. Walker said he will get with staff and come up with some recommendations.

Security Cameras at on the Building Addition:  Mr. Lane said he believes we have one more port that will allow us to ad an additional camera, Commissioner Butler said we should get what we need.

Mr. Walker said he is satisfied with the job that is being done on the building addition.  Mr. Lane said they never finished up at the Treatment Plant, he said he will get Mr. Whitley to do a punch list of what needs to be done.  The board directed staff to hold off on Mr. Stanton’s payment until everything is complete at the Treatment Plant.

Commissioner Johnston asked about how Laughlin and Sutton are working out on the  booster pump, Mr. Lane said they have a butterfly valve that is going bad over there, he said he contacted the engineers, Laughlin and Sutton and Clearwater, he said someone from Clearwater came and did some adjustments on the actuator, he said it still wouldn’t  close all the way, he said he had a guy from Pratt Valves come down, he looked at it and said the valve was bad, he said they are shipping a new valve and it should be here next week.  Mr. Lane said the mixer went out also and they are in the process of fixing all of that, he said these repairs are still under warranty.

Chairman Antos called for a five minute break.

INFORMAL DISCUSSION:

Grinder Pump Policy:  Mr. Walker said he had prepared a bullet point presentation just for discussion, he said he would like to get to the point that we have a workable policy.  Commissioner Butler said we will never be able to stop developers from putting in grinder pumps, Mr. Walker said that if we have an appropriate policy we may be able to encourage them to look at other policies, he said if we put the maintenance cost back on the homeowners the developers may not be so eager to put in low pressure systems.  Commissioner Gaskill said the developers don’t care, they are concerned with the bottom line.  The board generally agreed that the homeowner will not be made aware of this information.  Mr. Walker said he has already spoken with Mr. Exum about an alternative sewer system so that we don’t end up with 1200 grinder pumps in Compass Pointe.  Chairman Antos said our policy stated back in February “no more grinder pumps” so they would have to engineer their entire system in Compass Pointe.  Mr. Walker said he does not think we can say no more grinder pumps because it is an approved system by DWQ, he said there are some areas that you can only serve with a low pressure system.  Mr. Walker said we are already $18,000.00 in the hole with the grinder pumps that we now have in our system.  Mr. Walker said that Compass Point has five grinder pumps in the ground right now that will be coming on line within the next 30 to 60 days so we have a sense of urgency for the grinder pump policy.  Mr. Walker said if we charge everyone an extra .33 cents on their sewer availability fee it would pay just for the grinder pumps that we have now, he said if we had 1800 more it would cost the sewer customers an additional $3.65 per month.  Chairman Antos said the feedback he gets is that people have a problem with the base rate.  Commissioner Crowder said our base rate maintains our lift stations, he said he is not sure that it is fair for everyone to pay for the customers that have grinder pumps, he said it is the developers option to put in a grinder pump.  Commissioner Gaskill said that if we are going to make developers put in gravity systems only, then we will have to do the same for the systems that we put in.  Commissioner Crowder said the compromise is that we charge the 33 cents to sewer customers for those who had their system put in under the grant, which would make the base sewer rate $12.33 per month to all our sewer customers, which would cover the cost of the maintenance of the grinder pumps that are already in place, and from this point on charge customers who put in grinder pumps the actual cost of repair and maintenance, we do the work and they pay the cost.  Chairman Antos clarified what was stated, he said we would charge everyone the 33 cents extra on the sewer availability to cover the maintenance on the 128 grinder pumps that we currently have, then every new grinder pump that is put in after the date of the adoption of the new policy, would have to pay for their grinder pump and for the maintenance on their grinder pump.  Mr. Hook said we do not have to raise the rate right now he said we can take the $20,000.00 needed for the Capitol Replacement Fund for the grinder pumps out of the contingency fund which would take care of that for this year, he said they should just keep in mind that the rate may have to go up 33 cents.  Mr. Coble suggested that we put language in that resolution so that those funds could be used for other emergency or capital improvements since everyone is paying for the fund.  Chairman Antos said that if the policy is ready we may be able to adopt it on the 25^th.  Mr. Walker said there are a hand full of grinders that are in the ground that were put in after the grant and were paid for by the homeowner, he said we do the maintenance on them but we charge the customer, he asked for clarification as to whether we would still do that.  Mr. Walker said the last policy drafted said that everything that was put in that may pump to a gravity system, that was put in under the grant program, we would maintain.  Mr. Lane clarified that we currently maintain free of charge, every grinder pump that was put in under the grant program whether it pumps to a gravity or a force main, Mr. Lane said there only about 90 of the 128 that were put in under the grant program.  Mr. Coble said we can specifically identify the properties that we are going to maintain free of charge which were put in under the grant.  The Board generally agreed that the grinder pumps that were put in under the grant and that we are maintaining, we can add the stipulation that from the date this policy is adopted, if the property is sold or put in someone else’s name then we would no longer maintain that pump free of charge, Commissioner Gaskill said that promise was only made to the owners who had the grinder pumps installed during the grant process.  Mr. Walker steers the board back to the grinder pump policy that was last presented which was Resolution #2011-10-003, Mr. Coble reads paragraphs one through six with no suggested changes by the board, he reads provisions one through three with no suggested changes by the board, he reads provision number four and said he will add the language “with the exception of grinder pump systems that exist at the time of adoption at properties that have been identified in Appendix A” which will be only those systems that were put in under the grant.  Mr. Coble reads provision number five, he said by state statute we have a responsibility to maintain these systems, the problem is that when we go on property that has not been deeded and dedicated, we are trespassing, Mr. Coble suggested that we leave number five in until it is challenged.  Mr. Coble suggested that we call these property owners and see if they will give us an easement to access the property to maintain the systems.  Concerning provision number six, Mr. Coble said we can add the exception of Appendix A here also and we can also add the language to Appendix A that says, properties will be removed from the addendum after change in ownership or after the name on the account is changed.  Mr. Coble said that provision number seven could be stricken altogether.  Concerning number eight, Mr. Walker said that technically if we have to replace a pump that is under warranty we should be able to charge the manufacturer for the associated cost, but normally the warranty only covers parts and not labor.  Mr. Lane said the warranty starts when the pump is purchased not when it is placed in service.  Mr. Coble suggested that we strike number eight, strike the first sentence of number nine and keep the last two sentences in provision number nine.  Mr. Coble said he will try to get this revised document back to Mr. Walker by tomorrow.

Commissioner Gaskill said he mentioned last week about the county and their deal, he said he has something in writing for the board to review and bring back their pros and cons.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEXT MEETING:

Vice Chairman Crowder announced the next regular board meeting on October 25, 2011 at 6:00pm.

ADJOURNMENT:

Commissioner Gaskill motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:55 pm, it was seconded by Commissioner Johnston, the motion carried unanimously.