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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20070412WSCommMinutes.docMinutes for Water and Sewer April 12, 2007 Chairman Crone called the meeting to order at 5:30PM. Present in addition to Mr. Crone was Paul Wolff, Wanda Doyle, Jan Fox, Bill Lovett, George Reese and Diane Schleicher. Also attending was Joe Wilson of DPW. Mr. Wolff moved to approve the minutes for 2-8-07, Ms. Doyle seconded and the vote was unanimous. Ms. Fox said the automated meter reading was in the budget for the upcoming year at $480,000. She said we have received a proposal from Datamatic for $550,000 for a fixed system instead of a drive by system. She said the data could be collected wirelessly straight to the billing computer and the water department; and the information and leak detection will be real time. She said during due diligence trying to write the sole source justification she ran into another company that does not require that you replace all of your meters with theirs; she requested pricing and a schematic of the system to make sure it will work with our billing system as Datamatic will. She said if that doesn’t eliminate them we will go out for an RFP as required. She said it would be ready by the 2nd meeting of the month. Ms. Fox said what she is requesting from the committee is approval of the increased price to get the budget adjustment for the fixed network over the mobile system. She said they also want to structure the loan between the General Fund and the Water Sewer Fund rather than pay the interest to equipment financing, GEFA or GMA. She said they can structure the loan so that the General Fund makes as much as, or better than they are making on their money markets and it can be paid back in 5 years. Ms. Fox said this system will virtually eliminate all the customer complaints and problems. She said it has the capability to show the customer their usage by hour and get real time re-reads. Mr. Wolff asked if it would be equipped with a leak alarm. Ms. Fox said there will be alarms that will go out by cell phone or e-mail depending on how it is set up. She said this system will allow the city to go to monthly billing. Ms. Schleicher said eventually we will be required to go to a tiered system for water billing and this will allow that more efficiently with fewer personnel. Mr. Wolff asked if there was no tiered rate system already in place. Ms. Schleicher said no because we do not bill monthly. Ms. Fox said the only tiered rate at this time is for Sprinklers. Mr. Crone said he feels this is the right system as long as 5 years down the road we do not have to spend another 4 or $500,000 as we have in the past. Ms. Fox said she believes this is a 10 to 15 year solution. She said she checked with Mr. Hughes to make sure there was no problem with our bond covenants as far as borrowing from the general fund as long as it is structured. Ms. Doyle moved to give permission to set this in motion to go before Council, Mr. Wolff seconded and the vote was unanimous. Ms. Fox said the GEFA loan Resolution will be ready to go on the agenda for the 2nd meeting in April. Mr. Lovett said he was researching federal money for the Ft. Screven project today after a meeting with Diane Schleicher. He said Mr. Marlowe told Ms. Schleicher that there is a state coordinator. He said he went on the website and found the coordinator’s name is Jeff Larson. He said he left Mr. Larson a message to call him back. He said Mr. Larson is the head of the Ogeechee River Basin. He said Mr. Larson will be able to tell them what the rules are. Ms. Fox said there are huge requirements as far as contract administration goes because you have to go through your single audit for those items. Mr. Lovett said we will also have to go through environmental assessments. He said it is a lot of extra work but it’s worth it if you can get grant money. Mr. Lovett said he would let Ms. Schleicher know when he gets a response from Mr. Larson. Mr. Lovett said he, Ms. Schleicher and Ms. Fox have prepared a preliminary RFP for the WWTP Maintenance and Operation. He said the City has not approved the final document. He said he has it set up to make companies come to us for copies of the document so we will know who has them. He said they will take minutes at the pre-proposal conference and send them out. He said they need to know who has copies in case of an addendum. After discussion concerning required attendance at the pre proposal conference it was decided that Attendance at the pre-proposal conference is recommended and if they are unable to attend they should contact George Reese for a facility tour. He said the pre-proposal conference will be at 2:00PM on April 26, 2007 in the City Hall Auditorium and it should take 2 ½ hours. He said it would be advertised on April 17th or 18th and again on the 24th. He said they would receive proposals by May 3rd and possibly make a recommendation to council on the 1st meeting in May. Ms. Schleicher said she hopes to present an acceptable contract at the water and sewer meeting next month. Mr. Lovett said this is a six month contract to get good pricing with a clause that says if both parties agree in writing the contract can be extended. Ms. Schleicher gave an update on the treatment plant. She said the City of Savannah is assisting us in maintaining compliance. She said we are required to have a class II license and we don’t. Mr. Crone asked Mr. Reese what would be required for him to get a class II license. Mr. Reese said it would require him to attend several consecutive weeks of school. He said there is no one that can take his place while he is at school. Ms. Schleicher explained that a class II license requires a person to know all about other treatment plants not just ours. Mr. Lovett said he would be required to go to the Georgia Association of Water Professionals school conducted on behalf of the EPD. He said the classes don’t have to be consecutive but it can’t be accomplished in five days. Mr. Lovett said they can get him on the job training at Statesboro and Savannah to get hands on experience. Ms. Schleicher said Mr. Estes recommends we have 2 Class II’s on site and she wants Mr. Reese to be one of them. She said that is her goal. Mr. Lovett referred to a conversation Ms. Schleicher had with an EPD representative that was about increasing Tybee’s NPDS permit due to taking people off of septic tanks and putting them on city sewer. Mr. Lovett said they prepared a letter that Ms. Schleicher sent to him and he responded negatively. Mr. Lovett said he read a draft of the letter over the phone and the representative said that would be a good letter to start talking. Mr. Lovett recommended Ms. Schleicher call him and remind him of the conversation back in the fall about increasing our permit. Ms. Schleicher said the representative’s name is Jim Ossery, the Deputy Commissioner of the EPD. Mr. Lovett said 20 houses is 6,000 gallons of NPDS permit you may be able to get added. He said in terms of building plants they think in gallons and at $8.00 a gallon that would be $48,000. Ms. Schleicher said she talked with Steve Estes today about the discharge. She said he is hearing good things about our being re-categorized as an ocean discharge. Mr. Lovett said Tybee would get much better allocation for their plant if they are considered an ocean discharge. Mr. Lovett said the EPD, EPA and the Ciera Club are talking about zero discharge into the Savannah River. He said even though it doesn’t make sense if it’s the law that’s the way the judge could rule on it. He asked what will Garden City do with their discharge of over a million gallons a day. It will cost them a fortune. Mr. Lovett said in response to Mr. Wolff’s question at the previous meeting about being allowed to discharge into the Dunes. He talked to EPD and they don’t recommend that. He said you would need a land application permit in addition to your NPDS permit and you would have to show that your affluent doesn’t add nitrogen to the groundwater; which he doesn’t think they can show because of the porous nature of the soil it goes strait down into the groundwater. Mr. Lovett said along with the new permit in addition to being a Class II we have to have a Water Shed Management Plan. He said HGB&D has been discussing this with the EPD on Tybee’s behalf. He said they are trying to set up a program to satisfy the EPD with the minimum and they will present Tybee with a waste load allocation plan. Ms. Schleicher said they are trying to tie our Storm water into our Wastewater permit. Mr. Lovett said when it doesn’t rain for weeks and weeks a rain comes along and washes the pesticides and herbicides into the receiving streams. He said the receiving streams can only assimilate so much pollutants governed by the amount of oxygen in the stream. He said they are trying to determine how much pollutant is going in from the storm water to determine what your affluent will be from the treatment plant. He said both the stormwater and the affluent from the treatment plant utilize the same bugs in the receiving stream. Mr. Wolff asked if we could compliment that by adding filtration systems to the Stormwater. Mr. Lovett said you will have to do that anyway as part of your best management practices for your stormwater system. He said you will have to adopt certain requirements for developers to do to get a building permit as part of your Watershed Assessment Plan. He said you will see a lot more roadside ditches and settling basins in order for the grease and toxins to settle out. Mr. Wilson said we are in Phase I with Chatham County and they pretty much set our storm water plan. He is finishing an assessment of the Police Department and recycling center to submit to MPC this week. He said they come out annually and we go over our management plan. Mr. Lovett said they will consult Mr. Wilson before they take it to council. Mr. Wilson said he is working towards being compliant and wants the GIS system up and running. The Committee gave Mr. Lovett permission to advertise and send out the RFP for the WWTP Maintenance and Operation. Mr. Wolff moved to adjourn, Ms. Doyle seconded and the vote was unanimous. Respectfully submitted by Vivian Woods