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20071129 Infrastructure Committee Minutes
Chairman Crone called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. Present in addition to
Mr. Crone was Doyle, Wolff, Reese, Schleicher and Redmond. Also attending
were Bill Lovett and Jennifer Ogden of Hussey, Gay, Bell & DeYoung.
Doyle moved to approve minutes for October 13, 2007, Wolff seconded
and the vote was unanimous.
Mr. Lovett presented the Anti-degradation review fee proposal for the committee
to review. He said it is the next step in the treatment process and what it says is
there is nothing else you can do with your affluent except discharge it into the
ocean. He said you don’t have enough land to spray irrigate.
Ms. Ogden said when you want to increase your discharge permit an anti-
degradation review is required. She said you have to show that it would be an
economic hardship for a community to reuse that water. She said they feel it will
likely be ruled an economic hardship because of land availability and land cost.
Mr. Lovett said they will do a study to show how much it would increase the cost
of your water and sewer rates. He said they will go into the study with an open
mind.
Ms. Ogden said there are economic worksheets that you put the data in and it
will give you a score so it is not subjective.
Mr. Lovett said the fee proposal is $12,500.
Mr. Wolff moved to recommend council approval of the anti-
degradation review because it is required, Ms. Doyle seconded, and the
vote was unanimous.
Ms. Ogden with HGB&D said the purpose of the water shed assessment is to
assess what existing water quality and non point source impacts the water
quality in the service area of the treatment plant. She said the EPD looks at it as
you have a NPDS permit which gives you license to develop and so they ask the
Municipality to take some responsibility over water quality in that service area.
She said they are down to four sampling sites and they have submitted the draft
monitoring plan to EPD for review and our fee proposal is based on that draft.
She said they many come back with minor revisions but they feel it’s a good
representation of what the EPD wants.
Mr. Lovett said Paul asked them to talk to Dr. Joe Richardson at Savannah State
about doing part of this plan and he is doing part of the plan. Ms. Ogden said Dr.
Richardson is doing the habitat assessment and the macron vertebrae
identification and he will give us an opinion on the water quality data we get
back.
Mr. Lovett said the fee is $86,000. Ms. Ogden said the assessment will only need
updates after this one time fee.
Mr. Wolff recommended council approval based on it being required,
Ms. Doyle seconded, and the vote was unanimous.
Mr. Lovett said they received the encroachment variance from Dr. Carroll Couch
and so now we have submitted the LDA permit and we should get that within a
couple of weeks. He said after we get the LDA permit we can go to EPD.
Mr. Lovett said they are amending the GEFA loan application to include South
Campbell Ave. Mr. Crone asked about including Hwy 80. Mr. Lovett said at one of
the past meetings it was decided not to include Hwy 80. Mr. Crone said he
thought they decided not to go under the road. Mr. Reese said he knew they
stopped the jack and bore because that was discussed. Mr. Crone said what
about finishing the pipes all the way down. Mr. Reese said they started at both
ends and came this way so you won’t have the gravity you had before. Mr. Crone
said they started at Kietzman’s property and went both ways. Mr. Reese said it
goes up. Mr. Crone said yes and its gravity fed so in other words we won’t ever
get the other people hooked to it. Ms. Schleicher asked if they were talking
about Sewer or Water. Mr. Crone responded that they were talking about both.
Mr. Reese said at the other end at Cason Avenue we already have a 2 inch water
main. Mr. Reese said they won’t have Sewer. Mr. Crone said if we can get a line
down there they would have to come up with a grinder pump. Mr. Reese said
there is one now but a lady pays for it. Mr. Crone said in other words we just
forget about Hwy 80. Mr. Reese said it’s your choice but he doesn’t know what
we are going to do down there. He said Cason Ave. is down in a hole.
Ms. Schleicher presented a list of all properties still on Septic. She said the only
property she doesn’t have a status on is the property on Solomon Avenue. She
said they will have to investigate. She said they currently have 25 properties
using septic systems. She said we have some empty lots that can be built on.
She asked Mr. Reese to look and see if they have sewer available and whether a
grinder pump would be needed. Mr. Reese said a little can station cost $1,200
not including putting it in. Mr. Lovett said there are several duplexes on the list
that are a concern because if one side has the grinder pump and they move out
and have the power cut off the other side would not have sewer. Mr. Lovett said
if you have extra’s on hand and one goes out you can go and hook another one
up and it’s back in service. Mr. Wolff said we are looking at $50,000 tops if we
put every one of these in that sounds like fair game for a GEFA grant. Mr. Wolff
said he will talk it up in Atlanta at Mayor’s Day. Mr. Crone asked who will fix
them when they break down. Mr. Reese said if we go through the expense to put
them in we need to maintain them. Ms. Schleicher said there may be a way to
transfer ownership to the property owners.
Mr. Crone said so we are not doing Hwy 80 but we are doing South Campbell so
do we need Engineering on it? Mr. Lovett said he didn’t think it needed
Engineering. He said He and George rode it and no one knows where that
existing water line is. He said it zig-zags back and forth and they don’t know
who’s on it or not. He said they will do a performance spec where they require
the contractor to locate that 6 inch water line. He said the contractor will run a
lateral from that 6 inch line to the meter and change it out and when they kill
that 2 inch line they will know who is still on it. Mr. Reese said there are about
35 services on that line. Mr. Lovett said if they start bidding this job the 1st week
in January they could bring a recommendation to council the 2nd week in
February.
Mr. Lovett said they are well pleased with the contractor’s performance on
Tybrisa.
Mr. Lovett explained that Mr. Wilson thinks the parking lot would be better and
there is no question it would be better with the a base and then filter plastic and
another base. He said that will cost you $205,000. Mr. Wolff asked if that was for
a 6 inch base. Mr. Lovett said yes. Ms. Doyle asked if there was a way to know if
this will help. Mr. Lovett said they do not think it is necessary. He said they think
the parking lot is in good enough shape where Tybee doesn’t need it. He said it
is an asphalt sand base parking lot which is very common on beaches. Mr. Wolff
asked Mr. Lovett in his professional opinion if this was worth the money for what
we need long term. Mr. Lovett said no. Mr. Wilson said if you just surface overlay
that parking lot you will have surface cracks in four years. Mr. Lovett said he
didn’t disagree with that. Mr. Wilson said if you want to build a parking lot and
not have to touch it for 50 years this is a cheap investment. Ms. Doyle said she
didn’t think they should spend the money. Mr. Wolff moved to recommend
holding off on this unless they receive a recommendation from the
contractor and engineer that this is needed. Ms. Doyle seconded, and
the vote was unanimous.
Mr. Lovett said if Tybee wants to put a sprinkler system in the Lifeguard building
you need to run a separate 4 inch water line off the main. He said the change
order cost for that is $6,082. Ms. Schleicher said even if sprinkling is not required
we felt we should get the cost and present it to you. She said her
recommendation would be to deny it. Mr. Wolff moved to delete that
change order, Ms. Doyle seconded. And the vote was unanimous.
Mr. Lovett said there was a sewer line that was in conflict with the storm drain
that no one knew was there. He said we have to lower the water line under the
storm drain and the price is $2,300. He said there is also a force main with the
same problem and the contractor gave us a price of $6,240 and they told him
that was too much money. He said the contractor adjusted the price down to
$3,055. Mr. Crone said the total would be $5,355. Mr. Lovett said this is
something that needs to be done. Ms. Woods said this was added as an
emergency item on the agenda this afternoon. Mr. Lovett said his advice is to do
a change order and approve this amount for the two items on the change order
and authorize Ms. Schleicher to sign them. Mr. Wolff moved to approve.
Mr. Wilson asked if the water meters on the strand could be moved to the
paver’s area for ease of maintenance. He said Mr. Reese didn’t want them in the
concrete.
Mr. Lovett said Ms. Ogden had designed a grit king system for Hilton Head that
works very well. He said they included odor control at the plant and lift station
number 6. He said they got the population study from Ms. Allen and we think the
build out flow for Tybee is about 2,500,000 gallons a day. He said that is the
number they are looking at for sizing this grit system. He said Ms. Allen took a
map of the island and said this is what can or is being built in these zoning
areas. He said they won’t design the grit removal system for 2,500,000 gallons
but they will design it to be expanded to that amount. He said he will have it
completed next week. He said the grit removal and the odor control together will
be about one million dollars. Mr. Reese said odor control wasn’t in the budget.
Mr. Lovett asked if they wanted it to be in a GEFA loan. He said they have that
water first capability that knocks a whole percentage point off of the GEFA loan.
Mr. Redmond said he has concerns that our water rates are too low and we are
digging a deeper and deeper hole. He said his concern is us getting to the point
that we don’t have proper coverage ratios to qualify for GEFA loans. Mr. Lovett
said GEFA is getting tougher and tougher to get loans from. Mr. Wolff said this is
a good time to introduce the tiered rates. Mr. Redmond said Municipal Revenue
Bonds are drying up and the rates will be going up for Municipalities that can
qualify. He said several of next years projects are predicated on GEFA loans. Mr.
Wolff said you need to get the application in. Mr. Redmond said he would get the
application in this week.
Mr. Wolff moved to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted by Vivian Woods.