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Home My Public Portal About02-04-2016 Minutes WSAC Regular Meeting MEETING MINUTES WATER SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE Thursday, February 4, 2016 7:00 PM Town Barn Committee Members Present: Dan Barker, Artie Sprinczeles, Volker Mittendorf, Jim Parker, Aaron Butner, Scott Jennings, Saru Salvi Committee Members Absent: Frank Cohen (excused) Town Staff Members Present: Will Baker, Julie Laws Board Member Present: Mayor Tom Stevens 1.1 Call Meeting to Order & Welcome to Guests Meeting called to order at 7:00 PM by Vice-Chair Dan Barker 1.2 Consideration of Additions/Changes to Agenda None. 1.3 Consideration and Discussion of Past Minutes Change spelling from Aaron Butner’s name from BUTLER to BUTNER. 2.1 Reports from Committee Assignments for Previous Months December 14 – Board Regular Meeting – Aaron Butner attended, nothing to report as related to WSAC January 11 – Board Regular Meeting – Arthur Sprinczeles covered for Frank Cohen. There was discussion on the Mill Run Development as proposed by the Orange County. The County states that the development is very close to water and sewer, and our Board is considering whether or not to permit them to hook. There will be more discussion at future meetings. There was discussion at the meeting about the contract with Orange County regarding boundaries for water and sewer. The Town will talk with County about extending boundaries. At this point, Tom Stevens offered information about our strategic growth plan, stating that Mill Run was not within the planned growth area. Other WSAC business at the meeting included: Water Plant employee Larry Williams received his 20-year service award; and the appointment of Saru Salvi and Scott Jennings as new WSAC members. January 14 – Joint Meeting with Planning – No attendance. January 25 – Board Regular Meeting –Volker Mitttendorf attended. He and Tom Stevens discussed that the town is working on balanced scorecard, connectivity, etc. MEETING MINUTES WATER SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE Thursday, February 4, 2016 7:00 PM Town Barn Tom stated that we are waiting for the I-40 sewer crossing to add any new development south of the interstate. 2.2 Engineering Status Report Highlights Will Baker updated the Committee on highlights. The Waterstone Tank Project’s completion is past schedule. We are currently waiting for evaluation of a dent in the tank, and are also waiting for Duke Energy to hook up power. Crews have been working on the Hwy 70 water line project, with extremely low impact to the environment and traffic in that area. The sewer relining project along Riverwalk is now complete. There have been questions about lead in our system’s lines. Will stated there is very little in galvanized pipe, and we use Aqua/Mag, an anticorrosive, that helps to inhibit lead in copper joints. Most of our old pipe is cast iron. We still have some asbestos concrete pipe in the system, but there are no problems with this. We do not believe there is any lead in our mains. We used to check for lead annually, but our crews check every 3 years now (in accordance to guidelines) since we’ve had many years with no lead found in our samples. 3.1 Discussion on Vendors, i.e. ServLine Discussion began about these kinds of vendors not being reliable for follow-through on claims. Artie Sprinczeles stated that the lines here are not deep because the freeze line is higher, so cost of repair is not as great as cities in the northern part of the country. Dan Barker stated that we already have a generous program in place, and the cost of this could be better controlled if policy is changed. However, with more customers building new homes in the area, we are able to more comfortably cover the cost. Guidelines were established for hearing presentations from vendors. Presentations should be limited to 30 minutes, and should include a real presentation rather than just a brochure. The WSAC will not entertain recommendations from Finance or Engineering, but would rather leave the decision for presenting to WSAC to the vendor. Saru Salvi suggested that if we start getting too many vendors trying to sell these products, the Committee will decide to discontinue hearing presentations. 3.5 Blank Agenda Item None. 4.1 Suggested Future Agenda Items for Upcoming Months - Volker Mittendorf questioned our water audit numbers since they were inconsistent from month to month. Julie Laws stated that she did not feel numbers were accurate from Finance reports. There was an upgrade to their software that is causing numerous problems. Reporting is not correct, nor timely. Does the WSAC need to get involved? Tom Stevens suggested that the WSAC document these problems and express them to Finance. Julie will contact Heidi Lamay, MEETING MINUTES WATER SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE Thursday, February 4, 2016 7:00 PM Town Barn Finance Director, to express the Committee’s concern about this problem and their need to find out more, and that they want deficiencies corrected. Julie will ask Heidi to address these problems (either in person or by text report) at the next meeting with recommended resolutions. 4.2 Upcoming Board Assignments February 8 – Regular Board Meeting – Volker Mittendorf (Saru Salvi, sub) - Aaron Butner will cover, as neither Volker nor Saru are able to attend February 22 – Board Workshop Meeting – Arthur Sprinczeles (Frank Cohen, sub) February 25 –Joint meeting with Orange County – Scott Jennings (Jim Parker, sub) March 14 – Joint Meeting with Planning – Dan Barker (Aaron Butner, sub) March 28 - Board Work Session – Saru Salvi (Volker Mittendorf, sub) 5.1 Adjourn Jim moved to adjourn at 8:02 pm, seconded by Artie. All approved. Next Meeting: April 7, 2016 Submitted by Julie Laws