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Home My Public Portal About10-06-2016 Minutes WSAC Regular Meeting MEETING MINUTES WATER SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE Thursday, October 6, 2016 7:00 PM Town Barn 101 East Orange Street · P O Box 429 · Hillsborough, NC 27278 · 919 732 1270 MEMBERS PRESENT: Arthur Sprinczeles, Aaron Butner, Dan Barker, Volker Mittendorf, Saru Salvi MEMBERS ABSENT: Jim Parker (excused), Scott Jennings (excused), Frank Cohen (excused) STAFF PRESENT: Will Baker, Julie Laws, Heidi Lamay, Eric Peterson GUEST(S) PRESENT: Jenn Weaver (Board Member), Marie DeFelice (Fathom Rep) 1.1 Call Meeting to Order & Welcome to Guests Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Dan Barker. 1.2 Consideration of Additions/Changes to Agenda Move Item 3.2 to next meeting, as Scott Jennings is not present tonight. 1.3 Consideration and Discussion of Past Minutes Added that item 3.1 was “seconded by Saru Salvi.” All else is approved as written. Motion to accept by Volker Mittendorf, seconded by Artie Sprinczeles. 2.1 Reports from Committee Assignments for Previous Months August 8 – Regular Board Meeting – Saru Salvi – did not attend September 12 – Regular Board Meeting – Jim Parker – not here to report September 26 – Board Work Session – Aaron Butner – meeting was canceled 2.2 Engineering Status Report Highlights Will gave status report. THMs are still in a good range. The mixer in the Waterstone tank is helping keep THMs low. If this trend continues, we will look at adding mixers to other tanks. Flushing also helps mix and keep THMs down. Hoping to be done with flushing by end of October. FY16 water audit cannot be used based on current figures from billing and collections. This was due to faulty software at the time. Night work will begin next Monday at Hwy. 70/86 intersection. Volker Mittendorf asked what brought about the press release about quality of the Town’s water. This was in response to a vendor at Hog Day trying to test residents’ water. Troy had a booth at Last Fridays and interacted with many kids and families. Volker asked about reservoir project dates. Will stated that we are waiting for DOT’s scheduling so that we can coordinate this project. 3.1 Updates - FATHOM and Policy Issues POLICY ISSUES/CHANGES: Heidi Lamay reported on policy changes (best practices). Billing now lets customers run a month behind. If two-month bills are not paid, they get disconnected. There are re-connect charges, which makes it harder for customers to catch up and pay their bills. The new plan is to mail a late 101 East Orange Street • P. O. Box 429 • Hillsborough, NC 27278 • 919 732-1270 x85 notice the day after due date, then give a phone call, then cut off within 10 days instead of letting bills run for two months. Although there will be a shorter time to pay, customers can do a payment arrangement within that 10 days, which would eliminate the re-connect charges. Deposits are currently tied to a credit check. Going forward, we will reduce deposits to a flat $75 in-town, and $150 out-of-town, which gives the Town a risk of an average 1.5-month bill. We will refund the difference on current accounts, i.e. if someone paid $200 originally for out-of-town, they’ll get $50 credit on account or a check. With Fathom, we could also stop exorbitant bills with immediate leak notifications, etc. Saru asked how we’ll notify customers about these changes. Heidi stated we’ll do press releases, letters to all customers, signs in offices, etc. We currently allow property to remain vacant with no minimum bill. However, in the future, we’ll ask the property owner to pay the minimum bill, even if vacant. Eric Peterson stated that we should work with Raftelis to figure a “vacant” rate. We still read those meters and will know if they’re actually using water or if it’s really vacant. The Fathom system can pro-rate first and final bills for renters/owners, and can automatically switch accounts back to owners’ names. Saru asked about deposits being applied to bills after a time period of good payment history, but we do not do this until people leave and have water account closed. Heidi stated that when a customer does a final disconnect, we should apply deposit to the account within 10 days, rather than the two months we’ve done in the past. FATHOM: Dan asked about the cutover date and conversion process. The cutover date is October 31, and we’ll be going live Nov. 2. November billing will be on new system. Antenna system is being adjusted. The range for meter antennae under the lid is 2 miles, while antennae over the lid is 3-5 miles. We still have some over-the-lid units, so we’ll change some of these out where needed, based on topography and other factors. We will have 15 towers, with 8 located on town property. We may partner with Verizon to use some of their towers. Dan asked when high usage alerts would be available. Heidi stated this would probably be available in January, and residents will be able to log in and set this up. 3.2 Utility Bill Program - Promotion Discussion Scott Jennings was not present, so we’ll add to December’s agenda. 4.1 Suggested Future Agenda Items for Upcoming Months • Invite Kenny Keel to give a review of drought rules after attending conference in October • Bill assistance program update – Scott Jennings • Policy proposals and FATHOM updates 4.2 Upcoming Board Assignments October 10 – Regular Board Meeting – Volker Mittendorf (Saru Salvi, sub) October 24 – Board Work Session – Arthur Sprinczeles (Frank Cohen, sub) November 14 – Regular Board Meeting – Scott Jennings (Jim Parker, sub) November 17 – Assembly of Gov’ts – Dan Barker (Aaron Butner, sub) – 7:00 PM, Whitted Bldg. November 28 – Board Work Session – Saru Salvi (Volker Mittendorf, sub) 5.1 Adjourn Meeting was adjourned at 8:10 PM. Moved by Aaron Butner, seconded by Saru Salvi. Next Meeting: December 1, 2016