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Home My Public Portal About12-07-2017 Minutes WSAC Regular Meeting MEETING MINUTES WATER SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE Thursday, December 7, 2017 7:00 PM Town Barn 101 East Orange Street · P O Box 429 · Hillsborough, NC 27278 · 919 732 1270 MEMBERS PRESENT: Jim Parker, Volker Mittendorf, Dan Barker, Jenn Sykes, Aaron Butner, Daniel Rawlings MEMBERS EXCUSED: Arthur Sprinczeles, Saru Salvi STAFF PRESENT: Daphna Schwartz, Eric Peterson, Joel Lashley, Julie Laws GUESTS(S) PRESENT: Evelyn Lloyd (Town Board Member) 1.1 Call Meeting to Order & Welcome to Guests Chair Dan Barker called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. 1.2 Consideration of Additions/Changes to Agenda Aaron Butner asked that we drop Item 3.4 and schedule for a future meeting. 1.3 Consideration, Discussion and Approval of Past Minutes Volker Mittendorf moved to strike the words “board approved” on Item 3.5 as the board did not formally approve the changes. Motion was seconded by Jenn Sykes. Julie will amend the minutes. 2.1 Reports from Committee Assignments for Previous Months • October 9 - Regular Board Meeting – Daniel Rawlins reported on amendments to property south of I-40. • October 19 – Joint Board and Planning Meeting – Dan Barker reported about the project in West Hillsborough, and that a lot of the neighbors didn’t like the development proposal. • October 23 – Board Work Session – Aaron Butner stated there were no water or sewer issues discussed at this meeting. • November 13 – Regular Board Meeting – Volker Mittendorf reported that the board discussed the consent agenda, the Settler’s Point Development, possible rezoning of Daniel Boone Village, and the billing software update. • November 16 – Assembly of Governments Meeting – Meeting was cancelled. • November 27 – Board Work Session – Jenn Sykes reported that the Board discussed the reservoir project and changes in cost/budget. The Board decided to drop the engineering component on the Utilities Director position. Balanced scorecard was also discussed. 2.2 Engineering Status Report Highlights Julie Laws and Joel Lashley presented the status report on utilities projects. Joel talked about the OWASA project, the pump-around, and the schedule for dismantling the old pump station at Cornwallis Hills and meter vault at Exchange Club Park. The 12-inch water line project is going well, all 6-inch line has been installed. After all lines are installed, pressure testing and bac-T testing will be performed. Bob Hornik is working on liquidated damages to settle payment on the Waterstone tank. Originally, we were asking for $160K, and Kenny Keel dropped it down to $105K. 101 East Orange Street • P. O. Box 429 • Hillsborough, NC 27278 • 919 732-1270 x85 The contractor wanted to settle for $65K, and Bob told them we’re not moving from $105K. Negotiations are ongoing. 3.1 Blank Agenda Item None. 3.2 EDD Boundary Amendment Margaret Hauth, Planning Director, gave an update on agreements affecting water and sewer services, and presented the Water and Sewer Management and Planning and Boundary Agreement (WASMPBA), a strategic growth plan that was completed in 2010 by Town of Hillsborough, OWASA, and Orange County. Sizeable annexation requests started coming in and we decided to look more closely at capacity for water. An urban service boundary was defined. Lots of these areas have water but will never have sewer. 2017 amendments to WASMPBA added 85 acres south of I- 40. There is a small gap between rural buffer and urban service boundary. Settlers Point is laid out with the west side of old 86 being industrial/commercial, and east side as residential. Although there are reservations about commercial development, the Board approved an amendment for the boundaries to shift. Southwest quadrant of Settlers Point has a reserved capacity for construction. Next: update of water capacity model is needed. Water was considered, but sewer needs to be added to the plan also. Modeling at a cost of $150K is being considered for the next couple of years, and they are moving to year 1 to do the modeling for a collections system. Eric Peterson created the first modeling plan around 2000, and it’s grown from there. The construction of Phase 2 of WFER is part of this new modeling plan. Margaret shared maps from the Land Use Plan 2016 with the committee. Daniel asked if the shovel-ready area was on the west side of 86 along service road, and this was confirmed. Shopping/commercial/ residential is on the east side of old 86. The Town and Orange County will decide on usages, probably by March or April 2018. County is paying for all water, and almost all of sewer back to Grady Brown School Road and the $0.025 sales tax is being used to pay for this. Settler’s Point update: Town Board is supportive of District 1 with Orange County. Previously, residential was a problem due to isolation and non-walkability, but options are being considered for ways across I-40. District 3 has been withdrawn. 60 acres of Daniel Boone could be redeveloped, but new commercial builders could go south to Waterstone because they have a special assessment zone/tax. However, they don’t have a hard corner (highly visible from road) for a grocery store, etc. The Waterstone hard corner has a creek running through it. Daniel Boone has a high asking price, and old buildings will have to be pushed down, both of which could make this property less attractive. The property south of I-40 will be a green, clean slate and more desirable. 3.3 Update on Engineering/Utilities Director Position Eric Peterson gave an update on the Utilities Director position. He stated that the staff has been learning and growing their skills and knowledge because of delegation and taking on more responsibilities. He forwarded the job listing and youtube video to Julie, which she forwarded to the committee. 3.4 Solar Power Ideas for Water and Wastewater Plants Moved to February agenda. 101 East Orange Street • P. O. Box 429 • Hillsborough, NC 27278 • 919 732-1270 x85 3.5 Review and Update Recurring Agenda Items Dan Barker led discussion about the outdated list of recurring items. The group decided which items could be deleted or changed, and Julie will send out the revised list before the next meeting. 3.6 Fathom Update Daphna Schwartz gave an update to the committee, sharing that on November 13 a timeline was established for mutual release for our contract to end by June 30, 2018. On November 9, a Request For Proposals (RFP) was released for new utilities software. As of the deadline of November 30, we had received 10 bids, but only accepted 9 as one arrived too late. Tomorrow, 3 vendors will be elevated to do demos. Demo dates will be December 20, 21, 22. Julie will send the demo schedule to the committee in case they want to attend. A script will be provided to vendors by our GFOA consultant, Eva Olsaker. Selection date is planned for early January to give time to prepare for takeover on July 1, 2018. Finance will run a parallel system for the month before takeover to resolve any issues. Volker asked about using a risk management tool to make sure the new vendor can handle everything as required, and asked if we used the tool provided by OWASA. The RFP was developed based on our requirements and GFOA is handling that part for us. Dan suggested asking vendors if they would supply passwords to users if anyone forgets one. If they answer YES, he suggested that we not select them! Eric answered questions to the News of Orange about Fathom. He shared some information, but didn’t say anything negative about Fathom. Eric stated that Daphna is also handling the customer service/billing supervisor’s job until she gets a feel about what is needed to fill that position. 4.1 Suggested Future Agenda Items for Upcoming Months • Solar Power Ideas for Water and Wastewater Plants • Recurring items • Billing vendor selection 4.2 Upcoming Board Assignments December 11 – Regular Board Meeting – Jim Parker (Aaron Butner, sub) January 8 – Regular Board Meeting – Arthur Sprinczeles (Daniel Rawlins, sub) January 18 – Joint Meeting with Planning Board – Dan Barker (Jim Parker, sub) January 22 – Board Work Session – Saru Salvi (Aaron Butner, sub-will be out of country) 5.1 Adjourn Motion to adjourn was made at 8:21 PM by Jim Parker, seconded by Jenn Sykes. Next Meeting: February 1, 2018