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Home My Public Portal About02-01-2018 Minutes WSAC Regular Meeting MEETING MINUTES WATER SEWER ADVISORY COMMITTEE Thursday, February 1, 2018 7:00 PM Town Barn 101 East Orange Street · P O Box 429 · Hillsborough, NC 27278 · 919 732 1270 MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Dan Barker, Volker Mittendorf, Saru Salvi, Jim Parker, Aaron Butner, Arthur Sprinczeles, Daniel Rawlins, Jenn Sykes STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: Joel Lashley, Julie Laws, Daphna Schwartz, Jeff Mahagan BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Tom Stevens 1.1 Call Meeting to Order & Welcome to Guests Meeting was called to order by Dan Barker at 7:00 PM 1.2 Consideration of Additions/Changes to Agenda None. 1.3 Consideration, Discussion and Approval of Past Minutes Aaron Butner moved to accept as read, seconded by Volker Mittendorf, all in favor. 2.1 Reports from Committee Assignments for Previous Months • December 11 – Regular Board Meeting – Jim Parker (Aaron Butner, sub) – nothing to report • January 8 – Regular Board Meeting – Arthur Sprinczeles (Daniel Rawlins, sub) did not attend, but read minutes and had nothing to report. • January 18 – Joint Meeting with Planning Board – Dan Barker (Jim Parker, sub) – did not meet due to snow and ice. • January 22 – Board Work Session – Saru Salvi (Aaron Butner, sub) – went over BB&T contract, all information was emailed by Eric. 2.2 Utilities Status Report Highlights Joel Lashley gave updates for the Utilities Department. There were no reportable spills this month. Flushing begins March and should be completed by first week of April. January had 56 leaks customer-side leaks, and 6 main breaks (all cast iron). Had a lot of OT due to freezing pipes and weekend/night calls. 12” line is in use now for Sheetz/Old 10, and we’re turning in as-builts to Summit to complete paperwork. Meter vault will be completed by summer on OWASA line. Start- up on south zone at Forest Ridge is ongoing. Replaced manhole on Riverwalk, 465 ft of 21” concrete replaced at end of Cameron Street, and the contractor did an awesome job on this project. Cleanup is ongoing due to weather and continuing rain, but we are hoping to have this completed soon and re-open Riverwalk. This line is 3 miles long and the force main had deteriorated the manhole. Had to re-do the manhole and replace line that was closest to manhole. Pipe improved as it got further away from the site. Manhole will be relined this summer so this won’t need to be done again. Volker asked about the risk for other pipes being bad without knowing. Joel discussed the hydraulic modeling plan that is being planned that will help determine these areas. 101 East Orange Street • P. O. Box 429 • Hillsborough, NC 27278 • 919 732-1270 x85 3.1 Blank Agenda Item None. 3.2 Update on Engineering/Utilities Director Position Julie Laws gave update on status of Utilities Director. An offer has been made to one of the candidates, and we are waiting for an acceptance. 3.3 Solar Power Ideas for Water and Wastewater Plants Aaron Butner shared information with the group about energy and articles in the handout he provided. In North Carolina, you cannot sell back energy. Second article in the handout talked about floating panels, which was not well received by the committee. Jeff Mahagan added that we had looked at this before in 2012, but there was no grant funding and there were limitations on where we could place the panels. We could locate them on large roofs, but finding southern exposure is difficult. Dan Rawlins stated that wind has the same issues. Saru Salvi stated that backup batteries could not store enough energy to use. Artie Sprinczeles stated there are better ways to save money than looking at solar and wind. Dan Barker suggested looking into rates, as night and day could be completely different. Tom Stevens shared that the town board is seriously looking at ways to save energy, even the possibility of having electric vehicles. They are looking at someone to champion this issue, and it will be discussed at the budget retreat. Technology is changing and we could make some big changes in the next 5 years. Saru asked if the mayor will be putting together a committee for fact finding, and he shared that they want to make this happen and are just starting to think about it. We’ll return to this discussion in August. 3.4 Billing Vendor Daphna shared information about the finalist for our new software system, Tyler Technologies. They have provided services since 1981, have lots of NC clients, and have won lots of awards on Forbes (Best Small Companies). Their system will allow IVR integrated voice response and texting. INCODE is the system they use. Meter readings will automatically update the billing system. Neptune will be reading meters, and Tyrone can take pictures and speak into system. Aaron asked if we had looked into complaints about the vendor He’s heard about Tyler’s software keeping people in jail too long on their jail/court software, and that they have a dispute with a Massachusetts municipality on this. The City of Mebane uses Tyler and they’re happy with them. GFOA is very familiar with them and recommended them to us. Jenn suggested looking at Mebane Nextdoor to see if people have complaints. Online and recurrent payments are good with Tyler, and customers would like to keep these options. The vendor that was second in line did not offer this. Startup will be less than $100K for the new system, with yearly maintenance of $20K. One thing Daphna wants from them is internal email notifications, and they will work on building this feature into the system. Currently, she would have to actually log in to get information, but getting emails would eliminate this step. Their product is “evergreen” which means they can grow with our needs. Our hardware is compatible, with the possibility of needing card readers and a couple of ipads for meter readers. The #2 vendor’s recording was not as robust as Tyler, and also wasn’t as good in the field, nor was it user friendly. Our Tyler rep will probably be from Georgia, with Texas being their main headquarters. Aaron asked about the next step. Daphna shared that negotiations with attorney, their reps, GFOA are ongoing, and that testing has already occurred. Fathom will provide gsc file which Tyler can access. We’ll run parallel systems for 1-2 months. Their performance-based contract was received today and being reviewed by our attorney and GFOA. Volker asked about communicating with the 101 East Orange Street • P. O. Box 429 • Hillsborough, NC 27278 • 919 732-1270 x85 public regarding these changes, and Daphna will meet with Catherine Wright for help with communications to customers. 3.5 Recurring Agenda Items a. Customer Skip Rates – Daphna provided handout. 255 customers left the area in 2017, owing a balance of $63,540. Dan asked if we were going to place a lien on tax returns. There’s no way to do that with Fathom, but we can resume when we get on the new Tyler system. 16 non- residential customer skipped at $8,000+ for 2017. b. Water Sewer Assistance Fund Review – Daphna provided a handout. Saru stated that this option was dropped from billing statements when Fathom took over. Daphna reached out to Catherine Wright to brainstorm ideas for promoting this program. Dan suggested improving communications with customers. OCIM provides a statement to the Town on what they’ve used annually. Daphna will look at the Memorandum of Understanding from them for clarification. c. Budget Retreat Topics from WSAC – Dan Barker stated there were none other than the billing system and energy options. Tom shared that this year’s retreat will be held on April 7. d. WTP Utilization and Improvements for the Year – Joel stated there are none at this time. Top 3 projects are Sheetz, interconnections for 16 and 12” lines, and booster pump station. Other improvements could include at least two of the old 2” galvanized lines (Jones Ave and Margaret Lane between Nash St and Hillsborough Ave). e. Annual Spills Summary – Joel shared that some stormwater is still feeding into sewer, but less than in previous years. Dan asked that the new utilities director give trends for spills, cleanouts. 4.1 Suggested Future Agenda Items for Upcoming Months - Recurring items - Water Sewer Assistance Fund Update - Utilities Director Update 4.2 Upcoming Board Assignments February 12 – Regular Board Meeting – Daniel Rawlins (sub, Volker Mittendorf) February 15 – Joint Planning Meeting – Dan Barker February 22 – Joint Meeting with Orange County – Jim Parker (sub, Arthur Sprinczeles) February 26 – Board Work Session – Aaron Butner (sub, Jenn Sykes) March 12 – Regular Board Meeting – Volker Mittendorf (sub, Dan Barker) March 26 – Board Work Session – Arthur Sprinczeles (sub, Saru Salvi, will be out of country) 5.1 Adjourn Saru moved to adjourn at 8:20 PM, seconded by Aaron. Next Meeting: April 5, 2018