- All right the time is now five o'clock i'd like to call today's uh utility service board meeting
- to order as a reminder the city of Bloomington utilities mission is to enhance the quality of
- life in our community by providing safe sustainable and high quality drinking water wastewater and
- stormwater services in a cost-effective manner promoting public health economic vitality and
- environmental stewardship if any board member has a personal or financial conflict with any
- issues or individuals on the agenda then please be sure to recuse yourself during those portions of
- the meeting uh first on our agenda is petitions and communications are there any petitions and
- communications you could state your name for the record please uh brian ovary uh with green
- dragon lawn care um if i can give each one so everybody knows what i'm referring to here
- so like i said last year uh this contract i've gone up for a bid
- and these are basically for various i'm going to go ahead and read what i have here otherwise
- i'm going to go off on a tangent so um this is basically the contract for last year the
- substations the water treatment plants and water towers around bloomington now they had put this
- out two years ago we bid on it we got the contract but it was only for one year so they had to put
- it
- out again um i was trying to discuss this matter with the purchase agent again because
- before this was supposedly renewed uh i've left voicemails and finally i'd sent an email and over
- the past month still didn't get a response except for uh i did get something from chris wheeler
- explaining the renewal process which i knew about but we also have a lot of work we do with parks
- and
- rec contracts basically the same contract in every year they still have to bring it before the
- board
- even though it's a three-year renewal so i was waiting for that to come about so i could bring
- this up before the contract expired but from what i understand in this process it's an automatic
- renewal it does not have to go before the board again so that left me with i don't know where
- to go from here but i was really trying to bring up some some problems i saw what was going on with
- the current contractor um there was a lot of bad there was a lot of communicate bad communication
- last year between myself and uh the person in charge of it and that's why it was really late
- for it to come out it didn't come out until that wasn't signed until may so i i understand
- that there was a lot of time there where that contractor had was kind of you know trying to
- make up for it um i really had reservations on the ability of the contractor to perform the work
- proposed in the bid we had one contract with the previous year but the contract was called for
- additional 10 properties including the service center and landscaping as well as snow removal
- obviously our price went up from the year before but the current contractor had their price pretty
- much the exact same that we did um i can't read any more into that but during the course of the
- year i observed the progress of the contractor and it seems they're having trouble getting started
- in keeping up with the mowing we currently have contracts with parks and rec and some of these
- substations are adjacent to the properties that we maintain so i see what's going on
- i think it's i think at the point i was bringing forward is the work performed by the current
- contractor may not be up to par or standards with the specifications of the contract i was
- skeptical of the pricing that was provided and felt due diligence into the scope of the work was
- probably not performed by the contractor this is what led me to keep an eye on the properties in
- my opinion as a professional in this field there was not a reasonable effort to do the work i've
- also reviewed as much as i am the billing for the work and the timing of the work being done
- at a minimum i felt the best to talk to these people involved but i just couldn't get a hold
- of anybody i just don't feel like there's adequate oversight on the work that was completed
- informed at reasonable standards the previous year that we had the contract i believe the managers
- at the three plants were asked either by email or verbally monthly when we would send the invoices
- if everything was okay correct and if there's any problems i don't believe that was done this past
- season i have not been able to see a detailed copy of the invoices for the past year but i am able
- to see some of the dates that do not match and are not in compliance with the contract in one
- particular
- is the dates of uh december the 20th of 2024 for the week of 11 10 24 to 11 17 the amount is about
- double what a weekly mowing for all those properties would be and it seems that they would
- have had to mow these properties twice in a week and that is much later in the season you would
- normally mow a couple of those invoices are also for february of 2024 which was before the contract
- even started that may be an error it's just very late in the season for them to come out and try
- to make up for something that they weren't able to do later earlier in a year normally in the
- contract it starts april 1st and it ends in october 31st um at this point i'm not sure if
- rebidding is an option but what i'm really asking is is that the contract should be held to
- standards
- that are laid out in the contract and have some oversight i do understand that the scope of things
- with utility grass mowing is not high on the priority list but i feel that sometimes
- these things easily can be done with the right contractor in a consistent and timely manner
- which we have proof that we could do the whole idea of hiring an outside contractor is to
- eliminate having to use internal employees to maintain these properties and if that had been
- done or had to be done i feel that they failed in what they were supposedly trying to do
- at that point i don't like i said i don't have any recourse on if they're going to re-bid it
- i just would like somebody to take some sort of a look at what's going on here and make sure
- that they're being held i granted that the current contractor is the largest in the country
- i mean they're not a small business pretty sure they are bringing down most of their people from
- indianapolis maybe they just can't keep up with it that's fine but at the end of the day they put
- these out these these contracts out for us for people to basically take care of it so they don't
- have to do it in-house and that's about all i have for that thank you for bringing this to our
- attention board members do we have any questions or comments or and i'm not sure i'm sorry so last
- year i was with jose fuentes but the year before that it was um i'm not sure what was the uh james
- hall so it may be a new person this year i don't know i i've never been able to actually get in
- contact with jose so that may be just an error on their part maybe there's somebody else doing it
- maybe it's just gotten missed somehow um i just know that we what we can do and what we have done
- in the past is it shouldn't be an issue here um and the current contractor in my opinion is not
- really fulfilling the contract
- do we have any feedback about the quality of the the mowing that's taken place over the last season
- i don't have any good bad or indifferent
- the best people to talk to the three people at the plants
- they're the ones that would probably have the best grasp um i don't know if there's anybody call in
- for the substations that are throughout the city i did get one person that called from because they
- thought we were doing it again we did it the year before and wondered why things weren't getting
- done and i told them we weren't involved with that this year um but some of these these are right
- next
- to residential areas some of them are in Hyde Park they're really small but they do need to be
- maintained that was a person like a residential person or that was yeah that was no that wasn't
- anybody that was just somebody they they had seen this the year before doing it and they just
- assumed
- hey why aren't you guys doing it again this year and i had just i said we're not in contract with
- them this year you'll have to get with the city about that gotcha and you know like i say a lot
- of these properties that we're right at next to where we currently know other places and you can
- see that it's not getting done um like i say understand that's not a big thing for them you
- know a lot a lot of the things that's a higher priority but it should be done correctly um and
- there shouldn't be an issue with having uh internal employees having to go out and mow
- when they have better things that they're supposedly doing um we got some feedback
- about the you know the quality of what's been done over the last season
- sure yeah we can look into that and check in with plants we're going through
- as well as i just want to see how much we how much we've allocated i mean what was spent
- on that contract um did i've slept since then i know i missed a board meeting too did we
- approve a contract a new contract with was it with bright view for another year or that's upcoming
- i thought it was this is an automatic for years right okay
- but i'm confused because i don't have i apologize i don't have all the background material on this
- but it says the expiration of the contract is was with the with the information that brian has
- provided to us that the expiration of the contract was february 28th 2025 which we've passed
- there is on a renewal date for the contract that is none there's none and
- that's why i thought it was going to get brought up before the board again
- um and i i i wasn't under the impression that we like it that we
- did i mean automatic renewals there was some sort of end date on them
- i mean i'm a little i'm just a little confused so we chris can explain it better
- hi chris wheeler with city legal i don't know what you have in front of you i haven't
- had the opportunity to review it the contract terms were for a one-year term with three automatic
- one-year renewals okay yeah that i don't is that the memo that goes as that's the cover memo the
- cover memo is is inaccurate the actual contract will had a had three automatic renewal terms
- automatic means if we don't terminate it it just automatically rolls over to the next year but
- there
- was but what i'm here you're saying is it there wasn't it's not like an unlimited end it was a
- three it's a three-year term yeah and this year will be this year this 2025 will be year two
- this is year two okay yes within the contract if the provider doesn't provide good service
- we're still stuck with two more years no we can terminate for cause
- is we can terminate if we don't like the way they tie their shoes we can just terminate it just
- because we don't want to do it anymore we can also terminate it if we don't have any appropriation
- for the next year okay but if we are happy with their services and we don't terminate it it
- automatically renews that's why i'm asking for at least some evaluation yeah i would expect that
- the utilities department is aware of whether the grass is getting mowed sure and whether the
- purchasing department should renew or not i have no idea though i'm not there to see that if we
- could just have staff report back on the expenditures that we've had and and see if everyone's
- happy with
- the work at the plant or if there have been issues but that does seem sort of late in the season
- for
- services to increase so i think uh as of right now we need to gather some information
- unless there's any more questions from the board with the invoicing it seemed like they were very
- late in the year i've been doing this 29 years that's very late to be mowing right especially
- doing it twice well but if we had to do leaf removal because that is part of that's not in it
- okay because i know i know i had leaf removal fees for properties in november so i don't i don't
- know
- but it would be good to the same contract that we use with parks and rec they've used it's they've
- basically taken the parks and rec contract and and copied it uh on this um and we've this 12 years
- we've been doing more parks i get it that's much higher visibility i held to a little higher
- standard not everybody's going to complain if the water treatment plan doesn't get mowed every week
- but it still has to get done um and the other places that are adjacent to
- somebody's property they shouldn't have to deal with it or call in
- so i i just don't think there was really a lot of oversight and
- it's an easy thing to do to go out and say you've done something without you know mr way
- who on the staff supervises the mowing contract i know it's it's not really a plant so it's not
- and tnd and so you know who um who well you can't the purchasing agent isn't going to drive around
- all these sites though no but they actually made it to contract and they work with operations at
- td to make sure all the sites are included in the contract so purchasing is more of an
- administrator getting it through the process that means it's several of our
- aides or departments that would be responsible for making sure that the services were done
- satisfactorily yeah okay
- that's hard to keep track of yeah and i can understand your point sir if someone saw
- your trucks before and said hey why aren't they mowing and they call you and say and you have to
- respond you're not doing it anymore and that flags you saying hey something's not working
- yeah we do a lot of work for parks and rec a switch yard a lot of properties a lot of parks
- there is some trust you have to gain by with the contract it's going to get done nobody's going to
- check every park every week but if you go somewhere and it's obvious that it was not been done then
- that's something that needs there are things within that contract you have a one time if
- something there's an issue it needs to be brought up there's an official they meet together you
- discuss it it gets uh you know however that and then if it comes up again uh it's it goes a little
- more and then third time could be uh termination so within the contract it says there are certain
- but you have to hold them to it you can't i get it like i say early it
- of all the things that they have to do with uh utilities here getting the grass mode is
- you know not the highest priority but uh i know that it can be done i i've done it this is what
- i've done for 29 years we're good at it we did it the one year we did we ran the contract out we
- ran every bit of it um i think we did a good job we do that's what we do um so whether this
- contractor is serious about it or not i don't know i can't speculate but i do think they need
- to be held to some standards i just want to say thank you for bringing this to our attention
- um if regardless if it's our top priority service or you know just something routine every week
- for paying for the service it is something that we want to receive and so i think that um we've
- requested our team to get back with us and and maybe that's an opportunity for us with this next
- year to you know introduce some different checks and balances i know in my personal neighborhood
- we have a hoa and we have a neighborhood contracted mower and i would be like man it's
- been two weeks since they've been here and then we call and they come right out and we get that
- addressed and so um you know for paying for the service then we want to be receiving it so we
- appreciate your time bringing that to our attention okay i appreciate you giving me the time okay
- all
- right thank you sir all right thank you are there any additional petitions and communications
- all right the next item on the agenda is a bid opening for the uh
- pigeon hills sewer lining project cayden good evening everybody i'm cayden swanson utilities
- engineer cpu i'm here to introduce ian scott with grw who will be opening the bids for the
- sanitary lining project i've put a sheet in front of you if you would like to follow along
- thank you as cayden says my name is ian scott and i'm a project manager with grw i'm going
- to be opening four bids for the pigeon hills sewer lining project the first will be for
- from performance pipelining
- okay
- all right their first bid is for eight hundred and nine thousand one hundred and
- eighteen dollars and zero cents that is for the base bid of performance pipelining
- and for the alternate is for fifty five thousand two hundred and sixty dollars and zero cents
- okay
- moving on to the next one thank you
- this is from inliner inliner solutions
- okay
- so for inliner solutions their base bid is for eight hundred and seven thousand two hundred and
- forty-five dollars and the alternate bid is for thirty nine thousand four hundred and eighty
- dollars
- there's inliner
- all right the next is for in situ form
- okay
- okay so for in situ form their base bid is seven hundred and seventy four thousand seven
- hundred and fifty thousand dollars and twenty seven cents seven seven four seven five zero
- and twenty five cents sorry what sorry twenty seven cents
- and their alternate bid is for forty eight thousand three hundred and eighty eight dollars and
- twenty
- cents
- all right last one
- this is for sack s a k construction
- one
- okay and their base bid is eight hundred and fifty one thousand and forty three
- or eight hundred fifty one thousand forty three dollars eight five one zero four three
- and zero cents and their alternate is for thirty four thousand seven hundred and forty dollars
- and those are the four bids that we received all right thank you
- we'll take these into consideration and advise uh advise the board all right
- appreciate you i just have a quick question yes in my experience with bid opening we've always had
- a
- usb or a utility staff member open the bids and so i just wondered why you did um i guess i've done
- in the past okay i actually did it at uh last year's been here and missed it or forgot okay i
- actually did it last year's um but okay okay no that's great because you work for grw that's
- correct yeah okay thank you maybe i missed something but i thought we were doing these bid openings
- at a special session with one member present is this is this unusual in some way
- all right thank you both
- okay moving along to the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting
- i move approval of the uh march 10 uh minutes
- we have a motion and a second are there any questions or discussions for the
- minutes of the previous meeting
- all in favor of approval say aye aye all opposed
- all right minutes are approved moving along to the approval of the claims
- beginning with standard invoices for a total amount of two million five hundred and forty one
- thousand six hundred and fifty nine dollars and fifty four cents are there any questions on the
- claims on the standard invoices i had a couple okay thank you first on page number five northern
- safety company inc um for the electrolyte drink mixes for sixteen hundred and ninety eight dollars
- and fifty eight cents i which is a coincidence because the invoice directly above that is also
- for that exact same amount but i just wondered are these like individual packets that would like go
- into yes they are okay thank you is that a coincidence that it's the exact same dollar
- amount than the one ahead of it my guess is they come in standard sizes yeah okay i mean
- um yeah what i'm saying is to buy like a box of them is what i'm saying it's the exact same amount
- as a bod and bacteria testing right above it oh i see you're saying we should play the lottery if
- that's the case yeah okay thank you um i got the nod from james if that's what that's for so i
- guess
- that seems like a correct price for 1700 with a drink mix
- yeah i think okay could you just like double check that before we send the check to make sure that
- that's the right amount thank you um my other question was on page six with service express
- inc for the cbu portion of power edge and i just wondered what is that and who's paying the other
- portion page six service express
- oh these are the service express this is laptops
- okay um who who is the other like who else is paying into it would that be the city or usually
- how it is is the the city like ids buys these things and then we just pay the invoice directly
- so the civil city will pay the rest of it okay thank you any questions i had a question on page
- two sorry i stapled it page two i think that's page two that starts with casey jones i think
- that's right i think i just stapled these wrong yes that's page two um a question about our
- interdepartmental agreement it wouldn't be a board meeting if we didn't ask about that right um
- really just a curiosity 85 approximately 85 percent is associated to wastewater and only
- 15 percent to water um so what we're doing this year is we're paying all of the wastewater one
- in one lump sum and we're going to pay the city four payments for the water one over the course
- of the year one one three each quarter so this will be the only payment so this will be the only
- payment that we see for wastewater for 2023 but we'll see three more payments for water over the
- course of the year we're not paying water in one lump sum we're going to spread it over four
- payments yeah okay that helps thank you i just need to note uh i'll i'll vote in favor of the
- claims except for the two of the claims on page four to indiana university for wastewater sampling
- there's two of them there for uh that wastewater program that we had in place last year
- it's about five five or six thousand dollars worth so i'm accusing myself from those votes
- i will note that in the minutes
- and with that i'll uh is there anything else i'll move approval of
- um our claims for uh today's meeting second we have a motion and a second all in favor
- aye all opposed standard invoice passes moving on to utility bills for a total amount of
- two hundred and thirty five thousand six hundred and seventy three dollars and forty five cents
- are there any questions or comments on the utility bills
- hearing none do we have a motion approval utility bills second motion and second all in favor
- aye utility bills are approved next our wire transfers for a total amount of five hundred
- and twenty two thousand ninety four dollars and 31 cents any questions or comments on the wire
- transfers
- and move approval of wire transfers for march motion second all in favor wire transfers are
- approved finally we have customer refunds for a total amount of six thousand thirty four dollars
- and 87 cents are there any questions or comments on the customer refunds
- move approval of customer refunds for march 28th all in favor aye customer refunds are approved
- thank you all moving on for the approval of a consent agenda for a total amount of a hundred
- and one thousand three hundred and two dollars kathryn zager
- i'm presenting tonight's consent agenda totaling a hundred and one thousand three hundred and two
- dollars the first contract is with kokosing industrial inc for twelve thousand one hundred
- and one dollars to repair for the repair of piping at the russell road booster station
- next is with bl anderson company inc for twenty thousand dollars for on-call agreement with for
- the chemical feed systems pumps and variable frequency drives next is with affordable fence
- inc for twenty thousand dollars for on-call services for fence services
- next is with jasper electric motors inc for twenty thousand dollars for on-call services
- for electrical and generator services next is with potomac electrical testing services llc
- for twenty thousand dollars for on-call services for electrical high voltage service
- finally we have one with thermo electron north america llc for nine thousand two hundred and
- one dollars for a service plan for the icpms is there any member who wishes to consider one
- or more of these items individually hearing none if there is no opposition these items will be
- approved as recommended by staff hearing no opposition the consent agenda is approved
- thank you item number seven is a request for approval of resolution 2025-04 to designate
- is computer hardware that was just aged out and broken
- any questions about the equipment designated for worthless as worthless
- i move approval of resolution 2025-04 for surplus property motion in the second all in favor
- aye request is approved thank you uh item number eight is request for approval of change order
- number one to public works agreement for site safety and process improvements at dillman water
- treatment plant mark menafee hello mark menafee utility engineer i'm here to ask for approval
- of a change order for the dillman wastewater plant site safety and process improvement
- the original design for this is to replace all of the suction piping on the six pumps in the main
- headworks building and after this design was finished we had which was in response to a failure
- last year of the piping we had a failure in the discharge side of two of the pumps in other words
- we believe this is just abrasive hole that's been formed in the pipe so we're going to replace two
- elbows the cost for this change order is 36,430 it's with the cocosing industrial and they will
- fabricate two new elbows which are 18 inch elbows and have a couple days of labor to replace those
- there'll be no added time to the contract and the change order is 36,430 any questions
- we have a motion for approval
- approval of the change order number one to the improvements at dilman
- all in favor aye aye all right thank you approved thank you
- thank you item number nine request for approval of public works agreement for the monroe water
- treatment plant chemical feed line and backwash pump replacements dan hudson
- hello i'm dan hudson capital projects manager for the city of bloomington utilities
- two weeks ago i came to the board and requested a resolution 2025-2 for approval of the bids for
- thenaman construction to uh reconstruct the chemical feed lines and chemical uh distribution
- at the monroe plant and also add a uh back a second backwash pump today i want you to
- consider the contract for thenaman construction to do this and that is for four million seven
- under thirty two thousand dollars any questions thank you any questions
- we have a motion for approval yeah i move approval of the uh agreement for the mineral water plant
- chemical feed line replacements second all in favor say aye aye all right thank you thank you
- request for approval of first amendment to agreement for street sweeping study elizabeth carter
- good evening um blase carter i'm the ms4 program coordinator um i did want to mention there is a
- slight typo in the cover sheet that was included in the packet that says that we have requested
- to extend this contract through april 30th we are um we are requesting to extend it through september
- 30th um so the contract was originally set to expire at the end of february um due to no fault
- of our contractor and um more like weather for us we haven't been able to collect enough street
- sweeping data for them to give us a final report we had snow and ice during the winter that kind
- of thing so we want to make sure that we can give them good consistent data before we ask them to
- give us a report um for that reason we didn't want to rush them and try to get them done by
- the spring so we extended the contract out six months so that we know that uh second nature will
- definitely have enough time to compile a final report that they will come present to you all
- when they are done i'm happy to take any questions thank you any questions for liz
- All right, thank you. Do we have a motion for approval? Yeah, I move approval of the
- agreement for the street sweeping study. Second.
- We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye.
- Thank you. It is approved. Thank you.
- Moving on to old business. Any old business from the board?
- Any old business from staff? New business. Any new business from the board?
- I have just a comment. So I'll just say it. Okay, so a comment on the mayor's comment to the city
- of Bloomington's appeal to the Indian Court of Appeals ruling against the city in the waiver case.
- And I'm not trying to like be a potster or anything. I just want to make sure that,
- okay, I'll get to it. Sorry. The mayor said annexation ensures that those rely on city
- services fully contribute to the actual costs creating a more equitable and sustainable system
- for all. So when I'm thinking about the CBU with our equitable and our actual costs,
- county residents pay the actual cost of service. I just, I'm going to confirm that.
- And then knowing that we're looking at a rate case, then make sure that that's taken into
- consideration. Because as a county resident, I want to make sure that I'm paying my part
- and whatever that is. So just since that was a statement in the city's appeal,
- press release, I guess, then I just wanted to make sure that when we're looking at the rate review
- that we do consider what are the actual costs for serving our county customers on both water
- and sewer and that that is accounted for accordingly. Thank you.
- Any new business from staff?
- We didn't have any subcommittees today. Staff reports.
- So we have some congratulations in order. And this also hits on Mute asked for some updates from
- the conference in French Lick. So this will hit on that as well. So our first congratulations
- goes to utility specialist Drew Hayes in TND for earning his CDL. And then I wanted to recognize
- that at the Alliance of Indiana Rural Water 2025 Spring Conference in French Lick,
- our staff won two awards. The first was to Kayleigh Klassen, our assistant superintendent
- in Dilman Road. She was recognized as the apprentice of the year. Kayleigh completed
- the two-year apprenticeship program with high honors, thus earning the award. Also recognized
- during the conference was Frank as the administrative professional of the year.
- [Applause]
- Frank was recognized as an administrative employee with outstanding performance in office
- management and procedures. That's my staff report. Rightfully so. We obviously get to work with
- Frank
- often and so we see it you know daily or weekly however often you're in communication with us
- but it's nice that you're recognized too so congratulations. Congratulations to Kayleigh as
- well. I know that was well deserved. Awesome staff report. Any additional petitions and
- communications?
- Do we have a motion for adjournment? I move we adjourn. Meeting adjourned.
- (orchestral music)