- I'd like to call today's Utility Service Board meeting to order. To begin, I will start with our mission. The City of Bloomington Utility's 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.
- As a reminder, if any board member has any 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. We will start with petitions and communications. Is there any petitions and communications from the public? Hearing none, we will move along to the approval of the minutes from the previous meeting.
- We have a motion in a second. Are there any questions or comments on the minutes from the previous meeting? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Minutes from the June 30th meeting are approved. Next, approval of the claims. First, we have standard invoices for a total amount of $558,636.83.
- Are there any questions on the standard invoices? Mr. White. On the on page one, we've got looks like legal services from Barnes and Thornburg for the Leonard's Lennon property. And I assume that is helping us recoup expenses from the hazardous waste that we needed to do when we did the new
- river project. Yes, that's absolutely how's the progress coming along on that? That's not that's not a whole lot of money for a law firm. So I assume we're at some stage of progress. It is coming along Chris has mostly been leading this since it's definitely with legal at this point now. I'm not certain where the progress is at right now. But it's making progress. Yes.
- but it is making progress. Okay. And then my next one was, let's see if I can zoom down here on Everbridge. We've got a charge, it looks, where am I gonna find that? Is it page three, I think? Yeah, so is that for our,
- Notification system, is that a new contract or is that a public communications? Is it a continuing one or? Pardon me, renewal? Okay, good. And then, let's see, the other one was milestone.
- Release of final retainage. What does that mean? It means that we hold money back for payment to certain vendors until we sign off on the project that it's to our satisfaction. Once we do that, then we release those funds. So we believe we're all good there, so we don't need that retainage anymore. Okay. That's all I have, thanks. Questions?
- Just wondering why that one's not all stormwater. Okay. So you'll, that's going to get changed? Okay. And then Jasper LS Jasper, Jasper, Jasper electric motors. Yeah. Okay. So my note here,
- I see, you know, I look at the DM, I look at the BP, and I see LS, and I think lift station, right? It's a wastewater expense, but this one goes to water, so. It shouldn't, it shouldn't. Oh, okay. Sorry, sorry. Please. The number on there is our requisition number, and that serves as the lift station group, who also serves the booster stations. I remember. So they take care of the lift stations, and the booster stations is just the rec numbers,
- Yeah, you've answered that before. And I knew that there was some good reason. Thank you, James, Matt. And then the Mark Osborne. There's two of them. And this is the one. Yeah, this is the one for on call. What is on call? It says password creation for employees. I didn't know.
- On-calls, if you come onto a City of Bloomington utilities site, you're required to have a contract. But for a lot of our vendors that we use more frequently than others, it doesn't make logistical sense for us to come to the board every two weeks for a new contract. And so what we do is we do the on-call contracts. And then so the contracts in place so that we can call the vendor to come on site whenever we need them. And then when they do the requisition, we call that out so we can track that contract.
- so we can track the spend against that contract. So it's password creation for the vendors? No, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I thought you were asking what an on-call was. I can explain that. OK. All right. Sorry. Sorry. This is one of many things that we are doing to improve our resiliency and cybersecurity. So this is one of those things at our plant. We are improving the passwords for our operators.
- I see, and Mark's designing that and running a script to send an email out to do two-factor authentication or something, set that up? I don't believe it's two-factor authentication. What do we do? I don't think it's multi-factor authentication. Sorry, I might be speaking out of my mouth last year. New passwords are always good. New passwords. That's all I have. Thanks, Seth. Any other questions to standard invoices?
- Hearing none, do we have a motion for approval? I move we approve standard invoices for today. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Standard invoices are approved. Next we have utility bills for a total amount of $195,343.05. Are there any questions or comments on the utility bills?
- I move we approve utility bills as described. We have a motion in the second. All in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Utility bills pass. Next we have wire transfers for a total amount of $620,499.63. Are there any questions or comments on the wire transfers?
- I move we approve wire transfers for July 2025. Motion and a second. All in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Wire transfers are approved. Lastly we have customer refunds for a total amount of $6,350.17. Are there any questions on the customer refunds?
- Motion for approval. I move we approve customer refunds for payday July 18th. Motion in the second. All in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Customer refunds are approved. Thank you very much. Item number five on the agenda is the approval of the consent agenda. Catherine Zager.
- First we have Harrell Fishing for $3,250 for backflow preventer repairs at Blucher Pool. Next is Resurgent Elevator LLC for $20,000 for on-call elevator services. Next is with Bruce Home Improvements Inc. for $10,000 for on-call services for garage door services.
- Next is with Vet Engineering for $2,350 for phase one environmental study in the proposed acquisition of real estate located at 6570 South Old State Road 37. Next is with GAI Consultants Inc. for $20,900 for structural inspection of three limestone arch culvert structures and the report of findings.
- Next is with Control Freaks Consulting LLC for $4,984 for the installation of blower parts at Blucher Plant. Last we have with Affordable Fence Inc, $14,860 for the installation of new gates for Monroe Water Plant. 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 six is request approval of resolution 2025-11 to determine surplus property. Matt Havy.
- Again, we're getting rid of some equipment that is no longer being used. One comment I would like to make is that the lift station did not have a blown engine. It was a blown engine for a generator at the lift station. Happy to take questions. Any questions for Matt? I don't think the exhibit is in the packet. Pick the list of items. So we have a 1992 shoring trailer, some 14 inch concrete pipe saws,
- a Husqvarna concrete pipe saw, miscellaneous totes and tools, some old recycle bins, and then some old service saddles that are no longer usable. And then that engine that I was talking about, or the generator that has the blown engine, yeah. I just wanted to make sure that the items were, that we weren't missing a page. Oh, okay, I got you. Just one thing when you need to check on, Frank, maybe,
- resolution in our packet list resolution 2025-08 but the agenda says 2025-11 so we need to make sure that that gets in sync the right way for the record. Any other questions for Matt? No comments? Hearing none do we have a motion for approval?
- We approve the resolution to determine surplus property. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Request is approved. Item number seven, request approval of emergency agreement with Bluestone Tree, Kelsey Thetonia.
- board members, Kelsey, the Tonia Utilities Environmental. I'm presenting this emergency agreement that we requested from Bluestone Tree. This was in response to the June tornado event that was on the southern part of the city in Monroe County. Utilities Department owns an area of land on Jackson Creek. It's outside city limits, but it covers one of our sewer lines in that area. And the tornado went straight through this property.
- near Cardinal Glenn, and multiple trees were down in the creek. They're all in the floodplain, as well as some hazard trees near private property near people's homes. This was an emergency contract because there were hazards in the area that we wanted to address before it posed any danger to the nearby properties. So Bluestone Tree was able to mobilize and get this taken care of. I want to thank James for organizing much of this work.
- and for Brian Blake for handling a lot of the access and easements. We had to work quickly to address this. So yeah, I request your approval of this contract for Bluestone. Any questions for Kelsey? I just wonder if these kinds of losses, do we self insure or do we have some sort of insurance for this larger
- or city policy or something to that effect. We do have insurance. I don't know if they looked into that. I think he's wanting to get the job done, but that's something to look at as a claim after the fact, though, yeah. But we don't self-insure for that, though. So is this in storm drainage area? So we'll be taken out of the, I see the funding sources, but is this out of the storm water fund, or is it going to be someplace else? It should come out of the storm water fund, yeah. Because it's all in Drainage, Wales.
- No, wastewater. Yes. It's a parcel that we own for the wastewater asset. So the trees fell on the creek. On the creek? Were we discharged water? No. So the creek would be storm water, not sanitary, right? So the bigger issue, it's less about it being on the creek and more about it
- being adjacent to homeowners properties, and we just happened to own this parcel on the creek. And the hazard trees were threatening property. And so it's less about it being on the creek and more about it being that we own this parcel due to our sewer there. Oh, because we own the probably an easement, utility easement. We own that.
- or we have the easement, and the tree fell on the easement. We own the parcel outright. We own it outright. Yeah, we just own the parcel. The sewer line, yeah. Okay, I get it. Thanks. Sure. I've also been in discussion with the county. They declared an emergency, and they're in the process of applying for emergency watershed protection funds. I am not sure if we'll be able to get reimbursed through that program for this, but I've talked to them to see if it is a possibility.
- So I don't think it's off the table yet, but due to our timeline and their timeline, I'm not sure we can get that funding, but it's possible. That's a good move. Is that with County Emergency Management? Yes. Well, the more we let them know about our losses, the better chances we have of getting some reimbursement from federal funds. So that's worth following up on and helping them with all the forms they need to fill out and things like that.
- Good. Any other questions or comments for Kelsey? Hearing none, do we have a motion for approval? I move we approve, let's see, the emergency agreement with Bluestone Tree. Second. Motion and a second, all in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Request is approved, thank you.
- Item number eight, request approval of acknowledgement of encroachment. Catherine Zager. Hi, yes. I'm bringing this acknowledgement of encroachment between CBU and the owners of the property at 6517 Snug Harbor Lane. Essentially what had happened here is the
- owner reached out to us. They were trying to sell the property. They did a survey and realized that there were structures on our property that were not quite on their property. We talked back and forth with them and agreed to if they removed some of the structures that they could continue to have a corner of their pool in our property as long as it was not improved upon. And what that means is essentially causing
- What we intend for it to mean is to increase the footprint of the pool. So let's see. Yeah, they just need to do this. We're both amenable to it for them to be in a good position to sell their property. This doesn't really impact us in any way. And we are currently following precedent that we have done this before. So happy to take questions.
- Questions for Cat? Comments? Hearing none, do we have a motion for approval? I move we approve the acknowledgement of the encroachment as presented. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Request is approved, thank you. Item number nine, request approval of letter of engagement with Barnes and Thornburg, Matt Havy.
- to use Barnes and Thornburg to be our water bond council when that time comes. So we're just getting paperwork in place ahead of time. Okay. Any questions or comments for Matt? Very none. Do we have a motion for approval? We approve the letter of engagement with Barnes and Thornburg as with the dollar amount of the contract as presented.
- All in favor, please say aye. All opposed say nay. All right, request is approved. Item 10, request approval of amendment to residential stormwater grant for 808 and 816 West Kirkwood Avenue, Elizabeth Carter.
- Good evening. I kind of put these together because it's two amendments and they're similar projects and for similar reasons. But the 808 and 816 West Kirkwood Avenue project was a grant that we awarded in 2023. The one for South Madison was one that we awarded in 2024. And they're both do it yourself grant projects. So folks are building things themselves. There have been increases in price
- for the materials that these folks needed. And they also, the South Madison grant has changed a little bit. They built a rain garden in their front yard, and then they figured out once it was built and it was filling up with water that they did not direct the overflow away from their driveway, which had been the original issue. So they are seeking more money to build a conveyance to get the stormwater that overflows the rain garden to the easement, well, it's right of way, but to an unimproved alley where it belongs.
- so that it can continue on its path and not towards their driveway. The 808 and 816 grant is mostly for material increases. These folks, their grant was awarded two years ago, and we also extended their due date. They're both grad students, so they kind of work on it when they have time, but in the past two years, pricing has just increased quite a bit for a lot of their materials. With that, if there are any questions for me, I'd be happy to answer on either one of these.
- for this report. I know that these are projects that we want to see completed as indicated because then that addresses the stormwater issue. Maybe I've just forgotten, but I don't remember any stormwater grant recipients receiving additional funding after their whatever was proposed approved. How did it come about that these folks could ask for more money
- have there been other people who ask and were denied or do other recipients know that if they go over budget that they can come back? Great question. So until 2023 we spent all of the money budgeted so there wasn't any more money but in 2023 and 2024 we did not meet our budget we didn't spend our all of our budget
- Real quick, in 2023, we were budgeted $100,000 and we spent just under 46,000. So more than half of that money is left over. And then in 2024, I believe we were budgeted 75,000 and we spent just under 57,000. So because there's extra money, when I was originally asked by these folks, is there any option to ask for more? I went to our leadership and asked, would this be entertained? And they said,
- certainly come ask you guys. We may have another person asking potentially, but that's isn't at a place where I'm going to bring it to you guys. But yeah, these are both do-it-yourself projects. We have the extra money budgeted for these projects and their asks are pretty small. Thank you. Of course. Any other questions? I agree with you. I think these are relatively small amounts and if we have the money,
- Does that money continue to carry over each year? Or I guess if we have an excess, and since we just had the finance committee meeting, if something isn't used, can we not allocate it someplace else? We can, yeah. OK. So what's our time frame on additional funds available? Or what's their time frame on, OK, you've been awarded this grant.
- When do you expect to see the project completed and signed off? That really depends on the person and the project. We brought a couple of extensions forward in the past, but typically we expect to see it finished within a year. I mean, I have a gentleman also do it yourself project. He couldn't get any of the plants he needed this spring and every nursery he talked to told him they could deliver in 2026.
- So through no fault of his own, he can't finish his project until he can get the sedges that he is looking to plant in this area. So we're pretty flexible with these things, but typically we wanna see a year. And if it was, I think we also kind of treat the do-it-yourself ones a little bit differently, because people are just trying to do this on their spare time with their own expertise. When we have a contractor involved, I mean, for them, we don't pay them until they're done. So they're motivated to get done. But when it's folks just sending me receipts to be reimbursed, there isn't that same.
- push, but typically a year is the answer. So then how long are we holding over that extra money? I guess I have no idea. Yeah. And especially, you know, as we were talking about negative areas and, you know, why if it, if it, I mean, I believe in this program, I think it's great. But if, if we don't have, I mean, I have a similar organization that I'm involved with, you know, if we have X amount of money and you only have so many applicants,
- and they don't, you know, use all the money, you can't carry it over. We still, we either have to budget it out to someplace else or figure out if we're going to have more funds available. So I just, I'm kind of curious. I, yeah, I don't know how we. We start over, we start over every year. So this technically should come out at 2025.
- than for 23, right? I don't think that was the case for 25, though. But it's a different amount each year. It held steady at $100,000 for a couple years. We were also spending all of it, and then we haven't been. So should there be like a two-year timeline or like a this is the cut, you know,
- So like this person that had planned to do it this spring and get their plans and things, they know, okay, this is an extra project. And I could see like a two-year frame that we're holding these funds in reserve that are left over in case someone would come up with an additional request. But I wouldn't think it should be like a forever timeline.
- Yeah, I mean, most of the older grants have all been closed out. It's honestly the kind of the lingering ones or the do-it-yourself ones. And that's where the requests seem to be coming from so far. So yeah, I see your point. We can't just keep it open for additional press forever. So I think two years seems fair, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Let's have to take into consideration. Any other questions?
- move we approve the amendments to the stormwater residential stormwater grant for both 808 and 816 West Kirkwood and 1101 South Madison Street all in favor please say aye aye all opposed say nay both requests are approved thank you
- Next on the agenda, old business. Any old business from the board? Old business from staff. Nope. All right, new business. New business from the board. You got a lot of long faces. Can we get some smiles? New business from staff.
- Yes. So I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the consumer confidence report that just came out, specifically the report on fluoride and the fluoride in our drinking water. So in the report,
- It showed that the fluoride in our finished water ranged from zero to point four eight milligrams per liter with an average of point oh nine. The recommended dose for fluoride for oral health is point seven milligrams per liter. So we were significantly under that this year. I'd like to acknowledge that saying and saying that this has actually been an ongoing issue at CBU for a while.
- Our fluoride tanks and our feed system have had ongoing mechanical issues that we have made multiple attempts to repair, fix. Some of you may remember in 2022, we brought a contract to the board
- for the lining of the fluoride bulk tank and the replacement of our day tank. That was one of many issues that have happened. We have continued to have challenges with leaks in the system. So we have not had consistent fluoride in our water dating back until
- Late 2019, early 2020. This is something that we are actively working on. We, both in 2024 and 2025, have reported in our consumer confidence report. Last year, if you look at the larger, I don't know how familiar folks are with this chart, but if you
- look at the line for fluoride, and you report the highest concentration. And so last year, our highest concentration was 0.7, because at some point, or in that report, that report reports on 2023. So in that report, we, at some point, were able to feed 0.7. But the average was much lower because of the inconsistencies in the system.
- did not have reports for fluoride in our consumer confidence reports for 2022 nor 2023. And in, I believe in 2021, we showed the highest amount, but not the average. I just want to bring this to our attention.
- I know that we have had some customers who've asked about the low amount of fluoride in our water. It is not a conscious decision for us to, we are not intentionally lowering the fluoride in our water. We are committed to continuing to have fluoride in our finish water, and we want to find a safe and sustainable, long-lasting solution to this.
- However, a lot of the repairs have been costly. The long-term solution is very costly and it is included in our CIP for our rate case among many other very necessary repairs to our plant. It's included in the overarching term of the
- chemical building improvements. So the fluoride is in our chemical building. And those are included in our chemical building improvements. Yeah. So I just want to make the statement that we are remaining committed to fluoridation as part of our treatment process because it aligns with public health recommendations and community expectations.
- Bloomington intends to continue, CBU intends to continue adding fluoride as soon as reasonably possible. And we, along with the administration, are committed to a permanent solution that ensures both safety and long-term reliability rather than continuing with short-term fixes that keep not amounting to being a sustainable solution. I'm happy to take questions now.
- answer any questions you may have. I know it's kind of a big one. So and I'm also happy to follow up with anyone later. Yeah, I'm an open book. We've, we've, we've had several, I think projects related to chemical feed lines. And I'm assuming this may be part of that. Or is this other chemicals that were
- trying to fix? So the chemical feed line improvement project at Monroe that we've talked a lot about, the primary reason for that one is to fix chemical feed lines for the other chemicals in our plant that are associated with the treatment of our water to continue having safe, clean drinking water. There was the add-on to the contract to have the fluoride lines
- replaced so that would have the line from the fluoride room to where it is treated where it's added to our finished water and that is included in the chemical feed line replacement project. So where are we with that because I'm kind of you know we said we're committed to getting there but and it's going to be in the rate case for a long-term solution but maybe this is a the feed line project is a shorter term solution or
- Where will we, when are we gonna get back to a place that we're confident? This is a good question. I think I might've left that part out. So right now what we're doing is we're investigating the tank. It seems like the issue is a leak that is originating from the tank. Potentially, we did for a while, it was indicated that the leak could have been coming from gaskets or joints to the immediately connecting lines.
- And we have replaced parts there as well in an attempt to fix those. But now it's pointing back to the tank that was lined in 2022. And so now we are going to assess, essentially have a test of the tank to see if we can figure out where that leak's coming from and if any additional lining right now would help. At least get us to the point in our CIP where we're able to have better improvements to the tank
- Um, hopefully, hopefully we won't have to fully replace it. Um, but that level of assessment is what's in the slated for 2027 in the CIP. Does that make sense? Sorry. So kind of, I guess, does that mean no, no, uh, significant improvement till 27? We're hoping that we
- So we're having a contractor come in and take another look at the tank. So we were finally able to, you recently signed a, or, so with set environmental was cleaning out the fluoride tank. There was fluoride remaining between where it pumps out in the bottom of the tank. We were able to clean that out because we believe that's where the leak may be.
- So we're having a contractor come in, take a look, see if there's some additional lining we can do there, something we can do to get it working again now until we can come back and look at like larger scale improvements in the CIP. So no, it would not, we're hoping it's not all the way until 2027 until we can get it fixed. So I guess the answer is we're
- doing our best to fix this until we get to a point where we can do larger, comprehensive, longer term improvements in 27 after rate case approval. So what we should be looking for then is progress reports on how the contractor has reported back and
- If we need to make any other interim improvements in the meantime to get us back into recommended standards. Yes. Okay. Thanks. I guess what you've told us is that the fluoride in our water for at least some amount of time has been below public health recommendations.
- Until I was asked about this by a neighbor, I knew nothing about it. I think I shared this with board members and they knew nothing about it. I mean, frankly, it was embarrassing for me to say as a utility service board member, I knew nothing about it. And then they showed me all these data on the floor. I would just suggest that if we have
- some chemical or other problems that are not in accordance with health recommendations, that it be shared with us in a timely fashion. Does that make sense? Absolutely. That does make sense. Couple of questions. So we still don't know where this leak is.
- There isn't fluoride dripping out of a tank into the soil or no into a like it's somewhere within the inside of the tank that this leak Yes, so our tank sits within secondary containment. Okay So, you know if there was a huge leak Right and when there was a leak it was there was secondary we were able to clean it up without environmental impact That's okay. That's kind of where I was going. Thank you. Okay and
- Again, fluoride is an additive that we put into our water. It is not something that's required for healthy drinking water. Yeah, I get what you're saying. Yes, so it is not a part of the treatment process. Thank you. It does not treat the water to make it healthy and potable. It is an additive to the water to meet public health standards.
- Is it a required additive? Okay, so we do this in Monroe County. We do this here as something that's, in my estimation, a bonus to our water system. Essentially. Providing that fluoride is an additional thing for kids, adults, everybody. Is it better or worse at this point
- to shut it off and put zero in until the issue is resolved. Oh, oh, it's been off. Okay, so it is completely off. So we have 0% going in right now. Right. Then the numbers that you see in the consumer confidence report are background fluoride naturally occurring from our water source. Okay. Okay. And then
- As I actually answered that question because I was gonna say what's the today so it's zero. My final question is, has this report been shared with the board, or have I missed it or because we don't have a newspaper I don't like I'm. Is this something that we have access to the consumer confidence report. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it is.
- accessible to the public, it is advertised within our bills. We used to have physical paper ones, but people didn't take them, so now it's online, it's on our website. Would it be possible to send us the link? Because I haven't seen it, so I'd like to see the report. Thank you. Those are all my questions. Amanda had several of mine.
- So another one though is what is the warranty on the 2022 tank lining? I'm sure that wasn't, you know, a small expense. And if we expected that to fix it and then we're investigating that now, where do we stand with that? There was no warranty on the lining due to the age of the tank. Okay. Is there any guesstimate of what a tank costs or?
- So to replace the costs to replace the tank, I'm not certain how much it would cost to replace the tank. I do know there'd be additional costs. So whatever the cost is of the tank and the labor associated with that, there would be additional costs because the way that the chemical building is designed, you would have to remove the wall or the ceiling or completely disassemble it within. So there would be,
- additional costs associated just with the getting the tank out of the building. Just in a time when, well, kind of two thoughts, like number one, so again, like as Jim stated, like I wasn't aware of this, probably if I would have heard fluoride, like that's a chemical that like piques my interest and other things that the chemical feed, that just all blurs into one for me because this is not my professional job. And so,
- I don't know where I was headed with that. So I guess it's just a surprise that we're not meeting this recommended standard and especially when it seems like it's a huge expense and then we've spent so much of our time talking about the opportunity of a new service center and then I feel like that this is more important and probably is a
- a very significant expense that's I think been like floated, like, oh, we need to do improvements at the water treatment plant, but it's never been like, this is what needs done and we're not meeting this recommended standard. And so in that way, I feel like I've not been behind the most imperative needs of our CDU. That's really fair.
- I will say though that I know that in general we've said the plant needs repaired, the plant needs improvements, and we've done an extensive, so we had Wessler come to the plant and do a business risk exposure analysis of all of the things that need to be done at the plant because fluoride is an additive. It did not rank as high as some of the other projects,
- specifically this chemical feed line project where, you know, the chemical feed lines for these other chemicals that treat the water, I mean, the consequence of failure is great. And so we've absolutely made sure to prioritize the fluoride system because it is a value in our community and because we want to continue adding fluoride to our water.
- But it's definitely in the larger perspective of some of the like chemical feed line and electrical upgrades that need to happen. Thank you. It's a lot to keep. There's a lot. I appreciate it when staff comes forward and says we have a problem. And I don't know if this is in response to the email that I saw or if just someone taking the initiative. But regardless, when I go to the doctor and they test Jeff,
- they come back with these 30 or so metrics. I don't understand all of them, but my doctor talks about the ones that are really important. So I like Jim's idea when he talks about getting to know these chemicals and understanding where there might be issues. Going through that list that's in the Community Confidence Survey, it's a list of constituents and their concentrations that's in our drinking water, and I've seen it before. It used to be a trifold, and I can't say I read it closely every year,
- But I do agree that it is important for us to understand what those are, if any of them are high in what we're doing about it, or if there are trends in those constituents that we could address in some way. So I think taking the time to do that as a board and walking through that and having someone with the expertise talk about the trends and talk about how we're addressing them would be useful. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I think as, you know,
- We have our consumer confidence report, and I think it's very easy to say, hey, here it is. Here's your water. But to come and present it to the board even, just coming and presenting it during a meeting, I think would do a lot for both the board and the community at large. We need education from time to time. We all do. But this would be a great agenda item for next year's retreat, is teaching us about these types of things. Just FYI, putting it out there.
- I'm sorry to interrupt, go ahead. Mom? Again, I know you addressed this and I think we can kind of read between the lines that in previous years, 7% was reported and it might have been a one day high of 7%. And I appreciate that you folks are being honest
- and reporting it to the public and if we do make mistakes or if we do have deficiencies, we own up to it and we fix it. We don't try to cover it with imaginary numbers or a one day number that makes us hit our goal. It's important to be transparent on this and I'm very appreciative of that and I know it's important
- for our community, but it also shows the integrity of the staff and the leadership and every team member here to make sure that we are consistent, that we are reliable, and that we are truthful. So I thank you guys for that. Thank you.
- Just let me piggyback on that a bit. So not publishing that value for 2022, 2023 year over year. So I'm not, you know, I don't know why that is, but we shouldn't not publish values because we don't like them, that's for sure. And I don't know what happened there. And we don't need answers. I mean, yeah, it's new leadership. We're going forward. Yes. Well said. Any other questions, comments?
- Sorry, I will just say, just to put everything out on the table, I have been reached out to by Dave Askins with the B Square and have been an open book. And so I assume there will be a report on it soon. And so full details. It was 2022 and 2023 where those were
- reported, is that what you said? Yes, but if you were double checking, so am I. I'm not. I just. Yes. OK. Yes. So it's fair to say that this isn't political? No. OK. No. So we could put that to bed. OK. Yeah. Moving on. This is not a conscious decision or politically driven. Question?
- Oh, go ahead. Okay. Um, if we're done or any more fluoride comments. Okay. Um, just since we've had this issue since our last meeting, if you could, for the record, just talk about the minerals in the water that have, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a big month. Um, so yeah, um, we did put out a press release about,
- Some discoloration in our water, completely unrelated to fluoride. That is related to manganese. So our Lake Monroe is very high right now. I think last I checked, 13 feet high above normal. And so as the lake is higher, we were drawing from
- a less oxygen-rich layer in the lake, and when it's less oxygen-rich, metals like manganese start to appear. And so we have chemical treatment for it, but I like to think of that as like a fine-tune knob for treating it. And so we took it to the max that we could, and it still wasn't quite getting it.
- Our physical changes that were described in the press release, we changed actually physically where we were drawing water from the lake from. We don't like to immediately go to that because that does have impacts on treating the water. Not negative, just you have to adjust a lot more things.
- But we did make that change. It seems to have cleared up the problem. We're getting
- Great readings now. And also we sampled throughout the distribution, I think it's important to say, we sampled throughout the distribution system and all the samples that we got in the distribution system were underneath the EPA's health advisory limit for manganese. So essentially this is primarily an aesthetic problem, unfortunately.
- column back to where you usually draw from. So I don't know about a time because that will depend on the lake. But I guess like it's 13 feet over right now like when like what would be like a typical like I guess we'll note for next time gee when the water gets to 14 feet we're you know changing how we draw it in.
- because I'm sure at some point it'll get down low enough where there will be other effects that need to be counteractive, right? Right, and this is actually not a new tool in our toolbox, but a tool in our toolbox that we're more readily using now. And one of the other benefits of being able to draw from different parts of the lake is if
- done with the right timing, we may be able to not draw, wait, what's the word I'm looking for? Avoid, there we go. We might be able to avoid some of the taste and odor issues that are caused by algae, which is higher up in the lake. So I'm excited to see how having that dynamic ability is going to improve our water treatment.
- and our water quality. Any other new business? On the drinking water quality, I was trying to thank you. Sorry, thank you for communicating. I was also trying to check because I do read and get the reports and have my council service, of course. Some of the past press releases
- rather than attaching PDFs of the report linked to a URL of a PDF. And it's just the 2024 report, including from the 2023-22 press releases. So essentially, the old links have been replaced with a new document, essentially. And then I wanted to be clear as well, be clear, and tried to search for the drinking water quality reports, and I'm not finding them there. And so I was just curious.
- Because I was able to find 2020 and 2023 numbers and also couldn't find 21 and 22 offhand. Or even archives of what was reported at that time. So I haven't seen the report itself. But do you know if these reports are, am I just missing them in the Be Clear database? Is there somewhere else where they would be archived or otherwise available? I'm not sure about the Be Clear database. I think my assumption was the water quality website. Is that the best place? And are they archived by a year?
- Okay. Okay. Perfect. Be clear as well. Usually go first for data. Thanks. But yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Can you talk to us about utility access? Oh yeah. Yes. Um, so we are moving to, um, so we were with East suite. So that's where you log in to do your,
- Account business so we are moving to utility access We sent out a notification and will continue to Advertise this to the public Essentially it has a in my opinion a better user interface I think it makes some things a little more accessible And you'll be able It will tie to
- your census data as well, so we're trying to push more people to log into that as well, or sign up for that. Any more to add on the utility access? It's pretty much the same, just better. So this is bill pay, this is bill information, this is? Usage. Usage, yeah. The census being the alert system.
- Will the same name and password work when we have to change it? You'll have to change it once. That's what I was afraid of. You'll have to sign up, yeah, change it. The same one might work, but you're going to have to officially change it. That'll be worth it, 600 bucks. I agree. Oh, 6,000.
- we'll get notice on how to make those changes, when to make those changes, and how to log on. You'll be forced to do it when you try to log in. Okay. Yeah. And you mentioned that it has to do with payment as well. So for customers who, like on AquaPay, will that be charged, it's called something different now? So AquaPay is different. At the due date of your bill, we've been authorized to take the money out of your account. This other software is, you would log in and actually make the payment yourself. Okay.
- So for auto payments, nothing will change for what you'll see on your checking account or your card or something. Thank you. If we have alerts set up for our water usage at a property, will we have to reset those or is that carrying over? That I don't know. OK.
- When is this getting implemented? I'm sorry if you said where I missed it. It's going to be August. I forget the actual, hold on a second. I would say it's August 4th. Okay. Thank you. Oh, I think one of the other big benefits of it too, I should mention is that you can update your contact preferences. So, you know, we've moved to texting customers. This is an area where you can contact, update those preferences. So if you don't want to be texted, you can let us know.
- So when we have all this move in that's going to start happening here soon, if not already, and folks are coming into the customer service center, are they being sent to this new system, or are they still having to sign up for the current system and then in a few weeks sign up for the new one? I think we have to do the old one now. OK.
- any other new business. Moving on, subcommittee reports. Yes, we had a subcommittee report for the finance committee and there were two items on the agenda. The first had to do with changes to both septic and grease hauling and
- In the future, there will be two changes that are recommended that will come before the board. One involves a rate change because the amount we're charging right now doesn't come near to meet our expense of doing it. And the second change will be a simplification for haulers so they don't have to go through a two-step process. And so it'll be
- It'll meet financial needs that we need to meet, and it will also simplify the process, but there's nothing to be done now. This will come before the board at a future time. The second item on the agenda was a 2026 budget update. It was a very preliminary presentation. With regard to water, there's likely to be a shortfall of monies
- and we'll have to figure out how to come up with that. In terms of the dates, at our meeting on the 28th of July, which is two weeks from today, there'll be a more complete presentation to the Board as a whole to be preceded by a presentation to the Finance Committee
- on that same date as I understand it? Is that correct? I think it's that we were going to have to invite all board members to the finance committee to see the full presentation. But that will be on the same date on the 28th. And then they wouldn't have to repeat the staff wouldn't have to repeat the presentation at the board meeting. That's correct.
- So we will have that complete presentation to the board and to the public on the 28th of July. And that's the report of the subcommittee. Next we have staff reports.
- My one item is that I'd like to congratulate Frank, who has been promoted to communications manager. I guess he won't. He's done such a great job on this, on everything. Well-deserved, Frank. Yeah. I think that we need to consider reporting staff. Well, I'm always down with the party, but renaming staff reports like Frank Update.
- because he's always doing something. Congratulations. Next we have petitions and communications. Any petitions and communications from the public? Hearing none, do we have a motion to adjourn? I move we adjourn. The meeting is adjourned.