- All right, the time is now five o'clock. I'd like to call today's Utility Service Board meeting to order.
- 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.
- 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 begin with petitions
- and communications. Are there any petitions and communications from the public? Hearing none, we'll
- move along to the approval of minutes from the previous meeting. I move we approve on the minutes.
- of the October 20th meeting. We have a motion, do we have a second? Second. All in favor please say
- aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Minutes are approved. Moving along to the approval of the claims. First
- we have standard invoices for a total amount of $1,129,849.
- Are there any questions or comments on the standard invoices? I have a question for later. And given
- that page two Denton's Bingham green bomb and page six STANTAC, just could we get an update on the status
- of the water rate case during the staff meeting? Or the staff briefing?
- Thank you. That's all. Any other questions or comments? How's our progress coming along with the third
- Lincoln litigation? We will also save that for staff reports. Okay. I just brought it up here because we're,
- paying an invoice. Glad to hear it later. All right, I move approval of our standard invoices for today.
- 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 $11,165.09. Any questions or comments on the utility bills?
- I move approval of utility bills, pay date,
- October 30th. Second. All in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Utility bills are approved.
- Next we have wire transfers for a total amount of $550,442.72. Any questions or comments on the wire
- transfers? I move we approve the wire transfers for November. Second. All in favor please say aye. Aye.
- All opposed say nay.
- Wire transfers are approved. Lastly, we have customer refunds for an amount of $2,308.52. Are there
- any questions or comments on the customer refunds? Quick question. I just was interested in the type
- of account that Bryant Park neighborhood has and why they're getting a refund. Not that they shouldn't
- get one, but I'm just always curious when something like that comes in.
- Does anyone know what type of account they have and why why the neighborhood has an account with us
- What could be like in my homeowners association we have like common That I don't have one Thank you,
- I don't have one at my house
- And so then our homeowners Association pays for that because it's common to the neighborhood So I would
- have that's what I assumed but I thought oh, it's gonna can who's continuing on maybe it's like a new
- HOA president They're setting up a new account was my Assumption is familiar with the neighborhood.
- So I right not a part of it. That's why I grew up Sorry, like what are the facilities associated with
- them? Anyway, that's all just a question. Maybe you can tell me
- some email or something like that later. Okay thank you. Okay I move approval of customer refunds for
- November 7th. I second. All in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Customer refunds are
- approved. Moving along to the approval of consent agenda. Catherine Zager.
- Good evening, I'm Katherine Zager, utilities director. I'm presenting tonight's consent agenda totaling
- $27,151.95 for nonchemical contracts. First contract is with Stageflow Consulting LLC for $8,900 for
- completing a high visual hazard AM inspection and report of Griffey Dam in accordance with guidelines
- prescribed by the IDNR.
- Next is with SET Environmental Inc for $16,451.95 for waste disposal and recycling services at Monroe
- Water Treatment Plant. Next is with Brenntag Midsouth Inc for 38 cents a pound for the 2026 supply of
- sodium bicarbonate or soda ash at Blucher Pool Wastewater Treatment Plant. Next is with Brenntag Midsouth Inc for
- $1.225 per pound for the 2026 supply of sodium hydroxide or caustic soda at Blucher Pool Wastewater
- Treatment Plant. Next is with Brenntag Mid-South Inc. for 37 cents a pound for the 2026 supply of calcium
- hydroxide or lime at Blucher Pool Wastewater Treatment Plant.
- Next is with Brent Eggman South Inc for 31 cents a pound for the 2026 supply of sodium aluminate paper
- makers at Dillman wastewater treatment plant. Next is with Brent Eggman South Inc for 22 cents a pound
- for the 2026 supply of sodium bisulfate at Dillman wastewater treatment plant. Next is with Brent Eggman
- South Inc for
- point one seven five dollars per pound for the 2026 supply of ammonium hydroxide or aqua ammonia at
- Monroe water plant Next is with Brent hug mid-south Inc for point one nine five cents per pound For
- the 2026 supply of sodium hydroxide or caustic soda and Monroe water plant and
- Next is with Brinteg Mid-South Inc. for $4.03 a gallon for the 2026 supply of sodium thiosulfate at
- Monroe Water Plant. The last is with Brinteg Mid-South Inc. for 25 cents a pound for the 2026 supply
- of hydrofluorosilic acid or fluoride at 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 six on our agenda is request approval
- of encroachment agreement, Chris Wheeler. Hi, Chris Wheeler with City Legal. This item is
- a request by staff to approve an encroachment agreement. And I kind of wanted to walk through it a little
- bit with you here. Gotta pull up my notes here, sorry. So this is in Spicewood, section two, phase four
- of Spicewood neighborhood. And it is part of the plat. This easement is a platted easement
- which means we don't own the easement. We enjoy a reserved right to have our infrastructure in that
- easement, and we have sewer lines in that easement. We are allowed to install and operate our infrastructure
- in this particular easement. What we have discovered, not because of anything we did, but the
- The owners of the property wanted to put a deck on their house, which has nothing to do with this issue.
- But in trying to get the deck put on their house, they discovered that they've got an issue with where
- their house is located. And I think we provided a map for the board to look at. There's a tiny little
- corner of the house, just a, I think like a foot of the house sits into the easement, which doesn't
- seem like a big deal. And as far as our ability to operate our infrastructure in that easement, it isn't
- a big deal right now.
- But we wanted to take steps with them to ensure that they are allowed to keep the house in the easement
- and to take steps to make sure that CBU is protected in the event something weird should ever happen
- with regards to that house in relation to our infrastructure in the easement. So we came up with this
- agreement.
- Ordinarily when we find situations like that and we've brought things to this court where or to this.
- Sorry, I've been in litigation mind all day today brought before this board. We've often time we've
- seen some kind of financial reimbursement. Like maybe we'll try to adjust the lines of the easement
- or some compensation, but we don't. Since we don't own this easement, we don't have any monetary value
- that's assigned to the easement.
- change the lines of the easement. We don't have any authority there, so simply we're trying to protect
- ourselves. And that's where I wanted to direct your attention. I think it's paragraph four. Let me pull
- it up real quick. Real quick, it's famous last words, isn't it?
- finding it in my computer at the moment. It's page 34 of the PDF. That's what you have. Chris, would
- you like a paper copy? Do you have one? I'm not seeing it. I had it pulled out earlier, and then I started
- to understand. Oh, right there. Paragraph four. My apologies. Go from here. I was right. It's paragraph
- four. But that's the paragraph you want to look at. That's the name one we are concerned about, which
- is basically to release any and all claims in action.
- damages that might occur as a result of the existence of the house sitting in that easement. What this
- essentially what in addition to that being very particularly important to us I wanted to point out that.
- This plant language does not when when I'm looking at spice would and the way the developer
- of the neighborhood. Created these easements this particular easement
- does not prohibit property owners from using the easement. They own the property so they can use the
- easement as long as it's not somehow contradictory or in conflict with our interest in that easement.
- As it stands, the house sitting where it is isn't contradictory to what we are doing in that easement.
- If someday down the road, long way down the road, we needed to upsize our infrastructure for some reason,
- that would now create a problem between our existence in the easement and that house, they're on the
- hook and they're gonna have to cover the cost of our damages as a result. So I'm trying to think of
- an example here. We, in the big dig when we were renovating the culvert for the hidden river,
- We had one property where the people owning the property wanted to keep their house. They didn't want
- to get rid of it and it was situated in a position inside of our easement. We entered an agreement with
- them and did. Monday's back and forth and they had to. We had to put a retaining wall in a great big
- heavy structured retaining wall between the house and our infrastructure to allow them to stay in the
- easement and us to have our infrastructure there.
- That sort of a thing could happen in the future if their house continues to be where it is and we have
- to upsize to a point where somehow the house is now undermined by the fact that we're digging. So this
- this this agreement takes care of those types of future concerns. Also if their house ever gets destroyed
- or they think they want to add on this agreements gone they can't they can't extend further into the
- easement they have to get out of the easement. So I feel like it will protect us and our interests.
- And staff, this is long wood that I apologize, but staff does recommend that you approve the easement
- agreement. Appreciate it. Any questions for Chris? It's a good summary. Yeah. Thank you. I move approval
- of the encroachment agreement as discussed. Second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed say
- nay. The request is approved. Thank you.
- Moving along to old business, any old business from the board? Old business from staff. Yes. I just
- wanted to give an update about the questions we've had about the fleet charges. So Matt and Matt's team
- has done a great job of finding some preliminary costs for just regular maintenance from a local shop
- offered for research purposes only.
- which is kind of difficult when you're not quoting or trying to get quotes specifically. We're looking
- at these numbers now and they've been sent to the office of the mayor, the controller and to DPW for
- comparison and verification to make sure they're an accurate comparison to what charges and work are
- being performed by fleet. So we just wanna make sure that what we have is comparable to what we're receiving.
- So hopefully we will be able to present to you soon, yet this year. Yes. And this was just our question
- from earlier this year when we were going over the MOU and some other things. This is just for routine
- maintenance that we're trying to get some ballpark coating on. It's not major repairs that we won't
- know. It's just the routine maintenance. Thank you. Correct.
- Any questions for Kat? Okay. New business. Any new business from the board? New business from staff?
- Subcommittee reports. There was no subcommittee meeting today. Staff report. We had a bid opening. Do
- we have to record that? When do we? No.
- Do I need to mention that we had a bid opening or no? Okay, sorry, my apologies. No, you're fine. Staff
- reports. Yeah, we've got a few. Let's start with, I think Phil has a staff report for the team,
- for the board. Good evening, board. Phil Peden, engineering. So this is my chance to play Dave Roberts,
- manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He, in the World Series, he took Shohei Otani,
- hit some of the most home runs this season. He moved it from cleanup down to lead off because that gave
- his team an advantage and made his lineup more efficient. So in engineering, we have looked at our division.
- We've decided we can make it more efficient and streamline some of our practices by swapping a few people
- in the lineup into different roles. So Rachel has a thing here. I'd like to show you the print small,
- so you may have to turn around and look backwards. But the gist of it is Jane
- Flee and Caden Swanson had members of their team that they managed that were parts of different programs
- that we run. And so we've shifted those so that all of the plan review process is under Caden. And we
- and we titled that new development and permitting engineering. And then under James, she now has the
- inspectors and the technicians who handle a lot of the field work and construction activities. And so
- she's the utilities engineer construction marks.
- been in the role of capital projects coordinator or manager over over the capital projects manager and
- capital projects coordinator. I missed up the words there, but his didn't change from what we have.
- So what we're doing is as we work with Mr. Hiddles team and planning, try to get all our practices for
- plan review incorporated into the EPL software. Kaden is is managing that program, developing that with
- the IT department and
- It seems to be already making a huge difference in our team having this reorganization. So just wanted
- to share that with the board and and hopefully we can keep winning like the Dodgers with our new. Thank
- you for that. I see you have blue on to represent the Dodgers as well. Phil is always
- good for a great sports analogy. And I'll take this time to publicly thank or congratulate Bloomington's
- own Will Klein, who was a pitcher for the Dodgers. So there's that. That was a really good story. This
- is awesome, by the way. So thank you. Any questions? So Tanya's moved over from plan review coordinator
- to project coordinator. Is that a new position?
- So she took Nancy Axum's job. She was promoted. And so typically, we would bring someone to the board
- to present them to the board when they were in. She was out following that. So we just haven't coordinated
- that. But I'm sure she'll be in front of the board to present a contract or something where we can get
- in there and acknowledge that. I kind of thought once we hired that new plan review coordinator, we
- could bring them both in and do that. But we're interviewing for that position now.
- What what where we and I'm glad you brought that up because that plan review coordinator was under utility
- technician. It didn't have its own title and so they were all there was three utility technicians. They
- all well two did the same thing and then tanius position has always been separate and it was doing plan
- review and it's been like that for 20 some years, but in it and it just sat under that you utility technician
- position. So we re we re. We redid the job description to make it accurate.
- to what she was doing. Some of that came out in that job study that was done through the mayor's office
- last year as well. We will be filling that position soon. Thank you for asking about that. Any other
- questions for Phil? Thank you. Any other staff reports? Yes.
- So Chris Wheeler, you want to give a progress report on Third and Lincoln? Work my way down my list.
- Hi, Chris Wheeler with City Legal. So a while back, we were given the green light to pursue a lawsuit
- against the now defunct
- known as Leonard's Linens. I'm paraphrasing, I'm not exactly sure what their legal name is, but I call
- it Leonard's Linens. We filed suit back on March 10th of this year. We are in front of Judge Bradley
- in Monroe County Circuit One. The pleadings phase is completed. We did have an initial pretrial conference
- on August 19th of this year. Out of that conference, the parties have agreed to a trial schedule, which the court
- turned into its pretrial order. Some important dates in that order are that our discovery will require,
- our discovery will close on May 15th of next year. So we're in the discovery phase right now. But fact
- discovery closes on the 15th of May. Expert and damages discovery will close on June 30th of next year.
- And the trial is set for November 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th of next year. We have filed a preliminary witness
- and exhibit list in the matter, which was due, I think on the, it was due today. We filed it on Friday.
- And so we've got that done. We're waiting for their witness and exhibit list to be presented to us,
- which helps to inform us on how we might handle some of our discovery.
- I'm happy to take any questions as far as what I can discuss in the procedural aspect of this case Otherwise,
- that's it You remember I can't remember how much we spent on the remediation for this Yeah, it was just
- a little north of a million dollars and our our damages are a little north of what we originally Demanded
- in our demand letter. So and
- Chris, in the case of a company that's defunct, I assume we're kind of looking at the insurance company
- that they had at that time. Environmental law allows us to pursue an action and insurance law allows
- us to look for old insurance policies and talk to insurance companies about their coverage at the time.
- So that's just basic
- basic law that allows us to still seek a remedy. And so you're working on the case with I think Barnes
- and Thornburg is. Yeah, we have outside council. That's right. Okay. All right. Good. Thank you.
- Thank you. Thank you. Okay.
- And then a rate case update just where we're at now. We are developing our written testimonies and we
- are working with Dave McGimsey on that and we are hoping to file soon. We're kind of in queue. There
- are some cases that have come in before us, so we are. There's no rush right now. So we're just getting our.
- getting our testimonies in a good place, and we'll file as soon as we can. So we're actively working
- on that. And then that nine, I believe you said it was a nine month to a year timeline, or that was
- what we were told? Oh, right, for IURC. So does that start it, or does that start when we actually file?
- I believe it starts when we file. Okay. Is that correct? Yes. I'm sorry. Yeah, it starts when we file. Okay.
- even though we're kind of still in line. We know that there's not other cases that we anticipate coming
- in line before we get ours. No, no. David McGimsey is staying on top of that. He's checking in on that
- schedule. Okay, thank you. Okay, any other questions about the rate case? Okay, and then we have some,
- Congratulations and welcomes. So we would like to welcome Timothy Golson to the Monroe Water Treatment
- Plant. He's a new operator. And we would like to congratulate Jason Lasher at Dillman Road. He's earned
- his wastewater operator four license. And Josh Farmer who recently passed his WT5 exam. That concludes
- our staff report. Congratulations to them and welcome as well.
- Are there any petitions or communications from the public? And then do we have a motion to adjourn?
- I move we adjourn. Meeting is adjourned.