Well, let's call the meeting of the Utility Services Board for the City of Bloomington for January 29th,
2026 to order. And our mission at the City of Bloomington Utilities 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. And our vision is to be the leading municipal water
utility organization in Indiana. And just a reminder for board members, if you have any personal financial
conflicts or any issues with individuals on the agenda, then please be sure to recuse yourself from
voting during those portions of the meeting. Okay, our first item of business this evening is
Any petitions and communications from the public or anyone else? Okay, next then is approval of minutes
of the previous meeting, January 12th, 2026. It's been moved, do I hear a second? Any discussion? I
just had a question why there was a,
Page two of the minutes where the concrete ball was highlighted, was there something? That was the one
thing I didn't know. Not sure, okay, all right. It looks right, it may have been a correction or something.
Okay, perfect, no problem. Okay, then call for the question. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
All right, the minutes are approved. Next is the approval of
claims or payable invoices. And let's see. Does anyone have any questions about these invoices? We've
got a couple of sets here. One's a pay date. One's dated 1229, the pay date of January 30th. And then
the next set is pay date of
like the 26th of January I hear a motion to approve the table invoices your second discussion all in
favor say aye aye opposed they are approved standard invoices are next well that was
It looks like we did that, didn't we? Or am I? Okay, then next is utility claims. Utilities claim list
of January 22nd. Totaling, let's see. Well, there's several totals there. You see on your printout. 21,000.
$321.93. Will you approve the utilities claims? You're second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor
say aye. Aye. Okay, utility bills are approved. Next are wire transfers for February in the amount of
$515,390.70.
Do we accept the wire transfers? Second? Second. All right. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye.
Aye. Wire transfers are approved. Next are accounts. Let's see. These are customer refunds for January
30th with a total of $3,489.30.
We accept the customer refunds. I hear a second. Second. All right, moved and second. Any discussion
on refunds? All right, all in favor say aye. Aye. All right, their refunds are approved. Next is,
let's see, on the agenda, do we have?
Do we have credit cards? There's a special check run. Well, let's see. Oh, the accounts payable,
there it is. That's the special check run. Okay, special check run then, the date range, December 23rd
through December 23rd.
Catching up here, putting the amount of $3,166.31. Moved to accept the accounts payable. Second. Been
moved and seconded. Any discussion? Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Check run is
approved. And next on the agenda is approval of the consent agenda. Good evening, I'm Matt Heavey, assistant
director for finance.
Please present the consent agenda to you this evening. It has one agreement totaling $0 for nonchemical
contracts, which consists of the following item at LANDCO for $26.45 per gallon to supply the defoamer
to our Dillman plant. Would any board member like to pull this item from the consent agenda and discuss
it individually?
Hear or none, if there is no objection that the consent agenda will be approved as presented.
Hear or none, the consent agenda is approved. Thanks. Okay, the consent agenda is approved. So our next
item up is the approval of amendment number one to Clark Dietz, Incorporated. And it looks like,
you know, Phil,
I think I saw that Caden Swanson has gone on to bigger and better things. That's what I get for reading
Facebook, I guess, or LinkedIn someplace. So he's left us, huh? Yes, he departed his position just before
Christmas. So we miss him already. I'll bet you do. Well, glad you're here tonight then.
So, yeah, that's why I'm here. This Clark Needs contract, they're a consultant that's helped us with
our stormwater reviews and some other stormwater design and elements of our stormwater program, but
it initially started this contract when part of the scope is just to assist with plan review as design
projects come in. And so, since Kayden is no longer there, we need some assistance with that.
We've extended, the contract still had funding, so we've just extended that expiration date. So,
you know, it might be several months from now that we come back to the board, but for the time being,
this contract will help us out. So it's just an amendment that extends the expiration date to December
31st to 27th? Correct. Okay. All right. Any questions for Phil? I move we
I approve the request for the First Amendment of Professional Engineering. All right. Second. It's been
moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Motion carries then.
Thank you. Thank you, Phil. Next is the approval of Amendment Number 2 to the STANTEC Consulting Services Agreement
Matt Havy. So Stantec, again, is the people doing our rate design. The first change was due to some
data issues a while back. And so they had to redo some work with better and more accurate data. So that
was the first change. The second change is the discovery part of the process is coming in with a little
more work than they expected. So they just wanted to throw some more money out there. They said they
don't think it's going to be the whole extra 49, but they
just wanted to cover themselves going forward. So that's the work for them to design our rate. So Matt,
they charge on an hourly basis. All right. Any questions for Matt on this amendment? Okay. I move that
we approve the second amendment to the agreement for consulting services with
Stante Consulting Services, Inc. Second. Okay, it's moved and seconded. Any further discussion?
All right, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. That Stantec agreement is approved. Next
is a request approval for on-call agreement, Bland's LLC and Jose is here, Jose Puentes is here to talk
to us about that. Good afternoon. How are you doing today?
Good. This is just for an on-call service with Bland LLC, the record service and towing service that
we could possibly need in the future. Okay, you're not Jose though. He's back there. No, that's Jose.
That's right. All right. That's Jose. I'm confused. That's Hector. Hector, yes. Pardon me. Well, sometimes
we need pictures with the flowcharts, you know. Thank you.
Hector, I appreciate that. So we understand then this extends the agreement with Bland's, right? It's
a new on-call contract with them. Okay. And move we approve the request for an on-call service agreement
with Bland's LLC. Second. Okay, then moved and seconded to approve this on-call agreement with Bland's.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. All right. That is approved. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next
item is the approval of the service agreement with Swift Compley U.S. OPCO incorporated. Kelsey is here.
She just joined online. She's online. Okay.
here is Kelsey. So this is for installation and service of database management software for our fats
oil and greases program looks like.
It's a $36,253 contract. We'll stand by her and see if we can get her technically connected.
Okay. On cue, stage left. Thank you. I couldn't unmute, but thank you for, I just saw that you could
unmute me now. Kelsey Latonia, assistant director for environmental. Sorry I'm late. So this contract
with Swift comply is a software we've been using for many years for our pretreatment program. It's where
we track all of our fog users,
We've had great experience with it, and the users like it as well, so we'd like to renew with the company.
So this would be for, let's see, 2026, 27, and 28? We've got pricing for three years. Three years. We
get a better deal the more you plan out, so. OK. Any other questions for Kelsey?
I request approval move for approval our agreement for services was with comply u.s. Opco Inc Moved
and seconded any other discussion Okay, all in favor say aye aye opposed, okay, then motion carries
Extend that contract. Okay. Next is request approval of
of service agreement with Ratio Architects LLC. And you're back. I'm back. So this agreement is with
Ratio Architects. This is a really interesting story that I'm excited to share with you. So Ratio is
the original designer of Miller Showers Park 20 years ago. And they approached us wanting to do a study
basically to demonstrate how Miller Showers is functioning 20 years later after it was built.
They actually had a talk accepted at a national green space conference in Austin this year. So they're
wanting permission to basically come on the site, do some sampling. We're kind of partnering with them
on it. We'd like to fund the sampling part of it because we want the data as well. They're going to
write up a presentation, present it, and this contract is basically just
our formality here to be able to say that they can come onto our property, do this work that is not
typical of someone coming onto the park's property to do, and we're going to provide them with funding
for the sampling. So I'm excited for this and I'm happy to answer any questions. So Kelsey, if we get
the the sampling done, what do you anticipate are being able to use it for in the future?
So part of it is really just a presentation for the public to be aware of how it's functioning and the
benefit of just the investment for that whole stormwater feature. It'll inform future design decisions
as well. So if you want to do similar type technologies in other parts of the city, we can be able to
say that it is this efficient or we are targeting such pollutants here. So it's really informing just
how useful the structure is, I guess.
And I think it's a unique opportunity because there aren't many installations like that that are 20
years old. So a lot of green infrastructure is newer nowadays than the past 10 or so years, so. Yeah.
So that facility up there really drains a significant part of the north side of town to that area. It
drains about 300 acres, yeah.
So I guess what we'd be able to determine is what kind of general storm drainage pollutants that in
that 300 acres are being captured there because we just dredged it. We did, yes. And I'm glad that we
did because now we can
get the full understanding of how it's supposed to be functioning. It may not have been functioning
as well before we did that maintenance. Yeah. So we would have some idea about the kinds of,
we have kind of, this would be a good sampling about the kinds of general stormwater pollutants we have
throughout the city. Yes. It's a standard sampling. We're going to do your basic, um, sediments, suspended
solids, nutrients, um, E. Coli, um,
as well as some additional sampling for oils in Greece. I think they're also partnering with the LAVA
IU to do some free sampling. They're going to run on PFAS, which I don't know we're going to get for
that. But we're trying to get a well-rounded selection of pollutants we're sampling for. So it'll tell
a good story, I think. Well, we look forward to that. Great. All right. Any other discussion or questions?
Yeah. Kelsey, the contract expires on March 31st. So do they anticipate having all the data collected
in three months? Yes. So we're going to do over, we're going to get just a few different type of flow
events. And that's really all we're trying to do. So it's going to be a snapshot. It's not going to
be long-term sampling. But if you want to continue it, we might be able to do a summer internship or
something where we can continue just collecting samples for professional analysis.
Well, I'm sure the 15 inches of snow that we received will be. Don't remind me. It's a little hard to
say. Yeah. If you need an extension, I'll be sure to let you know, but it should be wrapped up this
spring. Plenty of salt and beet juice. Right? Yeah. And we'll have a probe to do connectivity measurements
and things to capture the salt in the system.
Okay, thank you. Ready? Can I move? We approve a services agreement with Arport Environmental LLC. Well,
this one's ratio. I'm sorry, that's the next one. Yeah. Sorry, let me again move approval for the service
agreement with Ratio Architects LLC. Second. All right, we've been moving to second. Any other discussion?
All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. So we have the service agreement approved with racial
architects. Thank you. Okay. Next on our agenda is requesting approval and agreement with Arkwood
Environmental LLC. Hi, good evening. My name is Isabel Quiroz. I am the hazardous materials coordinator.
I'm presenting a contract for a bi-annual
hazardous waste pick up at CBU locations with our environmental for 47,274 with 10 cents. Okay. So this
is what kind of hazardous waste do we pick up? I know we have labs and that sort of thing, but yeah,
we generate, um, hazardous wastes at the lab. And then, um, some of the chemicals that we have at the plant,
Not all of them, but some of them do end up as hazardous waste. So in regular maintenance operations,
sometimes they get generated. So it would be for those. Do you know where it goes once they pick it
up? Well, yes. Yes, they have to tell us. That's why we have to be very specific with the type of contractor, because
There's a cradle to grave chain of custody of this type of waste. So it depends on the profile of the
waste. Then they select how it's going to be disposed of. Sometimes it can be incinerated. Sometimes
it has to go to specific landfill. Most of times it goes, well, it depends on the contractor.
But in the past, a lot of our waste ended up in Texas.
but they let you know what the disposal is. Yes, absolutely. Any other discussion or questions?
All right. I move approval of a services agreement with Harcourt Environmental LLC for the pickup of
hazardous waste. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye.
Aye. Opposed? All right.
It's been approved, thank you. Motion carries, all right. Now we're up to, where is Chris Wheeler? Things
are running a little slower right now with the way the roads are. Should we try to do the other items too?
Yeah, we can do that. See if that buys him a little bit of time. Is there any old business for the board?
I just have a question. If there's any update on Jeff's replacement on the board, have we heard? I haven't
heard anything. Haven't heard anything? OK. I know that's not something that we can, you know, that
CPU controls, but I was just
curious if there had been any movements on that because it's his was his position a council appointed
or was it I don't remember if his was mayoral he was a council appointment oh there it is okay thank
you yeah well we're waiting for them working through their process of selection huh yeah all right any
new business
Okay. Subcommittee reports. We haven't had those today. Staff reports. Anything for you, ma'am? Staff
report today. Good. Hi, Chris. Perfect timing.
We were just working through a few things. We're all right. Looks like you've got some amendments to
section 24.2 of our rules and regulations. And we've been supplied with three different 24.2s.
Yeah, one of them shows what its current reading would be. That's probably the first one, right? I would
imagine it shows what it would look like if we made changes. So it's got language crossed out that we
want to do away with and language that's underlined, which would be new. And then the third iteration
would be what that proposed language is without those red lines in it. So I think that one's
The first one is all with the proposals. The second one is the old version. And the third one shows
is the markup of what they actually changed. I don't know what order you received. Yeah. That's with
markup. So the first one we got was the way it will be. Correct. And then the third one is with the
markups we have.
the corrections. Yeah. So there's a state statute that discusses a process by which a municipality can
extend service under an agreement that would allow for the parties to have the property received service
and instead of being annexed in and be part of the city and pay its taxes according to the city's tax
rates, et cetera, et cetera.
it would make an annual payment to the city as though it's making a tax payment. So it's like an in
lieu of, so that it's sort of acting like it's in the city, even though it's not in the city and receiving
all the benefits of the city services. But it would receive, it would be an opportunity for the city
to extend services and have them become part of the paying, the rate paying customer base.
It's an effort to try and create some flexibility in a situation where we don't have any flexibility
right now. That's what we're trying to do here. And so the first paragraph I noticed it what it used
to say was have submitted a valid petition. Right. So the reason why I want to change that. Thank you
for bringing that up there. That is another thing that's being edited is
Having gone through a, we did go through a voluntary annexation and having gone through it and seeing
the practice of how it works, the old language only suggested that a petition get put in, put to be
filed. So I didn't want the utilities department to act merely on the petition being filed. I'd rather
the utility act on the fact that annexation was successful. So now what we're reading is,
with these proposed changes is that we will provide the service when you become annexed. So the Brightline
rule is we provide service to properties that are in the city. If you voluntarily annex in, you're in
the city. We'll provide service. Versus you simply file the petition, because you could withdraw your
petition. This would be a fast one. That could create problems. I can't think that anybody would want
to be that mischievous,
I'd rather just not have that opportunity because people like to get misjudged. So that's what that's
of things happen. That's what that edit is just to try to clean up the rule so that it's clear. We want
properties that are annexed in so they're part of the city. But this other the other amendments to the
section are that flexibility with that statute that allows us to do these types of services. It's basically
we'll still want the waiver.
Right? Because they're still outside of the city. We'd like for them to have a waiver so they wouldn't
challenge annexation, but they are making a payment that sort of mimics what it would be to pay for
the taxes as if they were part of the city. Right. So just for maybe folks watching at home, I'll read
the new paragraph. Sure.
The director may grant a request for extension of sanitary sewer service to parcels located outside
of the city's municipal boundaries through agreement and council ratification under Indiana code 36-4-3-21.
In instances where the development has been identified by the city of Bloomington Department of Economic
Development,
as a strategic economic development site that will contribute to job creation and wage growth. Yeah,
so we're trying to keep this fairly narrow so that we're looking at large projects that have a substantial impact on
the area. So we're not just looking at the city. We're looking at the county and its benefits through
economic development. So we're not talking about standalone single housing, right? You may not even
be talking about residential. We're talking more corporate development. So are there any examples that
you could think of for? I can, I, I'm not, I can think of two for the, that the, the economic development
department has designated.
No, I don't know necessarily they've designated but I I do believe that this would assist the church
That I don't know that it was if they if if the church were to petition To be annexed into the city
if the church had property that was eligible to be annexed into the city and
and could then voluntarily annex into the city, we would be able to provide service. Yes. And you have
to have, there's a, there's a continuity issue with voluntary annexation properties located outside
of the city must share at least one eighth of its entire property boundary with a city boundary. So
unless you're already,
If you're not on an island, yeah. If you're way outside city limits and you're not sharing any similar
boundaries, you're not going to be eligible for annexation. You can build a bridge. If you could get
other properties between you and the city to agree and you all join up and it makes contiguity work,
you could build a bridge and get to you eventually, but you'd need other people's assistance. That makes
sense. I think the other one we heard was the gas station.
So again, that would be the similar situation. We're talking about much bigger projects. I think if
economic development's getting involved and there's a substantial impact on job and economic well-being
of the county, of the city, of the area, then if economic development's involved in saying that's an
economic development site or whatever the wording is, I'm sorry. Yeah, it says, identified by the city
of Bloomington, Department of Economic Development was a strategic economic development site.
you know if like you know I'm not saying this is happening because it's not I'm just dreaming something
up but let's say that Amazon decided they want to put a distribution center here in Monroe County but
they want to put it on a piece of property that's not even close to city boundary so they wouldn't be
able to annex in if economic develop sustainability and development decided that this was an act was
a significant impact we could use that statute to enter into a contract with them that they would pay
to the city as though they're an annexed property. And we would then be able to do an extension out
to provide service. I guess the question is, I don't know the definition that the economic development
department uses as a strategic economic development site. You have to know. There isn't a definition.
It would just take a lot of factors to try and determine whether or not it's going to provide significant jobs and
increase overall payroll or whatever, right? If they make those determinations, then we have the opportunity
to decide whether we would want to extend service based upon that designation. So basically what we're
saying here then is if the director of the Economic Development Department decides that it's a strategic
site, then we would be inclined to agree to extend service. We would still have to look at whether we've
got capacity. Yeah.
We still have those considerations. We have engineering considerations as to whether it would even be
feasible to run a line out to this property. And then we'd have to have a sewer main extension agreement
put into place in addition to this other agreement that talks about paying in lieu of taxes. So there's
quite a bit that would have to happen. This is really a good tool, though. It provides some flexibility.
that we don't currently have. At least in my opinion, it's, it's a great tool. So question though about
this. So I don't, I don't know if this is comparing the same thing or not, but are we not under a restriction
of approving these additional
extensions that are outside of annexation because of the lawsuit? We are not, we've consulted with outside
council and this is exactly what outside council recommended. We do as a flexible tool. So in other
words, outside council is the attorney that's representing us in those lawsuits. So the answer to your
question is no, I just want to go on record to make sure that this is what's happening. And if I'm,
if I'm wrong, tell me, I mean, it's okay.
The city is willing to make an exception for a new business or a new development that's going to bring
in. Yeah. Like a hospital, economic stability and growth and we can do a jail. We can, we can approve
it. We can do this as long as it's new.
and as long as it's new and they are going through the process, they've received the approval on the
annexation, the waiver. Yeah, that's a good point. You see where I'm going with this? But the city will
not allow us
to extend the sewer service to existing businesses. Yeah, I don't think that's what we're thinking about
here who have requested. I didn't parse that out. That's a good point. I just I'm talking about existing,
but I think we're talking new opportunities. Correct. Right. So again, I'm just saying for the record,
the city is going to allow is going to allow looking at new opportunities for new business. Correct.
But that's the intent here. That is the intent. But on the flip side,
we are still at a place where our hands are tied to assist any existing businesses. We have, we have
made a policy decision that we're not going to extend to existing businesses to properties outside the
city that are not considered by the ESD. I just want to get that on, on record. That's that's accurate.
Okay. Thank you. Yes.
Does this apply to any other city services? No thinking about it does not weak. Yeah, it's just talking
about came We're just talking about cloud. We are just talking about sewer service Yeah The city is
not thinking about other services I Don't believe so. I certainly have not been asked to contemplate
that I'm this is this is simply to allow us to
to have flexibility to extend sewer service. Sanitary sewer only. Yeah, it doesn't list anything else.
What's interesting, Chris, is the intent is new development, but this language doesn't limit it to new
development. It doesn't, but our purpose would be for new development. So our policy would be, as we
breathe life into this, is that we're looking at new business, new economic opportunities. Yeah. Okay.
If you wish for me to tweak the language and bring it back to you in two weeks that shows that it's
specifically designating new, I'm happy to do that as it's before you right now. Or you could say that
you're happy to adopt this if it makes it clear in the language that it is for new economic development
opportunities. I can change the language to reflect that right now. So I'm happy to do that as well.
I wasn't asking for that.
I think this language is spot on where we have talked about the kinds of things we need to be able to
do. And I'm sorry I was late, but it takes longer to get from one side of town to the other when everybody's
driving at a snail's pace with snow on the ground. And again, just for the record, I support this because
again, it's important for us for our economic development.
My point is just, we're still, and I will use the word punishing businesses, existing ones,
that. Punishment's a hard word. I know, that's a really hard word. That's probably not the right word.
The reality is that most municipalities in the state
I feel comfortable saying that most municipalities are shifting to a policy of not providing service
outside of the city limits, period. Okay. Because of the way annexation is being treated by the state.
So it's not a punishment, it's a reaction to the state's
treatment of annexation. It's a way to preserve the city's services without. That probably wasn't the
right word, but you know, I definitely wasn't the right word, but you know what I mean? I just want
to try to punish anybody. Yeah. It's just, it's just the reality of the, of the situation. I don't know
that it's punishment. It just, to me, it just, it's not punishment. It seems to me a, um, Oh,
I don't know. It just seems to me that sometimes we,
We aren't able to do what we think is right in those particular situations, or may not be right according
to the law, but just kind of make logical sense. And I can get off that topic. I'm good. I'm good. Any
other questions for Chris? Your motion? Second.
Any other discussion? Good. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. It approves. It is approved.
Thank you, Chris. Thank you. That's a good move. It's something. It's progress, right? I hope. Okay.
Let's see. Staff reports. Not tonight. All right.
petitions and communications, anything else at the end of our meeting? Matt, if I'm not mistaken, or
maybe someone can help us here, I think our utilities crews have been assisting with snow removal,
particularly downtown, using our front loaders and dump trucks and our people and everything else to
help the public works department in this unusual situation. Am I tracking right? I believe that is the
case, yes.
I thought I saw yellow trucks downtown. So I just want to say that is a great move. It's the kind of
things we need to be doing to work together. It shows we've got great teamwork between departments,
and that's spot on for us. So please send our thanks to those crews and to the leadership that made
the decisions to help all everybody work together. So thank you there.
All right, then I think we can stand adjourned. See you in about 15 hours.