- Okay, it's, even though our clock's gone, it is five o'clock and let me call this meeting of the Utility
- Services Board to order for Monday, March 9th. And to get started, we'd like to welcome our newest member,
- Mr. Graham McKean. He'll be joining us. Just been appointed by our city council. We sure appreciate
- that. Graham, if you'd just take a moment to introduce yourself
- Let us know a little about your background. It would be great. Thank you, Kurt. Good to see you. Graham
- McKean, previously with IU for the last 20 years. My background is in public and environmental health.
- I have a degree in environmental management and sustainability. And I have since done a lot of work
- with the university and now with the State Department of Health in various public and environmental
- health programs, everything from food safety to recreational water to drinking water.
- to community disease, hazardous waste. So also taught at IU for 10 years in environmental health science
- course. And so know a lot about water systems, wastewater systems, how they work. But this is all new
- to me. I'm just very excited to learn more and assist any way I can. Graham, we welcome you. We're awfully
- glad to have you. I had a chance to work with Graham five years ago as we went through the COVID
- journey and we depended on Graham for his updates and reports every day, sometimes twice a day, as the
- university made the strategic decisions that it did. We depended heavily on Graham's latest day-by-day
- updates and I'm excited that you'll be able to provide that kind of expertise that you've built over the years
- for the City of Bloomington and our rate payers and our consumers. And you're one of them, so we're
- glad to have you. Welcome. Thank you. Yeah. Well, are there any petitions or communications? Whoops.
- Oh, I've got to get to the mission statement here, yes. Sorry about that. Just to remind everyone, our
- mission at the City of Bloomington Utilities is to enhance the quality of life in our community by providing safe,
- sustainable, high quality drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services in a cost effective manner,
- promoting public health, environmental and economic vitality and environmental stewardship. Our vision
- is that CBU will be the leading municipal water utility organization in Indiana. And just a reminder
- for our board members, if they have any personal and financial conflict with any issues or individuals
- on the agenda,
- then please be sure to recuse yourself during those portions of the meeting. And with that then, we'll
- start with any petitions and communications from the public. Any input from the public? Things to be
- brought to us? All right then, next is approval of the minutes from the previous meeting. That's February
- 23rd of 2026.
- hear a motion to approve. Second. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Motion carries. The minutes
- are approved. Next is the approval of standard invoices get to the claims. And today's standard invoices
- total 798,000
- $780.01. Any questions about the standard invoices for today? All right, do I hear a motion to approve?
- Second. All right, it's been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, standard
- invoices are approved.
- our standard utility bills, utility claims list, totaling $88,132.76. I move that we approve the utility
- claims list. Second. All right, any discussion on utility claims? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?
- Motion carries for utility bills. Next are wire transfers.
- for March of 26, dated the ninth day of March, for $651,647.56. I move that we approve the wire transfers.
- Second. We moved and second. And any other discussion about wire transfers? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right, the wire transfers are approved. Next on the agenda is customer refunds for March 13th of
- 2026, totaling $3,892.26. Any questions on those refunds? Look like we have one vendor there that got
- caught up with.
- That actually was my question. What happened with the Hunter property, or Hoosier Court property, that
- there were so many refunds? It's just us going back and cleaning up those inactive accounts, and they
- just had several accounts that were inactive. Interesting. That's quite a bit of money for us. Wonderful.
- Thank you. Yeah, no problem. So in that instance, the property manager pays
- bills, not the tenant? That's my understanding, yes. Thank you. OK, any further discussion on customer
- refunds? All in favor, say aye. Oh, you have the motion, sorry. Yes. I move that we approve the customer
- refunds. Second. OK, it has been moved and seconded. Any discussion further on customer refunds?
- All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right, customer refunds are approved. And let's see, those are all done there. Our next item is
- the approval of the consent agenda. And we'll call on, I think, right, call on Kat for that. Good evening.
- I'm Katherine Zegar, utilities director. I'm presenting tonight's consent agenda totaling $10,774.29.
- The slide is not updated. The first contract is with Electric Plus Inc. for $4,932 to run cables for
- data for the new EV charger to the data closet. Next is with Brehab Corporation for $5,842.29 for replacement
- of VFDs for solids feed pump at the Dillman wastewater treatment plant.
- Are there any members who wish 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. Okay, thank you. The consent agenda is approved, and it's an updated
- number from what we had on the slide.
- Next item is the request for approval of on-call service agreement with Springfield Electric Supply
- Company, and Jose will report on that. Good afternoon, board members. My name is Jose Fuentes. I'm the
- purchasing manager here at CBU. We are requesting an on-call contract with Eco Plus, sorry, Eco Electric.
- They do low and high voltage,
- work and what's extremely important is the high voltage for us because of our plants and the station
- and booster stations. All right. Any questions for Jose? All right. I move that we approve the contract
- with Echo Electric. Second.
- All right, it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right, motion carries. Thank you. Next then is the request for approval of on-call service agreement
- with Harmony Acres Incorporated, also known doing business as Value Fence Company. Jose. Yes.
- I'm requesting this on-call contract with Value Fence. As you all know, we've had some storms in the
- past couple of years that have done some damage, and this is just a safety, security concern for me,
- and I just thought it would be important to have something like this. These are for fences at our facilities?
- Yes, that are plants, booster stations, lift stations, and even here at CBU services.
- services agreement with Harmony Acres? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any other discussion on
- this contract? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion carried. And let's see, next is
- the request for approval of on-call service agreement with Water Solutions Unlimited Incorporated.
- Jose. Thank you again. Uh, this is for on-call, uh, services with, uh, water solutions. They work on
- pumps fittings and they also do minor repair on, on our pumps as well. This would be for our plants
- as well as our booster and lift stations. Okay. Jose, uh, this says it's got an expiration date of May
- 31st of 26. Yeah.
- What's, how long is the period? It's a one year with three. It's a one year term that will expire in
- March of next year with two renewal periods for a total of three years. Okay. Am I on the right one
- here? It will expire March 27th. Okay.
- Electric Plus, right? Water Solutions, Water Solutions, okay. That one's correct. It's next one that's
- off. Yeah, go ahead. So looking at the agreement, I see they're based out of Minnesota. So I'm just
- wondering, are there local people here that are able to do that? Or they come from Minnesota here to
- do this work? If I'm not under the impression there's a,
- one of their companies is based out of Indianapolis. That's the main headquarters, correct. Okay,
- thank you. All right, anything else? Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded for the approval. Any
- further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- motion carries and now we're to the request for approval of emergency contract with electric plus and
- Hector will be joining us for that one and that's the one I noticed that on the cover memo we need to
- make a correction it looks like I think is it if it's
- Good afternoon, Hector Ortiz, City and Director of Operation. This contract was for an emergency that
- happened February 5th, electric plus, we had a transformer that blew up the breakers, and we have a
- certified, we have three certified electricians.
- from Electric Plus who went there and make it work for that night and we're still using it so happy
- to answer any questions. Okay so then that is correct then that the contract would expire by May 31st.
- All right very good.
- Well, that could be that. Yeah, that's I think that's what threw me off. The due date for signature
- is March 9th of twenty five. Chris Wheeler was city legal. That cover memo is not part of the contract.
- It's for your information. And I look at a lot of cover memos and sometimes I put wrong dates on them.
- That should be for twenty twenty six. Right. Due date today. That's all that's going on there. So apologies
- for the typo.
- It isn't like we just do one or two things a meeting. There's a lot here. Thank you, Chris, for the
- update there. I didn't think my eyesight was going too bad there yet. Good deal. All right. I think
- we're ready for a motion. I move that we approve the request for contract with Electric Plus Incorporated. Second.
- has been moved and seconded to approve this contract for the transformer switch bypass at Dillman. Any
- further discussion? All right, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion is approved. Thank you.
- Thank you. Okay, next is the approval of resolution 26-04
- which is the bid acceptance and contract award for the mineral water treatment plant, transformer replacement
- project, and Daniel Hudson will report. Dan? I'm Daniel Hudson, capital projects manager for city of
- Bloomington utilities. And I'd like the board to consider resolution 2026-04 for the bid acceptance
- and contract award to empower
- to replace the very large VFD and transformer for the high service pump number one at Dillman. We had
- three bids. We had a special board meeting right before the board on the 23rd, I believe. And Empower
- came out to be the most responsive and responsible of the three bidders and also the lowest.
- Great. All right. Any questions for Dan? Looks like some good work here. Okay. I move that we approve
- the request for public work agreement with Empower Incorporated. All right. All in favor say aye. Aye.
- All opposed?
- Oh, yes, right now. We got to do the resolution first. Sorry, we're one ahead. So the resolution is
- 2026-04. Yeah, for that one, yeah. I move that we approve resolution 2026-04. Second. All right, it's
- been moved and seconded and really this explains
- the project and gives a resolution that we've agreed to do it. You agreed to do it, okay, now we have
- to. And then we'll get to the next one, so yeah. We have to vote. Yes. Call the vote. Any other discussion?
- All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? It's approved, the resolution. Now we'll get to the public works agreement
- I'm Dan Hudson, Capital Project Manager for the City of Bloomington Utilities, and we have a contract
- for Empower to do the replacement of the VFD and transformer at the Monroe Water Treatment Plant. This
- is for high service pump number one. For 294,500.
- that we approve the requests for Public Work Agreement within Power Incorporated. Second. All right,
- it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion or questions from Dan? All right, all in favor
- say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Got some work to do. Thank you, Dan. Appreciate it.
- Okay, next is
- The request for amendment number three to the agreement with Commonwealth Engineers Incorporated. Kevin.
- Yeah, Kevin White, Capital Projects Coordinator. This is related to the ongoing lift station improvement
- project. If you all remember, we had a fairly significant savings from the contractor. Instead of just
- taking that money back, we've moved forward with additional work. And so this amendment to the Commonwealth
- contract will go towards
- design related to the Westwood lift station. We set up a flow monitor at that location, showed we've
- got quite a bit more flow going into the lift station than originally anticipated. And then there was
- some additional growth in the area. So between those two is going to take a significant amount of engineering
- work to redesign that that lift station to accommodate the flows and the amendment for $30,430.
- We'll bring the new not to exceed up to $697,600 and no cents. We'll also add one year to the expiration
- date of the contract with Commonwealth. They've already began the design, but by the time they do the
- design and there's a lead times for some of the parts, pumps and pipe, what not related to the lift
- station, they felt comfortable with the year timeframe. Happy to answer any questions.
- Questions? Lift station improvements? All right. I move that we approve the amendment number three on
- the lift station improvement contract with Commonwealth engineers. Second. Okay, it's been moved and
- seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Thank you.
- Thank you. Thanks, Kevin. Next is the request for approval
- of resolution 2026-03 to designate surplus property for auction or worthless surplus. Hello, Chris Wheeler,
- City Legal. We as a board see this resolution roughly monthly. We didn't have one brought to the board
- for February, but this is the February surplus list for
- Items identified by CBU as either worthless surplus or items that are eligible for auction. And we would
- ask the board to approve the resolution so that these items can be appropriately taken care of. Do we
- do a normal auction? Regular auction? There are sites available online, government auction sites. The
- city has an auction that it conducts.
- I don't know how regularly they're doing that anymore but CBU will either designate an item for auction
- and put it up for auction. First thing we do actually is we will make the items like office furniture
- and other supplies and things like that that might still be worth some other department using. We'll
- allow other departments an opportunity to take over those items and if they don't want them then they'll
- go to auction.
- The other items that are just worthless surplus, we discard. Very good. So items, let's say like the
- vintage green filing cabinet, that might get some dollars. So like, do you leave that here or is there
- the designated place with the city that you take that to? And then if somebody, or if it's tiered, like
- if somebody buys it, they just show up and be like, I'm here for the vintage cabinet or what? Yeah,
- if we auction it off, it's online. It'll stay here until,
- first that buys it comes to pick it up on their own. Hey, that's gonna be a hot item about the third
- week of August, let me tell you.
- Kind of like our clock over there, isn't it? It won't be in the surplus sale. All right. Any other questions
- for Chris? All right. All right. I move that we approve the request for this surplus property donation.
- Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Any other discussion?
- All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, that is our surplus property designated approved. Thank
- you Chris. All right, next item then is any old business from the board? We need to discuss.
- Any new business? Oh, we're gonna go to staff for old business?
- Sure, I think this fits an old business. So we had our field hearing with the IURC on February 25th.
- I think it went really well. We had good press attention from the B Square Bulletin afterwards. There
- were three testimonies from the public, two of which were from the business community and one was from
- Southern Monroe Water Authority.
- One of the speakers from the business community was Eric Spoonworth from the Chamber of Commerce. Who
- was the other? The owner of HeartWorks Spring. Owner of HeartWorks Spring. OK. OK. And then the other
- person you said? That was Rodney Ira with Southern Monroe Water Authority. OK. Great. Thank you.
- I've asked Kat this question in email, but that was not recorded, correct? So we can't watch that. The
- public can't see that. It was just simply an in-person meeting. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I looked for a
- recording. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you. They did record it, but I don't know if it becomes public.
- I mean, they're not a video recording, but they had a transcriber there. Oh, yes.
- court reporter. But not like a video recording. Thank you. I attended as well. And I've got some notes
- on the three presentations. I don't have them with me. They're my other book. But can you give us the
- clips notes? Well, I'd say there was the one speaker was what was his name that the first speaker Rodney
- was really speaking
- in favor about how we needed to do good work. Is that a good assessment? Yes. Okay. And then of course,
- Eric Spoonmore from the chamber discussed the impact to the business community overall, particularly
- the discussion about the fact that large users are going to have to absorb a very large percentage of the
- the of the increase. And that's concerning from the economic development perspective. And then the owner
- of Heartwork Brewing, she made a very good case about how this would be better phased if we could. But
- of course, we couldn't, you know, I would have loved to explain I did before the meeting, discussed
- with both of them about how
- we can't do this by inflation adjustment each year, and so these four-year spans that we have to take
- make it more difficult. But she was explaining the difficulties of operating in a small business with
- the ups and downs, and how the IURC should take that into consideration.
- And those are all good points. And it's a very official meeting that the state puts on. So very good
- points by all three speakers. Thank you. All right. Any other old business, board or staff?
- So I'm going to put this in old business as well. So on January 29th, the board meeting of January 29th,
- this board approved an update to rules and regulations at section 24.2, adding a new measure that CBU
- may consider for extension of sewer outside of city limits. I think there's been some discourse around
- this recently, so I just wanted to
- offer to answer any questions about it I was not able to attend that meeting but it's really just adding
- a it identified a circumstance where we would allow for sewer extension outside of city limits very
- specifically for development that's been identified by the city of Bloomington economic and sustainable
- development
- as a strategic economic development site that would contribute specifically to job creation and wage
- growth. So I just wanted to make sure that was clear. I know that you had voted on this on January 29th,
- and I'm sure there was great discussion then that I unfortunately missed, but I know there's been some
- discourse around it, so I just wanted to make that clear and offer any additional discourse. Thank you, Kat.
- Maybe you've seen some of the media reports about how the mayor's office is seeing this as an opportunity
- to support large economic development projects. And glad that we could provide the support for that
- back in January. Jim. But it is true that it still needs to meet the continuity requirement? No. No.
- and it does not include residential. These are targeted economic development projects. Thanks for the
- update. All right, next is new business. Any new business from the board? New business from staff? No?
- Well, we just had a subcommittee, so subcommittee report.
- two great presentations. The first was by Steve Stanford on the pretreatment program annual review.
- In his presentation, he gave a background and history of the pretreatment program, the Clean Water Act,
- and the objectives of that. We learned in his presentation that we are one of 47 municipalities in the
- state that is designated as a control agent
- which has the legal authority to oversee pretreatment in the area. With that, it controls funding, local
- limits, significant industrial users, and enforcement response plans. Of note, there weren't many violations
- in the violations that
- were in there were corrected promptly. So very thorough report and another testament to our transparency
- for our community. Then we had the state of the storm 2026 from Liz Carter in that she discussed the great
- achievements of the MS4 program that she's headed for a couple of years. We had 21 outreach events in
- 2025 which are educational events around the community with IU with schools and things like that. She
- also discussed discharges and enforcement of
- construction sites, pre-construction, post-construction. Let's see what else my note says. She also
- established goals for 2026 which operates around improving the post-construction mandates and enforcement
- as well. One thing of note that we had discussed
- Last year, I believe, was permit fees. And in 2025, CBU was able to collect $10,000 in permit fees,
- which was collected by nine permits that were issued. Already this year, in the two months in change,
- we've had about 25 to 30. So the permit fees should increase this year.
- As I said, another great presentation and testament to our transparency and our mission and goal of
- being the premier utility in the state. It's a good report. Thank you, Seth. I think the environmental
- committee heard a lot of good things today. It's a good update for 2026. Any questions for Seth or anyone
- else that was in attendance?
- Thank you. Any other subcommittee reports? I don't think we have any others since the last two weeks.
- Staff reports? Yeah. So we would like to welcome Savannah Stillions, our newest communications operator,
- and we would like to congratulate Christian Eberle, who is being promoted to utilities mechanic two.
- Great. Congratulations. Good news. Thank you. Thank you, Kat.
- Any other petitions or communications? All right. Matt, I'd sure like to thank the City Council for
- your latest appointment. We're glad to have Graham with us. Thank you for your help getting getting
- that through the process. Sure, briefly, we're excited about Graham's appointment as well. I apologize
- that it took us
- months to get through it we have a bit of a clunky process with interview committees and recommendations
- that to do appropriate vetting that I think the board requires or warrants did take us a minute but
- I'm glad we got there and I'm glad for Graham's service. Thanks Matt. Appreciate it. All right. Is it
- really is it kind of baptism by fire that we just throw them into this or does somebody
- meet with him to kind of say. We'll get together maybe but it will be after my first meeting. Rachel
- has sent him a nice introductory memo with all the background and when we meet and scheduling and things
- and I'm sure we'll set up a time with Chris to do the normal orientation. A nice packet of materials
- to review as well. Fabulous. We haven't had a new board member in so long and I was kind of like
- What do we do? You know? So I hope. Well, may hopefully will. And I guess just in terms of two, if there's
- something that does come up, don't hesitate to ask and say, hey, you know, how are we doing this? Sure.
- I'm sure I'll have more questions. Great. Thank you. And good question. Great. Welcome again,
- Graham Graham. Any other items for our board? All right, then we'll stand adjourned. Thank you, everyone.