- All right it's time to call our meeting to order this utility service board for May 4th of 2026. Our
- first item on the agenda is communications and petitions. Is there anything from the public? Communications
- or petitions? All right just a reminder that the City of Bloomington utilities mission is to enhance
- the quality of life in our community by providing safe
- sustainable and high-quality drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services in a cost-effective
- manner, promoting public health, economic vitality, and environmental stewardship. Our vision is that
- CBU will be the leading municipal water utility organization in Indiana. And just to remind our board
- members, if you have any personal or financial conflict or any issues,
- or individuals on the agenda, then please be sure to recuse yourself during those portions of the meeting.
- All right, the first item then is approval of minutes from our previous meeting of April 20th. All right,
- it's been moved and seconded to approve the minutes of April 20th. Any other discussion?
- In favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, the minutes are approved. Next is standard invoices. Review
- invoices for today. I have a few questions. Yeah. OK, on page three, my first question is city of Bloomington
- fuel charge. And I guess just thinking more about our fuel this month with gas prices that are up, how
- are we charged?
- when there's a delivery of fuel, and then we pay that rate until there's another delivery of fuel, and
- then that's our rate. How do they determine our charge for fuel? That I don't know. I just know they
- track it by batch number. So I'm not sure I think about what the price is really cheap. Like, oh, at
- the end of the month, it's $4.99. So everybody pays $4.99. Or when you got your biggest loads,
- it was $4.23. And so we pay $4.23.
- At some point, could you inquire about that, please? Thank you. OK. Next question. Environmental Systems
- Research Institute, also on page three, the small government enterprise subscription. What's that? Esri.
- So Esri, that's our GIS. Oh, OK. Different letters. I didn't know that. Thank you. OK. And then my other
- question. Let's see here.
- Well, OK, on the page that my numbers cut off, but toward the back. And yes, it's page eight. Stantec
- for the contract revision number two for rate design. For the water, I wasn't exactly sure what that
- meant. So there's a couple of pieces to the water rate case. There's one, the revenue requirements need
- to be defined. And we have a consulting company in Crow that defined our revenue requirements.
- And then for proper cost of service study, we need a company like Stantec to dig into the details and
- say, Kerr was saying we need this much money, and Stantec does the cost service study to say who's going
- to pay their share. So this is just paying them for their continued work. This is the work they did
- to get us prepared for the rate case that we're months into? Yes. Yes. OK. OK, thank you. I wouldn't
- say it did the work they did to get us prepared. It's work they've done throughout, yes. Since that
- we need to prove this is why we need this money.
- Any other questions on standard invoices? Is that for a CDL requirement or something like that? Okay.
- Just didn't have a dirt of that one before. And then for the entities that we have to do outfall sampling,
- do we recover that cost from them or do we cover that for them on their behalf?
- for outflow testing, like when we test for outflows, like do we recover that cost or charge that to
- the entity or do we cover for him? Oh, okay. Cool. Thank you. Anything else on standard invoices for
- approval? Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- Standard invoices are approved. Next are utility bills for the month. Total there is $19,952.34. Any
- questions on utility bills? I move that we approve the utility bills. Second. All right. It's been moved
- and seconded at all. Any other discussion on those? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- OK, utility bills are approved. Wire transfers in the amount of $667,091.43. Any questions on those?
- I've got 606.
- $7,091.43. I move that we approve the wire transfers. Second. Okay. Any other discussion? All in favor
- of wire transfers, say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Wire transfers are approved. Next is customer refunds.
- Discussion on customer refunds for this month. All right. I move that we approve the customer refunds.
- Second. All right, it's been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, customer
- refunds are approved. Next is the special check run for stormwater fees to the county.
- Discussion. Yeah. It's for taxes. Is this like property tax on these places? No, it's just a stormwater
- fee for these locations. For these sites? These sites are in the county. Okay. And so it's their stormwater
- fees. So it's labeled taxes because I think they're normally charged with property taxes. Okay. But
- we don't pay those though.
- All right, any other questions on stormwater fees for our facilities? I move that we approve the special
- check run. Second. All right, it's been moved in. No, yeah, special check run. Moved and seconded. Any
- other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion carries then. And next is the
- consent agenda. Director Zeiger.
- Good evening. I'm Catherine Zegar, utilities director. I'm presenting tonight's consent agenda,
- totaling $23,300. The first contract is with commercial service of Bloomington Inc. for $5,125 for the
- main building server room mini split replacement at Monroe Water Treatment Plant. Next is with Course
- in Fire and Security for $3,175 for annual plant equipment inspections at Blucher, Dillman, and Monroe.
- Last is with First Appraisal Group, Inc. not to exceed $15,000 for the appraisal of easements for six
- properties associated with the Dillman Relief Sewer Project. 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 to request approval of the service agreement with Electric Plus
- for the Monroe plant. Hello, I'm Dan Hudson, capital project manager for the city of Bloomington. I'm
- filling in for Hector. He's not here tonight. About a year ago, we went under contract with a company
- to do maintenance on our large
- high voltage and medium voltage equipment. That includes taking the breakers out and cleaning them and
- making sure everything works right and putting them back. But you have to shut down the plant to do
- that. And in our planning process, we've decided that it's a good idea to keep our servers running so
- we have data coming in and also keep the lab running because we
- do laboratory analysis like every hour. And this may take like up to 10 hours to do. So we'd like to
- hire Electric Plus to help us wire an existing generator that we have, a portable generator that we
- borrow from T&D to run the servers in the lab. We also want to rent a portable generator
- to run one of the pumps. One of the pumps we can run because it is a high level pump. It's on 480 volts
- and we have a generator. We can run a generator to do that. The idea is we don't want to lower the pressure
- in the system. So we have to have water notices during this time. So that's our plan for electric plus for
- $8,813. Any questions? Yeah, thanks. And this is probably a good time to do this with the campus kind
- of winding down as of this weekend. You probably thought of that. So usage should be down a bit with
- the campus pretty much in a reduced state for the summer. Yes.
- So do we kind of proactively top off all the tanks before we do this in case we have problems?
- Oh, absolutely. Everything's topped off. The superintendent is here. Great. Sorry.
- Yeah, so we topped the tanks off the night before. And so they're ready for the day. So if you looked
- at last year's usage about this week, you'd know about how many gallons we'd go through on an average
- day like this. Yeah, we pretty much so. Usually after graduation, we have a lull for about two weeks.
- And it starts to pick up as people start filling their pools up for Memorial Day. Makes sense. Yeah.
- So it is, it's really an advantageous time to do it. Good planning. Yeah. So we've got them all tapped,
- topped off like that and you're down in production. How much water do we have in the tank? So many hours?
- So usually as far as the, uh,
- distribution goes to keep the fire suppression above the green line. We have about six hours. The actually
- this we're only planning on this taking three. So, but in the meantime with pump five, we'll be able
- to pump 8 million gallons to town. Still. That's the pump we're going to generate. That's what we're
- You mentioned low pressure, potentially don't run that pump. Is it pretty much guaranteed to go below
- that 20 PSI? It's going to be close. Okay. Close enough that we're worried about it. Yeah. You know,
- the other option was to go the night before and that was, you know, it would have been another $15,000
- add-on to the company and us doing the work. So, you know, we thought, well, probably the better idea
- is to keep a pump running.
- And so with this solution, we can do that. What was the date we were looking at? The 12th. Next Tuesday.
- So let the fire department know you're going to do this? I sent them an email this morning. Very good.
- Because if they have an issue, you need to know before anybody else does so that you can adjust accordingly.
- We usually can tell if they do have an issue.
- Good. Sounds like you don't do this very often, huh? No. I don't think it's ever been. Yeah. So. Preventive
- maintenance. It's a good thing. All right. Other questions? Any other discussion? All right. I move
- that we approve the contract with electric plus zinc. Second. I move and second. All in favor say aye.
- Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you for your time.
- for coming tonight. Next on the agenda is item seven, request for approval of amendment number one to
- the agreement with Wexler Engineering. Dan is back. Yeah, Dan Hudson, Capital Projects Manager. I don't
- know if I need to state that again. Last board meeting, I went to you guys about Xylem project we had
- about replacing these
- devices in our flight pumps. And to do the whole project, it actually is going to take three contracts.
- One is for Xylem, one for Wessler, and one for Electric Plus. That's what I'm doing here. The Wessler
- part of it is to integrate, to take all the data, put it in our SCADA, and put it in the historian.
- So Wessler has a project now.
- at the headworks, and they're working on the SCADA system. So we just ask for an amendment for them,
- and they are asking for $33,000 for a new not to exceed $288,000 to do that. Is there any questions?
- That's good. Any questions or discussion for Mr. Hudson?
- I move that we approve the first amendment to the Professional Service Agreement with Western Engineering.
- Second. I move and second to any other discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right motion
- carries. It's approved. And next then is the request for approval of service agreement with Electric Plus.
- This is the third project. We need someone to hang the wires, to put the conduit up, and to wire everything
- from the flight pumps to the, I don't know if it's an RTU or PLC, but to the device at the system that
- picks up the data. And Electric Plus is asking for $15,950.
- OK. Questions for Dan? I move that we approve the contract with Electric Plus. Second. Move and second.
- Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. That request is approved. Item
- nine is request for approval of the service agreement with
- Thermoelectron North America, LLC. Kelsey. Hi, I'm Kelsey Thetonia, Assistant Director for Environmental.
- This is a contract with Thermoelectron for a annual service plan for ICPMS instrument, which runs lead
- samples for drinking water. I'm sorry, could you repeat what you said? Yeah. It was hard to hear.
- I'm sorry. I heard annual.
- service plan for what? It's a service plan with Thermo for just basic maintenance of our ICPMS instrument
- in the lab. So that's analysis for lead? Yep. Does it do anything else for us or can you do other agents
- with it? Right now we only use it for lead. We have an AA for iron and manganese. Is that what we use
- when some like a customer if they get their lead service line they request? Yes, we're using it for
- the lead service line. I know Justin said he had over 600 of
- He has. Yes. Great. OK. That's a good. I hadn't heard a follow up number on that. Yeah. Quite a bit.
- Yeah. A lot of interest in that program. We still have over 9,000 unknowns, but this is a step in the
- right direction to be able to identify the areas where we need to do further investigation. Great. Any
- other questions for Kelsey? All right. I move that we approve the contract with Thermoelectron North
- America. Second.
- Move and second it in the other discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Motion carries.
- Thank you very much. Item 10 is the request for approval of resolution 2026-11 to designate surplus
- property for auction. Matt Havy. I think there's one item on the list. It's a shelf that I'm trying
- to get rid of.
- Sardis are coming so often. This is the third time in a row. We were late on the first one. The second
- one came on time, and we're doing this one early for some reason. So that's why they've been three times
- in a row. So clear it out. And there goes the file cabinet. There it goes. Another file cabinet out
- the door. They're multiplying. Yeah, someplace. Ready for it? Yep. I move that we approve the resolution
- All right it's been moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All
- right resolution 2026-11 is approved. Next is item 11 request for approval of the memorandum of understanding
- between the City of Bloomington utilities and our City Department of Public Works for utility infrastructure repairs.
- Yeah, so this MOU that we're bringing is essentially a renewal of an MOU that we did last year where
- we provide funding for four full-time DPW positions that provide repairs as needed upon completion of
- CBU utility maintenance repairs and replacing infrastructure. So, for example, water main breaks, water
- main replacements, et cetera.
- They would provide the, you know, the paving curb work associated with it. And this is has shown to
- be a mutually beneficial agreement. You know, they were so streets DPW is now using city works to track
- their hours. They started using it at some point last year, so they didn't get a full year of tracking
- in last year. But what they did track showed that, yes, these four positions use the majority of their
- time to do follow up repairs on infrastructure following our utility repairs. So happy to answer any
- questions. Yeah. Yeah. Why wouldn't we just hire them as our
- I mean, if we're paying all the benefits, we're paying all this, why are they not positions just within
- CBU? So they do. So these positions don't really do a lot of utility work. So they're not, you know,
- actually repairing the mains, repairing the and we used to have just a I think we still do kind of have like a
- Sorry, construction crew. But it works out better to have them follow behind us to do this paving, to
- get it up to standard. And so, yeah. I'm assuming the equipment. I mean, the equipment. Yeah, they have
- the equipment. They have all the equipment to do this. They have to deal with replacing that equipment,
- maintaining that equipment. And we don't have to deal with any of that, which is great.
- And we are funding these positions fully or are we doing a portion. This is full for full time positions
- fully. Yes. Once I think it would be nice once we once they are using the data and we have it for a
- year. I do think that if we come back to this MOU I will be asking the question of this is great and
- let's show the data of
- how much they are doing for us and how much they're doing. And I think we should look at a percentage
- funding of those positions. Because correct me if I'm wrong, they're not 100% doing all work for CBU?
- No, that's not right. They're helping us with the CBU project. So again, I think it would be beneficial
- when we get to December of this year,
- that we do request that data and then negotiate with them in terms of how much we are willing. I mean,
- I think it's great. I think that we have this partnership and that we have funded it, but it may mean
- in the future, perhaps we share in that expense. Of course, yes. I will say, and again, these are just
- estimates because we didn't get the full year of data, that it did look like these
- These positions were using upwards of probably 80% would be a good estimate of their time, which,
- you know, if you consider the equipment cost and the maintenance costs that we're saving, I think that
- still shook out to a pretty good deal. Sure. And again, this is, these are our rate payers and at, let's
- just say 290,000. I could get my calculator to work times point
- 20%, that's 58,000 that could be coming, the 20% would be 58,000 that could be supported by Public Works.
- Does that make sense? Well, a little bit Amanda, except that, well I guess two questions. The first
- thing I think as I understood it is we have to figure in the amount of the
- the equipment used. So this includes... I could get on board with that. I could get on board with that.
- You could pull that out of the 290 or whatever it is. I could get on board with that. And then I have
- to ask the question if when they put the estimate together, did they estimate 80% or 100%? FTE. Yeah,
- FTE for the crews.
- I don't know. I believe this is 100%, yes. Well, then your point about this next year, once they figure
- out they're hourly, we'd be more comfortable probably looking at it at 80% plus, you know, the usual
- costs of equipment and pavers and we're paying for supplies for this. We're paying for asphalt,
- the gravel, the concrete, the three, you know, all of that. The other part I like about this is
- When we do a cut like this, it's gotta hit city standards, right? DPW standards. And if we were doing
- it ourselves, there might be a little hesitation about, someone might ask the question, well, that's
- not quite the city standard. But if they're doing it, we don't have to worry about that. I'm curious
- how we were doing it before.
- this? Were we just doing it in-house with our own workers? Yeah. Correct. Sorry. James Hall. Thanks.
- James Hall, assistant director of TND. Yeah, we had a crew that would, as they were doing water main
- replacement, they would kind of fall off and try to track back and do it. We've seen, again, part of
- what you're talking about is
- I used to answer a lot of calls about when is this going to be replaced? When is this now street department
- handles all that? I'm like, you know, that's, they're going to fix that. You call down there, um, whatever.
- Um, and so that's been a benefit for us as well. Um, and then as we move forward in our rate case and
- hopefully into the future, those resources don't have to stop and go back and do that. We just continue
- on doing water main replacement. So that's kind of.
- without having to add crews. All right, any other questions on this MOU with city government? I move
- that we approve the MOU between the city of Wilmington Utilities and the city of Wilmington. Second.
- Been moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion carries.
- that MOU approved. Next item is any old business from the board. Item 12, I'm sorry. This is request
- for approval of the MOU between CBU and the retreat at Switchyard. I've got my mind. We talked about
- this in committee, but we'll hear about that.
- Yes. Well, that was my question. Do we wait until subcommittee reports, or do we do this here? I guess
- I don't know. Well, it's on our agenda for now, so we probably ought to. We could go either way, I guess.
- I don't want to be in the way. As part of our discussion, we get the committee report. How's that sound?
- All right. OK. Well, let's see. Matt, are you going to give a slowdown first? So the Retriever Switchyard
- is a development here
- corner of Miller in Walnut. It was an affordable housing project that's been going on for several years
- now. And as part of this project, they hooked up to the sewer. And as developments do this, we charge
- them proportionally to the size of the sewer that they're going to use, what infrastructure that they're
- going to drive us to buy. And as part of this development, it was
- get the numbers that grow to say it's a little over $50,000 for them to connect to the sewer. Um, and
- I think there was some little confusion on both sides is that they thought that since they were building
- affordable housing, that they, this fee could be waived. Um, but then we took them through the city
- statute and pointed out to them that we can only waive fees for a single family residences for, for
- their connection fee. Um, and so.
- They explained to us they were having a lot of challenges with this development and financially and
- operationally. And so. We again we communicated that we could not waive the fee and so we had a meeting
- and talked with them and came to an agreement that CBU would agree to give them a payment plan for five
- years with no interest to pay this connection fee off. That's what this MOU is is documenting that agreement.
- Thanks man.
- And yes, we did talk about this one in the finance committee meeting prior to this meeting. So this
- might be a good time, Jim, if you could give the report on the vote that the subcommittee took sending
- it forward. Yeah, the subcommittee approved the MOU
- with the addition of an amendment that if the property were sold during the five-year period during
- which the hookup fee would be paid, the new owner of the property would be required to pay whatever
- debt to CBU was owed in full at the time of closure of the sale.
- Well, what we may need to do is table this so that it can go back to legal and they can write that language
- in and then we could act on it in two weeks. And it wouldn't have to be the new owner just at closing.
- it would be paid in full if there's a change of ownership. Because that could happen. So the only other
- comment I'd have on this is that I think it's good public policy for us to be flexible with a project
- like this that's been worked on by city government downtown giving them this
- assistance more or less in the time it would allow them, because it's an affordable housing project,
- it kind of shows our support for helping those projects as they come along to us, because we all know
- that's a community priority now. So I think that's a good thing for us to do. But we need a verb.
- All right, and I can't remember a
- Tabling is open for discussion. I have to look. Anybody remember? It is not? All right. I'll take your
- word for it. All right. All in favor of tabling? Second? Thank you. All in favor of tabling, say aye.
- Opposed? OK. We have tabled.
- Item 12, that MOU with our comments in the minutes. OK. Now I think we're ready for old business. Is
- there any old business by the board? Any new business from the board? Oh, old business from staff.
- Thank you. New business from the board.
- go for it first? You can go first. It's the same thing. Okay. Well, thank you for sending us out the
- press release a few weeks ago about the bulk water station facility being down. I was surprised to read
- that it was not like a mechanical failure. It's like a payment system failure. And so even more surprised
- to see that we couldn't get that back up and running until 2027, which is like seven months from now. So
- Can you explain that to us why that that that's going to take so long and and kind of what's like their
- daily usage of that boat water station and then like explain? OK, what's the work around for right now
- for people who do utilize that service? How are they able to access both water? Sure, yeah, so the issue
- is it is the credit card reader. It needs to be replaced and updated. We need to do service contract
- in place with our current
- um, they would not allow us to not have the credit card fees charged us that they had to flow through
- us and get paid, paid out another way. Um, so I talked to legal, but they said that we need to find
- another way to do it. Um, and so we looked for another way to do it and the new provider, uh, estimated
- it would be $18,000 to replace it at the moment. Um, and we felt that given our situation with the water
- money and, and we're going into the
- getting a rate case we wanted to wait until we got that kind of money. And as far as usage, it doesn't
- get a whole lot of usage. I think last year's revenue was $3,000. But people do use it. $3,000 is a
- lot of water, right? And currently our workaround is to go back to hydrometers. So if people need bulk
- water, they can come and run a hydrometer and get hooked up to the hydrant and get their water that
- way. Thank you.
- Is that information like on our website? So if someone who maybe missed it and shows up down there,
- is there like signage that says come here or what? There's signage down there that says it's out of
- order and in the press release it did mention that the hydrometer. So down there where it says out of
- order it says like come here. I'm not sure about that but. Or call this number. Okay. Okay, thank you.
- Yeah, I was just curious. I had a note that there was a rate hearing on April 30th. Was I incorrect
- in that originally? Or was it May 30th, maybe? My hearing? Yes. Is it currently scheduled for this Friday?
- This Friday. Thanks. Thanks, Graham. Megan, any other items under new business?
- Anything else on, yeah, subcommittee reports. Jim, I know the Finance Committee had another item on
- the agenda. You can give us a report on it. There were two items on the agenda. One of them has just
- been discussed with the MOU with Restore. The other item on the agenda was a presentation by Matt, a
- financial summary of 2025. It included
- our expenses, the projects that we had, and the assets that were still available for CBU. The committee
- found the presentation to be extremely useful and helpful. It ought to help us when we go through the
- budget hearings next year.
- told us that they were planning to make such presentations quarterly now so that every three months
- we would get a summary of our expenses and our revenues and our projects. And we all thought that was
- a really good thing. I just want to add that I was really surprised at how close
- actual budget was to the expected budget. And I said that our own household budget never gets that close.
- So kudos to the administration for what they do. So again, we thought this was a great idea and we're
- happy that it will be continued. Thank you, Jim. Any questions for Jim on the subcommittee?
- to staff reports. Yeah, I'd like to congratulate Madison Abel for earning her Class 1 wastewater license.
- Great. Yeah, fantastic. Alright, next item 17 is petitions and communications. Items from the public.
- Anybody here to address any other issues?
- Seeing none, we will stand adjourned.