- We'll call our utility services board meeting for June 15th to order. And first thing on the agenda
- is any petitions or communications from the public? Any updates? Any input from the public? All right.
- That's it, yes. All right. Sir, if you could just step up to the podium there. Give us your name for
- the record.
- We'd be happy to hear your input. My name's John Simpson. I have been working on a project over on Roger
- Street for Parks and Recreation. I call this Watergate 26 because some reason we keep interacting with
- Bloomington Utilities. Started, we had a truck.
- not a small truck, a big truck, drive around our road closure, jump the curbs, cross the plantings at
- Switchyard to get to Food Truck Friday. That didn't seem like a good thing, but I wasn't gonna make
- a big deal out of it. Then we had locate, we were digging in the street, we tore the street out, we
- had valid locates, my locates were cleared and showed as marked. But I think you had two different locators
- out there,
- And one guy who's absolutely, in my opinion, overzealous and came out and reacted in a way that he shouldn't
- have because the locate wasn't done. In other words, we had a cleared ticket. We were clear to dig.
- And the locator came out and, of course, he knew there was a large water main in the street.
- and he marked it. He had some interaction with one of my employees that I didn't appreciate. I felt
- that he was wrong. But that started the whole thing off that he saw my personal water meter hooked to
- a hydrant. It's a relatively new meter with a backflow prevention. It's a suitable device to measure
- water consumption.
- raised crosswalk requires what's called a multi-component pavement marking. I don't know that I ever
- thought they would really use that product. It's a terrible product in my opinion. But they refused
- to allow us to use traditional curing for it. So we had to use a wet cure with burlap. We needed water.
- We needed water continuously over the course of four days.
- Not a lot of water, a very small amount of water, but we needed water. We were working on a job for
- the city trying to do the right thing, make the project work and do it right. And we were told we were
- no longer allowed to use water. The city was aware that I was using my meter, whatever the locator made
- a big deal out of it, got somebody's attention, and we were told we were no longer allowed to use it.
- I feel like that's a pretty huge lack of cooperation. I've been doing this kind of work for a long time.
- I don't typically work in Bloomington, work in a lot of other places. I'm very used to the demeanor
- of utility folks. And there absolutely is a demeanor that comes with the work that they do. We work
- with utilities successfully all over. I get meters from all kinds of other places.
- I use my meter in a lot of other places, uh, never have any trouble. I'm always there to pay for it.
- We're not trying to steal anything. We're trying to do a job. We're trying to do a job for the benefit
- of the city. Um, it was then told us that we could get a, uh, meter, but it was going to be $5,000,
- $5,000. And I went and I pulled the invoice from when I bought mine. Uh, it was less than 300 bucks. So.
- I felt $5,000 was excessive, not appropriate. I did start digging into it, and I found pricing on the
- city website for what the deposit is for meters, and it was not $5,000. We were running a garden hose,
- 5-8 garden hose.
- You know, what do I want to accomplish here? Well, one, we're about to do another very small piece of
- wet-cared concrete. We'd like to have water. And I don't want to pay $5,000 to get it. I feel that that
- is completely and wholly unreasonable. The idea that utilities can't cooperate with us doing a project
- for parks and rec, I struggle with that. I don't think that would happen in most other municipalities.
- I guess I would like to, I don't know. I'd like to have water when we need it. That very well may be
- the last time that we need it, I don't know. We may need other water. The water we may need beyond that.
- If we need big amounts of water, we're not gonna get it off that hydrant. I don't know. Phil, it was
- important enough to take time to come down here and bring this up.
- invite to any response. I know you probably do. Well, thanks, Mr. Simpson. Could you stay up there?
- Sure. We may have questions. Sure. Yeah. So to kind of recap the story, you've got a contract with Parks
- and Rec to do probably that project that's right there at the entrance to Switchyard Park. Correct.
- at Roger Street. Correct. OK. And you needed water for the crosswalk with the specifications that.
- To cure, which it wasn't specified to wet cure. Nobody would ever wet cure. You use a spray on sealer,
- which acts as a curing agent. But don't get me started on the folks up that way. They weren't going
- to allow it, because the problem is, say you used a curing compound, which is the only way to cure the
- concrete, aside from wet curing.
- you'd have to go grind it off. So we were going to spray it, and then we'd have to grind it off. Well,
- it's a good finish on the concrete. You don't want to grind it off. It would be detrimental. OK. So
- you needed water, and you used one of the nearby hydrants that we use for fire protection. Correct.
- And the meter that you were using was your own personal one. Correct. OK.
- And so what I guess my next question for our staff is, do we require, we probably do, probably require
- our own meter to actually measure the amount of water that's being used. Is that right? Correct. Okay.
- And I did provide photographic evidence of, you know, I think my meter had 900 gallons on it and I think
- we might have used 400 or 500 gallons, something like that. Yeah.
- Well, I can see where, you know, but as I tried to get a meter, 5,000 bucks. I mean, okay. So what is
- our, what's our rate for, uh, is there a deposit on the meter or do we, do we, I mean, we obviously
- want to provide the meters for folks to be able to use them. Um, what are, what are the rates? Anybody know?
- There we go. Come on up. I was in one communicating with Mr. Simpson, and I sent him an email telling
- him I was incorrect. The cost of the meter for us is $3,950. On our website, we have $2,600 as a deposit
- for a safety deposit. We have a big box where everything comes in, and it can be locked on or whatever.
- We used to be able to buy those at $2,600 for a two-inch and a little less for a one-inch. That person
- who had the patent on it sold it to a distribution company, and they upcharge it now, and this is what
- we charge. I'm working with Chris because the website isn't updated for actually how much it cost us
- for that meter box. So yeah, and I send an email to Mr. Simpson letting him know that. And the reasons
- why we don't allow private
- Meters with backflow prevention devices on them just as a safety issue Yeah, and it's in a better way
- for us to keep track of the the usage. Yeah Yeah, but and there is the the city's website offers a locked
- meter or an unlocked meter. I didn't need a lock Nobody stole mine, you know mine's 300 bucks I don't
- know I can probably save the city some money if you'd like me to start sourcing your water meters I
- bet you I can get you a better deal You know, so
- So that's a $2,600 deposit, right? You get it back when you're done using it, and then you pay the amount
- of usage. Which doesn't bill unless it's over 1,000 gallons. Yeah, okay. My understanding, my limited
- understanding. Yeah, well, I don't know where the 5,000 came from. Oh, okay. I knew we had just increased,
- or the cost just increased to us, and that's what I thought the number was.
- And I told him I check on it and I did. And that's when I replied to his email that I had the incorrect
- number. I sent him the invoice of what we pay for it so he could see that I wasn't just giving him a
- number. OK. But that was for the, I guess, in fairness, that was for the lockbox. We didn't need a lockbox.
- We needed a $300 meter. And anything that's $2,000, $5,000, thousands, it should be hundreds. Yeah,
- we have to get into it.
- engineering parts of the specifications that we asked for. I don't know about those details, but our
- folks could probably dig into a little bit of that. So the first part of your conversation was the locator
- service that came to talk to you. Was that one of our contractors or was it one of our employees? One
- of our employees, Dan Clearich. He's been here for over 30 years. Again, a different employee has been
- here for a long time, had the locate ticket.
- I had an email conversation with Mr. Simpson about the way they had filled out the locate on there.
- It was a dig ticket, but there's a section in that locate that you fill out that you tell how deep you're
- digging, how far you're digging, and that all said zero. Our original locator assumed that they weren't
- digging in the ground based on that information, and so he put CBU okay. He could have went out there
- and located the line, but he saw the locate ticket that said zero.
- on there in depth and distance of the dig. And so he just put OK, because he didn't think they would
- be digging down to our water main. When Mr. Claridge saw them out there digging, he got concerned. He
- has a lot of concern about everything. And so he had this interaction with them and wanted to get the
- line located and had concerns about someone digging out there without a locate, but there had been one.
- Yeah, because we have our share of
- All kinds of different diggings that are going on right now with fiber optics and everything else, and
- we've got to keep a handle on that, I understand, yeah. Okay. I have five for my, I have another ticket
- there. City's got it all marked. I have five recalls in it to get gas marked. I can't get gas marked.
- Five calls. There's nothing you can do anymore. You can't dig. You can call all day. I've called everybody
- from wherever.
- Holy moly, it's supposed to do that within a certain amount of time. No, that's not how it works anymore.
- Okay. The gas company has got a very powerful voice in the state legislature and they control the IURC
- to our detriment and absolutely it is now the utility agency's benefit. The contractor, if they don't
- locate it, you can't go until it has to be marked or a response of
- cleared and marked, which I have on the other. And as far as an ambiguity to how I call my locate tickets,
- I always call, always have for 20 years, I call unknown depth. I always say unknown. I mean, and the
- latest exact ticks only allows them to enter a number. I don't know that they're entering zero.
- they're told it's unknown. They're converting unknown to zero, not the same thing. The line above, they
- can enter the term, the word unknown, but for depth, they can only enter a number, and they enter zero.
- Design tickets, you can call a design ticket where there's no digging involved, but I don't understand
- why somebody would call a ticket with zero digging. Okay, Jim.
- Thanks. I'm still confused about the $5,000. If that's a charge, would that all be reimbursed? Yes.
- So it wouldn't be coming out of your pocket. I understand. Okay. Okay. Me and other parts of the city
- aren't seeing eye to eye on getting paid right now. I have $5,000. I'd be happy to. But me giving $5,000
- to the city of Bloomington that can't
- pay me for work I did in March. I struggled with that. That's not your guy's fault, but I wasn't going
- to give up five. I mean, we do this everywhere else and it's a couple of hundred bucks. Well, if you're
- working for Parks and Rec and there's a requirement of $5,000, shouldn't Parks and Rec put that up?
- I wouldn't have asked them to. I'm just asking.
- They helped us get water. They brought us a tank out. I have tanks that I could have brought.
- They had theirs. They're handy. I think they wanted to help us because they wanted to help. And we were
- doing a pretty difficult task there. And we made it work. But it was a long way around. We had a long
- work around. OK, thanks. Other questions?
- Well, Mr. Simpson, I thank you for coming by because it's good for us to be able to interact with our
- customers and folks doing work in the city. It provides us input about how operations flow and as we
- continue to make decisions to make things work the best, it helps for us to hear different inputs. And
- I appreciate that. It doesn't do me any favors to come in here. Yeah, it's your time.
- it well it's not just that I mean you know down the road it you know it can it can always not go well
- but you know well if you don't hear it and you don't hear it from me it's you know you don't hear it
- then well you know I'd say in general you know our guidance and our the the real philosophy here is
- that we try to do our best to work through complex things and
- I've what I've learned over the years is that some of this stuff takes longer than you want it to. Nothing
- simple anymore. That's right. And and I know that there are places that make things a lot easier, but
- then they end up having bigger problems down the road sometimes to some places are just simpler. Some
- folks don't have, you know, some municipalities don't have lines that have been laid 100
- years ago that we're not quite sure where they are. And now we've got a layer of gas on top of that.
- And now we've got a layer of fiber on top of that. And you live that every day. And we're having a tough
- time with that, too. Folks are clipping our lines when they're putting fiber in these days. And we have
- neighborhoods flooded because of that. And this is tough. And I appreciate you coming in and letting
- us know about it.
- Please do work with us and our staff. Give them as much time as you can. I know that you've got a contract
- to get work done, and you only got so much time to get it. The more time it takes, the tougher it is
- for you to make a living, and we get that, too. We pushed real hard to get that road open right away.
- We shouldn't have. I poured that thing twice, because one, it didn't meet our standard, and there was
- issues in the design. We tore it out. We did it a second time.
- but going slower and taking a little bit more time might have done it once. I don't know. It doesn't
- matter. It's done right now. Yeah, and they had some big events down there they were trying to get it
- open for. I know how that is, yeah. Anyway, I appreciate it. Thank you, sir. We appreciate it.
- Anything else? All right. Good. Thank you for coming by. All right. I failed to list our mission statement,
- and that is that CBU's mission is to enhance the quality of life in our community by providing safe
- sustainable and high-quality 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 then also to remind all of our board members
- that if you have any conflicts of interest on any of the items on our agenda this evening, to be sure
- to recuse yourself from those items.
- Okay next on our agenda is the certification of the executive session and I need to ask a question about
- whether in our certification is that just a signature or do we need to vote on that? Okay well we've
- all seen that in the minutes and just for the public record those watching at home for entertainment
- this was the executive session that was held on May 26th and that lists the board members present as
- required and no final decisions were made or subject matter discussed in the executive session other
- than the subject matter specified herein and
- We will just certify that we did that. And that will be in the record for this meeting's minutes. OK.
- Next, then, is approval of the minutes of our previous meetings, May 26 special session and the June
- 1 meeting. So first, has everyone had a chance to see the special session from May the 6th?
- Yeah, May 26th, excuse me. Everybody good with that? I want to take a motion to approve the minutes
- from the special session. I move that we approve the minutes from the special board session. It's been
- moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, motion carries. We got those minutes
- from our special session. Taking care of next is June 1st.
- our regular meeting. We've had a chance to review those minutes. Any questions or corrections? I move
- that we approve the minutes from the last meeting. Second. All right, moved and seconded. Any discussion
- on the minutes? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion carries. Minutes are approved.
- Next is standard invoices for today.
- questions about the standard invoices. I assume that's us paying off previously installed panels that
- we and then the health premium. That's just us paying for health insurance for employees. Okay. Just
- a lot of large ticket items, but very essential items this month. Thank you, man. Do you know how far
- we've how many how long we've got yet to pay on our lease purchase of the solar?
- That I don't know. OK. Sure. And then I also saw there was a state board of account audit fee. I assume
- that's just a standard thing that they do. And any issues with their audit? No, no. It's just a standard
- operating procedure. Thank you. OK. The total for standard invoices is $2,412,075.46. Any other questions?
- All right.
- I move that we approve the standard invoices. Second. Moved and seconded to approve standard invoices.
- Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. The standard invoices are approved.
- And let's see. We've got revised utility bills next on the agenda due to in the record we had a mix
- up with the tables that we
- approved back on April the 1st. So that's been corrected to the correct amount being $10,204.09. So
- any discussion on that correction? All right. I do have a question. Yeah.
- relationship between the $206,000 and the $10,000? Like, is that going to be changed? So on the April
- 1st meeting, or the June 1st, or April 1st, sorry, we just shared a wrong spreadsheet. So we paid the
- correct amount, which was the $10,000, but we included the $200,000 spreadsheet in error. OK. So there
- was never $200,000 involved? Correct. Got it. OK.
- I move that we approve the memorandum. Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve the
- revised utility bills for April 1st. Any other discussion? All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right. That done. And next are utility bills.
- Find. Utility bills. Which page? 24. 24? You got 25, yeah. Ah, there they are.
- Good. Yeah, it's utility bills for June 11th and the amount of $261,020.06. Any questions on the utility
- bills? I see CBU in there. Are we paying ourselves? Is that a normal thing? Yeah, we do. Yes. We would
- write ourselves a check. Sometimes we may have it. We don't give anything away for free, Grant.
- We have to pay ourselves for our own water and wastewater. I think we get a discount. Yeah,
- we get a discount, yeah. All right. Good. Will we approve the utility bills? Second. OK, it's been moved
- and seconded to approve utility bills. Any other questions? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- carries next are wire transfers in the amount of six hundred and fifty one thousand two hundred and
- twenty nine nine dollars it looks like my page runs a little off there 221 221 okay all right there
- we go any questions on the wire transfers typical
- I move that we approve the wire transfer. Second. All right. Any other discussion? All in favor say
- aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Now we're up to customer refunds. A list there. Any questions on customer
- refunds? Another assumption, but is a crossed meter adjustment when we cross up the meters between
- Yep, you got a well-defined term. Thanks. All right, any other questions on customer refunds? All right.
- I move that we approve the customer refunds. Second. OK, it's been moved and seconded to approve the
- customer refunds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, refunds are approved.
- accounts next are the special check run accounts payable distribution report these are all our bond
- payments in the amount of four million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand five hundred forty dollars
- and twenty one cents any questions on me what the sinking is it's a accounting term it's a
- account that we move cash into to make sure we have the cash to cover these bond payments. I hope that
- we approve the bond payments. Second. All right, movement seconded to approve the bond payments. All
- in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. We have done our obligation to the bonds for this part of
- the year. Thank you.
- Matt feels much better now, right? Exactly. All right. Next is the consent agenda. Director Zeiger.
- Good evening. Catherine Zeiger, utilities director. I'm presenting tonight's consent agenda totaling
- $8,350 with one contract for with Wheeler Coaching Systems LLC for $8,350 for executive leadership training
- at the utility service center.
- Is there any member who wishes to consider one or more of these items individually? Hearing none, if
- there's no opposition, these items will be approved as recommended by staff. Hearing no opposition,
- the consent agenda is approved. All right. Next is the request for approval of the Duke easement for
- the Fire Training Center. And our attorney, Chris Wheeler, will give us an update on that.
- Good evening, Chris Wheeler, City Legal. A few months ago, I was here before the board to discuss another
- Duke easement that dealt with the new daycare facility up on Summit. This easement should look remarkably
- the same. They are providing utility service to the new Bloomington Fire Building down on Winston Thomas
- And the document they provided to us was the same one. We had the same issues. We asked them to make
- a few changes. They made those same changes. And now we're before the board to ask for approval so that
- utility service can be run through the easement to the building and provide them with the necessary
- service. All right. Any questions for Chris on the easement approval?
- Looks like we've got good progress going on the building down there. Sounds like it. Yeah. We approve
- the memorandum with Duke. Second. All right. Moved and seconded to approve the easement with Duke Energy.
- All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Motion is approved. Thank you. Next is the request.
- for approval of the service agreement with GRIP, Incorporated. Hi, folks. I'm Matt Dabberton. I'm the
- environmental program coordinator for CBU. This is another contract with GRIP, Incorporated for the
- maintenance of our sewer level and corrosion sensors
- our sewer system, so they're installed in about 20 different manholes throughout the system. They measure
- the sewer level, which helps us monitor for overflows and backups, as well as corrosion. We've used
- grip for the past four-ish years to maintain these sensors, and so this is another year of the same,
- essentially.
- I'm just continuing to maintain these into mid-2027. So I'm happy to answer any questions. Thanks, man.
- Just curious, are the sensors moved around year to year, or do you pretty much keep them in the same
- 20-ish locations? We budget for a certain number of relocations. I think it's around eight or so for
- this year. I'd have to check the quote that's
- included in that contract. So they do get moved around occasionally. We have some that we leave in place.
- A lot of them are in known locations where we've had troubles with overflows in the past. OK, any other
- questions, discussion? All right. I move that we approve the contract with Griff Incorporated. Second.
- Moved and seconded to approve this contract with Grip Incorporated. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Next is a request for approval of the third amendment
- to the service agreement with VET Environmental Engineering LLC. Hi. Chris Wheeler, City Legal. I'm
- going to look at something real quick.
- if you'll just bear with me, please. Okay, so when you're looking at the memo
- So this is for an amendment to the VET agreement. It's ongoing preparation for litigation, but the memo
- suggests that the agreement is for 25,000. The actual adjustment to the existing agreement is $205.51.
- The total of the not to exceed is 25,549.08. So that's what I wanted to look at. I didn't think that
- looked right on the memo. The memo's wrong, the contract controls were good to go. We should see,
- Another amendment come down the line because mediation did not, was not successful is ongoing, but it's
- currently not successful. There will need to be, they may actually take, this is just for preparation
- to get ready for the deposition. There's going to be very likely a deposition taken. So we're probably
- going to see another amendment. And if we get to trial and vet has to testify, we're probably going
- to see one more after that. So that's what we're looking at.
- And I'm happy to take any questions as long as we're not getting into litigation itself. All right.
- So Chris, so just to clarify, the total on the contract is what we're approving is just a small increase.
- $205.51 today is what you're approving. All right. You're going to see a much bigger one this next time
- around if in fact the deposition takes place. I would expect. All right. That makes sense.
- Questions or discussions on this? Well, we appreciate your continued work on it. I guess we're ready
- for the question. The motion. The motion, yes. I move that we approve the amendment to the agreement
- with that environmental. Second. So moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion
- carries. Thank you, Chris. Thank you.
- We have the request for approval of the third amendment to the service agreement with, excuse me, change
- order number three, the approval with Crider and Crider. Kevin White's here. Yes, thank you. Kevin White,
- Capital Projects Coordinator. This is the final change order. This is just to rectify quantities and
- provide CBU a deduct of $14,800.
- So the project is finalized. We're waiting on a final payment from the grant folks to provide that with
- the retainage to Crider, and then the project's done. So I'm happy to answer any questions. So we're
- saving money on this one. A little bit. Yes, sir. All right. Better than the other way. Yeah.
- No, we had planned for additional tree removal. And they didn't have to get into those on one side of
- the building. It was predominantly just on the north side. So that $14,800 is related to the tree removal
- and landscape restoration in that area. Great. Other questions? Discussion? All right. I move that we
- approve the change order with Crider and Crider. Second.
- All right, it's been moved and seconded to approve the change order. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up is old business. And if I remember
- right, we had one item that was kind of left over from a couple of weeks ago from the citizens that
- came to talk to us about their
- flow issues. Yeah, on Cottage Grove. That's right. Thank you. Hi. Good evening. Phil Peden engineering.
- So we've been investigating this and working with James group. And so we've we've reviewed the televising
- reports on different sections of the sewer near the home. We're also scheduling a smoke testing and
- dye testing. So dye testing, we have to enter the home. So we're
- We've reached out to David, the property manager. We haven't reached him, but we're trying to get that
- set up. And then we'll smoke test. What we're trying to do is see if there's some place where storm
- sewer got tied into sanitary sewer recently. And so within the last year, CBU has replaced some of the
- sewer mains in this sewer system. And so we're trying to see if somehow
- what we considered a lateral was some type of storm drain that was tied in. We reviewed the pre-videos
- and the post-videos since the sewer was built. We don't see anything that stands out there, but the
- smoke tells us, so we want to see if that will indicate anything. We also threw some
- details that we uncovered. I guess when the plumber was out, they snaked what they call snaked the line,
- ran something down the line to try to clear it. And that went about 150 feet across the intersection,
- went down Dunn Street till they ran out of line. And when Paul Chastain used the camera to go up their
- lateral from Cottage Grove is where they're tied in, it just went a short distance right through the
- house. So what I believe is that
- it's possible they have two separate laterals. One went to the basement floor drain, then possibly they
- changed that into a rental where they started to separate the home into different apartments, like a
- triplex or duplex type setup, and they needed an additional restroom, so they added a toilet, a bathroom
- in that basement, tied it into the drain that was already there, might have been tied into the storm
- sewer. So that additional lateral that
- goes a different direction, might be tied to storm, it might have got hit by fiber optic. It was in
- the public right away. It obviously crosses the intersection and goes down Dunn Street from the report
- we heard. That could have been struck by fiber because it wouldn't have been located. So there's some
- possibilities that we're looking into, but we're hopeful that the dye test will tell us which system
- it's tied into first, and then maybe the smoke will indicate some other
- areas where storm sewer storm water may be entering the system. Interesting. Well, thank you for following
- up on that and staying in touch with the customer. We can find some solutions either on our side or
- their side. I hope so because you know with they've had seven backups in less than a year something's
- changed dramatically and he said they've
- had the property or I thought they said 19 years and it hadn't happened. So something definitely changed
- and we want to find out what it was. I might actually want to add my two cents on the gentleman that
- spoke earlier. I just feel like if you steal a candy bar from Walmart or you steal a big screen, it's
- the same crime.
- And so if you steal a gallon of water versus a thousand gallons, it's the same crime. But I think what
- we've seen, we've dealt with this in the past where you rent these water meters and they're supposed
- to put them on. They're broken. They haven't brought them back into calibrate. So there's a, there's
- a drive-by test and the crews are aware of it and other utility employees are aware that if you see
- someone using a hydrant, you want to make sure they're using the proper one that has a meter with the
- proper backflow device. So on this project, it wasn't any utility work. It was just parks. Maybe street
- might have been there inspecting. They're not going to know that. They're going to just look, is there
- a meter on that? And so it passes the drive-by test. It passes the test with the other city departments
- that might be looking.
- but you wouldn't know that was it a CBU authorized meter and you wouldn't know that it had the proper
- backflow device. So it's not uncommon for contractors to be somewhat sneaky and put a meter that doesn't
- work on there or one that he's bought that looks like a legit meter. And without him bringing in that
- paperwork for us to set that account up, I doubt he's ever gonna pay. He said he read the meter twice,
- Did he send the meter reading to us? So the other big component is it's theft if it's not turned in,
- but it's also the risk to the public water supply. Matt Dabberton is here this evening working. He works
- stringently on the back flow and protecting the water system. And without the proper ones that we authorize,
- and you see, oh, that one cost $2,600 and his cost $300,
- may not meet the standards to protect the system. So I think there's a lot more to it that he didn't
- explain once you've been here a while, you realize. So just wanted to share that. Thank you. Thanks.
- Can I ask a question on that? Can you just explain with the smoke and dye tests how that works? Sure.
- We have some very strong dye. It only takes a few drops. You put that in the sink, run it a while, or
- you flush the toilet. We can go downstream and we can put someone watching the storm manhole and the
- sewer manhole, and then we can see which line that comes through. And so it's bright green, red, and
- I think there may be another color, but it's pretty evident. The only challenge you get sometimes is
- it's so dark.
- if the manhole's really deep, that you can't see color at that depth. So usually I have to have a flashlight
- in the point that it's that deep. The smoke testing, we have these industrial stress smoke bombs and
- Matt Wilson, our technician said, I don't know how many we've got in supply, but it's close to the 4th
- of July. I'll just go down to the fireworks store, check out if we need some, but no, they're more like
- industrial strength.
- Smoke bombs and they last about a minute and a half and we have a Gas-powered fan that sits perfectly
- over a manhole that has a chamber on the side So you light the smoke bomb set it in the chamber kick
- the fan on and it'll blow the smoke up the line and it obviously finds finds a relief point and so you
- Once you do that start the smoke test. You'll see it coming out of all the bathroom vents in the home as you go
- And sometimes you might see it. We're trying to see if it's coming out of a down. That's properly plumbed
- home. That's where you're going to see it. If it comes out of a downspout or a gutter or a, or a garage
- drain or a floor drain or a, or a clean out in the yard, then we've obviously got spots where water
- could be coming in, uh, in those locations. Is there going to, what's the advantage of one versus other?
- Uh, so the,
- What happens with the way the interior plumbing is, the smoke won't come back up through. So you can't
- tell exactly where you're connected in the home. You can tell outside if something's improperly connected.
- So you have to have the dye testing for the internal check and smoke for external. Thanks. Good follow
- up there. Thank you.
- OK. Any other old business from the board? Any other old business from staff? OK. New business from
- the board? New business from staff? We didn't have any subcommittees, I don't think, since the last
- meeting. So staff reports. First, we'd like to congratulate Garrett Hill and TND, who was promoted to
- the specialized crew leader.
- And I'd also like to recognize our 2025 and slash 2026 Herdy Award recipients. First is Kevin Williams,
- who is celebrating 45 years of service in the water industry. For reference, the Herdy Awards are awards
- that recognize individuals having 25 years or more of service with one or more Indiana public water utility.
- Um, so yeah, uh, first, Kevin Williams, who has served in the water industry for 45 years. Next is Craig
- Abbott who served for 35 years. Eric love who served for 30 years, Al McKaylee for 30 years, uh, Mike
- Runyon for 30 years, uh, Brian Shipley for 30 years. And finally, Davey Myers for 25 years.
- Thank you all for your many, many years of service to the utilities. That's great. Thanks. Good to have
- that in the record. Thank you, Kat. Any other reports from staff? All right. We're good. Any other petitions
- or communications from the public? Anyone else? All right. Seeing none, I think we are adjourned. Thank you.