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.