- Let's start with the mission statement. The City of Bloomington Utility's 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 if any
- board member has any personal or financial conflict with any issues or individuals on the agenda, please
- be sure to recuse yourself during those portions of the meeting. All right. Do we have any petitions
- and communications from the public?
- First item is approval of the minutes of previous meetings. Does anyone have any comments? Is there
- a motion to? I move that we approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Second. All in favor say
- aye. Aye. All right, motion passes. Opposed?
- Next is the approval of the claims, starting with the standard invoices for a total of $581,398.47.
- Does anyone have any questions or comments?
- I move that we approve the standard invoices. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right,
- motion passes. Next is the utility bills for a total of $11,639.37. Is there any questions or comments?
- the utility bills from the previous meeting. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right motion passes.
- Next is the wire transfers fees and payroll for a total of $581,113.33. Any discussion? I move that
- we approve the wire transfers.
- All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion passes. Next is the customer refunds for a total
- of $2,946.41. Any comments or questions? I move that we approve the customer refunds. Second. All in
- favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right, motion passes. And I believe this is a special check run for a total of $2,349.68. Any questions
- or comments? I move that we approve the special check run. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- motion passes and we have one more special check run for IURC and the amount of $24,864. I'm so tired
- today. $24,864.93. Any comments or questions? Yes. This I do have a question on. I understand everything
- with our water
- case. Approval. Why do we have to pay? I you are see I. Thank you, OK, so this is in addition to legal
- fees. The state gets funds just just for this whole process. Yeah. And did we pay this before or is
- this? It's like an I'm sorry. Did we make?
- Did we have to make other payments during this process that I just missed it? Or this is this is a final
- bill. Thank you. Thank you. Just out of curiosity, is there fee like a sliding scale based on the number
- of customers that the utility serves or is that their flat fee? Okay, thank you. Just to repeat, if
- we were not under I U R C, this would be a fee.
- that we did not incur. Chris, you're listening? Yes. Jim, you're always so good at reminding us about
- this. I move that we approve the special check run for the IURC. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye.
- Opposed? Motion passes. Next is the approval of the consent agenda with Catherine Zager.
- I'm Catherine Sager, utilities director. I'm presenting tonight's consent agenda, totaling $24,339.96.
- The first contract is with CTI and Associates Inc. for $6,056 for the 2026 Dillman landfill groundwater
- reporting. Next is with Thrasher Landscape Inc. for
- $8,649.19 for solar panel weed removal and landscaping at Dillman Wastewater Treatment Plant, Monroe
- Water Treatment Plant, and the Southeast Booster Station. Next is with Troy Risk Inc. for $3,250 for
- phase one environmental site assessment for culvert. The next is with Thrasher Landscape Inc. for $6,384.77.
- for the Service Center North parking lot repairs. Is there any member who wishes to consider one or
- more of these items individually? For the CTI, I just assume that's regulatory reporting the item that
- we conduct for ongoing groundwater monitoring? Yes. Thanks. 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. Our next item is request approval
- of service agreement with Ivy Tech for 2025 to 26 CDL training. That's Audrey Brittingham.
- Audrey Brittingham, city attorney. Sorry, I'm not there in person. I wanted to be, but we had a training
- I had a training this afternoon and it went over. So there are two agreements with Ivy Tech. This first
- one that you're considering is for the 2025-2026 calendar. Essentially, this is just an agreement with
- Ivy Tech for them to train our potential CDL employees. Right now, we have a system set up with Ivy
- Tech where
- If we're having trouble hiring someone into a position that requires a commercial driver's license,
- what we can do is we can hire someone and pay for them to get their commercial driver's license through
- Ivy Tech's program. So they have a set price for city employees that's listed in there, and we have
- a set process for Ivy Tech.
- The utilities department, I don't know. I think that someone else there might be able to talk more about
- how many people were sent over the course of this last year. But I know utilities has sent a handful
- of people through the program previously. This agreement covers June 2025 to July 2026. We are behind
- in getting it signed. That is partially my fault. It's partially Ivy Tech.
- They had to, we had to get them to agree to our addendum, which you'll see that they signed in there.
- That has a lot of the legal requirements we're bound to include in our service agreements. So e-verified,
- non-collusion. It took them a bit to get that approved on there and then signed. And then it's just
- taken me a bit to get this onto the public works agenda and then on this board's agenda. But hopefully
- this will be it for the 2026.
- signature process. I'm happy to take questions. Any questions? No questions. I'd just like to say that
- this is a great program that we have going on and I hope that this is the beginning of other partnerships
- with IB Tech for not only the utilities but other city departments. So thank you Audrey, thank you everyone
- whose work to make this happen.
- Questions or comments? I move that we approve the service agreement with Ivy Tech for the 2025-2026
- CDL training. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. The next is for the service
- agreement for 2026-27 so I think we can just go ahead and vote on that.
- Unless there is the service agreement with Ivy Tech for the 2026-2027 CDL training. Second. All in favor
- say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Next is a request approval of resolution 2026-13 to designate
- surplus property for auction or worthless surplus. That is Chris Wheeler.
- Chris Wheeler with City Legal. This is just the monthly list of assets that CBU has identified as being
- surplus that they are asking the board to determine is worthless surplus that can be discarded. Some
- of these items actually do have a value and we intend to sell them for scrap.
- I think the vehicles, there's a vehicle that will get sold through auction and then we have a piece
- of furniture or some office equipment that what we generally do, not generally, what we do is offer
- it up to the rest of the city to see if any of the other department needs it and if they don't, then
- it gets scrapped or thrown away. So we're just asking for the board to approve our identified items
- for surplus so that we can get rid of them.
- Who do we use for bringing scrap metal to? I don't know where we take, I don't know who hauls it, I
- don't know where we take it. I'm sorry I don't have those answers for you. I would just suggest J&B
- salvage though. They pay pretty well and they're pretty honorable. Mr. Havy's department seems to handle
- most of this and I'm not sure if you know. It's either that or Boomton Iron and Metal.
- Questions? I move that we approve resolution 2026-13 for surplus. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye.
- Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Next is a request approval of service agreement with Wessler Engineering
- with Dan Hudson.
- Dan Hudson, Capital Projects Manager for the City of Bloomington Utilities, and I'd like the board to
- consider a contract with Westler Engineering for the upgrade, partial upgrade of the SCADA system and
- the distribution system. This is a phase one of a five-phase project, so it's just beginning and it's needed
- a lot. What they're doing is replacing the PLCs, they're reprogramming it, and for three sites they
- are removing the radio and putting in cellular systems. And that is for $115,000.
- That's a new acronym to me, SCADA. Oh, PLC, Program OBS. SCADA. Oh, SCADA, Supervisory Data, Supervisory
- Control Data Acquisition. Thank you. Thank you. I move that we approve this service agreement with Westler
- Engineering. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- Motion passes. Thank you. You'll see me back for the other phases. All right. And next, we have the
- request approval of amendment number two to service agreement with Lane Christensen Company. That's
- with Hector Ortiz Sanchez. Hello. Good afternoon. Hector Ortiz, assistant director of operation.
- Um, this am- am- am- am- I don't know. This am- am- amendment we lane, the second amendment is to, um,
- extend the date, the- the original expired, um, tomorrow and this is to extend it to September 30th. So,
- They have some delays on parts and they are running a little bit late, so we just need a few more months
- to get it done. Any questions? No change in costs, right? No change in costs, nope. Any questions?
- All right. I move that we approve the amendment number two to the service agreement with Lane, Christensen,
- and Company. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. All right.
- We have old business next from the board. Old business from staff. Right, new business from the board.
- I have something I want to say. I just wanted to thank Liz Carter for planning the green infrastructure
- tour that a few of us took a few weeks ago, along with some members of the Environmental Commission.
- Sam Arthur and Brent Solbrig led that. Ginger Thomas was with us as well.
- We went to four different sites, including Rooftop Garden, Miller Showers Plaza, and two different curbside
- sites and got to see how that works and the strategies that are really effective and the hard work that's
- put into that every time there's a rain event. So thank you to that team for giving us the opportunity
- for the tour. I second that. I was quite amazed. I drive by those street sites,
- pretty much every day and I never noticed them. They're amazing and we thank Liz and Sam and everyone
- else and I recommend to anyone else on the board that the next time they make it available, take advantage.
- All right. Any other new business from the board? Just segue off that.
- We've had some historic rains over the last couple of weeks and we haven't had, from my knowledge, much
- flooding as we have in previous years. So kudos to our staff and kudos to the board for the approvals
- that we've given over the last couple of years to do all the hard work that we've put into our city.
- So I don't think that should be understated or overlooked how far we've come in the last couple of years.
- So thank you all.
- And we're not out yet. I mean, it's hot. Hot as all get out, but we're doing well right now. Any other
- new business from the board? All right. New business from staff. So if everybody's aware or not, but
- we have a boat water station down on the top of the slot where you can pull up and find your credit
- card and get boat water. That credit card reader hasn't been working for a while, which is why it's
- been shut down. But to get a new system on there,
- everybody that we have talked to has to charge us the credit card fee first. And then we can add a surcharge
- onto the transaction to charge them for it. But we have to get charged for it first. And so I just wanted
- to make everybody aware of that since the credit card fees were a challenge for a while. But I just
- want to give everybody a heads up that we're gonna have to have those get charged to us on the front
- end and for us to recover later. I don't know if that makes sense or
- So thank you for letting us know about that since you know, we hate the credit card fees So let's say
- I'm going to the bulk station and to get in I swipe my credit card to start it. Yeah Okay, but then
- it knows like I've taken so many gallons and then It's gonna charge me directly, but it won't add the
- credit card fee. Correct, correct So then the utility gets billed the credit card fee later, but the
- customer has already paid their portion
- Yes. So then they're going to get like a $5 credit card bill or whatever we deem. We can do it on a
- percentage basis or we can do it on a transaction like just a $2.50 charge or whatever we want to do.
- But the charges are going to come through to us first.
- I think the question is that surcharge will happen at the time of payment, right? Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- And is it like a percent like 3% of what the mean? What is our surcharge on it? Is it 3% of the bill?
- Is it a fee to be determined? We don't know until we get a contract with a provider, but I just want
- to make sure everyone is aware that we're probably going to start seeing those customers at the bulk
- station have an opportunity to
- do the purchase without a credit card? Not at the moment, no. Or when this new system is up and running,
- would there be like a, or is it just they have to use a credit card? There's options to set up pins,
- and we could bill them after the fact. And then if they set up a pin that was like, the customer's gonna,
- I don't, I'm just really going off on a line here, but do they do like a auto draft, and then that wouldn't
- result in a card fee, or? It probably depends on which one we choose, but worst case scenario is we
- just send them a bill.
- At the end of the month. Any other new business from staff? Subcommittee reports, we did not have one
- today. Staff reports.
- Um, yeah, we'd like to welcome, uh, two new staff members. Our first staff member is James Stanger,
- who is joining us in TND as a specialized crew leader, and, uh, Charles Allen, who will be joining us
- at, uh, Monroe Water Treatment Plant as a new operator. So welcome. All right. And petitions
- and communications from the public.
- Your turn.