WEBVTT 00:00:00.610 --> 00:00:10.316 - call the utility service board meeting of January or July 13th to order. Mission our mission yes the 00:00:10.316 --> 00:00:20.598 - CBU mission for city Bloomington utilities is to enhance the quality of life in our community by providing 00:00:20.598 --> 00:00:29.054 - safe sustainable and high quality drinking water wastewater and stormwater services and 00:00:29.538 --> 00:00:37.775 - in a cost-effective manner promoting public health, economic vitality, and environmental stewardship. 00:00:37.775 --> 00:00:46.496 - And our vision for our utility is for it to be the leading municipal water utility organization in Indiana. 00:00:46.496 --> 00:00:54.974 - We'll start out with any petitions or communications from the public with us today. I see none, so we'll 00:00:54.974 --> 00:00:58.366 - move on to the approval of minutes of our 00:00:58.882 --> 00:01:10.328 - meeting of June 29th. Everyone had a chance to take a look at the minutes. All right it's been moved 00:01:10.328 --> 00:01:22.453 - and second to approve the minutes. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right the minutes are approved. 00:01:22.453 --> 00:01:27.326 - Next is the approval of claims and we have 00:01:28.866 --> 00:01:43.803 - Long list of standard invoices. Any questions or discussion for the standard invoices for today? 00:01:43.803 --> 00:01:57.662 - All right, ready for a motion then. I move that we approve the standard invoices. Second. 00:01:58.658 --> 00:02:06.503 - all right it's been moved and seconded to approve the standard invoices totaling six hundred and seven 00:02:06.503 --> 00:02:14.272 - thousand five hundred fifty two dollars and three cents all in favor say aye opposed all right motion 00:02:14.272 --> 00:02:22.345 - carries next then is utility bills in the amount of one hundred ninety four thousand three hundred twenty 00:02:22.345 --> 00:02:28.286 - six dollars and eighty eight cents any discussion or questions on the utility 00:02:34.978 --> 00:02:45.118 - it's been moved and seconded to approve utility bills all in favor say aye opposed all right utility 00:02:45.118 --> 00:02:55.560 - bills are approved next is wire transfers in the amount of six hundred sixty two thousand three hundred 00:02:55.560 --> 00:03:04.094 - twelve dollars and eleven cents any questions or discussion there the wire transfers 00:03:04.578 --> 00:03:17.247 - Moved and seconded to approve wire transfers. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, the wire 00:03:17.247 --> 00:03:30.910 - transfers are approved. Next is customer refunds for a pay date of July 17th. The total on that is $4,535.68. 00:03:34.338 --> 00:03:41.577 - customer refunds. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve customer refunds. All in favor say 00:03:41.577 --> 00:03:49.173 - aye. Aye. Opposed? All right customer refunds are approved. Next item on the agenda is the consent agenda 00:03:49.173 --> 00:03:56.842 - with four items it looks like totaling twenty two thousand eight hundred eighty one dollars. Good evening, 00:03:56.842 --> 00:03:59.422 - James Halls is the director of team 00:04:00.066 --> 00:04:09.636 - to present the consent agenda to you this evening totaling $22,881. The first item is Siemens industry 00:04:09.636 --> 00:04:19.113 - at $17,459 for a variable frequency drive maintenance at Dillman wastewater plant. The second item is 00:04:19.113 --> 00:04:23.294 - for course and fire and security for $4,922. 00:04:23.714 --> 00:04:30.690 - That's upgrading the intercom system and adding one and a three year subscription for two devices. And 00:04:30.690 --> 00:04:37.530 - then the third is for Young's trucking for $500 for lead paint disposal at Dillman wastewater plant. 00:04:37.530 --> 00:04:44.980 - Would any board member like to pull any of these items from the consent agenda and discuss them individually? 00:04:44.980 --> 00:04:51.550 - Hearing none, if there are no objections, then the consent agenda will be approved as presented. 00:04:53.890 --> 00:05:00.914 - Hearing none, the consent agenda is approved as presented. Very good, thanks James. Our next item then 00:05:00.914 --> 00:05:08.210 - is to request approval of the memorandum of understanding between city Bloomington utilities and milestone 00:05:08.210 --> 00:05:12.574 - contractors and Chris Wheeler is here to make the presentation. 00:05:30.242 --> 00:05:37.175 - Department has learned that in advance of such construction we should do well to run video down through 00:05:37.175 --> 00:05:43.841 - our lines to see the condition of our lines so that if any of our lines get damaged we can point to 00:05:43.841 --> 00:05:50.641 - those videos and say that our infrastructure is in good shape. If you look at the MOU you can see the 00:05:50.641 --> 00:05:57.707 - gist of what we're looking at here is the fact that Milestone did the work. We've had a good relationship 00:05:57.707 --> 00:05:59.774 - with Milestone over the years. 00:06:00.002 --> 00:06:06.672 - but we thought it was more probable than not that Milestone caused damage to our infrastructure because 00:06:06.672 --> 00:06:13.278 - we did video everything after the fact and found that there are a couple of points along the line that 00:06:13.278 --> 00:06:19.692 - have damage that appear to be consistent with heavy construction. Our understanding is there hasn't 00:06:19.692 --> 00:06:26.234 - been any heavy construction on that road for quite a while. We haven't videoed our infrastructure for 00:06:26.234 --> 00:06:28.094 - quite a while, and it's old. 00:06:28.738 --> 00:06:35.174 - So it's difficult for us to be able to prove positive and point our finger at Milestone. They can't 00:06:35.174 --> 00:06:41.675 - completely say they didn't do it. Litigation would likely be costly and time consuming. And so we've 00:06:41.675 --> 00:06:48.433 - reached this MOU, which we have subsequently changed the title to a settlement agreement. The settlement 00:06:48.433 --> 00:06:54.869 - allows us to go in and do the work. Milestone will compensate us for half of what we anticipate the 00:06:54.869 --> 00:06:56.414 - cost of the work to be. 00:06:56.930 --> 00:07:03.008 - which seems like a pretty reasonable solution here. Milestone was also going to provide materials, picking 00:07:03.008 --> 00:07:08.802 - those materials up from one of their sites to bring over to First Street when we're working. The only 00:07:08.802 --> 00:07:14.937 - issue that remains on the settlement agreement, I haven't been able to get a confirmation from the attorney 00:07:14.937 --> 00:07:20.617 - that I've been working with, but Milestone seems to be okay with it in principle, is this idea that 00:07:20.617 --> 00:07:25.502 - we're supposed to give 15 days advance notice of the work that we'd like to commence. 00:07:25.826 --> 00:07:31.081 - Well, we're going to start tomorrow. So I'm still trying to communicate with the attorney. I haven't 00:07:31.081 --> 00:07:36.493 - heard from her specifically, but we have heard from Milestone that they don't care, because we're going 00:07:36.493 --> 00:07:41.696 - to be the ones picking up the material. The whole idea was give them 15 days so that they know that 00:07:41.696 --> 00:07:46.900 - they can make their delivery, but they're not actually doing the delivery. So I don't think it's an 00:07:46.900 --> 00:07:50.334 - issue. I am asking the board to approve the settlement agreement. 00:07:51.362 --> 00:07:58.079 - If the 15-day thing becomes an issue, we'll have to work that out, but we're asking for approval of 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:05.132 - the settlement as it is written, which includes the 15-day notification at the time. I'm happy to answer 00:08:05.132 --> 00:08:11.916 - questions. Yeah, Chris, I'm just curious what the original project was with Milestone and CBU. Well, 00:08:11.916 --> 00:08:18.901 - there wasn't an original project with Milestone. Oh, I understand. Milestone was working with the city, 00:08:18.901 --> 00:08:21.118 - with the engineering department, 00:08:21.666 --> 00:08:30.330 - to reworking of the road itself. So they took the cap off of the road, all the asphalt, whatever materials, 00:08:30.330 --> 00:08:38.513 - did reworking of the road, relayed asphalt and whatever else goes on. But our suspicion was that once 00:08:38.513 --> 00:08:46.616 - they removed that protective layer of the road and then drove heavy equipment around it, likely they 00:08:46.616 --> 00:08:48.862 - damaged our infrastructure. 00:08:49.250 --> 00:08:56.708 - The agreement was with city engineering, not our engineering. Okay, I got it. Thank you. It's still 00:08:56.708 --> 00:09:04.240 - a good lesson learned. When a city's doing work and we know they're going to be working over some of 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:11.921 - our infrastructure, we ought to be looking at it in advance so that when something happens, we're able 00:09:11.921 --> 00:09:19.230 - to show a timeline that shows clean and healthy and then damaged. How did the damage show itself? 00:09:20.162 --> 00:09:27.222 - that we ran through the line after the fact and found areas that are dimpled where we can't get the 00:09:27.222 --> 00:09:34.494 - camera through, which suggests that sewage isn't gonna flow properly either. So did we know it because 00:09:34.494 --> 00:09:41.837 - sewer wasn't flowing and that's why we did the videos? We just did it as a matter of... I think we just 00:09:41.837 --> 00:09:47.838 - did it as a matter of to check it at the end to see what make sure that it was okay. 00:09:48.418 --> 00:09:56.487 - There was no leak, there was no... No, there's no flow on there right now. You know, I understand. So 00:09:56.487 --> 00:10:04.872 - it would be difficult to prove in court, is what I'm saying. If there was a clear, they're there, they're 00:10:04.872 --> 00:10:11.358 - doing construction, and all of a sudden there's a main break, that would be easy. 00:10:19.106 --> 00:10:25.431 - Yeah, I got it. I got it. So then thinking about all these construction projects that we have going 00:10:25.431 --> 00:10:31.820 - on around town, what constitutes like we're going to go check our line because we know this isn't to 00:10:31.820 --> 00:10:38.145 - anticipate this is going to be having work nearby or what out of what? Yes. Yeah, I think like what 00:10:38.145 --> 00:10:43.774 - Chris was saying, when they start removing, well, depends on where they're removing that 00:10:44.002 --> 00:10:49.949 - cap layer of asphalt and other surfacing material. Like on Second Street, they're doing a lot of that 00:10:49.949 --> 00:10:55.896 - work, but they're over on the edge. They're not over top of our sewer, but that's something we should 00:10:55.896 --> 00:11:01.959 - consider even because there's a lot of trucks moving in and out of there, right? So I think that's kind 00:11:01.959 --> 00:11:07.965 - of the threshold that we're at is what kind of work is going to take place? How much of that top layer 00:11:07.965 --> 00:11:12.862 - of pavement and surfacing material will be removed? And then when's the last video? 00:11:12.994 --> 00:11:20.155 - Right, if we have a video that's two years old, okay, maybe we don't have to go out there. But if it's 00:11:20.155 --> 00:11:27.176 - 10 years old, then we should probably. How do we get notified of the projects? I guess I don't think 00:11:27.176 --> 00:11:34.268 - about like projects that affect our lines that we're not doing. So we have a lot of internal meetings 00:11:34.268 --> 00:11:39.134 - with the other departments with engineering and DPW. Is that monthly? 00:11:40.130 --> 00:11:45.807 - monthly meetings and we kind of talk about projects that are coming up in areas that we're going to 00:11:45.807 --> 00:11:51.484 - be at. If that's time you'll know oh we got to go check this site. They have timelines usually like 00:11:51.484 --> 00:11:57.162 - look we're looking to start construction in this date or this time and so have we done any of these 00:11:57.162 --> 00:12:02.896 - checks since? Had a project yet that just came up yeah that met that kind of level again that second 00:12:02.896 --> 00:12:06.302 - street was close because they are removing you know partial 00:12:06.498 --> 00:12:15.691 - parts of the road, but it wasn't over top of our sewer, so. I understand this, and I know you said that 00:12:15.691 --> 00:12:24.708 - we'll be doing the work, but it will be our crews and not a contractor. Correct, yeah, we'll be doing 00:12:24.708 --> 00:12:33.901 - it. And then the street department will be milling and repaving the road. So it looks like there's some 00:12:33.901 --> 00:12:35.934 - substantial additional 00:12:36.386 --> 00:12:45.339 - that we're gonna be doing here besides this reimbursement? Most of it is in there. $40,000, yeah. The 00:12:45.339 --> 00:12:54.379 - milling and repaving that kind of came after we came up with this number from downtown asking us since 00:12:54.379 --> 00:13:03.420 - the road is fairly new, that's kind of the standard is that if you are going to cut into a road that's 00:13:03.420 --> 00:13:05.790 - less than three years old, 00:13:05.890 --> 00:13:15.715 - you'll mill the whole thing and and repave it. So that was kind of factored in afterwards. Those quantities, 00:13:15.715 --> 00:13:25.270 - though, of of surfacing material is included in there that we ask that we're asking milestone to provide. 00:13:25.270 --> 00:13:34.014 - So we're just providing the labor for that. Good. Any other questions for our attorney or staff? 00:13:35.746 --> 00:13:47.037 - discussion? All right. I move that we approve the memorandum of or the settlement agreement between 00:13:47.037 --> 00:13:58.328 - the CBU. I move and second to approve the MOU between CBU and Milestone. All in favor say aye. Aye. 00:13:58.328 --> 00:14:03.070 - Opposed? All right. Motion carries. Okay. 00:14:03.490 --> 00:14:11.383 - Is there any old business from the board? Old business from staff? Yeah, I'll go ahead and bring this 00:14:11.383 --> 00:14:19.354 - up. We had talked about the rate case and sorry, James Hall, Assistant Director of TND. We just wanted 00:14:19.354 --> 00:14:27.248 - to officially announce that August 1st, August 1st, the rate will be implemented for the customers at 00:14:27.248 --> 00:14:32.510 - their new rates, depending on what kind of customer class they are. 00:14:39.682 --> 00:14:48.681 - looking forward to all the projects that we're able to do with that rate increase and the support of 00:14:48.681 --> 00:14:57.857 - our community to see the betterment of our utility. I know that we've had some public announcement and 00:14:57.857 --> 00:15:07.034 - that sort of thing about what we'll be using some of the new funds for. Are we inserting anything into 00:15:07.034 --> 00:15:08.638 - the monthly bills 00:15:09.474 --> 00:15:15.684 - talk about why this is important what kind of projects will be taken on not everybody reads the city 00:15:15.684 --> 00:15:21.894 - news releases unfortunately but I don't know if we've had planned on doing that but that's something 00:15:21.894 --> 00:15:28.104 - we can do we can look at kind of overall like how much money we think we're gonna spend at the water 00:15:28.104 --> 00:15:34.375 - plant how much money we project to spend on water main replacement those are kind of big numbers from 00:15:34.375 --> 00:15:36.158 - the CIP that we could easily 00:15:36.258 --> 00:15:43.541 - and put in a, you know, in the memo of the bill and fit in there. Yeah. Or a separate printed insert 00:15:43.541 --> 00:15:51.040 - like we do. I know it's kind of short notice, but we're, I don't know, you guys might be thinking about 00:15:51.040 --> 00:15:58.251 - that already, but when people see a jump in their bill, they want to know why. And like I say, they 00:15:58.251 --> 00:16:05.822 - may not be following social media or the news releases or whatever, but they will see their monthly bill 00:16:06.306 --> 00:16:13.325 - And I feel confident that the kinds of things we're going to be doing with the rate increase are things 00:16:13.325 --> 00:16:20.478 - that they're interested in. We're going to maintain a safe water supply. We're going to make improvements 00:16:20.478 --> 00:16:27.294 - to the plan. We're going to make improvements to our transmission distribution system. If we can get 00:16:27.294 --> 00:16:34.718 - into some of those specifics, we're not getting into the technical details, but, you know, five or six points 00:16:35.714 --> 00:16:42.745 - That helps soften the blow a bit. Transparency like that just builds trust for a public entity. Yeah, 00:16:42.745 --> 00:16:50.189 - I think we can definitely put a letter together, like an insert letter with some of the capital improvement 00:16:50.189 --> 00:16:57.220 - projects at the plant and within the distribution and transmission system. It can be as simple as one 00:16:57.220 --> 00:17:04.182 - of those little one-third, eight-and-a-half by elevens that fits into the envelope. You don't want a 00:17:04.182 --> 00:17:05.630 - whole fold over with 00:17:06.434 --> 00:17:14.007 - All of that, that's more than they'll read probably. But you can put that detail on the website. Even 00:17:14.007 --> 00:17:21.431 - it's just as simple as saying go to the website to see how your dollars are going to be at work and 00:17:21.431 --> 00:17:28.855 - put it out there. You can do that too. There are a lot of folks who, I was dealing with a group the 00:17:28.855 --> 00:17:35.166 - other day and half of them didn't have email addresses. Some of our older customers. 00:17:37.538 --> 00:17:47.277 - Which is okay. They just communicate differently, but yeah. Our job is to communicate is reach the customer 00:17:47.277 --> 00:17:56.566 - where we can. Thanks for the update, James. Any other old business? Okay, new business from the board. 00:17:56.566 --> 00:18:02.878 - This might be the time for it. Yeah, we've got a change in our board. 00:18:03.202 --> 00:18:09.546 - Yes. So David Hiddle, who had been the city of Bloomington planning and transportation director, has 00:18:09.546 --> 00:18:16.078 - taken a new position in North Carolina and we didn't get a chance to wish him well. At his last meeting 00:18:16.078 --> 00:18:22.484 - with us two weeks ago, he served with us on our utility service board for the last two plus years and 00:18:22.484 --> 00:18:29.205 - been a valuable contributor with his expertise. And so we all certainly wish him well in his new endeavors 00:18:29.205 --> 00:18:32.094 - and we'll miss having him with us. Thank you. 00:18:32.866 --> 00:18:40.480 - I appreciate that. I'm glad we're able to get that in the record. Thanking David for his service to 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:48.779 - the board and to the city. Thank you. Any new business from staff? Oh, wait. Sorry. I had one more question. 00:18:48.779 --> 00:18:56.393 - Okay. I'm sure I'm not going to pronounce it right. This like cyclosporosis. Is that something that 00:18:56.393 --> 00:19:01.342 - is measured in our wastewater when we're doing other labs? Okay. 00:19:04.226 --> 00:19:11.460 - likely a large produce supplier, given the number of widespread cases, but we do not currently track 00:19:11.460 --> 00:19:18.980 - it in our wastewater. It is a reportable illness in Indiana, but it is optional reporting at the federal 00:19:18.980 --> 00:19:26.572 - level. Okay, thank you. Should have just looked your way. Appreciate that, Graham. Good question, because 00:19:26.572 --> 00:19:33.662 - a lot of folks are interested right now. I'm glad we still monitor our wastewater for all kinds of 00:19:34.146 --> 00:19:42.251 - different infections, and that's been a great help to the general public health of the community with 00:19:42.251 --> 00:19:50.515 - the practitioners and hospitals and others that are able to keep an eye on what to expect to see. Okay, 00:19:50.515 --> 00:19:58.461 - let's see. Did I guess for new business from staff? You good? All right. Subcommittee reports. Yes, 00:19:58.461 --> 00:20:00.606 - the Finance Committee met. 00:20:02.498 --> 00:20:12.460 - Finance Committee met just before this meeting, and there were two items on the agenda. The first was 00:20:12.460 --> 00:20:22.422 - an initial presentation of the 2027 budget, which will, I believe, go before City Council sometime in 00:20:22.422 --> 00:20:32.286 - August. Before then, we'll have other meetings to update the proposal. This was just an initial one. 00:20:32.482 --> 00:20:43.779 - I'll just give a couple of highlights on the revenue side. The biggest change will be, as was just reported 00:20:43.779 --> 00:20:55.181 - a while back, the new water rates. We finally did get approval from the Indiana State Regulatory Commission, 00:20:55.181 --> 00:21:02.398 - and everyone will see a slight increase in their monthly water bill. 00:21:02.594 --> 00:21:15.179 - On the expense side, there are several new expenses that will be taken into account. The first has to 00:21:15.179 --> 00:21:26.654 - do with increases in the cost of gas and power and fuel, and I just can't help making my own 00:21:26.786 --> 00:21:37.952 - comment again about that, that I think we all know that the increase in fuel costs of the gas pump are 00:21:37.952 --> 00:21:48.900 - due to the never-ending war with Iran. Despite the increases, I just looked before the meeting today 00:21:48.900 --> 00:21:55.838 - at the profits of oil companies for the second quarter of 2026. 00:21:56.034 --> 00:22:07.454 - And the record-breaking and blockbuster are the adjectives to describe it. So if you have any complaints 00:22:07.454 --> 00:22:18.548 - about fuel costs, take it up with your politicians and with your oil companies. The other increase is 00:22:18.548 --> 00:22:25.726 - due to a lot of the water main replacements that need to be done. 00:22:25.858 --> 00:22:35.288 - I think you're all aware that water mains don't last forever. And if you leave them unattended, 00:22:35.288 --> 00:22:45.308 - it ain't good. So we'll be doing a lot of those in 2027. So there'll be an increase in either hirings 00:22:45.308 --> 00:22:55.230 - or overtime pay. The second item on the agenda was the quarter one and quarter two results for 2026. 00:22:55.938 --> 00:23:07.398 - I think it was good news in the sense that the revenues were slightly increased by about 1% for each 00:23:07.398 --> 00:23:19.198 - quarter. The expenses were under what we assumed they would be by 25% in quarter one and 16% in quarter 00:23:19.198 --> 00:23:25.438 - two, but it's likely that those expenses will catch up 00:23:25.890 --> 00:23:36.832 - in the second and third quarter and the third and fourth quarters. And I think that's about all I have 00:23:36.832 --> 00:23:47.986 - to say. Thanks, Jim, for the overview of the Finance Committee. We'll look forward to further discussion 00:23:47.986 --> 00:23:55.422 - on the 2027 budget as more things are finalized. Okay, staff reports. 00:23:57.058 --> 00:24:05.475 - the first we hired a new heavy equipment operator and in TND his name is Ted Prince it comes to us with 00:24:05.475 --> 00:24:13.730 - lots of years of experience and we're excited to have him join our team and then the other thing that 00:24:13.730 --> 00:24:22.227 - I have other two things congratulations and also sorrow for our TND department Paul Chastain is retiring 00:24:22.227 --> 00:24:25.950 - after 50 plus years with the utility he was a 00:24:26.146 --> 00:24:35.110 - Engineering field tech he started our CCTV program the trucks monitoring the sewer and stormwater So 00:24:35.110 --> 00:24:44.783 - that would be a big loss for us. He's been in that position for since I think he said 85 I believe somewhere 00:24:44.783 --> 00:24:46.558 - near 83 85 and then 00:24:46.850 --> 00:24:53.254 - The other person, he will retire on the 24th. So before our next board meeting is Kevin Housel. He's 00:24:53.254 --> 00:24:59.722 - one of my direct reports, one of my assistant superintendents. He's been here for over 40 plus years. 00:24:59.722 --> 00:25:06.189 - Been a assistant superintendent for close to 20 years. So being on call every six weeks for 20 years. 00:25:06.189 --> 00:25:12.911 - I really appreciate everything he's done for us and for the utility and the community. So we had a little 00:25:12.911 --> 00:25:14.686 - party for them last Friday. 00:25:15.138 --> 00:25:24.341 - I just want to thank both of those gentlemen. They didn't want to come here, but. But that's that's 00:25:24.341 --> 00:25:33.543 - all we have for the staff report. I see your do have a advertisement for a new AD, right? Assistant 00:25:33.543 --> 00:25:43.390 - Superintendent. Yeah. Yeah. For Kevin's position. Correct. Right. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Any petitions or 00:25:43.554 --> 00:25:52.126 - Communications from the public. I don't see any. All right, then we can stand adjourned.