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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-05-13 - MinutesCity Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 Page I of 9 Member Aldermen Mayor Dan Coady Ward 1 Position 1 — Adella Gray V10 Ward 2 Position l - Kyle rt Cook CityAttorney Kit Williams � 1 Ward 3 Position 2—Robert Ferrell Ward 4 Position 2 - Lioneld Jordan City Clerk Sondra Smith ARKANSAS City of Fayetteville Arkansas City Council Water & Sewer Committee Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council Water & Sewer Committee was held on May 13, 2008 at 5:45 p.m. in Room 326 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. MEMBERS PRESENT: Alderman Kyle Cook, Chair; Alderman Lioneld Jordan; Alderman Robert Ferrell; Alderwoman Adella Gray STAFF PRESENT: David Jurgens; Gary Dumas; Paul Becker; Ron Petrie; Tim Conklin OTHERS PRESENT: Steve Davis, Davis Business Planning (representing the cities of Farmington and Elkins) Chairman Kyle Cook called the meeting to order. 1. Approve Minutes Alderman Jordan moved that the minutes to the Water & Sewer Committee meetings held on February 12, 2008, April 8, 2008 and April 29, 2008 be approved as distributed. Alderman Ferrell seconded the motion and itpassed unanimously. 2. Mt. Seguoyah Pressure Plane Change Order #1 David Jurgens said we currently have a quarter million gallons of storage in the water tank on the top of Mt. Sequoyah and that is inadequate. According to the Health Department we need storage capacity of 750,000 to 1 million gallons. He said this situation affects more than Mt. Sequoyah. He pointed out the pressure plane on a map, which extends from as far west as College Avenue to as far east as Starr Drive, all south of Hwy. 45. He also distributed a map showing where current conditions allow less than 250 gallons/minute fire hydrant flows. This is a problem. He said the solution is to put elevated storage on the system. McClelland Engineers identified four locations where we could put a tank to provide pressure to the area. The storage has to be on a hilltop so there are limited areas where it can go. The four locations identified are the Hyland Park lot (at the top of Canterbury Lane) which was dedicated to the City in the original subdivision plat for a future water storage tank; beside the existing Mt. Sequoyah water tank (this land is owned by the Methodist Assembly); the south end of Crest Drive; and across the street and behind the Hyland Park POA clubhouse and tennis courts. This is close to the Hyland Park lot. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 Page 2 of 9 Alderman Cook said he remembers with the Stone Mountain development and we were talking about using a combination of impact fees and contributions from that developer. David Jurgens said that they have contributed. He said Stone Mountain actually built some larger pipelines in their subdivision and did design work on other pipelines outside the subdivision. Impact fees are the primary source of funds and we have about $2 million in this project budget (most of which is impact fees). Alderman Jordan asked how much money we have in the impact fee fund. David Jurgens said he believes we have a around $2 to $2.1 million. He said what is before the Committee for a decision is a change order from McClelland Engineering for the design of the pump station, the tank and all the piping needed. Integral to that contract is the final determination of where the tank will go because they have to design it site-specific. In response to a question from Alderman Ferrell, David Jurgens said the health department would accept a 500,000 gallon tank though we need a 750,000 gallon tank. We already have 250,000 gallons in the pressure plane so we need to add a 500,000 gallon storage tank. Alderman Ferrell asked how long that would hold us. David Jurgens said because the pressure plane is limited to the hill tops, there is only one additional area that we would ever have to add to this pressure plane and that is the top of Canvass Mountain Road (east of Starr Drive). He said we would consider putting in the 750,000 gallon tank because that would last for all the demand we would ever see in this entire pressure plan. The other option is that water tanks do have a life expectancy and the one on Mt. Sequoyah is 48 years old. When that tank has to be replaced, we could simply replace it (now 250,000 gallons) with a 500,000 gallon tank, thus reaching our 1 million gallon storage requirement. This is probably the best alternative for the water system as it balances the storage at the two primary usage areas in the pressure plane. Alderman Ferrell asked if a new tank holding a half million gallons of water will put stress on the existing pipes which are used to carrying much lower pressure. David Jurgens explained that it would actually be better for the pipes to have the constant pressure rather than the fluctuating pressure that currently exists. In response to a question from Alderman Jordan, David Jurgens said he would be comfortable with a half million gallon tank now and a half million gallon tank later because it balances the volume on both ends of the pressure plane. He said he thinks that is a cost effective solution. In response to a question from David Jurgens, Robert White, McClelland Engineers said that the tanks survive as long as you maintain them, painting and preventing any severe corrosion inside them. He said another issue is that doing maintenance on a single tank is difficult but if you add the new tank, you could pull the old tank down to do maintenance on it. David Jurgens said we have not drained the Mt. Sequoyah tank in the 15 years he has worked for the City and it has not been painted for longer than that. He said we need to do that. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 Page 3 of 9 In response to a question from Alderman Cook, Robert White said they have met with the Hyland Park POA representative. Tommy Tiller, Hyland Park POA asked how big the footprint of the tank would be. David Jurgens said it would be twice as big in volume as the bowl size of the Mt. Sequoyah tank but it would not be the same style. It would be more the style of the tank out at Gulley Road or the tank on the top of Township Hill. He said they could provide photos of proposals. In response to a further question from Tommy Tiller, David Jurgens said the pump station will be going into the Stone Mountain subdivision. There would be some additional piping that would go up through the Hyland Park neighborhood along a specific easement. In response to a question from Alderman Cook, David Jurgens said we have to decide the location before we can go forward. He said Mr. Tiller should take this information back to the POA. This Committee needs more input from the POA before we take the issue to the Council. Alderman Cook said the POA will probably want some visuals of what they will be getting. David Jurgens said all that has been provided to the POA before but he will be happy to provide it again. He said he will send a letter to the health department in the next few days saying the issue is being considered by the W/S Committee again. Alderwoman Gray asked if this is the only POA we need to meet with. She wondered about choosing one of the other locations. David Jurgens said if we chose a different site, we would need to meet with that POA. He said his difficulty is that he cannot recommend a site that costs an extra $1.5 million dollars. Alderman Gray said we would need to choose one of the less expensive sites. Alderman Ferrell said he doesn't believe we can afford not to. Tony Johnson said from a fire suppression standpoint less than 250,000 gallons per minute is considered no flow and with that flow it would be tough keeping a fire in the block of origin. He said within minutes of arriving at a fire, the FFD tries to achieve a 450 gallon per minute flow. We are considerably behind the curve in this area. He said addition of water here is in his opinion the equivalent of adding a fire station in terms of ISO (Insurance Service Organization). David Jurgens said this will stay on the agenda for the next meeting. Staff will bring forward different tank possibilities and talk with the POA. 4. Impact Fee Discussion (this item was moved un on the agenda). Tim Conklin distributed a chart of comparative impact fees in Northwest Arkansas to give the Committee an idea of what is being assessed for new development in Northwest Arkansas and the City of Conway. He said the Committee needs to decide if they want Clancy Mullen to come back one more time to answer more detailed questions. There is one more trip in the contract and there were some questions at the last meeting regarding methodology. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 Page 4 of 9 Alderman Cook said there was discussion at the last meeting about the affordable housing exemption and whether it would be extended to the other cities. David Jurgens said impact fees were part of the discussion at the Greenland Planning Commission and the Greenland City Council meetings. Affordable housing was mentioned and he understood they would not make any decisions until we decide how we will do ours. His recommendation is that it would be the same for the other cities as it is for Fayetteville. Tim Conklin agreed that the exemption should be consistent inside the City as well as outside. There was general agreement expressed by the Committee. Alderman Cook asked how the projects using impact fees will be selected. David Jurgens said the intent is that the impact fee funds become available for the Capital Improvement Program as do the other funds for the CIP and that each project would be evaluated based on increased capacity need. Impact fees could and would be applied to that portion. The other portion would be out of the water & sewer revenues. Alderman Cook asked how that would be prioritized. David Jurgens said staff would prioritize based off urgency of need for each of the projects. Ron Petrie said the process would be the same as it is now. We just hope to have more money available to do more things. Alderman Cook asked if there would be a complicating factor now with the outside cities that are also collecting impact fees. They may prioritize a project that ties into ours differently than we prioritize that project. David Jurgens said it would only apply to wastewater because we own the entire water system. The other cities own their own wastewater systems so they would pay all capacity improvements that are required in that system. There is a potential for complications with the Elkins wholesale customer along one sewer line. If Elkins requires that that line be increased, they would have to pay for some of that increase in capacity. Steve Davis said with the Farmington and Greenland contracts, Fayetteville decides what pipes need to be replaced in those jurisdictions. He asked what mechanism these jurisdictions have to get a capacity increase on their local pipes. They are collecting the impact fee but as Fayetteville puts together its capital plan, Fayetteville may not know that there is a need for increased capacity within the local collection system. He wondered how that would be handled. David Jurgens said officials from those towns would have to communicate the information to Fayetteville. Each of those cities had a master plan developed for the impact fees that identified internal and external growth construction. He said by agreement these cities are required to notify us of any increases in the demand on their systems. Elkins is also required to do this. If a subdivision goes in, they are by contract required to let us know that. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 Page 5 of 9 Ron Petrie said any requests would be sent to this committee and City Council just like an internal request and would then be worked into the CIP. There would be no guarantee that it would make it into the CIP right away — it would have to be prioritized. Steve Davis asked who would hire the engineer and if that something Fayetteville would do and use their impact fee money. David Jurgens said if they are spending the money and they are making the improvements, they would contract with the engineer. He said we have traditionally offered some of the project management when Fayetteville has some ownership in the pipes. Who hires the engineer might be a case-by-case decision. Gary Dumas said the simple answer is if it is their system improvement, they pay for it. The only interaction between Fayetteville and their system will be at that connection point between our system and theirs. If they are overloading our system, we will need to know about that so we can respond appropriately. David Jurgens said a spin off to that is we would have to award the contract if they are paying to increase our system because of their flow. That's where we could get into a mutual project. Alderman Cook said last time we talked about defining what was system and what was local. He wondered if we ever really defined that. David Jurgens said anything above an 8 -in. pipe in the water system has a portion of system capacity and is not only used for local. Local would be anything 8 in. and below. However this is not set in stone - the 8 -in. transmission line going to Wheeler is fundamentally a system line. But in general that is a pretty good rule of thumb. For wastewater, Clancy Mullen's report says anything above 14 -in. is always system. The reason is that we generally do not allow connections off a line larger than 14 -in. He said the same rule of thumb applies to sewer as applies to water. Anything above an 8 -in. line has some transmission component. Alderman Cook asked if David agrees with the Mr. Mullens' definitions. David Jurgens said the report doesn't really define pipe size. He agreed that we need to clarify that definition and he needs to look at the rationale behind the water pipe sizes. Gary Dumas said there are always going to be gray areas around any pipe size. Alderman Jordan proposed that we phase the impact fee in over a three year period. After the end of the first year he suggested we review the situation and see where we are and adjust it from there. Again after the second year, the City would evaluate the situation and go on from there. In response to a question from Alderman Ferrell, Alderman Jordan said at the end of each year this committee would review the rate and decide whether to raise it for the next year which would afford some control to adjust according to the market. Alderman Cook said the bottom line is to bring it in over a three year period to the maximum number and review it each year before it is raised again. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 Page 6 of 9 Alderman Jordan said he is just throwing out numbers. We might want to use different numbers and we may or may not need to go to the maximum amount after three years Alderman Cook said we would want to revisit it each year to ensure that we don't put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage. Alderwoman Gray said the idea sounds good to her. Alderman Ferrell said we have to start somewhere. David Jurgens wondered if there is a legal provision whereby the study must be current within a certain amount of time. That would dictate how we write the ordinance now. It's something for Kit to answer. Ron Petrie said we are really just amending the existing ordinance, not writing a new ordinance. Tim Conklin said the rate Alderman Jordan is using is the single family equivalent unit rate. We would have to look at what that percentage is and apply it across all the land -use categories. David Jurgens said at this point our capital needs are greater on the water side than on the sewer side so more of this would shift to water which has a significantly lower impact fee right now. Alderman Cook said the bottom line in Lioneld's proposal is to use a phased -in approach. Alderman Jordan said his figures were just thrown out there and he is fine with however it can be worked out. We need the $5586 and raising it all at once would put us at a disadvantage. Gary Dumas said if the Committee likes the concept, staff an come back with some ideas, heavily weighting it toward the water side. Alderman Cook said we'll leave the discussion there and get Kit Williams to weigh in. David Jurgens said in the study there were a couple of alternatives as to whether square footage of a house would enter into the rate or if the rate would be the same for all residential. He said he thinks this might be relevant to the equation. He said he likes "one size fits all" because it reduces the chance for mistakes. Tim Conklin said it is the same sort of logic we used when we talked about road impact fees. Alderman Cook said he is good with "one size fits all". Alderman Jordan and Alderwoman Gray agreed. 3. WSIP Update David Jurgens said we will have wastewater in the West Plant in 18 days. We will have a ribbon cutting on June 12. a. West Side WWTP Change Order Number 4 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 Page 7 of 9 David Jurgens pointed out the list of items on this change order. He said the concrete sidewalks mentioned are actually the concrete rings around clarifiers. We still have $1.71 million in the contingency for the West Side W WTP and he anticipates a maximum of two more change orders. Alderman Cook asked about the additional paving listed in the change order. David Jurgens said this was allowed for by contract. It is the result of cost escalation due to inflation from the original paving costs. He said he cleared this with the City Attorney. b. East Side WWTP Equipment Bids David Jurgens said equipment was discussed at the Council agenda session and the Equipment Committee. We are still looking at any additional equipment needs. He said he is evaluating ownership by rental on the boom truck issue and will bring that forward at the next meeting. C. WL -6 Change Order Number 5 David Jurgens said this change order will be coming in and is a net reduction and a final reconciliation on that project. d. Contract Legal Review — West Plant Construction Contract David Jurgens said this contract was attached to this agenda. It is a $10,000 "not -to -exceed" contract. He said virtually all of the work will be on lessons -learned. e. WSIP Easement Update David Jurgens said we have not done anything new on easements. We have not had time to walk the easements remaining on EL -3 and EL -5 to identify which of the remaining easements we can and can't tweak, do without or change the negotiations on. He said there will probably be a few that will go forward to condemnation. Most are temporary construction easements so it's a case-by-case evaluation. He said he may end up delaying this bid one more month just because we have to have all the easement questions answered before we put it out the bid. L WSIP Construction Schedule & Cost Update David Jurgens said the rainbow sheet is attached to the agenda. 5. Greenland Wastewater Agreement/System Purchase This discussion was delayed until further along in the supplemental agenda. 6. Decentralized Sewer Discussion David Jurgens said he hasn't had a chance to read the White Paper Tim Conklin has written on this. The bottom line is if we pass an ordinance saying we do not allow these systems within the City, there is always a provision by which that can be appealed. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 Page 8 of 9 Gary Dumas expressed his concern with passing an ordinance saying we're not going to do something. He said we've faced problems with doing this in the past. If it is the decision of the Committee that they just don't want to do this then that's okay. Alderman Cook said he believes we discussed adding an appeal process if we pass this. David Jurgens said he believes there should be a mechanism for appeal but it would have to be a Council or Committee level appeal. We don't want it to be a staff level appeal. Tim Conklin talked about the content of the White Paper. He said there may be some extraordinary circumstances where all the infrastructure except sewer is in place to serve an area and a variance might be granted to allow a decentralized system for awhile. Gary Dumas said even though they are not hooking onto the system, we would still charge the impact fee up front because they will tie on to it eventually. David Jurgens said we would have to build in the capacity as the lines are being built that direction. Staff will continue to work on this and bring it back to the Committee for further discussion. 7. Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Proiect Update David Jurgens said this project is continuing. 8. 36" Water Line Improvements David Jurgens said this is also continuing. We are assessing liquidated damages. WATER/SEWER COMMITTEE AGENDA SUPPLEMENT 1. WSIP EL -2 Change Order #2 David Jurgens said this is a $32,000 change order for a $10 million project. 2. Greenland Wastewater Agreement/System Purchase David Jurgens said this is informational. He attached a memo put together after discussions with Greenland. We need to begin negotiations on this. He said the Committee should nominate a negotiator from the City Council. Alderman Jordan moved that Alderman Cook be nominated as the negotiator on this project Alderwoman Gray seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. David Jurgens said basically Greenland would like Fayetteville to take ownership of the system. He said it needs to be whole. In the memo he defines staff's recommendations. He said he believes we will come out of this with a negotiated agreement stating that we will take ownership 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes May 13, 2008 Page 9 of 9 at the point at which it becomes whole and all their debt is paid off. We would act as if we own it up until that point. Greenland is amicable to that 3. Water/Sewer Committee Meeting The next Water and Sewer Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 5: I5 p.m. following the Agenda Session. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org