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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-11-13 - MinutesCity Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page l of 10 Member Aldermen Mayor Dan Coady Ward 1 Position 1 — Adella Gray a e ev 1 le Ward 2 Position l- Kyle rt Cook City Attorney Kit Williams � 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 November 13, 2008 A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council Water & Sewer Committee was held on November 13, 2008 at 5:15 p. m. in Room 326 of the City Administration Building located at 113 W Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. MEMBERS PRESENT: Alderman Kyle Cook, Chair; Alderman Lioneld Jordan; Alderwoman Adella Gray; Alderman Bobby Ferrell STAFF PRESENT: David Jurgens; Ron Petrie; Gary Dumas, Paul Becker OTHERS PRESENT: Billy Ammons, OMI; Virgil Neuroth, Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce; Johnson Mayor Lonnie Barron, Johnson Attorney Tom Kieklak, Johnson Engineer, Steve Hesse; Johnson Street Superintendent, Randy Birchfield; Johnson Trails Committee, Bob Bova; Johnson Aldermen, Buddy Curry, Clay Dodson and Melissa Tomlinson. Chairman Kyle Cook called the meeting to order. 1. Approve minutes Alderman Jordan moved that the minutes of the Water & Sewer Committee meetings held on July 29, 2008, August 26, 2008 and October 14, 2008 be approved as distributer. Alderman Ferrell seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 2. Johnson Discussions Alderman Cook opened the discussions with the City of Johnson then moved on to the next business item because not all the representatives of Johnson had arrived. 3. WSIP David Jurgens said updated progress is continuing on the project. He mentioned that when Hurricane Ike came through last month 20 millions gallons went through both plants for two days in a row which was a big test of our system. The collection system operated very close to the design curve and better than what we anticipated at the west plant. He said only two of our biological units (or half of our treatment process) were on line at that plant but we still processed all the water that came in. We did not have any overflows on the interceptors where we completed all the work which was a huge success. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page 2 of 10 Alderman Cook mentioned that the numbers on the monthly wastewater system report appear to be much better for the West Side plant than for the Noland plant as far as the effluent is concerned. He asked if he is reading that right. David Jurgens said he hasn't yet read the report but he wouldn't be surprised if that is the case. He said we don't have any of the industrial loading coming into the West Side plant so it is a much more consistent process. a. West Side WWTP Change Order Number 6 David Jurgens said Brasfield and Gorrie submitted the West Side WWTP for an Alabama Association of Builders and Contractors award and it received an excellence award in the Large Environmental category. He said the last reconciliation change order for this project should be in within the next week. He expects the dollar value to be around $130,000 to $140,000. With that we will close out the wastewater plant project with approximately $1.3 million remaining in the contingency. Similarly we are expecting to have a little over $1 million remaining in the engineering contract. Both amounts will return to the WSIP budget. At this point all the Johnson representatives were present so the discussion returned to Item 2 on the Agenda. Johnson Discussions Alderman Cook introduced each member of the Water & Sewer Committee to the Johnson representatives and asked them to introduce themselves. Lonnie Barron, Mayor of the City of Johnson introduced himself and each of the other representatives. He expressed thanks to the Committee for putting this discussion on the agenda. He read from a written statement requesting a contract between the City of Johnson and the City of Fayetteville for fire protection and water service. They are also requesting sewer service to the southwest portion of Johnson. He read that this request has been made necessary because of the demands of two landowners in Johnson to detach their land from Johnson and seek annexation into Fayetteville. He said he hopes this situation can be resolved quickly by the City's affirmative response to this request. David Jurgens agreed with Mayor Barron that there has never been any request from the City of Johnson for water service that has been denied. He said some requests for sewer service from Johnson have been denied, specifically the Clear Creek golf course subdivision. That denial was based on capacity problems as we were in the very early stages of the wastewater system improvement project and didn't feel we had the capacity of handle that subdivision. Gary Dumas said there has been six to seven months of meetings and exchange of correspondence between the cities regarding this issue. He said he is not aware of any fire flow issues currently in Johnson. David Jurgens said he believes everywhere there is water service in Johnson now there is also fire protection, however that has not always been the case. He said Fayetteville is obligated to provide fire protection only in Fayetteville, Farmington and Greenland (in Farmington & Greenland because we have preexisting contracts whereby these cities pay Fayetteville 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page 3 of 10 specifically for fire protection). We are not obligated to provide fire protection to the southern part of Johnson or any parts of Washington County where we provide water service In response to a question from Mayor Barron, David Jurgens said all of the places in Johnson currently served with water lines do have some fire protection to the best of his knowledge. He doesn't know whether every lot has fire protection. Alderman Cook stated that this does not take into account future growth. In response to a question from Mayor Barron, David Jurgens said every fire hydrant now installed can provide fire protection and we would expect those to be used. Areas that are not developed however generally don't have water lines because there was no incentive to build them. Gary Dumas said the issue is that there is no guarantee of future development being served with fire protection. David Jurgens said that is correct and there is no obligation to do so. Mayor Barron said that there are fire hydrants in the section in question. Gary Dumas said the fire hydrants are actually not the issue. The issue is the fire flows that run through the water line into the fire hydrant. David Jurgens said with no contract we could not require that a developer put in a 6 to 8 inch line if he could provide water service with a 2 to 4 inch line. This would mean there would not be any fire protection. All we can do without a contract or agreement is to require that the developer provide the minimum domestic water. Alderman Cook asked asked why we have hydrants in Johnson. He said it is his understanding we don't have an obligation to anyone outside the city limits to provide any fire flows. David Jurgens said it is correct that Fayetteville has no obligation to provide fire protection to anyone outside Fayetteville, Farmington and Greenland. He said fire protection has been provided where it was possible to provide it. He said there was an 8" main on Gregg Ave. so fire protection was provided to a subdivision near there because it was convenient. There are other similar situations. But if a subdivision goes in where it is not convenient, we would not be able to force the developer to do extensions to the main. Mayor Barron said his research indicates that the City of Fayetteville has been providing water and sewer for the City of Johnson since 1967. However we do not have a contract. He said Johnson does have contracts with the City of Springdale for water and sewer. At this time they are asking for a contract with Fayetteville. He asked if Johnson could expect an answer to this request shortly. Alderman Jordan said he would like to look at all the information. He expected that there might be an answer by the next Water & Sewer Committee meeting. David Jurgens asked for copies of the contracts Johnson has with Springdale. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page 4 of 10 Tom Kieklak said he could provide those contracts. He asked if Fayetteville would need flow volumes or other such information about the proposed development in order to plan to serve it David Jurgens said we would not need that information for the contract. The contract would relate to the two cities and would be independent of any developments. Flow information is not an issue. Mayor Barron asked if the City of Fayetteville requires developments within Fayetteville in areas where there is no water and sewer service to provide that sort of information before we put the water and sewer into that development. David Jurgens said the developer would design and install the water and sewer to those developments. They do that as part of the development process and the infrastructure comes early in the process. Mayor Barron asked if it would be possible for Johnson to have a contract with Fayetteville similar to those with Farmington and Greenland, with Johnson paying for the fire hydrants if necessary. David Jurgens said the water contracts with Farmington and Greenland are historical documents that are completely different from what we are looking at here. These were contracts that developed a rural water improvement district. At a certain point in the process of the contracts Fayetteville accepted ownership from the district of that utility. That is a completely different process than we are looking at here. Here we are talking about an agreement between the municipality and the utility whereby we are agreeing to provide a certain level of service in an area, not related to a specific improvement district. With this agreement we would have to review our rates to determine whether or not they are consistent with providing fire protection. When our consultant did our rate study he looked at all our contracts and our obligations within those contracts as part of determining rates. In regard to the sewer service contracts with Farmington and Greenland, both these cities own their own sewer systems and Fayetteville operates and maintains them by contract. Alderman Cook said the Committee and staff will review the information we have and address the request at the next Water & Sewer Committee meeting. At this point it was decided to move to the Water & Sewer Committee Agenda Supplement distributed by David Jurgens and return to the regular agenda later. 1. Water and Sewer Budget and Revenue Issues Paul Becker reviewed with the Committee information about water consumption for this year. He said it has been a very wet season and that affects consumption. Our consumption to date is less than it was in 2000. He said he based next year's forecast for revenue on the 2007 consumption patterns. He said billing is down about $1 million through October. He said that on an accrual based financial statement, which includes depreciation, we show we are loosing $1 million so far this year He said depreciation is not factored into the rate structure. Replacement and renewal is factored into that. Without depreciation included we have a positive cash flow of $1.4 million as of September. The bottom line is that he will work closely with Mr. Jurgens on the capital improvement program and we will probably have to defer some anticipated projects because of the reduced revenue. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page 5 of 10 Alderman Cook asked if it is the combination of the change in the rate structure and the wet weather that has caused this situation. Paul Becker confirmed this. He said he is not raising a red flag but just wanted to make the Committee aware of the consumption patterns. He said we will have to keep an eye on it and if it continues we will have to look at another rate study sooner than we normally would. In response to a question from Alderman Cook, Paul Becker said he can update the Committee at any time they wish an update. He said this has been an odd year and next year at this time we will have a much better feel as to whether our rates are holding. Alderman Ferrell asked if there were any noticeable changes in large users' consumption. Paul Becker said he hasn't noticed any changes but he will check with the billing department to be sure. David Jurgens said he believes Pinnacle took some steps toward water conservation at their plant. He will check on the details but believes their billing amount stayed the same though their consumption was down. He said that information can be provided to the Committee. Alderman Ferrell asked if the surplus in the WSIP budget could have any impact on this situation. Paul Becker said that surplus will have to be factored into the project itself. He said we have already talked about this surplus in regards to the biosolids situation. David Jurgens said the biosolids issue is a big addition to the scope of work and will probably eat up everything we save in other areas. 2. WSIP EL -2 Change Order Number 3 David Jurgens said this change order will close out project EL -2 which runs from Happy Hollow to the Noland plant. The total contract amount for EL -2 is about $10.5 million. We had a contingency of $730,000. This change order ($212,942.43) is the last one and it reconciles all unit quantities, etc. After this change order we will have about $485,000 remaining in this contingency and these funds will roll back into the total project contingency. At this point the Committee returned to the regular agenda. 3. WSIP b. WL -11 Change Order Number 2 David Jurgens said this is a final reconciliation change order in the amount of $9,272.65 (cost shared between Farmington and Fayetteville) closing out this contract. The remaining contingency for Fayetteville on this contract is for about $23,000. Alderman Cook asked if Farmington is okay with everything that is going on. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page 6 of 10 David Jurgens said he delivered the hard copy of the change order to Farmington earlier today and he emailed it to them a week ago. We did get ANRC approval on the change order C. EP -3 Change Order Number 1 David Jurgens said this is for the effluent lift station and aeration basin repairs for the Noland Plant. This is a $30,000 change order on a $2.5 million contract. d. WSIP Non -Critical Tieover WL -9 David Jurgens said we are still working with the contractor on this scope of work. We are making sure we don't do anything we don't absolutely have to do. He thinks this contract will be before the Council in late December. e. WSIP Construction Schedule & Cost Update This information was distributed to the Committee with the agenda. 4. OMI Contract Amendment for 2009 David Jurgens said they are trying to make sure the design, construction, operations and accounting pieces of this contract make sense so they can be used to produce a long range capital master plan forecasting projects that will need to be done within the next 40 years or so. They are also trying to align expenditures to match the program where the responsibility lies for that work. He cited as an example the fact that up to this point all electrical costs of our wastewater pump stations have been paid for out of the W/S Operations administration budget. We are currently making changes so that water pump station costs are paid for out of the water pump station program and sewer lift station costs are paid for out of the sewer lift station program. If that is put into the contract, that means the bills get sent to OMI and they have the information they need to evaluate the operations of the lift stations. With this in mind, some items which have not been there before have been added into the OMI contract and that is part of the reason for the increase in the contract. Another reason for the increase of course is the addition to the contract of the operation of the West Side WWTP. In response to a question from Alderman Cook, David Jurgens said we will have to do an RFP for this contract next year. He said it is a two-step process. We are currently trying to align the contract so that we have a very well defined scope of work. Then we will be doing an evaluation of how much it would cost to do the work in-house and develop a complete budget. At that point we will make a decision about whether to continue to contract for the service or bring it in-house. We will be completing this first step early in the year. If it is determined that contract operations provides the best value then we will be developing the RFP and going out for bids. Before either of these steps can be accomplished, we have to develop a scope of work, which we are now doing. He said we will have to go out for an RFP next year (if we don't take on the work in- house). Alderman Ferrell asked what kind of energy savings, if any, we have realized so far on the generators purchased for peak demand at some of the pump stations. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page 7 of 10 David Jurgens said we have three of these — one at the Noland plant, one at the West Side plant and one at the Hamestring lift station. He said at the Noland plant in the first year we were looking at over $16,000 per month reduction in our electrical rate. Alderman Ferrell requested that staff put something together on what kind of savings we are seeing due to the generators. 5. Water and Sewer Budeet and Revenue Issues Covered earlier in the meeting. 6. Elkins Sewer Rate Correction David Jurgens said when we did the sewer rates he inadvertently left the 25 cent impact fee for Elkins in their rate for 2009, 2010 and 2011. It has not had any affect yet but we need to go back and make that correction. We will be going through that public notification process shortly. Water Fire Line Rate Addition David Jurgens said the fire prevention code that has been adopted as part of the International Building Code now allows for 1 -inch fire lines. As the County has started requiring all developments within the county to have fire protection, there has been a lot of discussion about individual home and small structure sprinkler systems. That code allows for 1 -inch sprinkler systems and our rates don't address these systems. He said we have to do a public notification for a rate change and we will add those numbers for 1 -inch sprinkler systems into the rates. He said we don't allow any services smaller than 1 -inch anywhere in our system anyway. This is just an updating of the rate structure to allow for the 1 -inch fire line. Included in the code section also will be a paragraph that says we will require a fire sprinkler line to come off a separate line so if a service is cut off for non-payment, the sprinkler system will not be cut off. Alderman Ferrell asked how many residential fire suppression systems we see in the City. David Jurgens said we don't see any now. But we will start seeing more because the County fire marshal is not approving any developments out in the County unless they have fire protection. This sprinkler system meets that requirement inside individual homes. 8. South Pass Sewer Cost Share David Jurgens included in the packet to the committee all the information requested at the last meeting regarding South Pass. One question was whether there is space between two particular houses to put in a sewer line and the answer to that question is yes. Ron Petrie said he took the time to figure out how much money we would collect on impact fees with South Pass. He said his best estimate is approximately $2.5 million for sewer and around $1.3 million for water. This is with the current impact fees. Alderman Ferrell asked how many structures Ron was figuring on to generate these fees. Ron Petrie said he used the information in the report given to the City Council. This was full build out. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page 8 of 10 Alderman Ferrell questioned whether we should expect the building to be as strong as it has been in the past with the current economic climate. Ron Petrie said the estimated build out was phased in over about twenty five years. Alderman Cook said he thinks this project will be strong mainly because of the city amenity which is the park. 9. Mount Sequoyah Water and Sewer Upgrades David Jurgens said we have not made any movement on this. We are still waiting for one easement before we can advertise and start construction. Alderman Cook interjected that the Committee has not voted on any of the items prior to this item and unless the Committee members voice objections, he is considering each item approved. Alderwoman Gray agreed with this but said if Alderman Ferrell would prefer to vote, she is fine with that also. Alderman Cook decided to go back and vote on the OMI contract. The Committee voted unanimously to approve sending the OMI Contract amendment to the City Council. A vote was taken on the South Pass Sewer Cost Share. Alderwoman Gray and Alderman Cook voted to approve sending this to the Council. Alderman Ferrell voted against. The Committee voted unanimously to go forward with the ordinance to correct the Elkins Sewer Rate. The Committee voted unanimously to go forward with the Water Fire Line rate addition. 10. Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project Update a. Basin 15 and minisystems 2, 5, 6, and 13A manhole rehabilitation David Jurgens said we are continuing to make progress on this project. b. Insituform Sewer Pipe Lining Term Contract David Jurgens said we are getting a lot of work done. We have completed about a mile and a half of pipe this year. C. Minisystems 5, 6, 13A, 20 and 32 sanitary sewer evaluation study (SSES) David Jurgens said this is underway and we are making pretty good progress. It has been a little harder to do all the smoke testing because there has been so much rain this year. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page 9 of 10 d. Minisystems 5, 6,13A, 20 and 32 sanitary sewer evaluation study (SSES) David Jurgens said we have been approached by both the City of Elkins and the University to enter into intergovernmental agreements with them to have the sewer evaluation study expanded into their areas. We have done this before with the University with great results. We would continue the contract administration which we are doing anyway but Mr. Jurgens would bring a change order forward to the City Council for the cost of the contract for each of these entities. He would at the same time bring forward intergovernmental agreements whereby Elkins and the University agree to pay us for the contract and we in turn pay RJN. It would end as a net no -cost to the City of Fayetteville except for the administrative time. The benefit to us is that every drop of water removed from Elkins or the University is a drop we don't have to carry all the way to the plant and treat. He believes this is a good opportunity to work together benefits all. He said he will be sending letters to the University and to Elkins inviting them to participate. Alderman Cook said he thought Elkins was already evaluating their system. David Jurgens said they are doing some manhole rehab but they can get a better quality and less expensive evaluation done this way so they haven't actually entered into a contract yet. The Committee voted unanimously to authorize Mr. Jurgens to move forward with this plan. 11. Biosolids Update David Jurgens said they expect to have this report at the next meeting in December. 12. Highway 265 Water/Sewer Relocations and 36" Water Line David Jurgens said he attached the engineering contract to the agenda but not the budget adjustment. He said he is scraping pieces out of other approved projects where there is money left over. He said the total construction cost is about $7.5 million for this pipeline. The project includes all of the relocations required for the widening of Hwy 265 between Mission Blvd. and Joyce Avenue. It also includes installation of the 36" and 24" transmission tines that will come down Hwy 265 to a specific point and then tie over to our existing 36" line on Old Wire Road. The 24" line will continue from the point the 36" line turns, all the way to the 24" line at Mission and Hwy 265. This is part of the Master Plan developed 20 years ago. When we widened the southern portion of Hwy 265 we put in a 24" line there that was connected on both ends by small pipes knowing we could more cost effectively do this piece with the highway widening. Alderman Ferrell asked if we would have to do anything when we go from Joyce Blvd. to the City limits. David Jurgens said we will have some to do but not a lot. Most of that length has a 12" line (there is a gap with no line) and we do not currently intend to increase the size of that pipe. All he expects to do on this section is what is required for the highway widening itself. In response to a question from Alderman Cook, David Jurgens said McClelland Engineers did these estimates. He also said that in our water and sewer revenue bond we need to pass a resolution that allows us to do the bond issue in the future to cover the expenses for this engineering contract, which will already be expended. With this contract we will bring forward a 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes November 13, 2008 Page 10 of 10 resolution saying it is the intent of the City of Fayetteville to reimburse the water and sewer fund for this engineering contract out of the revenue bond Ron Petrie said the AHTD has sent us the preliminary construction plans and they want our estimates. They would like all utilities to be scheduling this work to get it started. In response to a question from Alderman Cook, Ron Petrie said we are looking at three to four years for completion of this project. Alderman Cook asked if Mr. Jurgens is comfortable with the engineer's estimates. David Jurgens said he does have faith in these estimates and he feels that the engineer has built in all the possible contingencies. Alderwoman Gray asked how we are doing on the pressure plane tank. David Jurgens said we have not pressed this very hard because he hoped to not make it an election issue. We sent them information about potential locations, lot configurations and other information regarding the tanks and requirements for building them. He expects to start working on this again in December or January. The Committee voted unanimously in favor of moving forward with the engineering contract for the Hwy 265 water/sewer relocations and 36" water line and for the resolution about the bond issue. 13. Water/Sewer Committee Meetine The next Water/Sewer Committee meeting was tentatively set for Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 326 of the City Administration Building. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org