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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-01-20 WUCFD MINUTESWATER UTILITIES COMMUNITY FACILITIES DISTRICT (APACHE JUNCTION WATER COMPANY) CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 20,2004 The regular meeting of the District Board of the Water Utilities Community Facilities District (Apache Junction Water Company),City of Apache Junction,Arizona,was held on January 20,2004,at the Apache Junction City Council Chambers pursuant to the notice required by law. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Coleman called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Board Members Present:Chairperson Douglas Coleman Vice Chairperson R.E.Eck Mr.Rick Dietz Mr.John Insalaco Mr.Kris Sippel Mr.Dave Waldron Staff Present: (Mr.Brian Milkey was absent.) George Hoffman,District Manager Kathleen Connelly.District Clerk Brian Hall,District Water Superintendent Doug Dobson,District Operations Manager Others Present:Bryant Powell.Assistant City Manager APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 17,2003 )Mr.Dietz MOVED THAT THE MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 17,2003,BE APPROVED. Vice Chairperson Eck SECONDED THE MOTION. Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 1 of 10 VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT FOR EXCELLENCE IN FINANCIAL REPORTING AND PRESENTATION OF PLAQUE FOR COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30,2002 )Staff was not in attendance to present or receive the awards.Chairperson Coleman moved on to the next item. CONSIDERATION OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH HDR ENGINEERING TO INVESTIGATE AND IDENTIFY WATER LOST AND/OR UNACCOUNTED FOR )District Water Superintendent Brian Hall briefed the.board on the item.After making procedural changes. the district still has concern for lost and unaccounted for water.the board had suggested the district contract with a consultant.The consultant has given the district a proposal that includes looking at the meter reading and the billing system to make sure.the automatic meter reading is tracking correctly in the system,assuring nothing is being lost in the translation. HDR Engineering was on the short list created by an approved selection process,they have expertise and background in this area,and they have given the district a proposal for time and material with a maximum not to exceed $6,000.He is asking for an additional 10%in case there is a need to change the scope of work slightly.He is requesting approval for $6,600. get our water loss down. Mr.Dietz asked if this would just Vice Chairperson Eck commented he had read through the task and he believes Brian has pretty much fulfilled everything as far as the task.They have looked at the metering and he has done a terrific job at trying to reduce water loss.He was hoping they would also administratively take a look at how we report to the Department of Water Resources. Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 2 of 10 District Water Superintendent Brian Hall stated he believes they will do that.Karl Kohlhoff is the project manager and he is fairly experienced personally in municipal water and how the reporting takes place. Vice Chairperson Eck commented his goal was getting him to look at i t as he knows Karl Kohlhoff has extensive experience working with the Arizona Department of Water Resources.He may find something that other cities or companies are using. District Water Superintendent Brian Hall stated he is hoping that he might see,as he looks at the whole program. that the district might be double reporting a category or something like that in the billing system that they have not been able to find internally.Mr. Kohlhoff has commented to him that the district has already done anything that is obvious and reasonable to do.He welcomes someone from the outside to take a look at it. Vice Chairperson Eck asked what their percentage was last year. District Water Superintendent Brian Hall stated they have not done the reports for 2003.The last time it was looked at it was still around 15%.There was a time period when i t appeared the district was at about 11%.They have not looked at the year overall.He is open to anyone that can take a look at it. Vice Chairperson Eck commented that is what he was pushing this for.It is not something he may not have looked at.but it could be an administrative thing as far as the reporting. District Water Superintendent Brian Hall stated he appreciates that and there will be no arguments from him. Chairperson Coleman closed the discussion and called for a motion. Mr.Dietz MOVED THAT THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE WATER UTILITIES COMMUNITY FACILITIES DISTRICT AND HDR ENGINEERING IN THE AMOUNT OF $6.000 PLUS AN Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 3 of 10 ADDITIONAL 10%FOR CONTINGENCIES AND UNFORESEEN WORK/CHANGE ORDERS IN THE AMOUNT OF $600 FOR A TOTAL AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $6,600 IN ORDER TO INVESTIGATE AND IDENTIFY WATER LOST AND/OR UNACCOUNTED FOR,BE APPROVED. Mr.Sippel SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. MOTION FOR EXECUTIVE SESSION AT 6:00 P.M., TUESDAY,FEBRUARY 3,2004,IN THE CITY CONFERENCE ROOM )Chairperson Coleman called for a motion. Mr.Waldron MOVED THAT AN EXECUTIVE SESSION BE HELD AT 6:00 P.M.ON TUESDAY.FEBRUARY 3.2004,IN THE CITY CONFERENCE ROOM FOR THE PURPOSE OF LEGAL ADVICE WITH THE DISTRICT'S ATTORNEY. Mr.Dietz SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT'S. REPORT District Water Superintendent Brian Hall commented the construction on Well #8 on Coconino between 20th Avenue and 22nd Avenue is almost complete.They need to finish the concrete seal for the well head.He has not seen the final test results for water quality,but zone samples showed the arsenic considerably lower than it was on the baseline level.Unfortunately,the TDS is high. which is the dissolved solids such as calcium,salts,and things that make desert water taste like desert water.They thought it might be high going in. The metals and nitrates were all low in the zone samples,which is good.The down side is that they were hoping the well would produce 800 to 900 gallons per minute,and the consultant is rating i t at 250 gallons a minute.He originally thought it would be 200 gallons a minute after the test pumping. It is not the gallons they were looking for,but i t is about 400 acre feet a Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 4 of 10 year which is a good 45% to 30%increase in the total amount of water they are pumping out of wells now.It is economical to proceed because they used the smallest casing and did not expend the money they would have for a larger well.It is also only a block and a half from a transmission main,so not much pipe is needed to get it to where it can be used.The previous well drilled had the potential to produce this'-:3mount of water but it was 1.5 miles from where i t could be used,plus other constraints.They will put together a contract to go out to bid to equip the well once they get the final hydrology report.As this well is it can be equipped with a submersible pump which is less expensive than a line shaft pump.They have increased the water resources and will look further south in the future but of areas where they have drilled wells in the past. Vice Chairperson Eck commented it will help with the amount of water that they have to purchase. Mr.Dietz commented Well #6 has the arsenic so when Well #5 goes down for repairs or other reasons the district was wheeling Arizona Water.He asked i f this would be enough to do the blending that we need. District Water Superintendent Brian Hall stated i t is not.He added he will talk later about a pilot study they are doing for the treatment of arsenic on Well #6.He commented he thought he got the final draft agreement from Mesa today for the interconnect.He wants to make sure i t is locked up and agreed to and signed by both sides before he sends them the money that is budgeted for i t in this year's budget.The agreement will do good things.Arizona Water was originally charging one dollar per 1,000 gallons plus taking 10%of the water in our three-way agreement.We paid them a little over $120,000 last year plus we gave them about 14 million gallons of water that the district paid for to treat in the previous agreement.The district paid the City of Mesa $32.000 to pump it out of the canal,treat i t and deliver i t across their system for the same amount of water.The direct connection to Mesa will allow us to cut out the middle man.It will pay for itself fairly shortly.We also gain more direct control of deliveries.He needs to work out a couple of items in the agreement with their water resources specialist before i t is sent to the attorney.It has the same waivers and indemnities in it that the 3 -way agreement had.He is hoping it will go through both legal sides swiftly.He called Ms.Sorensen from the City of Mesa with some billing questions and she will go to the staff that make those final decisions.It is on her agenda to take the agreement to the Mesa City Council by the end of Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 5 of 10 February.He would like to tentatively come back to this board for approval in mid -February. Mr.Dietz asked how they are doing with the property at Signal Butte. District Water Superintendent Brian Hall stated they have met with Lennar Homes,which has merged with U.S.Homes and Graystone,and they did not initially have a problem with selling the property for a pump station.It is not worth much as a commercial property.They gave the district a price.The district then contacted Mesa's planning department to find out the lot configuration in regards to frontage.It is.being "shoehorned"in between a power easement,a wash',and some new street development.They got the approved shape from the City of Mesa,and the design consultant for the interconnect did a legal description for the property and a utility easement. They kept as much of the property under the ownership of the subdivision as possible to have them maintain the landscaping.After all was done,they sent Lennar Homes a letter stating the district was ready to buy.Six weeks later they called to say they were concerned about noise.The district contracted an acoustic consultant who told the district that if the 3 pumps were put inside a block building inside a block wall 125'from another block wall outside the subdivision that the ambient noise of the subdivision at 11:30 p.m.would be louder than the purrIps would be.He gave Lennar that information and drawings of the elevation and landscaping plans.The vice president commented that the district's building would be higher than the block wall and he would have to go to the president with that.He assured them that if they wanted the district building to match the roof tiles of their subdivision or be stuccoed the district would do so.He advised them the district needed that type of building in the interest of noise and protection from the elements and nothing had changed from the initial proposal.He is now waiting for a response. Vice Chairperson Eck asked if the board needs to get involved in speaking to Lennar. District Water Superintendent Brian Hall stated he could not be sure until he gets an answer.He will let them know if they say absolutely not. Vice Chairperson Eck commented that may take longer than the physical part of it.He believes that approval will take longer than the approval on the other side. Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 6 of 10 District Water Superintendent Brian Hall stated it depends.He could call tomorrow and say they are good to go as they have tried to do everything to try to blend in with the subdivision.If so,there will be an agenda item in mid -February for board approval to purchase the property. Vice Chairperson Eck commented he did not imagine when they first started this that it would take this long and that there would be so many things that needed to be done. District Water Superintendent Brian Hall stated it still baffles him on what needs to be done with 80%of their projects and he is starting to lose his optimism.He does not want to lose it all,because some of the push and drive may shorten things from 30 months to 18 months.He stated he is still optimistic about the pilot study for arsenic treatment of Well #6.A company called Filtronics from Anaheim.California.demonstrated a different form of treatment on December 6 than they have seen Hn the East •Valley.They have previously looked at reverse ionization,adsorption with iron based medias, and some of the pilots of the City of Scottsdale.Over the years they have commented there will be new treatments discovered that will cost less,and that is what they are now finding.The current maximum contaminant level for arsenic in drinking water is 50 parts per billion in a liter of water.The new, standard goes to 10 parts in January of 2006.When they initially looked at treating Well #6.it would have cost between $1.5 million and $2 million for the capital cOsts to do the treatment and about sixty to seventy cents a thousand gallons to operate the system.If this coagulation filtration system works,the media would not have to be changed out 3 or 4 times per year.It is flushed instead of thrown away.The water is circulated,the sludge falls out and you reintroduce the water that you backwashed with into the system at 10% of the time.They had some trouble with their testing at the end of the process.so they are coming back out on January 26.The first test the district paid for,this one they pay for.They will be given the opportunity to show the district if this really works.If it does,he estimates they will pay under $500,000 for the.capital costs and six to eight cents per gallon to operate the system.It is also simpler to operate.He would like to have that in service by the end of the 2004-2005 fiscal year so that they are not up against the wire with the new requirement.If i t is done,it will take care of the blending need:they would not have to blend anymore:The new well,if it comes over 10,would have to be blended,but they will have all kinds of water to blend with.He commented there was money in the budget to expand the existing warehouse that is used to stock all the repair parts used Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 7 of 10 in the system.They have doubled the size of the warehouse and purchased some used shelving.Staff has been organizing the parts during their spare time. He commented the water that comes from each well runs up the pipe on the side of the tank at 16th Avenue and then drops in the top.That is where the water is blended before it goes back out.Three of those six pipes had substantial leaks in them.Those pipes have been replaced.He commented the district talked several months ago about expanding the district to the south.One of the requirements to drill a well is that i t is done within about 600'of an existing system.This will help the district to expand and give the district more area to drill wells in.The plans for the design of the South Ironwood Water Main Extension are about half complete.They are roughed in and ready to go,needing only some final decisions before they are finalized.They will be simple plans due to the open area and there are not a lot of utilities in the area.He and Ron Grittman have been assigned to make contact with the owner of the motocross track.He will be trying to visit with him tomorrow. He commented part of the federal laws that came out after the September 11 attack was that each water system must do a vulnerability assessment.The district had already done the obvious things after September 11.They made sure the vents on the tanks were screened,that the outlets in drains were screened,and that locks were added.They made policies where ladders could not be left where they could give access to tank ladders.The federal government has come up with a template to do a vulnerability assessment and when i t is done,it will point out other areas they need to work on to make the system more secure.Upon its completion,they then want the district to update its emergency response plan.They are currently doing the vulnerability assessment and i t is due in the end of June,with the response plan having to be updated by December 31,2004.He announced they have hired an administrative assistant for the water district.Hazel Randall was hired and she worked out in the front office the first few months to learn that position and assist while they were shorthanded due to maternity leave of one of the employees.She has been doing an excellent job the last few weeks helping him organize his office.He should be more productive because of her help.They also have 2 new field employees,Kevin Goracki and Dwight Russell, that were hired in the Utility I positions.They will be responsible for meter reading.Once they have learned the meter reading,they will be rotated on a monthly basis to learn other areas of the system which will make them eligible for promotional opportunities in the future. DISTRICT MANAGER'S REPORT Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 8 of 10 District Manager George Hoffman stated he recently read an article about the growth in Las Vegas that mentioned water.It was noted that Lake Mead was down 70'and Lake Powell was down by about half.The indication was that we may be in the worst drought in half a millennium.He does not know where this data or information came from,but i t suggests the continued need to be watching the drought situation.Staff is participating in some valley groups that are keeping an eye on the situation.It may come to pass that staff may need to communicate to the board and they to their city counterparts to look at measures to encourage the conservation of water. DISTRICT TREASURER'S REPORT None. DISTRICT LEGAL COUNSEL REPORT None. ADJOURNMENT )Chairperson Coleman adjourned the meeting at 6:34 p.m. ACCEPTED THIS 17TH DAY OF FFRRHARY ,2004,BY THE CHAIRPERSON AND DISTRICT BOARD OF THE WATER UTILITIES COMMUNITY FACILITIES DISTRICT (APACHE JUNCTION WATER COMPANY).CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA. SIGNED AND ATTESTED TO THIS 17TH DAY OF FEBRUARY ,2004. Douglas Coltman Chairperson ATTEST: Kathleen Connelly District Clerk Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 9 of 10 WATER UTILITIES COMMUNITY FACILITIES DISTRICT MINUTES CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the regular meeting of the Water Utilities Community Facilities District of the City of Apache Junction.Arizona.held on the 20th day of January,2004.I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this 27th day of January,2004. Kathleen Connelly District Clerk Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of January 20,2004 Page 10 of 10