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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-11-03 WUCFD MINUTESWATER UTILITIES COMMUNITY FACILITIES DISTRICT (APACHE JUNCTION WATER COMPANY) CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION, ARIZONA REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 3, 2009 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 November 3, 2009, at the Apache Junction City Council Chambers pursuant to the notice required by law. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Insalaco called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Board Members Present:Chairperson Insalaco Vice Chairperson R.E. Eck Mr. Doug Coleman Mr. Rick Dietz Mr. Jeff Serdy Mr. Chip Wilson Staff Present: (Mrs. Barker was absent.) George Hoffman, District Manager Kathleen Connelly, District Clerk Frank Blanco, District Director Giao Pham, District Engineer John White, District Finance Manager Kay Bigelow, District Legal Counsel Others Present:Bryant Powell, Assistant City Manager Hazel Randall, District Admin. Asst. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF OCTOBER 6, 2009 )Mr. Dietz MOVED THAT THE MINUTES OF ,OCTOBER 6, 2009, BE APPROVED. Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of November 3, 2009 Page 1 of 8 Mr. Wilson SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. Chairperson Insalaco stated they are waiting for the district legal counsel for the next item so they will proceed with the district manager report. DISTRICT MANAGER REPORT None. DISTRICT DIRECTOR REPORT District Director Frank Blanco updated the board on the Mesa Interconnect status, the water system update and the Central Arizona Project Fall 2009 Salt River Siphon Outage.The interconnect is about 90% completed.They received the shipment of pumps and motors on Wednesday last week.They have been installed in the pump house.The pumps are capable of supplying 500,000,000 gallons per day.They have a blind flange on the site which will allow for expansion in the future if required. They received their green tag from Mesa and the tag from Salt River Project today.The latter will allow them to install a meter and provide electrical service to the facility.The contractors will be able to start testing the site.Currently the city is not receiving any water from Arizona Water.The City of Mesa is not treating any water from Central Arizona Project because of the canal outage.Arizona Water was asked to discontinue their delivery of Central Arizona Project water or any water from Mesa to the district.The capacity is 1.6 million gallons per day using Wells 5 and 6.Both sites had new pumping equipment and improvements.The current demand is about 1.5 million gallons per day.The storage tanks are very close to what they are normally.Boosters are operating normally. They have started an inventory of pipelines, valves and hydrants in order to start doing some proactive flushing of mains.This requires about 80,000 gallons for each flush. Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of November 3, 2009 Page 2 of 8 Vice Chairperson Eck commented if they do not clear it, they do not get the water. District Director Frank Blanco stated that is correct.It is important they are doing that.They will do the southeast area of the city next.The one they just did was at 1:00 a.m. so there were no complaints from residents or businesses. Vice Chairperson Eck asked if the customers would be getting something in their billing notifying of them of the district having a new water supply. District Director Frank Blanco stated they have not done that but it is a very good point.They can communicate that to the customers be means of the billing. Vice Chairperson Eck commented Well 6 was at 1,200 or 1,500 TDS. District Director Frank Blanco stated it was very high. Vice Chairperson Eck commented they have used some wells down in that area, but Mesa got lucky and got good wells in that area, plus the Central Arizona Project in that area is less than half the TDS that what we were getting.The water has a potential to be pretty nice water. District Director Frank Blanco stated they hope to see a great improvement.They did have a press release recently with Mr. Insalaco coming out for it.Perhaps an insert in the next bill would be a good idea. Vice Chairperson Eck commented he thinks public notification would do it.As prices change due to the arsenic costs and the tie-ins, it might help us to educate them. District Director Frank Blanco stated the storage capacity is currently 1,000,000 gallons at 16th Avenue and Buena Vista. There is another 1,000,000 gallons at Baseline Avenue.However, our peak hour of maximum daily demand is 3.79; it is a calculated value based on the maximum day and how much water would be required to serve the public and meet fire demands. There is a need for additional storage.As part of the interconnect project, he has contacted the Water Infrastructure Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of November 3, 2009 Page 3 of 8 Finance Authority and proposed expanding the scope.They have been receptive and have agreed to that.The intent is to use the funds not used on the interconnect to construct additional storage which is already needed.He will come back to the board for approval of that at a future date.He then described how we get water from the Colorado River.The siphon pipeline is the major reason we will be down for a period of time in November. There is a recharge project south of the Apache Junction that is called the Superstition Mountains Recharge Project.It has been recently studied by the Bureau of Reclamation.The Central Arizona Water Conservation District will be using some of their land for a regional recharge facility, which is closer to the city than other facilities on the west side of the valley.The likelihood of the district getting water that is recharged in the West Valley is not really there.This new facility is a good thing for Apache Junction to recharge excess Central Arizona Project water at a future date. Vice Chairperson Eck commented they can still do recharge as long as it is tied in to the system.Currently it is tied in to the system even though it is a couple hundred miles away or whatever.They can do their recharge credits. District Director Frank Blanco stated it is in the Phoenix AMA and when they go to a recharge facility, the current rules state they can recharge at that facility and recover from a well in our district or area. District Legal Counsel Kay Bigelow stated it has to be in the AMA. District Director Frank Blanco stated the upstream work includes the repair of guard and clamshell valves.It is a structure on the Salt River siphon.Downstream work includes valve repairs at the Brady pumping station, valve replacement at Red Rock pumping plant, and inspection at Twin Peaks pumping plants and another pumping plant.The clamshell valves will evacuate the Central Arizona Project canal in case of having a very high level in the canal.It has only happened once thus far. Vice Chairperson Eck asked what it does essentially. Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of November 3, 2009 Page 4 of 8 District Director Frank Blanco stated it reduces the canal levels in the Central Arizona Project.It was so close to the top it was about to flow over. Vice Chairperson Eck commented it is so they will not get such a build up. District Director Frank Blanco stated it is so it does not flood, overflow and cause damage.It really discharges into the Salt River, not the canal.He showed a diagram of how it works, pictures of the fish barrier, and the schedule of the outage. The district will not be able to take its treated Central Arizona Project water from Mesa or any Central Arizona Project water from Mesa during this time.Water must be supplied by district wells or emergency water from Arizona Water. Vice Chairperson Eck asked if that is in November. District Director Frank Blanco stated it is basically all of November. Vice Chairperson Eck commented he wished they would consider getting political in that matter and just show that this is just a quarter of a percent of Mesa's daily water.For us, it is a whole lot of water.It is a tiny issue for them but a huge issue for us.He wished they could talk to them and explain where they are coming from on it.Maybe they could get some sympathy on where the district is coming from.He does not think they are getting all this information. District Director Frank Blanco stated they may be able to do that somehow legally, maybe with a water delivery and use agreement where we would pay them back the water. District Legal Counsel Kay Bigelow stated that is correct.We could do something, especially now that they are talking about having an interconnect, as the district would not have to have a three party contract with Arizona Water in the middle of it. Vice Chairperson Eck commented that the one person with 33% is out of it now. Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of November 3, 2009 Page 5 of 8 District Legal Counsel Kay Bigelow stated they can start looking at that and get back to him on it. Mr. Dietz commented he stated they may have to draw from Arizona Water.He asked if that could become a problem as they rely on Mesa. District Director Frank Blanco stated they do rely on Mesa.It is a potential problem there.The emergency meter is still connected, so technically we could still ask them for groundwater.He is not sure how thin they are on water.They could always potentially request that.He needs to meet with the new person there and flesh those things out.He advised them that even though they are not using the interconnect at this time, we are still doing systems testing and are troubleshooting the program.They are still on schedule for the January date, if not sometime in December. Vice Chairperson Eck commented this is a job well done.He held in there with a lot of challenges and he has built a staff around him that obviously respects him and works with him to get this done.He would like to thank the entire department and things are now going good in the water department. District Director Frank Blanco stated he would like to thank the public works department and finance for hanging in there and helping them to get the projects done. RESOLUTION NO. 2009-008, APPROVING A SECTION 125 CAFETERIA PLAN FOR FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNTS FOR WATER DISTRICT EMPLOYEES )District Legal Counsel Kay Bigelow briefed the board on the item. Chairperson Insalaco called for any discussion.There being no discussion, he called for a motion. Mr. Coleman MOVED THAT RESOLUTION NO. 2009-008, A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE WATER UTILITIES COMMUNITY FACILITIES DISTRICT (CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION, ARIZONA) APPROVING A SECTION 125 CAFETERIA PLAN Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of November 3, 2009 Page 6 of 8 FOR FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNTS FOR WATER DISTRICT EMPLOYEES BE APPROVED. Mr. Dietz SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. DISTRICT TREASURER REPORT None. DISTRICT LEGAL COUNSEL REPORT District Legal Counsel Kay Bigelow stated she would like to second what Vice Chairperson Eck stated about Frank jumping in on the interconnect project.This kept us in a position with new development where they do not have to go out and build a treatment plant right away. ADJOURNMENT ) ) Chairperson Insalaco adjourned the meeting at 6:28 p.m. ACCEPTED THIS 3RD DAY OF NOVEMBER , 2009, 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 3RD DAY OF NOVEMBER 2009. ,41..,,,„, aohn S. Insalaco Chairperson Water Utilities Community Facilities District Meeting Minutes of November 3, 2009 Page 7 of 8 ATTEST: :athleen ConnellyKathleen Connelly District Clerk 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 3rd day of November, 2009.I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this 6th day of November, 2009. g-er--&-r4---671-4SKathleen Connelly 4 District Clerk Water Utilities Community'Facilities District Meeting Minutes of November 3, 2009 Page 8 of 8