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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022.09.20 WUCFD Minutes • City of Apache Junction Arizona lily Council Chambers 300 E Superstition Boulevard Meeting Minutes Apache Junction,AZ 85119 Water Utilities Community Facilities www.ajwaterdistrict.org District P:(480)982-6030 Tuesday,September 20,2022 6:00 PM City Council Chambers A. Call to Order Chairperson Wilson called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. B. Roll Call Present 6- Chairperson Wilson,Vice Chair Rizzi, Boardmember Evans, Boardmember Heck, Boardmember Nesser, and Boardmember Schroeder Excused 1 - Boardmember Johnson Staff in attendance Bryant Powell, District Manager Matt Busby,Assistant District Manager . Jennifer Pena, District Clerk Joel Stern, District Legal Counsel Mike Loggins, District Director Charles Briggs, Water District Project Manager Bill Stanford,Water District Superintendent Stacy Ramirez, Utility Billing Supervisor Leslie DeReche, District Treasurer Connie Chow, District Controller Rita Vineyard,Administrative Assistant Evie McKinney, Deputy District Clerk Al Bravo, Public Information Officer C. Agenda Items 1. 22-591 Approval of the meeting minutes of August 16, 2022. Boardmember Heck made a motion to approve the meeting minutes of August 16,2022. Boardmember Rizzi seconded the motion. Yes: 6- Chairperson Wilson,Vice Chair Rizzi, Boardmember Evans, Boardmember Heck, Boardmember Nesser and Boardmember Schroeder No: 0 Excused: 1 - Boardmember Johnson City of Apache Junction,Arizona Pagel Water Utilities Community Facilities Meeting Minutes September 20,2022 District 2. 22-592 Discussion, presentation and consideration of Resolution No. 2022-009, declaring portions of the public utility easements located at 2155 East Old West Highway, Apache Junction, Arizona, are no longer necessary for public use as a public utility easement. Boardmemeber Schroeder made a motion that Resolution No.2022-009,a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Water Utilities Community Facilities District(City of Apache Junction,Arizona) declaring portions of the public utility easements located at 2155 East Old West Highway,Apache Junction,Arizona are no longer necessary for public use and are hereby extinguished be approved.Vice Chairperson Rizzi seconded. District Director Mike Loggins presented an overview of Resolution No. 2022-009, a request to extinguish the water utility easement and declaring portions of the public utility easement located at 2155 East Old West Highway,Apache Junction,Arizona are no longer necessary for public use as public utility easements. Mr. Loggins advised that the District currently has a water line running through the south end of the property in the easement. The owner has agreed and signed a grant of easement in the District's name which will give the District the right to access that area. D. District Manager Report No report. E. District Director Report 3. 22-593 Presentation, discussion and update on Water System. District Director Loggins introduced Stacy Ramirez the new Utility Billing Supervisor and Bill Stanford the new Water District Superintendent. Mr. Loggins presented an update on the Colorado River shortage.At this time municipal water will not be cut back this year or next year and currently only agricultural water has been affected. Mr. Loggins presented an update on the Superstition Vistas development in the State Land located south of the city. DR Horton, located on the west side of Ironwood Drive currently has 10 subdivisions with water and sewer lines installed. Pressure testing and water sampling still needs to be completed before the lines can be finalized. Brookfield ASLD, located on the east side of Ironwood Drive is starting to install water and sewer lines. Model homes are anticipated to be built by November or December and the developers are anticipating homes being ready for sale in May or June of 2023. On the Water Campus 3 site a well has been drilled. The contractor drilled down 1,230 feet before hitting bedrock and water was found at roughly 500 feet. This is consistent with what the District has seen in Apache Junction and the quality of water is great.Additional water testing will be done, and a test pump will be used to see how much water can be produced.Also at this location cement and rebar are being installed for the construction of a new water storage tank.A temporary light has been placed at Elliot and Ironwood to allow cement trucks to cross from a temporary batch plant that has been installed on the east side of Ironwood. City of Apache Junction,Arizona Page 2 Water Utilities Community Facilities Meeting Minutes September 20,2022 District Construction trailers have been installed at the Superstition Area Water Plant for the expansion of the treatment plant. The District will be increasing production at the plant from two million gallons a day to four million gallons a day.The construction will take approximately 18 to 24 months. At the Superstition Mountain Community Facilities District's property, a non-potable water tank and booster pump station are being installed. Construction will start in a few months. Starting in early October construction will begin on Ironwood Drive to install large water and sewer mains to the new subdivisions.The two southbound lanes will be closed, and traffic will be diverted to the two northbound lanes, one lane in each direction and the speed limit will be lowered to 25 mph. The contractor, Garney Construction,will have a hotline set up for questions and concerns. Mr. Loggins will be working with Al Bravo, Public Information Officer for the City of Apache Junction,to post the information on the City's website as well. Boardmember Heck had a question regarding the new well being drilled. He wanted to know if there was any way to tell how much water the well could produce and how many homes it could serve. Mr. Loggins said a pilot hole,which is roughly 12 inches around, is drilled first, then areas are zoned off and sampled.The estimation is around 1,400 gallons a minute. Our current wells are producing around 600 gallons a minute so this new well will be producing more.This new amount can serve roughly around 4,000 to 5,000 service connections. The plan for this well is not to use it as service water but to save it for redundancy, since we currently use mostly surface water to serve our customer.This water would be used in cases of unexpected shortages as another water source.The plan is to store this groundwater for future needs. Mr. Loggins provided an update on Salt River Project and the Verde River dam project. The process is moving forward, and the committee has approved the engineering firm who will be starting on the preliminary design which will take three years. The committee is also working on deciding how the additional water from this project will be allocated.This process is expected to take about 6 months to figure how to divide the water between the participating cities, and how funding will work out for the project. Boardmember Heck had a question regarding the reduction in agricultural water. Mr. Loggins explained that since the farmers have been using water from the Central Arizona Project canal for irrigation, they have not had to pump groundwater. He stated due to this surface water source many of the wells have been given away or not used and the farmers may start drilling new wells or pumping water from their existing wells.The Arizona Department of Water Resources(ADWR)will eventually look at how much groundwater is being used and may stop this from continuing.ADWR is currently paying farmers to stop planting crops or to use drip irrigation instead of flood irrigation. The federal government is also working with farmers so crops can still be produced. Chairperson Wilson responded that he has spoken with some farmers, and they are going to start planting crops which use less water to produce. Mr. Loggins responded that he has been speaking with Pinal County and many of the area farmers are selling their properties for solar farms. City of Apache Junction,Arizona Page 3 Water Utilities Community Facilities Meeting Minutes September 20,2022 District F. District Treasurer Report No report. G. Adjournment Chairperson Wilson adjourned the meeting at 6:26 p.m. ACCEPTED THIS DAY OF (9('40IEW-sZ 12022, BY THE CHAIR PERSON AND DISTRICT BOARD OF THE WATER UTILITIES COMMUNITY FACILITIES DISTRICT, (CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA).SIGNED AND ATTESTED TO THIS DAY OF Oe A)ble2 2022. WALTER"CHIP"WILSON Chairperson ATTEST: � a JEN IF R PENA 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 day of JnIX 120Q � I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this day of (�e.�rlhe2 2022. JEI4MFkR PEN District Clerk City of Apache Junction,Arizona Page 4 City of Apache Junction, Arizona 300 E Superstition Boulevard Agenda Item Cover Sheet Apache Junction,Az 85119 Agenda Item No.2. File ID: 22-647 Sponsor: Mike Loggins Agenda Date: 10/18/2022 Index: In Control:Water Utilities Community Facilities D Discussion, presentation, and consideration of Resolution No. 2022-010, authorizing the Board Chair or in case of absence, the Vice Chair to execute any and all documents that legally bind the District. City of Apache Junction,Arizona Page 1 Printed on 10/1112022