Wastewater Treatment Board

CITY OF CORTLAND WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY Meeting Minutes Members: Da te : 7/ 28 /14 Ti me : 5 :30 p m Chairman John Troy – Present C on fe r en ce R o om , C or t la nd Wa st e wa t e r Vice Chair William Starr – Present Commissioner Sally Horak – Present Commissioner Todd Morris – Present Commissioner Paul Lorenzo – Present Village of McGraw Mayor Allan Stauber – Present Village of Homer Trustee Michael Berry – Absent Bruce Adams, Chief Operator – Present Tom McCall, CPWOA President – Absent Meeting called to order at 5:27 p.m. Minutes from June 23, 2014, meeting for approval. Motion to approve the minutes from June 23, 2014, meeting by Paul Lorenzo. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Plant Manager’s Report: Plant Managers Report for July 28 , 2014 (as written by Chief Adams) Administration– Byrne Dairy has started bring whey to the facility. For the time being, we are limited to accepting no more than 8,000 gallons per day on average. Once we acquire and install the MBR pretreatment equipment, we will be able to accept up to 15,000 gallons per day. The bid invitation for equipment for the next phase of the upgrade is out. Bid opening is scheduled for August 5. We submitted a draft operations and maintenance contract to Marietta. We are awaiting their response, but we know they’d like to not be in the wastewater business. Fingerlakes Technology Group has done the initial installation of fiber optic line from the street to the Control Room. FTG will also be installing the fiber network between buildings in our facility to enable both the Ethernet-based phone system and the new SCADA system. Our outside attorney believes we may be near an agreement with DEC on their enforcement action. I hope to have something to report on that matter at the next meeting. Operations– Pressed the secondary digester empty. This is a periodic exercise designed to improve the operation of the anaerobic system and minimize the negative impacts on the main process from the digester overflow. Quarterly industrial sampling has been completed. Swapped final clarifiers and cleaned the East one. We have been having issues with the stability of the chlorine feed rate automation. I suspect this may be related to lower-than-normal flow we’ve been seeing this summer. We are planning to call in a technician with expertise in this antiquated equipment. Maintenance– Seasonal grounds maintenance. We have also started doing trimming and neatening of the screen trees along the West fence line. Took boiler #3 off line and did a thorough cleaning and servicing. The replacement of the PVC aeration header downlines with stainless steel is complete in half of the basins. Homer Iron Works is continuing on the remainder of the basins. WWAB Minutes 28 July 2014 Page 2 of 4  We pulled the old flap gate from the controlled diversion structure and installed the new manual canal gate. This is to assure no unintended bypasses resulting from sewer backups. Bruce Adams Chief Operator Motion to approve the Plant Manager’s Report by Paul Lorenzo. Seconded by Sally Horak. UNANIMOUS Finance: Financial statements and abstracts dated 6/30/14 and 7/16/14, were submitted for approval. Motion to approve financial statements and abstracts by Sally Horak. Seconded by Paul Lorenzo. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: A sewer grievance application was received from Edward and Peter Bennedy, (B&B Properties), on 5/28/14, for property located at 34 South Avenue, City of Cortland. Mr. Peter Bennedy reports that he was contacted by the Water Department and was notified that there was high water usage in January. Mr. Bennedy reported that there was a frozen pipe in the crawl space of the residence and was repaired the following day. He is seeking relief towards the sewer portion of his bill. The grievance was reviewed by the board on June 23, 2014. The board's decision was to table the grievance until the next WWAB meeting on Monday, July 28, 2014, in order to obtain additional information and clarification from Mr. Bennedy. The board had requested a timeline of when repairs were made in January until the time of the 1st quarter meter reading on March 5, 2014, and its affect on the reading. The board has not received the requested information from Mr. Bennedy at this time. Margie Becker had spoken with Stephanie Mattice, Water Department, on 6/24/14, for clarification of when Mr. Bennedy was notified of his high water usage, with Mr. Bennedy's grievance report of notification and repairs. The repairs were completed in January 2014, on Mr. Bennedy's report and the notification by the Water Department was on 3/11/14. Paul Lorenzo had made a recommendation to issue a credit of $400.00; however, an agreement by the board of this credit could not be met. Sally Horak then made a recommendation to issue a credit of $600.00, on Mr. Bennedy's grievance, seconded by Bill Starr. Motion to approve a credit of $600.00, by Sally Horak. Seconded by Bill Starr. UNANIMOUS Grievance outcome letter from June 23, 2014, was submitted. WWAB Minutes 28 July 2014 Page 3 of 4 Bruce Adams reported to the board that the new Natrium Warehouse, which will be constructed on the old Agway property, had requested a waiver for connection into the sanitary sewers. They do not wish to put in bathroom facilities in this warehouse as it will be located next door to their main plant. Per city code, if the facilities are adjacent or within reasonable distance to the main building, there is not a requirement to install the facilities. As per the City Charter, the superintendent of the DPW can waive this if the conditions are met. A waiver has been issued for the Natrium Warehouse. Bruce further stated that the Administration requested that the WWAB be made aware of this due to the fact that this is a wastewater related issue. No action is required from the board. New Business: No new business. Old Business: No old business. Motion to Adjourn at 5:48 p.m by Todd Morris. Seconded by Sally Horak. UNANIMOUS Respectfully submitted by: City of Cortland WWTF WWAB Minutes 28 July 2014 Page 4 of 4