Wastewater Treatment Board

CITY OF CORTLAND WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY Meeting Minutes Members: Da te : 2/ 22 /16 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 Todd Morris – Present Commissioner Diann Potter – Absent Village of McGraw Mayor Allan Stauber – Present Bruce Adams, Supt. of Wastewater – Present Meeting called to order at 5:30 p.m. Minutes from January 25, 2016, meeting for approval. Motion to approve the minutes from January 25, 2016, meeting by Bill Starr. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Plant Manager’s Report: Plant Managers Report for February 22, 2016 (as written by Supt. Adams) Administration– Our efforts to secure the $2,000,000 grant towards the digester and CHP have run up against bureaucratic inertia within NYSERDA. We will be asking State Senator Seward for his assistance in this matter, owing to its importance in servicing the needs of Byrne Dairy. EFC had indicated they were willing to fund the sanitary and storm sewer portions of the Clinton Avenue project but not the drinking water portion. Mack Cook and John Bennett brought this up to our representatives on "Meet Your Legislator" day in Albany and there was great support for our position that all the infrastructure improvement should be done while the street is excavated. We anticipate the funding will be made available. Operations– Kevin Bradshaw, our recent operator trainee hire, is learning quickly and showing an aptitude for the work. Mr. Bradshaw demonstrates a solid work ethic and gives every indication of being an asset to the department. The process is running well and we have been seeing removals for CBOD5 and TSS of around 95%. However, we have had to chlorinate for filament control twice this month. We suspect this may be partly due to inconsistent F/M ratio. We have purchased equipment to enable doing COD tests. We are also seeking for Byrne to give us daily updates on discharge flow. We are hopeful this additional data will allow us to more closely control F/M ratio. Maintenance– The check valve assemblies on all three primary sludge pumps have been completely rebuilt. Punch list items on basins 1A and 1B are complete. The digester gas holding dome has now been repaired. I sought three quotes and received two. W2O Pump & Service right here in Cortland was one third the price of the other quote. We have still to rebuild the PVR device and then we can put the gas holder back in service. We were without the use of our North Wemco pump for over a week as it was drawing very high current. Troubleshooting efforts by staff led to a number of repair measures including redoing the electrical connection, changing the pump sheave and clearing a plugged line. It is now running. After that, we WWAB Minutes 22 February 2016 Page 2 of 4  discovered we had no SCADA control of the Wemco. The problem was traced to a blown fuse. Bruce Adams Superintendent of Wastewater Bruce Adams reported to the board that the galley sustained an overhead door failure, which came crashing down. Bruce did obtain quotes for several types of overhead doors; however, this is pending structural evaluation by the engineers to decide which set of overhead doors are appropriate. Motion to approve the Plant Manager’s Report by Todd Morris. Seconded by Bill Starr. UNANIMOUS Finance: Financial statements and abstracts dated 1/31/16, and 2/15/16, were submitted for approval. Motion to approve financial statements and abstracts by Bill Starr. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: A sewer grievance application was received from Joan Essex on 1/12/16, for property located at 147 Tompkins Street, City of Cortland. Ms. Essex reported that in mid December she received a notice from the Water Department advising her of a high water usage at the property. She then contacted her property manager who discovered a running toilet on the 2nd floor of the apartment. The property manager repaired/replaced the flapper and fill valve to the toilet that same day, 12/22/15. The board had reviewed the grievance submitted by Ms. Essex and a decision was made to table the grievance until the next WWAB meeting, 2/22/16, pending additional billing information from the Water Department. The board reviewed the grievance and the billing history of the property that was obtained from the Water Department. Bill Starr made a motion to issue a credit for $544.00, which was half of the maximum allowable amount of $1,088.00, per John Troy. This decision was based on water having already been processed through the system. Motion to approve a credit of $544.00, by Bill Starr. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS New Business: No new business Old Business: No old business WWAB Minutes 22 February 2016 Page 3 of 4 Motion to Adjourn at 5:55 p.m. by Todd Morris. Seconded by Bill Starr. UNANIMOUS Respectfully submitted by: City of Cortland WWTF WWAB Minutes 22 February 2016 Page 4 of 4