Wastewater Treatment Board

CITY OF CORTLAND WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY Meeting Minutes Members: Da te : 6/ 27 /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 – Absent Commissioner Todd Morris – Present Commissioner Diann Potter – Present Village of McGraw Mayor Allan Stauber – Absent Bruce Adams, Supt. of Wastewater – Present Meeting called to order at 5:26 p.m. Minutes from May 23, 2016, meeting for approval. Motion to approve the minutes from May 23, 2016, meeting by Todd Morris. Seconded by Diann Potter. UNANIMOUS Plant Manager’s Report: Plant Managers Report for June 27, 2016 (as written by Supt. Adams) Administration– Common Council has designated the position of Operator of Record to be the wastewater department sub- head and raised the salary to $74,000. These actions are well merited in light of Ed Poole's exemplary performance. Common Council also approved filling a vacancy for Operator Trainee. That will bring the department staffing to 10. The City and the PWOA union have had an initial meeting to kick off contract negotiations. The current contract expires at the end of this year. EPA Region 2 performed their 5-year compliance audit of Cortland's pretreatment program. There are two local businesses that should have been permitted but have not been. I am drafting permits for them and anticipate getting them permitted within a few weeks. Operations– The return to compliance on phosphorus I reported last month was illusory. An erroneous formula in the DEC-supplied Excel workbook counted only 11 months of results and thus mistakenly indicated the facility was in compliance. Our phosphorus results continue to be good and it is only a matter of two to three months before we'll be in compliance in actuality. The facility is performing very well under Ed's process control. In May we had 98% removal for BOD and 94% removal for TSS. The on-site chlorine generation system continues to operate well. The controller is somewhat problematic but the vendor is going to make some programming changes to allow us better control over the control loop. Maintenance– Staff is completing the punch list items in the aeration basins. This is a prerequisite for starting up the SBR process later this summer. Work continues on the WQIP PAC project. Staff has run as much of the interior piping as can be until the pump skid and tanks come in. An outside contractor has been working on the exterior piping, so far having WWAB Minutes 27 June 2016 Page 2 of 4  installed all the hanger brackets and laying in some of the support steel. Normal seasonal PM work has been completed on the secondary clarifiers. We are going to be looking into the possibility of replacing the HDPE flight wear strips with stainless steel. Bruce Adams Superintendent of Wastewater Motion to approve the Plant Manager’s Report by Diann Potter. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Finance: Financial statements and abstracts dated 5/31/16, and 6/15/16, were submitted for approval. Motion to approve financial statements and abstracts by Diann Potter. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: Peter and Edward Bennedy submitted a sewer grievance on 5/16/16, for property located at 34 South Avenue, City of Cortland. Mr. Bennedy reported that a leak was detected on 2/26/16, and subsequently repaired at that time. He is requesting relief towards the sewer portion of his billing. The board reviewed Mr. Bennedy's grievance application and a decision was made to table the grievance until the next meeting on Monday, June 27, 2016, at 5:30 p.m. The board requested additional information as to the source and location of the leak as well as a copy of receipts with the cost of the supplies/parts used in repairs of the leak. A letter of request was sent by Margie Becker on 5/24/16. At this time, no additional information was received from Mr. Bennedy and a recommendation was made by John Troy to deny the grievance. Todd Morrison made a motion for denial. Motion to deny the grievance by Todd Morris. Seconded by Diann Potter. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: A sewer grievance was received from Dudley Tallett on 6/09/16, for property located at 94 Bartlett Avenue, City of Cortland. Mr. Tallett reported several leaks, the hot water heater that he had to replace, the hot water line to the kitchen sink, as well as a bathtub faucet leak. These leaks were discovered on 3/1/16, and repaired on 3/9/16. He is requesting relief towards the sewer portion of his billing. The grievance application was reviewed by the board and a decision was made to table the grievance until the next board meeting on Monday, July 25, 2016, at 5:30 p.m. The board has requested information of where the water from the leak went to, if it went into the sewer system. Diann Potter made a motion to table the grievance. WWAB Minutes 27 June 2016 Page 3 of 4 Motion to TABLE the grievance by Diann Potter. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: Gertrude Seeber submitted a sewer grievance on 6/20/16, for property located at 93 Wheeler Avenue, City of Cortland. Ms. Seeber reports that a leak was discovered in the crawl space under her house on 4/6/16, and repaired at that time. She is requesting an adjustment on the sewer portion of her billing. Ms. Seeber's sewer grievance was reviewed by the board and a decision to table to the grievance was made. The board is requesting additional information on the leak in relation to the hot water heater, a broken pipe, and if the water went into the sewer system. A motion to table the grievance was made by Diann Potter. Motion to TABLE the grievance by Diann Potter. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: A sewer grievance was received from Gerald Contento on 6/20/16, for property located at 119 1/2 Pendleton Street, City of Cortland. Mr. Contento reported that he realized there was a leak with his water and it was fixed. He further stated that he has been paying his sewer bill since 2002, but has no sewer connection in place. Mr. Contento is requesting that his current bill as well as all future sewer bills be waived as he is 500 feet from the sewer and was granted permits to install his own system. Mr. Contento's grievance was reviewed by the board and a decision was made to issue a credit of $434.52, for the sewer portion of his billing. In addition, the board advised that Mr. Contento contact the Water Department to request a waiver on his current and future sewer billings as both water and sewer billings originate from their office. A motion to approve a credit of $434.52, was made by Diann Potter. Motion to approve a credit of $434.52, by Diann Potter. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS New Business: No new business Old Business: No old business Motion to Adjourn at 5:52 p.m. by Todd Morris. Seconded by Diann Potter. UNANIMOUS Respectfully submitted by: City of Cortland WWTF WWAB Minutes 27 June 2016 Page 4 of 4