Water Resources Board

MINUTES MURFREESBORO WATER RESOURCES BOARD October 27, 2020 The Murfreesboro Water Resources Board met on Tuesday, October 27, 2020 in the conference room at the Operations and Maintenance Building, 1725 S. Church Street. Consistent with the Governor’s Executive Order, members of the Water Resources Board participated by electronic means as has been determined necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Present at the meeting were Board members: Dr. Al Carter, Mr. John Sant Amour, Mr. Brian Kidd, Mr. Ron Crabtree, Ms. Kathy Nobles, Mr. Kirt Wade, and Ms. Madelyn Scales-Harris. Also present were Darren Gore, Michele Pinkston, Valerie Smith, Doug Swann, Roman Hankins, Marshall Fall, Steve Tate, Sharon Seibert, Matt Powers, Alan Cranford, Joe Russell, Jimmy Stacey, Adam Todd, Travis Wilson, Mike Bernard, Linda Sullivan, Brent Fowler, Jay Bradley, and Ronnie Martin along with other members of the public. The Consent Agenda was presented for the following considerations: A. Consider SRWTP HVAC Service Agreement – In 2016, the Board and Council approved the purchase of a Trane water chiller to replace the existing water chiller that could not be repaired. This purchase was in accordance with the same Co-op Contract that was used when the Board and Council approved the replacement of six HVAC units at the Stones River Water Treatment Plant in August and September 2020. When the chiller was installed in 2017, a service agreement should have gone to the Board and Council and signed for maintaining the water chiller. It appears that there was an oversight and that the agreement did not go to Board and Council for approval. As a result, Staff is bringing the service agreement to the Board for consideration and approval. Trane has been providing service since 2017 on HVAC equipment at the water treatment plant. During this period, staff has been very pleased with Trane’s support. The cost of the service agreement is broken down over a 5-year period. Year 1 is $10,888, Year 2 $11,214, Year 3 $11,552, Year 4 $11,898 and Year 5 $12,254. Funding for Year 1 is in the FY21 operating expenditures budget. Staff recommended that the Board recommend to the City Council approving the service agreement with Trane pending Legal approval. B. Consider O&M compact track loader purchase – O&M requests approval to replace a 2013 Bobcat Compact Loader (Unit 121). This loader is older and has limited functionality. The department would like to replace this unit with a 2020 CAT Compact Track Loader. The newer model has additional capabilities and versatility while performing tasks due to Page 19 Water Resources Board Minutes October 27, 2020 Page 2 high flow hydraulics. This will allow for a wider range of attachments to be used. The existing compact loader will be traded in with the purchase. Staff researched various compact loaders and located the desired compact track loader on the Statewide Contract through Thompson Machinery. Funding for the purchase of the compact loader was approved within MWRD’s FY 2021 Rate Funded Capital Budget for $85,000. O&M received a quote of $90,407.30 with a $24,000 trade in value for the current compact loader resulting in a total cost of $66,407.30. Staff recommended the Board recommend to the City Council approving the purchase of this equipment with funding coming from the FY 2021 Collection Capital Budget. C. Consider Sanitary Sewer Rehab 2020/2021 Change Request #1 – At the March 2020 Board meeting the Board approved the Engineering, Construction Administration & Resident Inspection through S&ME, Inc. necessary for this sanitary sewer rehabilitation project. This project was originally bid July 14th, and at the July 2019 Board meeting the Board approved the award of the contract to SBW Constructors, LLC in the amount of $4,250,092. Work has begun and SBW and their sub-contractors are working to rehab the large defects on the Hobas pipe first. During the work, the contractor found that one of the manholes was buried, and the manhole casting needed raising to grade. The contractor has given a price for this work in the amount of $2,160. Staff also requested the contractor to remove the lining of two grease interceptors from the project. Another replacement method has been determined. This CRF No. 1 does not add to the contract amount. The $2,160 will deduct from the contingency allowance and the removal of the grease interceptor lining will be deducted officially from the contract through a future change order. Project Contingency Prior Current Remaining Allowance Contingency Contingency Contingency Allocations Allocations Allowance 20/21 Sewer Rehab $150,000 $0.00* $2,160.00** $147,840.00 *CRF #’s (Prior) **CCF # 1 (Current) Staff recommended the Board recommend to City Council approval of this CRF No. 1 with SBW Constructors. Funding for the Engineering, Construction Administration, Inspection and Construction was approved from a combination of 2020/2021 Budget & Working Capital Reserves. Page 20 Water Resources Board Minutes October 27, 2020 Page 3 Funding Source Budgeted Construction Remaining Amount Expenditures Rate Funded Operating Budget $1,250,000 $0 $1,250,000 2020-21 Working Reserves 2020-21 $1,250,000 $0 $1,250,000 Engineering & Inspection $448,000 $136,085 $311,915 Expenditures Additional Requested Working $1,750,092 $0 $1,750,092 Reserves 2020-21 Total $4,698,092 $136,085 $4,562,007 D. Consider WRRF standby power generator/distribution equipment study – New treatment process infrastructure is generally designed with a standby power supply e.g. generators. However, some of the older processes at the WRRF were not. This would present operational and facility performance issues, if primary power were interrupted. Therefore, WRRF staff has requested that SSR perform a standby power study and electrical distribution equipment assessment at the WWRF. Additionally, staff has identified an obsolete and potentially unsafe main switchboard in the Control Building which now has sporadic nuisance tripping on motor starts. The assessment of the WRRF’s standby power generation and electrical distribution equipment is requested to be funded from the Department’s working capital reserves in the amount of $12,500. Staff recommended the Board recommend to City Council approving tasking SSR with the Standby Generator Power Study. A motion was made by Brian Kidd to accept the Consent Agenda as presented and it was seconded by Ron Crabtree. The Board voted unanimously to approve. The September 22, 2020 Board Minutes were unanimously accepted as written. The Board considered Sanitary Sewer Rehab 2019/2020 Final Change Order. At the December 2018 Board meeting the Board approved the Engineering, Construction Administration & Resident Inspection through S&ME, Inc. necessary for this sanitary sewer rehabilitation project. This project was originally bid July 11, 2019, and at the July 2019 Board meeting the Board approved the award of the contract to SBW Constructors, LLC in the amount of $3,842,301. Since this time, the Board has approved three change orders changing the original scope of work in an additive amount of $230,392.45 for a current contract amount of $4,072,693.45. Staff is ready to close out this 2019/2020 Sewer Rehabilitation project. Final Change Order #4 is a decrease in the contract amount of $610,471.82 for a total contract value of $3,462,221.63. Staff expects needing this surplus for future sewer rehabilitation work specifically for the Hobas pipe repairs under Hwy 99. Page 21 Water Resources Board Minutes October 27, 2020 Page 4 Staff recommended the Board recommend to City Council approval of this Final Change Order #4 with SBW Constructors. John Sant Amour made a motion to approve. Ron Crabtree seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered a revision to CUD/MWRD boundary. At the September Board meeting, the Board approved properties along Veals Road to be transferred to Consolidated Utility Districts (CUD) water service area. The Developer demonstrated that he had made several attempts to obtain off-site water easements from neighboring properties in order to extend Murfreesboro water to the subdivision but was unsuccessful. Right after staff notified CUD of the approval, CUD approached staff about swapping additional properties along Veals Road. The additional properties are within our water service area, however, are being served by a 6” waterline owned and operated by CUD. The tract at the corner of Bradyville and Veals is Grace Baptist Church, the next property to the east is the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro and the next is a cell tower. These properties are in the County and being served by CUD. The Department has a waterline along both sides of Bradyville Pike. To serve the properties along Veals Road would require a waterline extension at the expense of the Department, of approximately 2100 feet along the eastern and northern sides of Bradyville Pike and Veals Road respectively. Based on the cost to extend service and the fact that these properties are already developed, staff believes it in the Department’s best interest to formally transfer these properties into CUD’s water service area. Staff recommended that the Board recommend to City Council approving the revision to the CUD/MWRD boundary and the Mayor executing an amendment to the Water Service Boundary. John Sant Amour made a motion to approve. Brian Kidd seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered CIS software upgrade. In June 2014 MWRD went live with Advanced Utility Systems (AUS) Customer Information System (CIS) Infinity software, version 3 (V3). The implementation was a culmination of an almost two- year process, beginning with development of an Information Technology (IT) Strategic Plan in the fall of 2012. Concurrent with the implementation of the CIS software, we launched online access for customers via Infinity.Link and moved from paper to digital with our Service Order system via Infinity.Mobile. Replacing our legacy CIS software with state-of-the-art off-the-shelf software was the first step in our IT Strategic Plan. Staff followed up the CIS install with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) phone module in early 2015, new financial software (Tyler Munis) in July 2015, and Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in June 2017. Page 22 Water Resources Board Minutes October 27, 2020 Page 5 CIS, Link and Mobile have all performed well. They have improved our staff and customer experience. MWRD has now been using the software for over six years. Staff thinks it is time to move up to the latest version of the CIS. We will continue to use the Mobile module with the new versions. Version 4 (V4) of CIS offers several enhancements. In July 2019 the Board approved the upgrade to CIS.V4. On August 3, 2019, MWRD’s online customer access module, CIS.Link, was defaced. After internal, external and vendor investigations, it was determined that only the home page display of the site was changed. No customer, WRD or city data was compromised. The issue was a 3rd party software used as a platform for Link that had a vulnerability that was exploited, resulting in the defacement. That vulnerability has since been patched. Staff recommended that the Board recommend City Council approve the upgrade of our CIS software. The total estimated cost for the software update is $280,000. This upgrade was originally budgeted in the FY19 Capital Expenditures at an estimated cost of $300,000. As the purchase was not approved and secured in FY19, funding for this upgrade will come from MWRD Reserves in FY21/FY22. Brian Kidd made a motion to approve. Ron Crabtree seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board reviewed FY21 budget amendments. As a result of the unknown effects of COVID-19 on city and Water Resources revenues, all pay raises, promotions and staff additions were frozen in the FY21 budget. The impact on city revenues has been less than anticipated. As a result, City Council has approved FY21 budget amendments for Water Resources and Stormwater, which implement raises effective November 1, 2020. These amendments also contain funds for promotions and new positions. Raises for MWRD are as follows: • 1.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and 2.5% step raise for employees with less than 5- yrs of service; affecting approximately 77 employees • 1.5% COLA for employees with greater than 5-yrs of service and in the open range of the City pay plan; affecting approximately 94 employees Prior to the state of emergency, the following personnel promotions and additional staffing were to be recommended: • Operations and Maintenance – One promotion/reclassification of an Administrative Assistant II to a Business Systems Analyst. • Administration/Finance – One promotion/reclassification and a new hire: o An Accounting Clerk promoted to an Accounting Specialist I. o A new hire for the position Administrative Aide I. • Customer Service – One promotion/reclassification of an Administrative Support Specialist I promoted to an Administrative Support Specialist II. • Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) – One new hire of an AMI Technician. Page 23 Water Resources Board Minutes October 27, 2020 Page 6 • Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) – One full-time Equipment Operator to replace a part-time Equipment Operator at the Jordan and Coleman farms. • Engineering – One promotion/reclassification of an Administrative Aide II to an Executive Administrative Aide. • Water Treatment Plant – A vacant Master Plant Operator resulting from a recent retirement is requested to be reclassified to an Instrumentation and Controls Technician. Updated information • The promotion to Executive Administrative Assistant will be deferred until July 1, 2021. The Council adopted the resolution to adjust the budget so that $455,000 is transferred to operating expenses from future capital expenditures (or transfers to reserves) on October 14, 2020; therefore, this is for information purposes only. WRD originally budgeted pay and benefits to increase by $680,000 should the aforementioned promotions and pay raises be approved as part of the FY21 budget; however, the current increase is budgeted at $455,000. Transfers to Reserves for future Capital Expenditures was reduced by the same amount. Stormwater budgeted pay and benefits increased by $27,300. Transfers to Reserves for future Capital Projects was reduced by the same amount. Staff presented and discussed the Water Resources Dashboard Performance for September 2020. Staff presented the Financial Reports for the year ending September 30, 2020. Staff proposed to combine the November and December Board meetings into one meeting due to the holidays. Therefore, the November 24th meeting has been cancelled and the December 22nd meeting has been rescheduled to Tuesday, December 8th. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Alphonse Carter, Jr., Vice Chairman Page 24