Water Resources Board

MINUTES MURFREESBORO WATER RESOURCES BOARD September 27, 2022 The Murfreesboro Water Resources Board met on Tuesday, September 27, 2022 in the conference room at the Operations and Maintenance Building, 1725 S. Church Street. Present at the meeting were Board members: Mr. John Sant Amour, Dr. Al Carter, Mr. Ron Crabtree, Ms. Sandra Trail, Mr. Brian Kidd, and Ms. Kathy Nobles. Also present were Darren Gore, Doug Swann, Valerie Smith, Mary Lancaster, Roman Hankins, Sarah Mathews, Alan Cranford, Joe Russell, John Strickland, Matt Powers, Steve Campbell, Travis Wilson, and Brent Fowler along with other members of the public. The Consent Agenda was presented to the Board for approval: A. LJA Engineering Task Order 20210215 Amendment No. 1, 2021-2022 Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project B. SSR Task Order 1941016.0 Amendment No. 2, WRRF Biosolids Polymer System Upgrade Additional Services Request C. SSR Task Order 1941024.0 Amendment No. 1, Coating Inspection for Commercial Structures and Facilities Painting Project D. SSR Task Order 1941021.0 Amendment No. 2, High Service Pump Station & Membrane Feed Pump Improvements E. Barracuda Backup Device & Support Purchase F. VxRail Servers Support Purchase A motion was made by Ron Crabtree to accept the Consent Agenda as presented and it was seconded by Dr. Carter. The Board voted unanimously to approve. The August 30, 2022 Board Minutes were unanimously accepted as presented. The Board considered SCADA servers purchase. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) servers at both plants are past reasonable life and are reaching capacity. Plant operations are essential to the production of potable water and the processing of wastewater at the water and wastewater plants, respectively. SCADA firewalls were upgraded in FY21, and this is the next step in ensuring adequate and effective computer systems for critical operations at both plants. Staff recommended the Board recommend to City Council approval of the purchase of the servers in the amount $187,787. Funding will come from the FY23 Capital Budget. Through efforts of staff and City IT, Waypoint was able to make some modifications to the specs and save over $150,000 versus the original budget estimate of $370,000. Kathy Nobles made a motion to approve. Brian Kidd seconded. The motion unanimously passed. Page 28 Water Resources Board Minutes September 27, 2022 Page 2 The Board considered Overall Creek Forcemain Extension bids. Staff received bids for the Overall Creek Forcemain Extension. Four bidders submitted bids and the low bidder was Cleary Construction, Inc (Cleary) with a base bid amount of $8,439,290. Cleary has recently constructed another large 24” forcemain project with success and SSR has determined they are qualified to complete the project, therefore both staff and SSR recommend Cleary be awarded this contract. SSR’s construction cost estimate was $8,211,470, approximately $227,820 less than the lowest bid. SSR stated the reason for the difference is that it has become difficult to estimate construction costs due to the current construction market coupled with equipment and material shortages. Staff recommended awarding the contract to Cleary with funding from Working Capital Reserves. Sandra Trail made a motion to approve. Kathy Nobles seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered LJA Engineering Task Order 20220919, 2023 Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project Design. LJA has preliminary estimates for their work, based on a construction project size of $4.0M, in an amount not to exceed $475,500 total. Of this total, $148,750 lump sum is for design, $9,750 is for surveying only as directed by staff, $102,000 for construction administration and $215,000 for resident inspection. Staff also intends to have a staff inspector assigned to the project since at times up to 4-5 crews can be working in various locations at the same time. Staff recommended approval of Task Order No. 20220919 through the MSA with LJA. Funding for the Engineering, Construction Administration, Inspection and Construction is proposed from ARP Funds in the amount of $475,000. However, if not approved for the ARP funding, then a combination of $1.5M from the 2022/2023 Budget & $2.75M from Working Capital Reserves will be utilized. Brian Kidd made a motion to approve. Dr. Carter seconded. The motion unanimously passed. Staff presented the Board information concerning the Department’s 5-Year Capital Expenditure (CapEx) Plan and the Water Resource Recovery Facility’s (WRRF) Standby Power Study. The Department maintains a 5-Year CapEx plan while regularly monitoring local trends and industry developments. Every fiscal year, each division updates their portion of the plan for approval. The plans are coordinated to avoid redundancy and attempt to foresee needs, so that capital expenses are levelized over the years. An example of this is the plan resulting from the Standby Power Generation Distribution study conducted Smith Seckman Reid, Inc. (SSR) at the WRRF. The purpose of this assessment was to evaluate the auxiliary power system, identify areas at risk, and recommend infrastructure upgrades. Using both the study findings and information gathered during the facility site visit, SSR put together recommendations for five distinct areas of the plant that are in need of equipment or improvements to mitigate the risk of an electrical outage due to loss of the main utility Page 29 Water Resources Board Minutes September 27, 2022 Page 3 power. These five areas were then prioritized and placed in the Department’s 5-Year CIP (Fiscal Years 2023 through 2027) in that order. SSR has provided staff with their engineering design task order to prepare the construction drawings and bid documents for the proposed WRRF improvements. Next month, staff will bring the first of the five projects to the Board for approval. The expenses of $1,008,000 for the Control Building are reflected in the Fiscal Year 2022-23 Rate Funded Capital Budget. The associated Task Order for SSR in the amount of $115,000 will be funded from working capital reserves. Staff presented the Board a preliminary Full-Scale Biosolids Thermal Dryer summary and recommendation. In 2019 the Department contracted with Gryphon Environmental, LLC for the installation of a small-scale dryer at the WRRF. Ultimately, the installation did not meet several key requirements. In June of 2021 SSR was authorized to conduct a study and report that provided a preliminary recommendation as to a vendor and process for full scale biosolids drying operations at the Water Resources Recovery Facility (WRRF), as well as preliminarily designing those drying operations within pre-existing biosolids dewatering facilities at the WRRF. A full-scale assessment included analysis of five different equipment manufacturers and three drying processes. Komline Sanderson is the preferred biosolids dryer manufacturer based on the following: o Lowest capital cost of $21.0M o Highest throughput of processing/drying biosolids o Smallest footprint and fits inside existing biosolids dewatering truck bay o Offers redundancy by allowing two dryers to fit inside the biosolids dewatering truck bay o Simple operation requiring less operator oversight. Staff recommended delaying the final design of the full-scale drying operations until October of 2022. Staff has programmed $18.3M in the Department’s 5-yr CIP for full-scale biosolids drying. The preliminary opinion of probable cost provided by SSR totals $21.0M. Staff presented and discussed the Water Resources Dashboard Performance for August 2022. Staff presented the Financial Reports for the year ending August 31, 2022. Staff proposed to combine the November and December Board meetings into one meeting due to the holidays. Therefore, the November 22nd meeting has been cancelled and the December 27th meeting has been rescheduled to Tuesday, December 13th. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. ____________________________ John Sant Amour, Chairman Page 30