Water Resources Board

MINUTES MURFREESBORO WATER RESOURCES BOARD May 23, 2023 The Murfreesboro Water Resources Board met on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 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, Mr. Brian Kidd, Ms. Madelyn Scales- Harris, and Ms. Sandra Trail. Also present were Darren Gore, Doug Swann, Valerie Smith, Michele Pinkston, Josh Upham, Randy McCullough, Sarah Mathews, Alan Cranford, Joe Russell, John Strickland, Matt Powers, Steve Campbell, Jeff Broach, and Brent Fowler along with other members of the public. The Consent Agenda was presented to the Board for approval: A. Consider public utility easement and right of way abandonment in Waites Creek Crossing Subdivision B. Consider water easement abandonment on Burgess Street C. Consider Overall Creek Pump Station Expansion contingency allocations D. Consider JBS Task Order 22-01, Biosolids Polymer at WRRF contingency allocations Sandra Trail made a motion to accept the Consent Agenda as presented and it was seconded by Brian Kidd. The Board voted unanimously to approve. The April 25, 2023 Board Minutes were unanimously accepted as presented. The Board considered renewal of Memorandum of Understanding with MTSU. The MOU is the contract with MTSU to support MWRD with tailored and targeted education programs which are required by the State. This is a budgeted effort. Sandra Trail made a motion to approve. Madelyn Scales-Harris seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered SRWTP 2023 chemical bid. Four of the twelve chemicals will be rebid due to incorrect chemical being bid or proper paperwork not being included with bid. The lowest responsible and responsive bid for the eight remaining chemicals were identified and submitted for approval. Sandra Trail made a motion to approve. Dr. Carter seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered Rucker Lane Widening Phase 2 sewer bids. The City’s Rucker Lane Roadway Widening project, between Veterans Parkway and Hwy 96, has been designed for several years. Phase I bid in March 2021 and was completed in January 2022. Phase II bid April 2023. The City received two bids, one from Rogers Group, Inc. and the other from Vulcan Materials Company. City Staff has yet to award the project. The assumption is that it will be awarded to the lowest bidder, RGI. Page 36 Water Resources Board Minutes May 23, 2023 Page 2 The sewer portion of the bid is in the amount of $160,592.50 and RGI’s total bid for the entire project is in the amount of $15,297,000. No approval required. This project will be approved by City Council at a future meeting should the City decide to move forward with the project. Funding for this work would come from the Department’s working capital reserves. A total of $200,000 has been designated for this project and John Rice Blvd in the CIP. Sandra Trail made a motion to approve subject to City Council awarding the contract. Brian Kidd seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Blvd project easement offers. TDOT has a Phase II Sidewalk Installation project along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd between Middle Tennessee Blvd and Minerva Drive. The Department has existing 2” galvanized water mains for the majority of this stretch, which will be located underneath these proposed sidewalks and storm drainage. Also, there is a section of 8” clay sewer main to relocate as it will conflict with the proposed storm drainage. Therefore, the Department has created a project, for our in-house construction crew, to replace these lines prior to the sidewalk project construction. The water lines will be replaced with an 8” water main which will increase water pressures as well as provide better fire protection. Staff has worked with the Legal Department on the $/sf price for each property and used this to create these easement offers. Since Federal funding is involved, the City is not offering 10% for voluntary conveyance. In order to alleviate any confusion or problems with the City’s offer, we have removed this incentive from our offer as well. Approval of the offer amounts for water, sewer and/or temporary construction easements is at $234,705.00. The replacement cost of the water lines will come from O&M Budget; however, staff requests the cost of the easements come the Department’s working capital reserves. Brian Kidd made a motion to approve. Dr. Carter seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered 2023-2024 Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation project funding. At the September 2022 Board meeting, it was approved for LJA to design the upcoming sewer rehabilitation project along with construction administration and inspection. This project has been designed and LJA has put together a cost breakdown of the project in the table below. Staff wanted to explain and receive approval of the funding to move forward with this work. The HOBAS rehab is the “Dig & Replace” portion of sewer removed from the HOBAS rehab project which was just awarded at the April Board meeting. This portion is requested to be added to this 2023-2024 Rehab project for several reasons: 1. The annual rehab project is typically awarded to a contractor that is more qualified to dig and replace the sewer main. Page 37 Water Resources Board Minutes May 23, 2023 Page 3 2. The criticality of this replacement. It is in close proximity to the river, and if another failure occurs sewage would overflow into the river, and it would require TDEC notification. 3. Cost. One section of the Hobas pipe proposed for replacement is at the location of the first HOBAS failure. There were a total of two failures that required emergency repairs. The cost of these repairs totaled $962,538 ($314,056/Garney, $647,782/Jacobs & $700/TTL+160’ of pipe donated by HOBAS) and only replaced 340 feet of pipe. Staff prefers to be proactive in this case rather than reactive. The proposed HOBAS rehabilitation totals 1420 feet in length at an estimate of $2.92M. The NON-HOBAS work is an equivalent size of our normal annual rehab projects, and the WARRANTY work is being funded by Developers. Work Description Estimated Costs HOBAS $2.92M NON-HOBAS $3.4M TOTAL ESTIMATED MWRD FUNDING $6.32M WARRANTY (Funding by Others) $.19M TOTAL ESTIMATED COSTS $6.5m Recommend approval to fund this additional rehab. Funding for the Construction is proposed from ARP Funds. However, if funded is exceeded then request a combination of $1.5M from the FY24 Budget & $2.75M from Working Capital Reserves. Brian Kidd made a motion to approve. Ron Crabtree seconded. The motion unanimously passed. Other business included staff recommending approval of abandoning the portion of sanitary sewer easement located on Hidden River Estates (HRE) and City Property. Huddleston Steele on behalf of the developer, Brian Burns, is requesting the City abandon a portion of existing sanitary sewer easement. The Salem Barfield Sewer Upgrade project, currently under contract, will re-route the sewer outside of the existing easements, which will no longer be needed. Mr. Burns will dedicate new sewer easements as necessary with the recording of the plat for HRE. This request will also go before the Planning Commission as a mandatory referral for approval. Staff recommends approval of abandoning the portion of sanitary sewer easement. Staff did not find records of where the Department purchased these easements. Sandra Trail made a motion to approve. Dr. Carter seconded. The motion unanimously passed. Staff presented and discussed the Water Resources Dashboard Performance for April 2023. Staff presented the Financial Reports for the year ending April 30, 2023. Page 38 Water Resources Board Minutes May 23, 2023 Page 4 Darren Gore relayed that there is a new Tennessee State law to offer public comment for an action agenda item. Sarah Mathews will confirm when this goes into effect. Darren Gore will distribute information on Board Member’s continuing education status. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. ____________________________ John Sant Amour, Chairman Page 39