Water Resources Board

MINUTES MURFREESBORO WATER RESOURCES BOARD January 23, 2024 ______________________________________________________________________________ The Murfreesboro Water Resources Board met on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, in the conference room of the Operations and Maintenance Building, 1725 South Church Street. Present at the meeting were Board members: Mr. Ron Crabtree, Ms. Madelyn Scales-Harris, Mr. John Sant Amour, Ms. Sandra Trail, and Mr. Kirt Wade. Also present were Darren Gore, Valerie Smith, Michele Pinkston, Doug Swann, Alan Cranford, Jennifer Tag, Joe Russell, Matt Powers, John Strickland, 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. Consider Mechanical/Electrical Services Contract Extension No. 2 B. Consider Overall Creek Pump Station contingency allocations C. Consider public utility easement abandonment at Mercury Plaza D. Consider sewer easement abandonment on Autism Clinic property E. Consider Advanced Utility Systems CIS support renewal purchase Sandra Trail made a motion to accept the Consent Agenda as presented and it was seconded by Kirt Wade. The motion carried unanimously. The December 12, 2023 Board Minutes were accepted as presented. The Board considered Blakely Cove sewer main extension participation. Blakely Cove is a new three-lot subdivision along the west side of Rucker Lane across from the Scottish Glenn Subdivision. Per our Policies & Procedures, the developer is typically responsible for extending water and sewer services to each lot created. In this instance, gravity sewer is located on the eastern side of Rucker Lane and the Department had plans to extend the sewer to the western side of Rucker Lane, with the City’s planned roadway widening, to service this property. The City chose to reject the Rucker Lane road widening bid because of the high cost of the project. The business case of this subdivision has now changed because the road isn’t being built and the sewer isn’t being extended by the Department. The burden of extending the sewer across Rucker Lane is now economically unfeasible for the developer and the project. Therefore, the developer requested permission to install individual septic systems for each lot. Rather than having new residences inside the city on septic systems, staff is requesting to participate with the Developer and pay for the extension of the sewer across Rucker Lane. This extension was designed and included as part of the Rucker Lane roadway widening bid and designated to be funded by MWRD. Page 18 Water Resources Board Minutes January 23, 2023 Page 2 An estimate has been prepared by the Developer, for the portion across Rucker Lane, in the amount of $43,970 which includes mill and overlay of the roadway in case it is required by the City Engineering Department. If it is not required, the participation amount will be $31,570. This participation recommendation is not consistent with the Department’s participation policy, within our approved Policies, Procedures & General Design Requirements adopted in 2009 by the Board and Council which states: 1. Prior to dedication and acceptance of the improvements by the City, the Developer requesting reimbursement must present to the City Council a detailed statement of the actual eligible costs and the City Council in its discretion may amend the agreement, and the reimbursement amount, to reflect the actual project costs. 2. Should a project be eligible for participation by the City due to upsizing of a water or sewer line, the Department reserves the right to publicly bid the project or the portion of the project eligible for participation. 3. Participation in the cost to upsize water and/or sewer lines shall be in accordance with established policies in effect. The Department or Developer can prepare a schedule of upsize participation, based on recent bid results or agreed upon unit pricing, which the Department and the Developer may accept in lieu of publicly bidding, subject to approval of the Water and Sewer Board and City Council. 4. The Department will only participate on that portion of sewer deeper than twelve (12) feet deep if the sewer is upsized and if the material changes. 5. Sewer must extend to the limits of construction at strategic locations for future extension. While staff’s recommendation is not consistent with the Department’s participation policy, staff views this participation favorably, as an exception to the policy, and consistent with the plans to extend the sewer as part of a City project that did not coalesce. Staff requested approval of the funding for the sewer main extension across Rucker Lane in the amount of $43,970 and to fund it from the Department’s working Capital Reserves. After discussion, Sandra Trail made the motion to not participate. Kirt Wade seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered SSR Task Order 2241030.0 Amendment 1, WRRF Full-Scale Thermal Dryer Design to incorporate design services for the bidding and construction administration services required to complete the WRRF Full-Scale Thermal Dryer project. The Board approved the initial task order in October of 2022 for the report, preliminary design, and final design services for a new thermal sludge dryer to be installed in the Truck Bay of the existing Biosolids Building at the existing Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF). Page 19 Water Resources Board Minutes January 23, 2023 Page 3 SSR is on schedule for the most part to bid and award the full-scale biosolids drying project by the beginning of the 2nd quarter of 2024 and start construction at the end of the 2nd quarter of 2024. The construction administration services were not included in SSR’s original task order and are currently requested to be approved as amendment number 1. Staff requests the Board recommend approval to the City Council for bidding and construction administration services with SSR to complete the full-scale biosolids drying project at the City’s WRRF. SSR’s fee is submitted as $546,000. The original design task order was in the amount of $1,407,635. Staff has programmed $2,250,000 in the Department’s 5-yr CIP working capital reservices for full-scale engineering services for the biosolids drying project. $26,000,000 has been earmarked as a future borrowing, which more recent cost estimates have indicated will be closer to $28,000,000. Ron Crabtree made a motion to approve. Sandra Trail seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered SSR Task Order 2341044.0, WRRF Headworks Building Recommissioning and Upgrades. Staff requests approval on an engineering task order to design and provide construction and administration services required to complete the proposed upgrades and recommissioning of the Phase 1 Headworks Building. The Phase 1 Headworks Building was placed into operation in 1998 and was taken out of service in early 2017. The facility is equipped with four Parkson rotary drum screens and two Smith and Loveless Pista-Grit vortex grit removal systems for wastewater preliminary treatment. Associated screen and grit hopper tanks are also located in the building for solids disposal via truck. The process, electrical, and mechanical refurbishment of the Headworks Building would enable the Murfreesboro Water Resources Department (MWRD) to have more preliminary treatment flexibility in combination with the new headworks facility constructed in Phase 4C of the MWRRF expansion. SSR has provided staff with their engineering design task order to prepare the construction drawings and bid documents and construction phase services for the proposed WRRF improvements. Staff recommends the Board approve the Engineering Task Order with SSR to design the upgrades to the WRRF in order to recommission the pre-existing headworks facility. The engineering design task order is hourly not to exceed $770,375. The Department has budgeted $800,000 in the Department’s FY25 working capital reserves for this expense. The total remaining costs of recommissioning the WRRF’s pre-existing headworks facility, or $8,000,000, are accounted for in FY26 and FY27 of the Department’s working capital reserves. Sandra Trail made a motion to approve. Madelyn Scales-Harris seconded. The motion unanimously passed. Page 20 Water Resources Board Minutes January 23, 2023 Page 4 The 4th Annual Sewer Allocation Report covering calendar year 2023 was presented. The Sanitary Sewer Allocation Ordinance requires an annual report of the current sewer system capacity. The annual report is a summary assessment of a sanitary sewer hydraulic model that breaks the city down into 18 watersheds or basins in which MWRD continuously monitors sewage flow throughout the year. Upgrading the system to convey 25% more sewage will cost an estimated $77.6M in upgrades; $14.8M has already been expended. This is an increase of $20.1M in upgrades identified in the 2022 sewer allocation report and an increase of $30.2M in the upgrades identified in 2021 report. $12.5M of the $77.6M is currently committed and approved by Council for projects completing construction. The $14.8 already expended and the $12.5 committed is funded from the Water Resources working capital reserves, or cash- on-hand. The remaining $50.3M may be funded with a combination of cash reserves and debt service. MWRD’s budget supports all fiscal impacts to managing the “as is” or current sanitary sewer collection and treatment system. CIP improvements to transition the system into its future “to be” condition will come to the City Council for approval on a project-by-project basis. Staff presented the Water Resources Dashboard Performance for December 2023. Staff presented the Financial Reports for six months ending December 31, 2023. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. _____________________________ John Sant Amour, Chairman Page 21