Sewer and Water Utilities

1 SPECIAL SEWER AND WATER UTILITIES COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 2 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2024 3 VIA VIDEO CONFERENCE 4 (APPROVED VERSION) 5 6 The October 29, 2024 meeting of the Sewer and Water Utilities Committee was called to order by 7 Committee Chairperson Denise Bhirdo at 3:45 P.M. 8 9 Present: Chairperson Denise Bhirdo and members Kurt Harff and Alison Werner 10 11 Staff Members: Utilities Director Megan Barnes, and Utilities Clerk Kara Kroll 12 13 Others: Josh Steffeck, Laurel Harff 14 15 Approval of the Agenda: 16 A motion was made by Harff, seconded by Werner that the Agenda for the October 29, 2024 meeting of 17 the Sewer and Water Utilities Committee be approved as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 18 19 Approval of the minutes: 20 A motion was made by Harff, seconded by Werner to approve the minutes of the September 10, 2024 21 meeting of the Sewer and Water Utilities Committee as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 22 23 Public Comments and Correspondence 24 25 No correspondence was received for this meeting. 26 27 Discussion Items: 28 a) Wastewater Treatment Plant Operations Report 29 A copy of the Sewer and Water Utility operations report prepared by Barnes was included in the meeting 30 packet for the members to review. Bhirdo questioned the annual water tower inspection deficiencies and 31 Barnes said the light bulbs and mesh are on order and once they are received the items will be repaired 32 before the November 12, 2024, deadline. 33 34 b) Land Lease/ Sludge Land Application/ Sludge PFAs Testing 35 The old land lease official notice was included in the meeting packet for the member to review. It was 36 decided that the official notice form should be updated, if it continues to be used in the future. Barnes 37 explained that she reached out to some of the labs in Wisconsin for PFAs testing on our sludge and the 38 State Lab is the only facility that offers testing. Barnes is waiting for the State Lab to respond with the cost 39 for PFA testing. If the test shows that there aren’t any PFAs in the sludge, then the utilities would be able 40 land apply the sludge on vacant land owned by the Utilities, if they needed. 41 42 43 c) Rate Study 44 Barnes received an email from the Villages auditor and the email was discussed at the meeting. The auditor 45 would like to switch the process for conducting a treatment/collection rate case going forward. The auditors 46 recommended that the Utilities move to a yearly review during the budget of operating revenues and 47 expenses in comparison to cash on hand while taking into consideration the capital and maintenance  Minutes for the October 29, 2024 meeting of the Utilities – SWUC Committee – Approved Version 1 schedule. Barnes said this would use revenue and cash flow instead of FLOW, BOD and SS. Josh Steffeck 2 from Robert E Lee attended the meeting and discussed how the Utilities would be able to conduct future 3 rate studies themselves and it would take a fraction of the time to complete, if we use the new model. 4 5 d) Utilities Online Scheduling and Forms 6 Barnes discussed adding online forms and scheduling to the Village website for meter exchanges and sludge 7 hauling. Barnes would like to limit the quantity of septage disposed of at the plant per day. She would like 8 to track the amount of waste the haulers dispose of on a calendar that counts down to zero, so the system 9 doesn’t get overloaded. Barnes would also like to change the meter exchange process and use emails to 10 contact customers, so the utility staff doesn’t have to spend as much time trying to track down customers. 11 Barnes is looking at making the process more efficient. Barnes will create forms for the Village website and 12 bring them to the Utilities Committee for review. 13 14 e) Wastewater Treatment Plant Facilities Plan 15 Barnes would like to complete a new facilities plan for the Utilities. Barnes thinks it would be good to look 16 at capacities on the plant side, the wells and see what needs to be done for our expectancy for the next 30 17 years. Barnes would like a request for bid for a facilities plan. An engineer from Donohue and Associates is 18 submitting an intent to apply free of charge and the engineer also recommended a new facilities plan when 19 she met with Barnes. Bhirdo asked Barnes if the village is at about 50% capacity. Barnes responded with yes, 20 but in the summer the capacity was as high as 74%. Barnes would like to see if there is a different way to 21 operate in the summer. There is money in the budget for a facilities plan. 22 23 A motion was made by Harff, seconded by Werner to put out a request for proposal for a utilities plan as 24 presented. Motion carried-all ayes. 25 26 f) Record Retention Ordinance 27 Kroll explained that the Utilities need to have their own record retention schedule separate from the Villages 28 record retention schedule. The Utilities schedule needs to include the Department of Natural Resources, the 29 Public Service Commission of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Municipal Records Schedule. Kroll received 30 approval from the Public Records Board, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission and the Department of 31 Natural Resources. Bhirdo questioned how long maps need to be kept. Barnes said she keeps maps and DNR 32 records far longer than the retention schedule requires. 33 34 A motion was made by Werner, seconded by Harff to recommend to the Village Board the approval of the 35 Utilities record retention schedule be approved as presented. Motion carried- all ayes. 36 37 38 Discussion regarding matters to be placed on a future agenda or referred to a Committee, Official, or 39 Employee. 40 41 • Rate Study 42 • Online Forms 43 • Utilities Facilities Plan 44 45 46 47 48 Adjournment  Minutes for the October 29, 2024 meeting of the Utilities – SWUC Committee – Approved Version 1 At 4:22 P.M. a motion was made by Harff, seconded by Werner to adjourn the October 29, 2024 meeting 2 of the Sewer and Water Utilities Committee. Motion carried – all ayes. 3 4 The next meeting of the Sewer and Water Utilities Committee will be conducted at 3:45 P.M. on Tuesday, 5 November 12, 2024 via Video Conference. 6 7 8 Respectfully submitted, 9 10 Kara Kroll 11 Utilities Clerk