Sewer and Water Utilities

1 SPECIAL SEWER AND WATER UTILITIES COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 2 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2025 3 VIA VIDEO CONFERENCE 4 (APPROVED VERSION) 5 6 The February 11, 2025 meeting of the Sewer and Water Utilities Committee was called to order by 7 Committee Chairperson Denise Bhirdo at 7:46 A.M. 8 9 Present: Chairperson Denise Bhirdo and members Kurt Harff and Alison Werner 10 11 Staff Members: Village Administrator Julie Schmelzer, Utilities Director Megan Barnes and Utilities Clerk 12 Kara Kroll 13 14 Others: Laurel Harff 15 16 Approval of the Agenda: 17 A motion was made by Werner, seconded by Harff that the Agenda for the February 11, 2025 meeting of 18 the Sewer and Water Utilities Committee be approved as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 19 20 Approval of the minutes: 21 A motion was made by Harff, seconded by Werner that the minutes for the January 14, 2025 Sewer and 22 Water Utilities Committee be approved as amended per Werner’s requests. Motion carried – all ayes. 23 24 Public Comments and Correspondence 25 26 No correspondence was received for this meeting. 27 28 Discussion Items: 29 a) Wastewater Treatment Plant Operations Report 30 A copy of the Sewer and Water Utility operations report prepared by Barnes was included in the meeting 31 packet for the members to review. Barnes gave an update on sludge hauling and said three of the area 32 operators met and discussed sludge issues that northern Door County is facing. All the area plants are 33 transferring sludge to NEW Water in 2025. Some of the area plants are looking into using FSO 34 Management to dewater their sludge and then land apply it in Kewaunee County, but no one has signed 35 a contract with them yet. The operators would like to meet again, but next time they would like Sturgeon 36 Bay Utilities to be present to discuss the ongoing sludge issues. 37 38 Bhirdo questioned the hauler overflow item. Barnes said the hauler left the overflow and the staff had to 39 clean it up. Barnes contacted the DNR Septage Coordinator and was told that it is the haulers responsibility 40 to notify the DNR of any spills and it is the haulers responsibility to complete all the forms related to spills. 41 Barnes notified all the haulers and posted notices at the plant on what needs to be done if there is a spill 42 in the future. Barnes said there are now cameras installed at the plant, so the utilities can now go back 43 and look at prior footage if needed. 44 45 b) Discuss Marina Billing 46 Schmelzer reached out to Randy Nesbitt, the Village Attorney, on the Marina billing questions from the 47 January Sewer and Water Utilities meeting. Nesbitt sent a response letter that was included in the meeting  Minutes for the February 11, 2025 meeting of the Utilities – SWUC Committee – Approved Version 1 packet. Lienau asked Nesbitt another question and he is waiting for a response. Further discussion took 2 place at the February meeting, and it was decided that the Marina will be treated like every other customer, 3 and they will have to pay the sewer and water charges going forward. The Marina will have to adjust their 4 budget appropriately. There is no way of accurately calculating the amount of water that is placed in the 5 sanitary sewer system from J dock. 6 A motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Harff that the Marina will be treated like every other customer 7 and will have to pay the sewer charge and adjust their budget appropriately. Motion carried – all ayes. 8 9 c) Amendments to Ch. 62; Utilities Code 10 Barnes reported that she made a few changes to the code since the last meeting and the table of contents 11 still needs to be updated. Barnes asked the committee members if they saw anything that needed updating. 12 Werner questioned the service line sizes on page 58 and noted that an apostrophe needed to be added on 13 page 66. Schmelzer and Barnes are going to see if a public hearing is required or if the Board can approve 14 the changes to the code. 15 A motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Harff to schedule a public hearing if needed, if a public hearing 16 isn’t needed the amendments should go to the Village Board for their approval. Motion carried – all ayes. 17 18 d) Discuss Selling Utilities Parcels in Liberty Grove 19 Schmelzer said she was contacted by an individual that was interested in purchasing land the Village owns 20 in Liberty Grove. The Village owns a total of sixty acres in Liberty Grove. The land was purchased for the 21 utilities to apply sludge. Currently the utilities do not land apply sludge, but Barnes would like the utilities to 22 keep the land. The utilities might need the land in the future for land spreading. It was determined that the 23 land will not be sold at this time. 24 25 e) WWTP Facilities Study/Review Facilities Study RFP Responses 26 The Village received six proposals for the facility assessment, feasibility study, and long-term facilities 27 planning of the wastewater treatment facility. The members reviewed and rated the proposals before the 28 meeting. All three members agreed that McMahon, Strand and Donohue are the top three proposals. 29 McMahon would need to shorten their timeline to September. Strand would need to work with our 30 neighbors and stay within the budget amount of $30,000.00. Donohue & Associates would need to help 31 explore funding. 32 33 A motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Werner that the recommendation is made to the Village Board 34 that McMahon be awarded the contract for the Facility Assessment, Feasibility Study, and Long-Term 35 Facilities Planning of the Wastewater Treatment Facility if they can meet the September first deadline. If they 36 cannot meet that deadline then Strand would be the second choice, but they would have to work with our 37 neighbors and stay within the $30,000.00 budget. Donohue is the third choice, and they need to agree to 38 explore funding. Motion carried – all ayes. 39 40 Barnes discussed the sports complex RFP briefly. The RFP is for the sewer lateral that will provide service to 41 the new parks maintenance facility. The proposals are due March 4, 2025, and there will not be a March 42 Utilities Committee meeting, so Barnes wanted to make sure that the Committee agreed to award the bid 43 to the lowest bidder. The Engineer sets the specifications, and all companies must go off the specifications. 44 State law states that you must award the contract to the lowest bidder. The bid would go straight to the 45 Board for approval. 46 47 Discussion regarding matters to be placed on a future agenda or referred to a Committee, Official, or 48 Employee.  Minutes for the February 11, 2025 meeting of the Utilities – SWUC Committee – Approved Version 1 • Conversation on PFA information supplied by McMahon 2 • Discuss Marina Billing 3 The next meeting of the Sewer and Water Utilities Committee will be conducted at 7:45 A.M. on Tuesday, 4 April 8, 2025 via Video Conference. 5 6 Adjournment 7 At 8:39 A.M. a motion was made by Bhirdo, seconded by Harff to adjourn the February 11, 2025 meeting 8 of the Sewer and Water Utilities Committee. Motion carried – all ayes. 9 10 Respectfully submitted, 11 12 Kara Kroll 13 Utilities Clerk