Call to Order:
Welcome: Darton, President
Present/Quorum (yes): Darton, Todd, Clint, Matt, Morris, Gini, Paul, Dave (Manager). Guest: Armen Yousoufian
Consent Items
Approved? – Contents and order of this Agenda: Approved
Approved? – Minutes of July meeting: Approved.
Information Items
Guest Speakers comments (if any): None
Board Member : None
President’s Report (Darton):
- Gini presented the changes made to the BOD Policy documents and the DWA Bylaws representing changes in rates passed at the June, 2021 Board Meeting. Terminology designating Domestic (residential) and Non-Domestic (all other) users was incorporated that better reflect the terminology and designation used by DOH. Darton put forward the motion to approve the changes to the BOD Policies and the DWA Bylaws. All were in favor. Dave will send letters to shareholders who will be affected.
Manager/Operator Report (Dave):
- Dave says he has figured out an easy fix to the floor drain issue at the filtration plant. He can cut a drain hole and install PVC piping to send the water to the pond. Paul suggested G&O be notified that we were having to make this adjustment since the dry well system wasn’t clearing the water. Dave said he would do this.
- Dave said he had gotten a call from a member whose property abuts the Sandy Shores DWA property about dead alders that needed to come down so they wouldn’t fall onto their property. In walking around the DWA land Dave said he found another large Madrona that was a danger to another house that really needs to come down too. Dave found places where people have been dumping their yard waste and passing across the property on short cuts to the roads. Dave will put up some signs telling people not to dump or pass through. Darton said Dave should get quotes right away for the tree removal and send us all emails with the quotes to decide and move forward on the work. Todd asked if there might be any trees that we could cut down and sell that would improve the woods there. Dave said not that he could see.
- Dave presented the idea that he bring his excavator over from his house to clear out blackberries at Sandy Shores which are in the way of fencing there. He wants to do this down at Dockton Springs as well, where we have funding set aside for fencing and gates. He will rent Frank Zellerhof’s trailer for this which he has gotten permission to do. Darton said Dave should be reimbursed for the cost of fuel, the trailer rental and other related costs. Todd made sure to clarify that DWA is using Dave’s excavating equipment for the water district’s project so our insurance would cover any possible mishap but that he wanted to make sure Dave also has insurance for the machine. Dave will write this up and send it to us.
- Dave brought up that he is needing to make some changes in personnel at the water district because he needs to get someone trained to be his backup who will be low level certified to run the system. Darton put forth a motion to form a committee to begin discussing the options for this and the changes that will be needed. The committee will be Todd, Matt, Morris, Dave, Paul and Darton. Darton asked if this motion is approved? All voted to pass this motion.
Committee Reports:
Finance Committee (Todd):
- Todd said the Annual budget for Operations is projected to go from $28K to about $5K. There are no big surprises this month. Staffing costs are a little bit high and our income is around $22K rather than $19K because of an increase in our base rate and usage but all in all we are in good shape. Business Operations expense this month is largely the legal fees we have incurred from the King county lawsuit but we have budgeted for this, although perhaps not enough… System Operations is low compared to last year because of unscheduled maintenance last year and low energy usage this year.
- Nothing else significant to report. We have about $300K which is a good position to be in.
Water Production Committee (Paul):
- Paul says that the legal fees for our King County lawsuit appear to be winding down. The lawyers recommend an agreed upon settlement. We never signed a franchise agreement which is looking good now.
- Paul congratulated Dave on getting full certification; the rest of us did too.
- Armen asked if any of the other island water districts were part of our group in the lawsuit against King County. Paul and several other members said no they didn’t believe any others were part of our particular legal action.
CIP and Planning Committee
- None because we are still building up our finances to move forward in the future.
Old Business / Carryover Items
- None
New Business / Discussion Items
- Clint asked if we were still needing to be particularly careful in our water use seeing as our holding tanks are all full. Dave said no and mentioned that he had taken down the signs at the Marina a few days ago.
- Paul asked if Dave had been seeing any dumping or that sort of thing down around the parking pull out at the Marina next to the Dockton Springs property. He was concerned if there is garbage and junk it would be bad for the water. Dave said he hadn’t seen any thing to raise concern.
Other Business
- None
What did we decide?
- Motion was approved for the updated DWA Bylaws.
- Motion was approved for the updated BOD Policy.
- Motion was approved to form an Exec. Committee to work with Dave regarding staffing changes.
- Dave will email the board with updates on staffing.
- Dave to get quotes for cutting down the trees in the Sandy Shores property and send it to the board.
- Dave to install signage to restrict dumping and trespassing at Sandy Shores property.
- Gini to load new Bylaws and Policy documents into our website
- Dave to write up what it’s going to cost to use the trailer and excavator to clear the blackberrys.