Call to Order:
Welcome: Darton, President
Present/Quorum (yes): Darton, Todd, Clint, Matt, Morris, Gini, Paul, Dave (Manager). Guest: Duncan Greene
Consent Items
Approved? – Contents and order of this Agenda: Approved
Approved? – Minutes of July meeting: Approved.
Information Items
Guest Speakers comments (if any): Duncan Greene of Van Ness Feldmann LLP
- Duncan Greene came to the meeting to present information to help us decide on whether to terminate our participation in the litigation moving forward regarding the KC franchise fee. Duncan presented important points including the fact that the judge had ruled that KC has the right to charge the water districts’ fees for using roadways and that any further litigation or court time will be very costly and unlikely to change things significantly for us. It was also noted that currently water districts are required to provide water for “fire flow” at no cost to KC. If this changes and KC starts having to pay for water from DW we could end up with a credit even beyond what KC might charge us for the franchise fee. We do not have an agreed franchise agreement with KC in place, so we still will need to go through negotiations. It seems unlikely that KC can block the use of a right of way to a utility that has not negotiated an agreement or paid the new fee. Duncan agreed in principal with this assertion, but these are the types of situations still impacted by this case.
- After Duncan’s presentation Todd put forward the motion to have DWA drop out of the Franchise lawsuit going forward. All were in favor.
- Duncan will plan to be in touch with the attorneys to remove us from the group of litigants next week. He will try to be in touch with them in the future so we can glean information about how the case is going and what is being decided.
Board Member : None
President’s Report (Darton):
- Darton introduced Duncan Greene to the Board and had him present the information we needed to vote on whether to continue with the franchise fee lawsuit. See Duncan’s report above.
Manager/Operator Report (Dave):
- Dave reported that he had interviewed a candidate for the new position we are creating and wants DW to hire him. Skylar will likely need certifications in this position. He will be assuming the jobs currently done by Patsy, Erin and NW Waters as well as handling other tasks. This will be a part time position. A credit and State Patrol background check will be done.
- The Executive Committee will meet on October 9 at 10 am to meet with Skylar via Zoom.
- Dave has cleared the blackberry bushes from around Dockton Springs and the fencing contract has been signed and the deposit has been sent. Most likely this fencing will be installed in November.
- Dave has received a couple of complaints from shareholders regarding how the water tastes. The board discussed the issue and possible remedies. Dave plans to do a big flush to the system this winter to see if he can clear any mineral residuals. In the future the board may consider adding a scrubber to the system to improve the water’s taste.
- There was a water leak across from Dockton park that has been fixed. The board heard Dave’s suggestion for replacing this line. After some discussion it was decided that Dave would explore some additional options and gets quotes.
- Dave is moving forward with two projects on our CIP that we plan to complete next summer – The repiping between 94th and Pt. Piner and the main rerouting and replacement and PRV replacement at Sandy Shores. Dave will get quotes from both Ben Dahle and Grey and Osborne asking for a 60% design set with cost estimate. The board discussed future piping replacements that might be able to be paid for with grants if we put together the proposal. Dave will get a rough cost estimate (30%) from Ben Dahle and Grey and Osborne.
Committee Reports:
Finance Committee (Todd):
- We are ahead so far this year. Our total Fund Balance stands at $293K instead of what we budgeted at $278K. In Operations Fund we are ahead. Summer usage was lower than expected but we have billed more primarily because our cubic foot charge has been raised and we are charging reserve shares the same base rate as everyone else now. Business Operations was high due to the Franchise Fee lawsuit. We will be exiting the lawsuit and should hopefully only see one final billing. System Operations are higher than last year because we had an unscheduled maintenance billing of $3K.
Water Production Committee (Paul):
- Nothing to report other than what has been discussed already.
CIP and Planning Committee
- None.
Old Business / Carryover Items
- None
New Business / Discussion Items
- None
Other Business
- None
What did we decide?
- There will be an Executive Meeting on October 9 at 10 am via Zoom to meet Skylar.
- A motion to leave the Franchise Fee Lawsuit was passed with the approval of all.
- Dave will get quotes fro Ben Dahle and Grey and Osborne for the two CIP projects we discussed and also the remaining Asbestos piping removal.