The meeting will be a hybrid format, both in person at the DWA building and online via Zoom. All shareholders are invited to attend.
Link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5160276420 Meeting ID 516 027 6420.
Call To Order: 10:06 AM
Welcome everyone present
Present/Quorum: Todd, Paul, Patrick, Dave, Sam, April
Consent Items:
Approve: Contents and order of this Agenda
Approve: Minutes of previous meeting.
Information Items:
Guest Speakers comments (if any): Guests (on Zoom) Penny & Bruce
Board Member comments (if any): Muffins are good! – Patrick. (April brought muffins to the meeting)
President’s Report:
- Thanks everyone for being here! Confirm a date for Nov/Dec meeting 11/23 or 12/7.
Manager/Operator Report:
- Online bill pay scheduled for October and have online and available for customers, and that doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Have to apply for online bill pay through IGC. We filled out application and put it on hold, they didn’t put us on hold, had to resubmit application and the process is starting all over again. Not going to be able to have this service until November. Not going to impact how we bill. Email that goes out to everyone that this service is available. Note will go out on bill as well that let’s them know that online billing is available. People will get an email that says they can sign up for auto-pay and activates their account online. We don’t start billing people electronically until they set up their billing account online.
- We have an account that hasn’t had their meter read in two years. Customer has a lot of landscaping done and landscaping has a lock of rock work done around their meter making it difficult to do anything with the meter. The mistake made was that we said we would move the rock – that was a mistake – and plantings grew over that. Angie said meter needs to replaced, and Dave went out there to weed whack and move rocks. Meter is not broken, just didn’t get read because it was too difficult to access. Meter had been zero for a while. Customer will have a $2,000 water bill, at least. The meter had stopped being read around the time the new ownership bought the house. Customer never approached DWA that they were never billed. Dave talked to the meter reader and made it clear that ALL meters need to be read at all times. April thinks it’s a sunk cost, and DWA takes the cost and ownership of the problem. Todd suggests not shocking customer and suggesting paying two most recent water bills and suggesting a donation. Patrick suggests sending a letter describing the situation and asking the customer to give us a call. April suggests we use Patrick’s idea and send a letter and come up with a mutually acceptable plan. Most recent bill and letter will be sent to customer. April and Patrick will draft a letter to send to customer.
- Ecology department and DOH demands that all water systems to do lead and copper survey to capture who has lead in their water. We have until October 16th to finish and submit survey to avoid violation. If violation occurs, all water system users need to receive letter notifying them of violation. Dave will send survey in asap and avoid any violation. Dave will have to go back around to older houses to survey lead pipes. The survey will be incomplete because of that handful of old homes/water systems pre-1958 that need extra survey. Though the survey will be incomplete, it will be sufficient for the Ecology Department and DOH and DWA will not be assigned a violation. April suggests printing off DOH flyer to give to the handful of older homes letting them know about the survey (also posting flyer online).
- Hake Rd/Manzanita connection – house up for sale at end of Hake Rd. Once sale goes through, Dave will talk with them about that connection and get a feel for possibility for revitalizing that connection. House on Manzanita side recently sold, so maybe some hope to get that connection going.
- Loan for the PRV project looks to be going through and things moving forward on all ends of project.
- Five Spring’s wells – site visit with five people from King County Parks to gain right to access property to use those wells. They will get protection for existing well points plus new five wells.
- Regarding new wells, Dave sees DOH requiring filtration plant, so is wondering if we can just drill one well point and make that well point deeper to avoid surface water intrusion issues. Or possibly just keep existing five wells and focus our efforts on 268th St well point. Patrick pointed out that the DOH is trying to hold us to regulations that do not exist. How is DWA supposed to comply with regulations that do not exist? Bruce sees a concern with any kind of land use change on the adjacent property and are those wells deep enough. Risk in how King County will use adjacent land. Bruce thought let’s just drill a bit deeper and there’s flexibility in that plan, but not too much flexibility. There’s a whole lot of water at 268th for water accessibility. Todd thinks the financial impact of this change will be significant to our water users – how can we hold that with our goal to provide affordable water? Todd thinks we should just drop the whole issue about putting new wells down in Dockton Springs and let’s postpone moving forward for another 10 years. Bruce asked if the new three wells are in wetland area. Dave said the three wells are not in a wetland, but wetlands are surrounding the three wells. Dave wonders if we drop the new three well project and move plans to 268th St wells project? Paul thinks yes. Paul wants to focus on getting the five wells at the Springs into working order and pivot to planning 268th St wells project. April said let’s check out contract with GNO, see what money we will save funds by stopping new Springs wells now. April wonders what are the ramifications of stopping Springs well project now? What’s the time it takes to get a new well on 268? Is the water supply okay in the 10 year interim before we get the new 268th St well up and running?
Water Production Committee:
- None.
CIP Planning Committee:
- None.
Finance Committee:
- Revenue collecting form capital charge not going up, even though we increased it by $5.
- Todd said the capital charge is supposed to be $22 dollars and base should be $40. Seems to be due to issues with transfer new billing system – prices reverted to previous numbers.
- Water usage dropped.
- Paid 20-year-old loan and then will start having bills on Sandy Shores loan. In the loan document, there is an exemption from fair share objectives, but based on our current situation, thinks we will not need to go out to bid. April – how much is it costing us to send it out for bid? Todd – to produce bid package is and expensive job and the time it takes to go through a formal bidding process. April said she will take another look at the paperwork and see if we can save some money.
Community Outreach Committee:
- WordPress coming as a bundle with mail server. Paying for domain and annually charged for annual. Ask Kristine Dahms get estimated cost for website up and running and migrate content and annual cost for webpage and domain.
Old Business / Carryover Items:
- None
New Business / Discussion Items:
- Decided next meeting will be 10/26, then 12/7
Other Business:
- None.
What Did We Decide?
- APRIL: Review letter with Patrick.
- DARTON: None.
- DAVE: Get Angie to change capital charge to $22 and change base to $40.
- PATRICK: Work with Dave and April to write customer letter.
- PAUL: Get back to DWA Board with Springs wells project and 268th St well project recommendations.
- SAM: Talk with Kristine re: website.
- SUSAN: None.
- TODD: None.
Meeting End: 11:39AM
Next Board Meeting: Saturday, October 26th, 2024 @10AM
Board meetings are usually held on the fourth Saturday of the month at 10:00 AM. The November and December meetings are often combined into a single meeting in early December to avoid conflicts with holidays. Upcoming meeting dates are: October 26 and December 7.