Board Meeting December 15, 2011

Gardiner Sanitary District

Board of Directors Meeting

December 15, 2011

     Meeting called to order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members  Mike Quartararo, Charlotte Hinshaw, Dixie Hash and Marc Fullhart.  Also present were Mary Chambers, Mark Ciechanowski, Ray Davenport, Susanna Nordhoff, and Mack Holman.

     Written copies of the previous minutes were passed out and read, Dixie requested that the wording be changed from “adjourn” to executive session to “retire” to executive session, Marc motioned to accept the minutes as amended, seconded by Mike, motion passed with a unanimous voice vote.

     Written copies of the financial report were passed out and read, Dixie  motioned to accept the report and pay the bills, seconded by Charlotte, motion passed with a unanimous voice vote. 

Old Business:    

Jackie swore in Mike Quartararo to the board member position; the formal act had inadvertently been left out of the July meeting. 

Susanna reported that the City of Reedsport wants $50.00 per month to have their dispatcher respond to an alarm for Gardiner’s collection system, what is built into the existing contract between the two cities is dispatch response to just the water-in system.

Marc reported that he has spoken to Carlos and Fred at American Bridge and according to them they have now backed off of the stringent easement requirements that they had previously requested; they’ve finally realized their potential liability if they don’t grant the easement or donate the property, so the paperwork should be coming through soon.

The possibility of having a property vacancy sewer rate was discussed again and all board members agreed that they could not change the existing policy since the established rates are determined by potential use and edu’s and the district is too small to make exceptions to the existing ordinances.  We need to write a letter explaining this to any customer requesting it.

Ray reported that the backup plan is in place and operational if needed in the future.  He thanked the board, Bob Brown, Susanna and Mark C. for all of their hard work and a job well done.  He had Susanna write a letter to the DEQ responding to the conditions that they had requested be addressed and he felt that she had adequately conveyed information necessary to appease their concerns.  Jackie also thanked Ray, Bob, Mark C. and Susanna for their hard work on the project.

A Reedsport sewer plant operator questioned whether we were going to correct the level of the bypass valves and Ray said that they really should be fixed.  There are a couple of them sticking out of the ground too far because of settling of the gravel fill around them and they could be damaged if driven on.  Mike made a motion and Marc seconded to buy traffic-suitable covers for the valves at a cost of $75.00 each (total of $300.00).  The motion was voted on and passed by unanimous voice vote.

Safety Meeting:

Jackie reported that the hot water heater at the station had broken and she and Marc replaced it for $345.00, it was almost 10 years old, and they managed to get it replaced without injury or damage to any other property in the process.

        

 New Business:

        

 Managers Report: 

Susanna introduced Mike Girard who had heard that the district might be looking for someone to read meters so had come to see if their was any job availability.  He has an extensive work history in pumping, meters, water system related work, no certification in wastewater treatment, but is interested in possibly learning that end of it.  She also reported that she had found a resolution from 2009 addressing sending delinquent accounts to the county tax collector and the policy adopted at the time.

Susanna found that in filling out the paperwork for the insurance policy coming due in February that the districts pipelines were not included so she added them to the list of covered district property.  She also just recently found out that the RFQ has finally been sent out to 10 firms so we are just waiting to hear back on who responds to it. 

The instrument tech inspector was able to determine that the meter on the Reedsport side is calibrated correctly but the Bolin Island meter was not accessible enough for him to inspect.  He was unable to get the cover off, so Susanna and Mark will work on trying to get it off so that they can inspect it themselves.

Susanna feels that the rates that Civil West are charging the district are too high according to the contract that they have with us so Dixie will meet with her to review this and then contact Garrett to address the discrepancy.

 Items not on the Agenda, Open to the Public:

Jackie reported that she and Dixie had met with Scott Somers from the City of Reedsport and he gave us a proposal for contingency coverage for the times when Susanna will be unavailable.  The board read over the proposal and only had a concern or question regarding the difference between a Wastewater I and a Wastewater II certification.  Mike asked Dixie to get clarification on that and made a motion to accept the proposal with a possible minor re-wording.  Marc seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

Suggested Agenda Items for Next Meeting:

-       Engineering rates

-       OSHA consultation

-       Alarm notification

-       Winchester Bay ordinances

Dixie made a motion to retire to executive session pursuant to ORS.192.660(2)(i) and Jackie closed the regular meeting session.

         The board came out of executive session and Marc motioned to adjourn, Mike seconded and the meeting was adjourned.

             

Submitted by Mary Chambers (Office Manager)

Staffing Changes Update

The Gardiner Sanitary District saw some personnel changes in January 2012. The part-time position of ‘Waste Water Technician’ is now vacant.

On the evening of January 2, 2012, Susanna Nordhoff resigned via voice message prior to the Board’s scheduled meeting to discuss the completion of her probationary period.

The Board accepted her resignation.

Following her resignation, Ms. Nordhoff chose to return the keys, and end all work on the following day January 3, 2012. 

We have hired a trainee, Mike Girard, to work 2 hours a day to check flow meters.

The Board will be reviewing applications to fill the position of ‘Waste Water Technician’. 

Board Meeting-Special Meeting- January 4, 2012

Gardiner Sanitary District

Board of Directors Meeting

Special Meeting

January 4, 2012

     Meeting called to order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members  Mike Quartararo, Charlotte Hinshaw, Dixie Hash, and Marc Fullhart.  Also present were Mary Chambers, Bob Brown and, arriving late: Susana Nordhoff.

Mike started out the meeting by playing the phone message that Susanna had left on his voice mail on the evening of 1/2/12 in which she stated that her last day of work would be 1/3/12, and she would turn in the keys.  Susanna worked an unusually long day on 1/3/12.  President Degman received a phone call from Susanna stating that she had left her keys with Mark C., and had removed Bob Brown’s name from the emergency call list.

Dixie made a motion to accept Susanna’s verbal resignation and, in addition, as part of that motion the board chose not to extend Susanna's probation/pre-employment beyond her 6 month probationary period as per the consensus reached at the Dec. 28^th executive session; Mike seconded the motion and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote. 

Dixie reported that the Intergovernmental Agreement with the City of Reedsport had been amended as requested so that the Wastewater I vs Wastewater II certification question was addressed; there is no difference, some entities call it one thing and others call the same thing another.  So the agreement has been signed as agreed to by both sides.

Jackie reported that Susanna told her that she had let the DEQ know that Gardiner Sanitary District no longer had a certified wastewater technician on staff.  Dixie said that she would contact Becky Bryant, Mary Camarato, Steve Nichols and Susan Morgan and apprise them of our situation, and that we have the agreement with the City of Reedsport in place to provide proper certification.

Mike requested that a certified letter be sent to Susanna requesting any district materials in her position be returned immediately.                   

Susanna requested a copy of the job description that she had been given when applying for the job, and proceeded to retrieve it from the file cabinet and make a copy. Susanna was then given her final paycheck. 

Dixie made a motion to adjourn, Mike seconded and the meeting was adjourned.   

             

Submitted by Mary Chambers (Office Manager)

Board Meeting November 17, 2011

Gardiner Sanitary District

Board of Directors Meeting

November 17, 2011

     Meeting called to order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members  Mike Quartararo, Charlotte Hinshaw, Dixie Hash and Marc Fullhart.  Also present were Mary Chambers, Mark Ciechanowski, Ray Davenport, Susanna Nordhoff, Bob Brown, Mack Holman, and Tyler Richardson.

     Written copies of the previous minutes were passed out and read, Marc motioned to accept the minutes, seconded by Charlotte, motion passed with a unanimous voice vote.

     Written copies of the financial report were passed out and read, Dixie  motioned to accept the report and pay the bills, seconded by Marc, motion passed with a unanimous voice vote.  Mary asked for clarification of the coding that the board would like to apply to the expenses for the implementation of the emergency backup plan and they suggested consultation with Rod McCullogh to make sure that it was done consistent with proper governmental standards.

Old Business:  

Mike presented the board with receipts for tool boxes and tools that he procured for the district pump stations that he needs to be reimbursed for.
He also questioned the possibility of hazardous waste, mud, fracking etc that might be produced as a result of the rebuilding and repairing of the under water wastewater treatment pipeline that will be required if we end up staying with the existing structure of the district’s sytem as opposed to going north to the IP site and whether that had been included in the estimated overall costs or not.
Mike also announced that he was recently made aware of potential grant monies available from Three Rivers Casino that we need to look into as a possible funding source for some projects.

Marc reported that Jake from American Bridge will be here next week and he’ll talk to him then about the easement situation and Jackie will go along with him.  Susanna said that the attorney had written a letter to American Bridge, as requested, but that it had taken seven weeks, which didn’t seem like an appropriate time line for making any headway.

New Business:
 
Safety Meeting:  Susanna reported that they had successfully completed two confined space entries over the last weekend as part of the work on the emergency backup plan.  Ray asked about the status of the OSHA consultation and Susanna reported that she had found the report that they had issued earlier this year and she is in the process of reviewing it to see what needs to be implemented from it.

There was some discussion about sewer shut-off policies; Susanna had checked with Reedsport regarding theirs’ and they do allow a minor discount for non-usage, Ray said that Winchester Bay does not allow any discount.  In smaller districts such as ours the budget is based on the number of connections, the debt service is based on edu’s, and there is not enough district personnel available to police whether people are truly in residence or not; the board does not see any reasonable way to change the current policy in order to allow for a rate reduction for non-usage.

Ray’s Report:

Ray reported that last weekend the connection was made on the south side of the river between the existing sewer line and the abandoned water line that is going to be used as part of the emergency backup plan.  The work was more difficult than anticipated because of cement that had been poured under the pipeline at some point in the past, so the cost will be greater than anticipated.  He was unable to give a good estimate of the final cost, they will have to complete the same work on the north side of the river, hopefully next weekend and hopefully without as much difficulty, but they won’t know what they will find until they start digging.  Also, the backflow effort proposed by the engineer did not work as first attempted so they had to regroup the next night and force the sewer back through the pipe instead, but they managed to accomplish it without any spillage.

Managers Report:

Susanna reported that Frances, from the DEQ, had called to see how the work was progressing on the project and was pleased that they had not needed to interrupt service to the district patrons since they had been able to complete the work overnight and had used the Roto-Rooter tank trucks to keep the service running.
Also, the EDG repairs have been completed; Susanna got a second estimate that was $400.00 less than the original, so she accepted that.  Calibration of the meters is underway and she’ll let the board know when that is completed. After an alarm call went to Mark and Ray and not to her, Susanna found out that the problem was that the phones at the pump stations will not dial long distance so she requested that the board authorize an upgrade to the phone system to allow long distance calls at an increase of $20.00 per month.  After some discussion, and a motion by Dixie to authorize the increase in the phone service which was not seconded,  the board decided to have Susanna check with the Reedsport Police Dept to see if they would allow the alarm calls to route to them so that they could forward them to the designated on call person.
Susanna completed the SDAO insurance renewal forms and submitted them in time to take advantage of the rebate offered.
Susanna felt that the conference that she attended in early November was informational as well as educational, she participated in seminars on wastewater lagoon systems and wet well repairs.  She also learned more about the provisional certification process; when someone applies for it, they must also sign up for coursework through an accredited college to prove intent to follow through with the certification process so there is a little more involved than initially thought.

Items not on the Agenda, Open to the Public:

Jackie reported that she attended the meeting regarding wave energy technology hosted by the DEQ last month and heard someone from Ocean Power Technology announce that they are working on a lease with IP.  It is her understanding that they are not to be making that kind of announcement publicly until and if they actually acquire a lease from IP, so she questioned Norb about that and he corroborated her thought.

Mac Holman announced that he supported Susanna’s request for the increase in the chatterbox capabilities and he requested that the district give more notice regarding the monthly meeting agenda.  He would also like to have an update on the district’s operating ordinances which he thought had remained unchanged since 1997.   He was informed that there had been updates to the ordinances since that time and there is an ongoing review, and if he would like a copy he just needs to come into the office and request that a copy be made, there is a nominal copy fee to do that.

Suggested Agenda Items for Next Meeting:
Susanna suggested revisiting the ordinances
Update on the phone situation
Past due accounts
OSHA update
American Bridge easement update
Contingency Plan update

Dixie made a motion to retire to executive session pursuant to ORS.192.660(2)(i) and Jackie closed the regular meeting session.

The board came out of executive session and Marc motioned to adjourn, Mike seconded and the meeting was adjourned.

   

Submitted by Mary Chambers (Office Manager)