Jun 28, 2014

Board Meeting May 17, 2014


Gardiner Sanitary District
Board of Directors Meeting
May 17, 2014

     Meeting called to order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members  Catherine Kent, Dennis Conger, Marc Fullhart and Charlotte Hinshaw.  Also present were Mary Chambers, Ray Davenport, Matt Waddlington, Mack Holman, and Suzanna Noordhoff.

     Matt Waddlington made the final presentation on the rate study that his firm has conducted:  He summarized the prior presentations by explaining the purpose of the rate study is to find an equitable process for deciding how much each rate payer should pay individually.  As explained before, there are expenses that must be paid for the operation of the sewer system, some of those costs are fixed and some are variable, but can be estimated based on historical expenditures.  The total of all expense determines how much revenue must be collected to cover them.  The study that they have finished presents the following:

Capital Costs Due to the City of Reedsport:
          $12 million 20-year DEQ loan/GSD’s share@6.45% = 54020.52
          $1.2 million 20-year IFA loan/GSD’s share@6.45% =   3870.00
                             Total annual obligation                                57890.52
Operation and Maintenance Costs Due to City of Reedsport:
          2013 total of $313,987.49/GSD’s share@10.41%      = 32686.10
Administration Fee Due to City of Reedsport:
          5% of Capital plus O&M Costs(2013=90,576.62)      =  4528.83
GSD’s $215,000 5-year DEQ loan annual obligation           = 49198.00
GSD’s Operation and Maintenance Costs                                 = 80550.00
                               Total Annual Obligations                          224,853.45

Total Property Tax Revenues @ 1.4191%                            = 35,600.00
                    Balance to be collected by user fees:                189,253.45

Based on the numbers of water hookups in Gardiner Sanitary District the values that the rate study determined for the 3 different assessment options that were evaluated were:

          Option 1: Flat Rate for All = $141.63
          Option 2: Per Gallon Usage would be the most variable and would have to be adjusted regularly to make sure enough revenue was generated

          Option 3: Hybrid Method using a Base Rate plus Rate for usage over 1000 gallons;  the first 1000 gal @ 60.00, each subsequent 1000 gallons of usage @ 20.00.  The average resident uses 4600 gallons per month, so their bill would be 140.00.  Low users would be at 60.00 and high users would be at 1180.00.

Civil West recommends using Option 3 with a 3% increase per year to keep up with inflation.               

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

     Written copies of the financial report were passed out and read,  Catherine made a motion and Dennis seconded to accept the report and pay the bills.
         
      Old Business:

      Jackie and Charlotte met with Reedsport on April 8 and came to a tentative agreement regarding the contract for services and on April 9 they sent the contract to the district’s attorney for review.  When Jackie returned from vacation on April 23 the contract had still not been signed, but they had just found out that the IFA had established a deadline of April 25 for the contract approval in order for the grant process to proceed. After several phone calls to the attorney and Jonathon, the contract was presented to the Reedsport board members at a special meeting held on April 24 where they accepted it.  Jackie picked up the contract on 4/25, signed it and faxed it off to the IFA in order to meet their deadline.  Jackie asked for an oral vote by the board to officially ratify the contract and each board member voted “yes”.

      Jackie also presented the revised MAO that had been rewritten per her request based on the new timeline for the replacement of the line under the Umpqua River, all board members voted unanimously to approve the revised MAO.

       Ray reported that copies of the updated easement have been presented to American Bridge and we are now just awaiting their signatures.
               
      New Business:

      Civil West presented the board with an Engineering Task Order outlining the project to replace the forcemain under the Umpqua River with work to start in June 2014 and be completed by June 2015 at an estimated engineering cost of $98,761.00.  Marc made a motion to sign the Task Order, Catherine seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.  Jackie signed the order and Matt took the signed copy to send off to the IFA and give the go ahead for the work to begin.

      Ray reported that everything seems to be working properly at this time, but would like to purchase a chemical pump as Reedsport has requested that we reduce the hydrogen sulfite in the wastewater by adding chlorine to it before it gets to the treatment plant.  Dennis made a motion and Charlotte seconded to allow Ray to find a chemical pump, motion passed by unanimous voice vote.  Ray also requested a new squirrel cage fan for the dry pit for ventilation, the other one broke.  Catherine made a motion, Dennis seconded and motion to find a new fan passed by unanimous voice vote.
      
      Jackie asked if anyone would like to voice their opinion on which rate structure option would work best for the district.  After some input and discussion, the general consensus seemed to be that Opion 3-the hybrid method would be the most equitable.  Jackie asked for a motion, Catherine made a motion to use the Hybrid Method for establishing billing rates, Dennis seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.   

      Safety Report: 

          Nothing new to report.

Items Not On The Agenda/Open to the Public:

         Ms. Noordhoff made a request to have her physical address added to her statement, Jackie asked Mary if that was possible, she replied that she would have to look into it, she did not think it was an option with the setup that exists.  Jackie asked her to do a little research and see what she could come up with.

      Jackie suggested that they should consider setting up on-line banking access in order to transfer money between accounts and view current activity and give access to Mary as well as the signers.  Charlotte made a motion to setup online access to view activity and make transfers between accounts only, with access being granted to Mary, Jackie and Charlotte, Marc seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

      Charlotte would like to see the floor in the meeting room cleaned and possibly get help from the Fire Dept to do so.  She said she would discuss it with them and look into who could possibly do the work and bring it up at the next meeting.           

Marc made a motion to adjourn, Charlotte seconded and the meeting was adjourned.
              
Submitted by Mary Chambers (Office Manager)
    

Jun 3, 2014

Notice of Budget Hearing 2014-2015 Fiscal Year



A public meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on June 19, 2014 at 5:30 pm at the Gardiner FireHall, Gardiner, Oregon. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2014 as approved by the Gardiner Sanitary District Budget Committee.  A summary of the budget is presented below. A copy of the budget may be inspected or obtained at the District office in the Gardiner FireHall, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. or online at gardinersanitarydistrict.blogspot.com. This budget is for an annual budget period.  This budget was prepared on a basis of accounting that is 
the same as the preceding year.   
 
                         NOTICE OF BUDGET HEARING              
 


 
 


 
 


 
 


 
 


 
 


 
 


 
Contact: Mary Chambers Telephone: 541-271-3515 Email: district@gardinersanitary.com
 
FINANCIAL SUMMARY - RESOURCES
TOTAL OF ALL FUNDS Actual Amount Adopted Budget Approved Budget
  2012-2013 This Year 2013-2014 Next Year 2014-2015
 Beginning Fund Balance/Net Working Capital 311,616 325,399 233,744
 Fees, Licenses, Permits, Fines, Assessments & Other Service Charges 107,013 116,556 128,199
 Federal, State and all Other Grants, Gifts, Allocations and Donations     500,000
 Interfund Transfers / Internal Service Reimbursements   2 2
All Other Resources Except Current Year Property Taxes 3,439 3,015 2,800
Current Year Property Taxes Estimated to be Received 55,967 55,103 35,800
     Total Resources 478,035 500,075 900,545
 
FINANCIAL SUMMARY - REQUIREMENTS BY OBJECT CLASSIFICATION
Personnel Services 42,913 50,000 43,000
Materials and Services 130,796 189,825 64,583
Capital Outlay 9,098 146,609 641,544
Debt Service   30,000 35,826
Interfund Transfers   2 2
Contingencies   83,639 115,590
Unappropriated Ending Balance and Reserved for Future Expenditure 295,228    
     Total Requirements 478,035 500,075 900,545
 
FINANCIAL SUMMARY - REQUIREMENTS AND FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT EMPLOYEES (FTE) BY ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT OR PROGRAM *
Name of Organizational Unit or Program      
     FTE for that unit or program      
Not Allocated to Organizational Unit or Program 478,035 500,075 900,545
     FTE 0.75 0.75 0.75
     Total Requirements 478,035 500,075 900,545
           Total FTE 0.75 0.75 0.75
 
STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN ACTIVITIES and SOURCES OF FINANCING *
The District will receive a $500,000 IFA Grant to complete repair/replacement of the forcemain crossing the Umpqua River.
 
PROPERTY TAX LEVIES
  Rate or Amount Imposed Rate or Amount Imposed Rate or Amount Approved
  2012-2013 This Year 2013-2014 Next Year 2014-2015
 Permanent Rate Levy      (rate limit  1.4191 per $1,000) 1.4191 1.4191 1.4191
 Local Option Levy 1.0 1.0  
 Levy For General Obligation Bonds      
 
STATEMENT OF INDEBTEDNESS
LONG TERM DEBT Estimated Debt Outstanding Estimated Debt Authorized, But
  on July 1.  Not Incurred on July 1
General Obligation Bonds    
Other Bonds    
Other Borrowings $215,000  
     Total $215,000  





150-504-073-2 (Rev. 02-14)



Board Meeting April 17, 2014


Gardiner Sanitary District
Board of Directors Meeting
April 17, 2014

     Meeting called to order by Dennis Conger, present were Board Members  Catherine Kent, Marc Fullhart and Charlotte Hinshaw.  Also present were Mary Chambers, Ray Davenport, Garrett Pallo, Bev Doane, Mary Paula, and Delice Ciechanowski       .

     Garrett Pallo made a presentation on the rate study that his firm is conducting:  He explained that the purpose of the rate study is to find an equitable process for deciding how much each rate payer should pay individually.  Since sewage is not metered as it leaves a residence, there is no definitive way to measure each residences output so there needs to be an alternative way to determine rates.  Historically, the district has used the EDU (equivalent dwelling unit) method which worked in the past but has become less equitable for some individuals.  His firm acquired water usage information for Jan-Mar from the City of Reedsport’s records to get a base measurement to begin their study.  That time period is typically a low usage time frame for lawn watering, car washing and other seasonal water usage, so is a better indicator of water that is actually entering the sewage system.  They found that the average EDU usage was 4400gal of water per month, and with a total usage of 415,500 gallons/month, that computes to 95 EDU’s for the district.  There are 3 main options for deciding billing rates: 
1-a flat rate for each water user
2-a per gallon rate
3-a hybrid method using a base rate plus per gallon rate       
Most districts use the hybrid method but a rate study will examine each opton to give the governing body the most information in order to make the best decision for their particular district.  A flat rate would be the most predictable and the per gallon rate the least.  There will be another meeting to give district patrons another opportunity to learn more about the options and then a third meeting to summarize and hopefully have specific figures to talk about.  The meetings will be on May 1 and May 15th.

     Written copies of the previous minutes were passed out and read, Catherine motioned to accept the minutes, Charlotte seconded, motion passed with a unanimous voice vote.  A question was raised regarding why the minutes aren’t read aloud at each meeting and the answer was that typically there is not enough time to do that and the minutes are available to the public upon their request.

     Written copies of the financial report were passed out and read,  Catherine made a motion and Marc seconded to accept the report and pay the bills.
         
      Old Business:

      Dennis reported that they have been conversing with the mayor and the City Council about the contract with Reedsport and are very close to signing with just a few issues they are still negotiating about.   

       Dennis also reported that the DEQ has sent a repayment schedule for the existing loan to be paid back over the next 5 years at 1% interest, but they are currently examining the possibility of refinancing it to 10 years instead.

        Regarding the American Bridge easement that the district has been trying to get, the survey that AB requested was completed by Hofstadt          er, Inc in which they found an error on the 2009 survey that was done by Stuntzner Engineering.  Stuntzner has corrected their error and is sending new maps and descriptions to us and to Hofstadter.  Once they review the revisions we will be able to have an agreement signed and filed with the county.
                         
               
      New Business:

          Ray reported that the new flow meter is working properly and he has installed the final valve that was needed, making pump repair work much easier and cheaper.

         The first Budget Committee Meeting is set for May 15 at 5:30pm.

      Safety Report: 

          An OSHA hazard assessment will be done on May 30 in which they look for any possible hazards and make recommendations based on their findings.

Items Not On The Agenda/Open to the Public:

         N/A

         Meeting was called into executive session under ORS.192.660(2)(h) to discuss legal correspondence.

         Meeting returned from executive session and Marc made a motion to sign the IFA intergovernmental agreement, Catherine seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

       

Marc made a motion to adjourn, Charlotte seconded and the meeting was adjourned.
              
Submitted by Mary Chambers (Office Manager)