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May 4, 2014
Notice of Budget Committee Meeting
Board Meeting March 20, 2014
Gardiner Sanitary
District
Board of Directors
Meeting
March 20, 2014
Meeting called
to order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members Dennis Conger, Catherine Kent, Marc Fullhart and Charlotte
Hinshaw. Also present were Mary
Chambers, Ray Davenport, Mike & Kathy Quartararo, Dick Nored, Jonathon
Wright, Mary Paula, Mack Holman and Esther Siderman.
Written copies
of the previous minutes were passed out and read, Charlotte motioned to accept
the minutes, Catherine seconded, motion passed with a unanimous voice vote.
Written copies
of the financial report were passed out and read, Dennis made a motion and
Catherine seconded to accept the report and pay the bills with the exception of
the City of Reedsport bill, which Jackie will let me know whether to pay it or
not after the meeting with Reedsport on Monday, motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Old Business:
Jackie reported
that they met with Reedsport last Wednesday and progress was made on the
negotiations, they will meet again next Monday to discuss 3 financial questions
and correspondence from the attorney.
Jackie also
reported that she had received a new MAO from the DEQ, but John Gasik called
and let her know that he will be on vacation until April 9th so
would like to hear from her after that.
Jackie let him know that she will be on vacation from April 9th
through the 21st so she would let him know as soon as she is
available to discuss it. She has
already heard from the district’s engineer and he is pleased with the revised
MAO.
Garrett Pallo
is putting together a scope of work for the under-river line replacement
project so the project is still moving forward as quickly as possible.
Charlotte
reported that after the last storm, it was discovered that the office computer
was not working so a repairman was called and apparently a fuse had blown which
caused the problems. In the process of
getting the computer back up and running, he found that there was no current
antivirus program so he updated that.
Also, Microsoft has announced that they will no longer be supporting
Windows XP so it is time to either upgrade or get a new computer.
New Business:
Ray
reported that the line repair was completed on 3/15 by Orca Divers. While the line was down, Ray installed the
flow meter sensor, but when it was hooked up the error code was still flashing
as it had before the new install. Ray took the transmitter apart and cleaned it
and it started working properly. He has
the last valve installation planned for tomorrow. American Bridge wants another survey done to confirm the original
survey before they will grant the easement, so Ray asked the board if they
would authorize that. Marc made a
motion to have Ray tell American Bridge to go ahead with the survey that they
want done, not to exceed the $550.00 quote that was given, Dennis seconded and
the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Jackie
reported that the district received a letter from the DEQ regarding the loan
repayment schedule, which she reviewed with Garret Pallo and he had a few
suggestions for her to approach the DEQ with.
Items Not On The Agenda/Open to the Public:
N/A
Suggestions for agenda items for next meeting:
Reedsport
Contract Update
Update on
MAO from DEQ
Update from
Civil West on the Rate Study
American
Bridge
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 adjourn, Charlotte
seconded and the meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Mary
Chambers (Office Manager)
Board Meeting February 20, 2014
Gardiner Sanitary
District
Board of Directors
Meeting
February 20, 2014
Meeting called
to order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members Dennis Conger, Catherine Kent, and Charlotte Hinshaw. Also present were Mary Chambers, Mike &
Kathy Quartararo, and Esther Siderman.
Written copies
of the previous minutes were passed out and read, Dennis 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, Dennis made a motion and
Charlotte seconded to accept the report and pay the bills, motion passed by
unanimous voice vote.
Old Business:
Jackie reported
that she received the latest Reedsport contract draft the day before she left
for vacation so she didn’t have much time to review it but she let Becky Bryant
know that they may need to have an interim contract to satisfy the funding
agencies since it may take a little longer to come to an agreement with Reedsport
for a longer term contract. Jonathon
Wright didn’t seem very interested in signing an interim contract.
There has been
no update on an MAO from the DEQ as of today.
The
$500,000.00 grant application has been received and is ready to be signed. Dennis made a motion, and Cathy seconded it,
to give Jackie the authority to sign the $500,000.00 IFA grant contract, and
the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Jackie signed the contract and directed Mary to get it in the mail
tomorrow.
Jackie called
Ray, he apologized for not being present at the meeting, and reported that he
got 2 valves installed and still has one more to go on Bolin Island. He sent a report to the DEQ on 2/9/14
regarding the break in the line under the river. The flow sensor tube is going to be shipped on 2/21 and he plans
to have it installed by the end of the month, as soon as the flows recede. The
system has been on the bypass line since 2/9 but they can’t get the line fixed
until the flow drops to about 70,0000 to 80,000 gallons and the river level
drops. He got the generator at Bolin
Island repaired and it ran by itself yesterday with no issues.
New Business:
There is no
new business to report other than what Ray already reported regarding the break
under the river.
Items Not On The Agenda/Open to the Public:
Jackie
reported that there was a meeting between IP and the City of Reedsport at which
IP suggested that they would like the city to process the effluent from their
landfill that is still open rather than using the outfall pipe.
Suggestions for agenda items for next meeting:
Reedsport
Contract Update
Update on
MAO from DEQ
Update on
the line repair project
American
Bridge
Meeting was
called into executive session under ORS.192.660(2)(h) to discuss legal
correspondence.
Meeting
returned from executive session and Charlotte made a motion to adjourn, Dennis
seconded and the meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Mary
Chambers (Office Manager)
Board Meeting January 16, 2014
Gardiner Sanitary
District
Board of Directors
Meeting
January 16, 2014
Meeting called
to order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members Dennis Conger and Charlotte Hinshaw. Also present were Mary Chambers, Ray Davenport, Mike & Kathy
Quartararo, Dick Nored, Mack Holman and Esther Siderman.
Written copies
of the previous minutes were passed out and read, Dennis 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, Dennis made a motion and
Charlotte seconded to accept the report and pay the bills, motion passed by
unanimous voice vote.
New Business:
Jackie
announced that she was starting the meeting with new business instead of old
because Ray had to leave early. Ray
reported that the valve replacement for the firehall pump station has been
completed. While changing the valves at
the Bolin Island pump station, a flange broke and while he was able to plug
that line, it is a temporary fix and he will have to restart the process of
replacing those valves and permanently fix that break. The week before that, a pump burned up
because it got a rock stuck in it.
During this period, the flow meter was ruined because the sump pump in
the vault where the pump and flow meter are housed quit working and the vault
filled with ground water. The flow
meter is not repairable and it will cost $3600.00 to replace the flow meter
sensor tube. Dennis made a motion to have
Ray obtain a replacement flow meter sensor tube for no more than $3800.00,
Charlotte seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Ray also
advocated for Steven Bell to be given a raise as he has been a steady and
reliable employee, the board agreed to discuss it.
Jackie
reported that she had received a call from the engineer that they were sending
an application that needed to be signed by 12/31/13 for the financing of the
$500,000.00 project plan for the replacement of the line under the river. Per the engineer, this step is required
prior to the replacement of the pump stations.
Because of the timing, she signed and returned the application as soon
as she received it.
Old Business:
Jacki reported that there was supposed
to be a meeting between the district and Reedsport officials to continue the
contract negotiations on January 13th, but she didn’t receive the
proposal from them until January 10th which didn’t give them enough
time to review it, so the meeting was postponed until January 21st. Also, she has had no update on the DEQ MAO.
Items Not On The Agenda/Open to the Public:
Jackie read
a letter that was submitted to the board from Mike Quartararo requesting that
the board limit public input at the meetings to residents of the sanitary
district.
Jackie also
read a letter from I.P. terminating the agreement that they had with the
district regarding ownership of the company’s property in light of the recent
decision to abandon the option to develop said property into a wastewater
treatment facility.
Mack
announced that he was considering moving forward with a possible recall for the
sanitary district board members. Dick
Nored responded that he strongly advised against doing that at this time.
Meeting was called into executive session under
ORS.192.660(2)(i) to discuss performance evaluation of employees.
Meeting returned from executive session and Charlotte made a
motion to increase Steve Bell’s hourly rate form $10.00 to $11.50; Dennis seconded the motion and the motion
passed by unanimous voice vote.
Suggestions for agenda items for next meeting:
Reedsport
Contract Update
Update from
Civil West on funding application
Update on
MAO from DEQ
Update on
the valve replacement project
American
Bridge
Charlotte made a
motion to adjourn, Dennis seconded and the meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Mary
Chambers (Office Manager)
Board Meeting December 19, 2013
Gardiner Sanitary
District
Board of Directors
Meeting
December 19, 2013
Meeting called
to order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members Dennis Conger, Catherine Kent, Marc Fullhart, and Charlotte
Hinshaw. Also present were Mary
Chambers, Ray Davenport, and Esther Siderman.
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, Dennis made a motion and
Catherine seconded to accept the report and pay the bills, motion passed by
unanimous voice vote.
Old Business:
Jackie reported
that the district is still under negotiations with Reedsport and they have
another meeting scheduled for January 13, 2014 to continue discussions. If needed, they will have an interim
agreement by the end of the year, but that doesn’t seem to be required at this
point. She has had no new information
regarding the MAO from the DEQ and no update on the funding application other
than that Garrett is working closely with Becky Bryant and they are still on
track for getting it done.
Ray got a call
from Matt Wadlington of Civil West requesting a listing of any work that he is
aware of that needs to be done that could be covered by the grant money if
there is any extra available.
Safety Meeting:
Ray has
submitted responses to OSHA’s questions on the procedures manual and is
awaiting any further input.
New Business:
Ray reported that he has installed new
batteries in the chatterboxes in case of a power loss. Also, the valve replacement project is
pretty in depth work but he is going to try to replace all 4 valves at the
firehall tomorrow night as he has tried to anticipate any problems that might
come up when he gets into it and is fairly confident that he has everything in
place to get it done in one night.
Items Not On The Agenda/Open to the Public:
Nothing.
Meeting was called into executive session under
ORS.192.660(2)(h) to discuss legal counsel concerning possible pending
litigation.
Meeting returned from executive session.
Suggestions for agenda items for next meeting:
Reedsport
Contract Update
Update from
Civil West on funding application
Update on
MAO from DEQ
Update on
the valve replacement project
Wage
evaluation for Steve
Catherine made a
motion to adjourn, Marc seconded and the meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Mary
Chambers (Office Manager)
Board Meeting November 21, 2013
Gardiner Sanitary
District
Board of Directors
Meeting
November 21, 2013
Meeting called to
order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members Dennis Conger, Catherine Kent, and Charlotte
Hinshaw. Also present were Mary
Chambers, Ray Davenport, Garrett Pallo, Keith Andersen, Becky Bryant, Keith
Tymchuk, Jonathon Wright, Steve Lindsley, Mike Quartararo, Kathy Quartararo,
Ean Wright, Dick Nored, Mack Holman, and Esther Siderman.
Written copies of
the previous minutes were passed out and read, Dennis 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,
Charlotte made a motion and
Catherine seconded to accept the report and pay the bills, motion passed by
unanimous voice vote.
New Business:
Ray reported
that the generator has been repaired and refueled, but still needs to have the
timer replaced and he is waiting for an estimate on how much that will be.
Ray also had Ticor Title do a search for the
easement on Bolin Island, which they did at no cost to the district and which
found no recorded easement on the property.
Ray then
explained the problems he is running into on the valve replacement project. He has not had any luck finding a 9 ½” valve
which is what is on one of the lines, and is afraid that there is no such
option available any longer. He has
found the 10” valves at $579.00 each, of which he would need a total of seven
to replace all of the existing valves, so he is negotiating to try to get a
discount. Garrett volunteered that he
may have some options available that Ray has not considered. Ray said he would
get together with him to discuss those after the meeting.
Ray also
reported that the phone/fax machines are still not working as was previously
thought, so he is sure now that the district needs a new machine; one that will
handle both activities and will record messages since the office is not manned
for any extended length of time. The
fire chief has been looking for a machine but has been unsuccessful so far,
they are also in need of it, so should be willing to help with the cost. Catherine said she would shop on-line and see
if she could find something that would work for both departments.
Safety Meeting:
Ray is still
working on the Procedures manual for OSHA, and has no other safety issues to
report.
New Business:
Jacki introduced Becky Bryant of the
Economic Development Department, Garrett Pallo, engineer from Civil West, and
Keith Andersen of the DEQ and asked Garrett to give the presentation that he
had prepared. Garrett gave a brief
narrative of what the district has been facing for the last few months: the district is under increasing pressure to
take action due to the spills in the river and because of many circumstances,
the only option available to them at this time is to repair the line under the
Umpqua River and maintain the association with the City of Reedsport wastewater
treatment facility. He also stated that
over the last few months it became increasingly clear that the district patrons
are unhappy with the existing rate structure and he recommends conducting a
rate study so that all customers will be fairly billed based on usage not on a
flat rate as has been used up until this time.
He says that there are a couple of agencies available to do a rate study
at no cost to the district.
Garrett also
reported that he has been communicating with Becky Bryant for the last couple
of weeks and the IFA is putting together a funding package that will cover 100%
of the cost of rebuilding the system going south, which is almost unheard of,
but time is of the essence as the district would have to make an application by
December 31, 2013 in order to take advantage of this opportunity. There are a few stipulations that would have
to be met, such as the county and the City of Reedsport would both have to be
on board with the project, and there would need to be at least a tentative
contract in place with the city in order for the package to be approved. Garrett would recommend accepting this
funding package.
Jackie
reiterated that the DEQ has placed additional pressure on the district to go
south and if we are to take advantage of this unique opportunity we must act
quickly, she asked Becky if she had anything further to add and/or if any of
the board members had any questions for Becky.
No additional comments were made and Jackie asked for a motion. Dennis made a motion to direct Civil West to
assist Becky in completing the applications for the CDBG wastewater grant
program, Catherine seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Jackie then
stated that as a result of the meeting held on September 29th, the
DEQ had proposed a 7 page MAO, but, she asked, in light of this turn of events,
would the DEQ be willing to review the
proposed MAO and it’s timelines to accommodate these new developments? And also, to discuss the options on the
current debt to the DEQ? Mr. Andersen
responded that the DEQ would absolutely be willing to adjust the proposed MAO
based on the new circumstances. He said
he would be happy to set up a meeting to discuss the MAO and the existing
loan. He has already looked into the
possibility of loan forgiveness, due to the change in circumstances since the
loan was initiated, and that didn’t seem to be legally possible, but he would
be willing to see if there were any other options available.
Old Business:
Jackie
reported that she, Charlotte, Keith, Jonathon and some Reedsport city council
members had met to negotiate the contract, and had had a thorough discussion
of many different options and had set a
second meeting for December 11th to continue the discussions. Garrett asked Keith if Reedsport thinks that
the deadlines for this new proposal would be doable, and Keith answered
“absolutely”.
Jackie also
met with the district’s attorney and they are still looking for clarification
on the contract language.
Items Not On The Agenda/Open to the Public:
Mike Q. asked
the DEQ if they are willing to indemnify the district for any future
environmental lawsuits based on the line under the river, and Keith Andersen
responded that they would not. The
concept of a sewer line running under a river is not new, and is in place in
numerous coastal communities and is an accepted occurrence. Garrett reiterated that it is done all of the
time without problems.
Esther asked if the city of Reedsport
would be taking over the billings for the district under this new scenario, and
Jackie answered that that is one of the options that they are discussing as
part of the contract negotiations.
Bev Doane asked
if there was any relief available for the flat rate she is being charged for
apartment units that are vacant and Jackie answered that under the current rate
plan, there was no option but she and Garrett reminded her that that was why
the new rate study was going to be done and when that was finished, they would
be charged on usage rather than a flat rate, so her rates would adjust when
units were vacant.
Mike asked
the board if they could be able to give an update at the next meeting on the holes
that have been found in the Reedsport bookkeeping. Dennis answered that they would be
concentrating on getting a new contract hammered out over the next few weeks,
and getting the funding application process completed so their attention would
be elsewhere.
Suggestions for agenda items for next meeting:
Reedsport
Meeting Update
Update from
Civil West on funding application
Update on MAO
from DEQ
Charlotte made a
motion to adjourn, Catherine seconded and the meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Mary
Chambers (Office Manager)
Board Meeting October 17, 2013
Gardiner Sanitary
District
Board of Directors
Meeting
October 17, 2013
Meeting called to
order by Dennis Conger, present were Board Members Marc Fullhart, Catherine Kent, and Charlotte
Hinshaw. Also present were Mary
Chambers, Ray Davenport, Jonathon Wright, Steve Lindsley, Mack Holman, and
Esther Siderman.
Written copies of
the previous minutes were passed out and read, Marc motioned to accept the
minutes, Catherine seconded, motion passed with a unanimous voice vote.
Written copies of
the financial report were passed out and read,
Marc made a motion and Charlotte seconded to accept the report and pay
the bills, motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Old Business:
Marc and
Charlotte have not had an opportunity to meet yet to review the district’s
ordinances, but they have a copy of the Winchester Bay Sanitary District
ordinances to use as a basis for analyzing whether there need to be any changes
made to the GSD ordinances.
Ray made a
suggestion that at least one of the district’s board members should consider
going to the SDAO meeting being held in Seaside this year to get any updates
and/or changes that have been implemented since the last time any of them have
been. There is a lot of information to be
had at these meetings that is useful to small districts.
Ray has not
heard anything new from American Bridge regarding the easement question, but we
did receive a letter in the mail today from Dick Nored with a copy of an
easement that did not have any signatures, but Dick was sure that there was a
signed copy somewhere. He suggested
checking with one of the attorney’s that were originally involved with the
formation and description process.
Ray also
announced that the valve project has been put on hold for the moment because of
the incident with the line under the river.
There were pump malfunctions noted on 9/25 and 9/26, then there was a
large discrepancy between flows recorded at the Bolin Island pump station and
the meter at the Reedsport treatment plant on 9/27 which prompted Ray to assume
that there was a break in the line, at which point he diverted the sewage flows
from the force main to the emergency bypass line to reduce any further
leakage. It is estimated that there was
a leak of approximately 39,635 gallons of wastewater. It was not possible to repair the line
immediately because of inclement weather conditions, but repairs were completed
on 10/5.
New Business:
Ray notified the board that there is a
problem with the generator that he has not been able to figure out yet, but it
needs some kind of repair and will keep working on figuring out what it needs.
Ray also
asked the board to consider an increase in his monthly base contract amount by
100.00 to $1260.00 per month as his one year contract is due to end on November
15th. Marc made a motion to
give Ray an additional 100.00 per month, Catherine seconded and the motion was
passed by unanimous voice vote.
Charlotte
reported that we were accepted for the grant for new heaters and she just
needed to return the signed agreement and we should be receiving the money.
Dennis made
reference to the town hall meeting that was held on October 9th at
which the overwhelming majority of audience members present appeared to be
behind the option of staying with the Reedsport wastewater treatment rather
than building the IP wastewater treatment plant, but suggested that the board
still needed to pursue a definitive decision on the interpretation of the
contract wording with Reedsport regardless of which way they ended up
going. He observed that during the
second plant expansion that Reedsport implemented, the city interpreted the
contract that had been in place since the first plant expansion, differently
than they had originally at the time of the first expansion. He asked Jonathon Wright if he had any input
on the issue and Jonathon stated that Reedsport would still like to pursue
mediation rather than arbitration to resolve the question in order to maintain
an open dialogue. Dennis responded that
Gardiner had tried to meet with Reedsport to discuss the issue earlier this
year and were not given an opportunity to do so, then also reminded Jonathon of
the letter that Reedsport had sent to Gardiner dated 9/16/13 requesting a
response by 9/21/13 that was postmarked 9/23/13 as evidence of the kind of
communication that has been a hindrance to resolving any issues between the two
entities. Jonathon apologized for this
instance, stating that he had used the physical address of the district, taken
from the district’s website, rather than the P.O.Box and when the letter was
returned, had resent it to the P.O. Box.
Jonathon offered to set up a meeting between the district, the Reedsport
mayor and 2 city council members to discuss the contract. Dennis said that that would be agreeable and
that he would send a written acknowledgement to the city accepting that offer. When asked whether the City of Reedsport
would be willing to take over Gardiner Sanitary District if the decision is
made to stay with the Reedsport treatment option, Jonathon said that he could
not specify what the city would be able to do.
Safety
Meeting:
Ray is still
in the process of updating the procedures for the Lockout/Tagout Program.
Meeting went into executive session pursuant to ORS.192.660(1)(f) to
discuss consultation with counsel concerning contract negotiations, then
meeting returned from executive session
Marc made a
motion to adjourn, Catherine seconded and the meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Mary
Chambers (Office Manager)
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