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)
