MINUTES OF MEETING
CORAL
SPRINGS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
A regular meeting of the Board of
Supervisors of the Coral Springs Improvement District was held on Monday, March
21, 2011 at 3:10 p.m. at the District Office, 10300 NW 11th Manor, Coral
Springs, Florida.
Present and constituting a quorum were:
Robert Fennell President
Sharon Zich Vice President
Glenn Hanks Secretary
Also present were:
Kenneth Cassel District
Manager
Dennis Lyles District Counsel
Jane Early District Engineer
Dan Daly Director of Operations
Kay Woodward District Accountant
David Macintosh Wastewater
Department
Ed Stover Water Department
Randy Frederick Drainage
Supervisor
Carl Easton CH2M Hill
Brian DeGirolmo DeGirolmo &
Associates, Inc.
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll Call
Mr. Cassel called
the meeting to order and called the roll.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of the Minutes of the February 28, 2011
Meeting
Mr.
Cassel stated there is a correction on page 34.
Mr. Daly picked up on it and we came to the conclusion that the actual
motion was for items one through six for $45,000. The prior motion was initially for $50,000. We wanted to make sure the minutes reflected
the motion was for $45,000 for items one through six.
Mr.
Fennell asked are there any other corrections.
Ms.
Zich responded on page 32 I saw Ms. Early and Mr. Hanks were talking about work
on Ramblewood Boulevard. It is
Ramblewood Drive.
Mr.
Cassel stated on page five Mr. Daly picked up a typo that should be ‘plan’
instead of ‘pan’. On page 16 there is a
typo where it says ‘has’ instead of ‘as’.
I am going to go back and listen to the recording. We used the word ‘Rick’ on page 17. It has to be something in the recording. I will have to listen to it carefully to see
what the actual word is.
On
MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded by Mr. Fennell with all in favor the minutes of
the February 28, 2011 meeting were approved as amended.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration of Encroachment Agreement for 10300
NW 16th Court
Mr.
Fennell asked is there anyone here to address this issue?
Mr. Cassel responded no. The individual came in late last week. Mr. Daly spoke with him and we looked at
it. We checked it out and sent it to Mr.
Lyles. Mr. Lyles has the originals for
execution.
Mr. Daly stated it is one of our
Coral Springs Police Sergeants who just bought a property on the third of this
month. He wants to put a fence up. There is a utility easement there. It is not a CSID utility easement. There is already a hedge there. Our staff went out and they do not have a
problem with it.
Mr. Fennell asked what happens if
something goes wrong. Will he have to
remove the fence?
Mr. Daly responded that is
correct. It can happen with electric,
cable, phone and anything else that goes in this utility easement. It does not have to be just our water lines. He already received clearance from the phone
company, cable company and electric company.
He is just waiting on this one and the city.
Mr. Hanks asked does he want to the
put the fence in at the backside of the utility easement?
Mr. Daly responded that is
correct.
Mr. Hanks asked do you have any
concerns Mr. Lyles?
Mr. Lyles responded we prepared the
encroachment agreement and it specifies a couple of things. The cost of recording is borne by the owner. If at anytime, the District for any reason at
its sole discretion, determines it is better that the encroachment be removed,
he has to remove it at his expense. If
there is any claim that arises while it is there, he indemnifies the District
for any exposure we might have. I think
with the document in front of you it is a matter of whether or not the staff
and the Board are comfortable with allowing the encroachment to be installed on
that easement.
Mr. Hanks asked is this consistent
with our previous policies?
Mr. Cassel responded yes. If we do not have anything where we have to
get in there for, we will allow a fence with an encroachment agreement. If we have to get in on a routine basis, then
we do not allow it.
Mr. Daly stated I may have
misspoken. You asked if this was for the
backside of the easement. It is actually
the west part.
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded by Mr.
Fennell with all in favor the encroachment agreement for 10300 NW 16th
court was approved.
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Supervisors’ Requests and Audience Comments
Mr.
Fennell asked is anybody here?
Mr. Cassel responded I do not see
anyone here from Lanzo this month.
Mr. Hanks asked how are things
coming along?
Ms. Zich asked are the building
folks finished now?
Mr. Cassel responded the buildings
are not finished. We put together a
process, which Lanzo signed last week, where they supply the District with how
the funds from this reduction retainage were going to be spent. They will be bringing those checks after they
are cut to me so they can be reviewed to make sure they match the quantities
they said they were going to pay. The
checks will then be released to the vendors.
They also understand, in their agreement of the letter I sent to them,
should they fall back into an issue like this we retain the right to go back
up, per the contract documents, to a 10% retainage on everything that is
left. They were agreeable to it.
Mr. Fennell stated there is more of
a roof up and they are hauling stuff out of the tank back there. One thing I want to make clear is I am happy
with the Board right now with Mr. Hanks and Ms. Zich having such expertise to
handle these kinds of problems; to have the judgment to be either pro or con on
some of the things we are doing. Unfortunately,
we are a Board that meets once a month.
Thank goodness you guys are as good as you are. Thank you very much for your service. I wish the citizens knew what you are doing
for them. By the way; have you gotten
the newsletters out? I have not received
one yet.
Mr. Daly asked really?
Ms. Zich responded really. When anything like that goes out I am with a
lot of people in this District all of the time and not one person has mentioned
it. I personally have not received one
and they have not received one so I am concerned.
Mr. Daly stated I will check on it
because I got the bill and they should have gone out last Thursday.
Mr. Fennell stated you were saying
three weeks ago.
Mr. Daly stated last Thursday three
weeks ago. That is when bulk mail
goes. I will find out. Thank you for bringing it up.
FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration of Vehicle/Field Truck Bids
Mr.
Cassel stated we put an RFP in the paper.
As the memorandum says, four companies picked up the paperwork, but only
one responded. They came back with a
quote.
Mr. Daly stated it happens to be the
company we have purchased our trucks from for the last 15 years. This is about the price we expected it to be.
Mr. Fennell asked is it just to buy
one truck?
Mr. Cassel responded yes.
Mr. Daly stated it is a replacement
for one we have.
Ms. Zich asked what kind of truck is
it?
Mr. Daly responded an F-250. I believe this one is replacing one with
almost 120,000 miles. That one is not
going to go away. We are going to use
that when other trucks are being fixed and we need a replacement. It was a budgeted item this year.
Mr. Fennell asked is it already
painted?
Mr. Cassel responded it was bid with
our paint scheme on it.
Mr. Fennell stated $25,000 for a
pick up truck is actually pretty inexpensive.
Mr. Hanks asked was there a
limitation whether it was Ford or could it be GM?
Mr. Daly responded it could be
GM. We just wanted those colors.
Mr. Hanks asked was this bid
according to our requirements?
Mr. Cassel responded yes. It was advertised and the bid was opened at a
bid opening meeting.
Ms. Zich asked are we trading in
another truck?
Mr. Daly responded no. We are going to keep that one. I am able to hire a couple of part-timers to
start with the meter replacement program.
They will use the old truck.
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Ms.
Zich with all in favor the Vehicle/Field Truck bid was approved.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Scheduling of Landowners’ Meeting Date
Mr. Fennell
stated I assume this is for an election coming up.
Mr. Cassel stated yes. It is a four year cycle. We need to put it on the record as the
scheduling of the landowners’ meeting for June 20, 2011. It will be prior to our regular June 20, 2011
meeting. We will put the advertisements
in the appropriate newspapers.
Mr. Fennell stated okay. Is there any discussion on this? I do not think we can do anything about it
anyway.
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded by Ms.
Zich with all in favor the Landowners’ meeting date was scheduled for June 20,
2011.
SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Staff Reports
A.
Manager
·
Work
Authorization from DeGirolmo & Associates, Inc.
Mr. Cassel stated for the past year
or so we have been looking at how to improve safety and other items in the
plant for the crew. With the event that
occurred in the digester tank, it was brought to mind that we do not have a
retrieval system on any of our tanks. We
do have our guys down in there from time to time when we drain them, clean them
and work on parts. We do not have a
harness system for retrieval. It was
never originally designed because up until recently we were not covered by OSHA
in other issues where we would have to worry about those kinds of
situations.
In order to be ready and also
provide a safe working environment we looked at putting in davits for man
retrieval. Instead of installing a bunch
of davits all over the place we decided to go with a portable system, but we
still need to have these sockets in place so when the workers go up to go in
the tank they put the davit in so when they go in they have the safety harness. Looking at the locations we needed some input
on structural issues such as how to attach the davit in place. Mr. Daly contacted Mr. DeGirolmo to provide
us with structural locations; where we can put the davit bases so we can have a
safe retrieval system.
Mr. Fennell asked are there any
other uses for this?
Mr. Daly responded no. Safety is so important; especially after the
event that we had with the other CH2M Hill engineer falling off a ladder and not
being able to be hoisted up. We had fire
trucks come to help. The whole idea is
safety and the other part is we will have to be OSHA compliant in the near
future. I do not have a direct date yet. We actually have people going to classes now
to bone-up on it so we make sure we
are not racing for our lives to be compliant.
This is all about safety and nothing else. Hopefully we will never have to use it. The whole idea is we never have to use it.
Ms. Zich asked would this have
helped the man who fell in the tank?
Mr. Daly responded yes. First of all, you should have two people
anytime someone goes in the tank. That
is one of our rules.
Ms. Zich asked were there two people
there?
Mr. Daly responded no. There was only one person when he fell
in. It would have helped because he
would have been strapped in and been able to be lifted up. Mr. DeGirolmo has been contacted to lend some
support to the engineering aspect of fixing the socket that holds the davit.
Mr. Fennell stated it list like 13
different places.
Mr. DeGirolmo stated there are
actually 14. In the initial inspection
we did in the C Plant and D Plant it looks like they are identical so there is
some hope that the detail we come up with will apply to both.
Mr. Fennell asked are you going to
put this in the framework above?
Mr. DeGirolmo responded it seems the
best solution is to weld some base plates onto the side of either the channel
or base plate and put an L bracket on it.
That would support the davit base.
We have a couple of locations on what I think is the outside of C Plant
and D Plant where you have a concrete separator wall on the outside
chambers. It looks like that might also
be a placement that would serve both tanks as this davit rotates 360
degrees. We might be able to get more bang for a buck if we can utilize the concrete
wall in those locations. The majority of
them are going to be welded.
Mr. Fennell asked how many of these?
Mr. Daly responded a maximum of 14.
Mr. Fennell asked how many pieces of
actual hardware to haul somebody up?
Mr. Cassel responded one or two
davits. What you have is the socket
which stays in place. Then you take the actual
davit arm and insert it wherever you are going to be working, put it in place
and utilize it. You do not have to have
14 davits. We did not want to put 14
davits out there that you do not use often.
It is a waste of time and money.
Mr. Fennell stated this brings up
another question. Suppose somebody falls
in a tank which is not empty; what happens then?
Mr. Cassel responded we have
lifesaving equipment on the tanks and catwalks already.
Mr. Fennell stated it is kind of a
black swan kind of thing. One man fell
in over 30 years.
Mr. Cassel stated the reality is
when they are in these spaces, because of the type of tank it is, they are
considered a confined space entry. For
Confined space entry programs you need man lift equipment. You fill out a permit that asks several
questions so you have a whole procedure to go through before the guys can even
go in there and work. We use confined
space entry because it is a confined space area. We need to be able to lift them out of there
should something go wrong.
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded by Mr.
Fennell with all in favor the proposal from DeGirolmo & Associates, Inc.
was approved.
Mr. Fennell stated if there are a
bunch of OSHA standards, even though we have not had to, we should go after and
find out what they are.
Mr. Daly stated we are.
Mr. Fennell stated we should go
after whatever we need to make this a safe work environment.
Mr. Cassel stated we have been doing
that over the last two years to a great deal.
Severn Trent Services comes by once a year and we do a safety
audit. We provide a report to the
District of issues we see because that side of the house does operate under OSHA
so they are familiar with all of the issues.
They provide input and staff has implemented all of the suggestions from
last year’s report.
Mr. Hanks asked is this going to
also apply to the field work? Are we
going to have someone go down and check a manhole? Is that also applicable and are we going to
need portable lifts attached to any of our trucks?
Mr. Cassel responded it will. You typically have a tripod over the
manhole. We will be working towards that
as we go down the line.
Mr. Fennell stated make that a
budget item for next year; what it is going to cost us to bring us fully up to OSHA
standards. Do we have a disaster
chemical team?
Mr. Cassel responded we have a
number of responses for the chemicals and the products we use.
Mr. Hanks asked we are basically
handling what; chlorine and water?
Mr. Cassel responded hypochlorite,
some other chemicals and additives. We,
the crew and both sides of the house, are really well schooled on how to handle
them properly with face shields, gloves and whatever protective equipment they
need to handle that. They are aware of
ventilation issues. Mr. McIntosh and Mr.
Stover are making sure the crew, as they are going through their safety
meetings, is looking at whether they have all the proper safety data sheets and
binders in the office.
Mr. Fennell stated I think now is a
good time to budget for safety.
·
Consideration to
Move the May 23, 2011 Meeting to May 24, 2011
Mr.
Cassel stated I sent you all an email and I believe you all responded you were
amenable to that.
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Ms.
Zich with all in favor the May 23, 2011 meeting was rescheduled for May 24,
2011 at 3:00 p.m.
Mr. Fennell stated the only thing I
see that is not on the agenda is last month a contract was submitted for a bid
for culvert work and you were going to take a look at it.
Mr. Hanks stated I took a look at
it. Ms. Early sent back a spreadsheet breaking out where the different costs
were. I have been through it and I have
a couple of questions so I would like to take this opportunity to discuss some
of them. I was not clear on Work
Authorization 60 whether or not, or where the geotechnical testing comes into
play. My concern is we have a 72 inch
culvert going in, presumed at somewhere around two to three feet of cover on
that. That is going to put it down
seriously into the cap rock or down below at the headwall where we are
connecting into the canal, what kind of geotechnical testing has been ordered
or what has been contemplated and included in this work or is this an
additional cost to the District?
Ms. Early responded no. After the last meeting I put some numbers
together. I did not rewrite that
scope. If you notice in the summary I have
included now that this is everything.
This is inspection. This is all
of the permitting. It is funny that you
mentioned the geotechnical because somebody who works at CH2M Hill in West Palm
Beach, they just put a culvert near his house and seven homes near where the
put the culvert at have their foundations cracked. I do not know what they did. It is something we are definitely going to do
and we can include it in this price. We
can include it with the summary I did and I will rewrite and add
everything. I did not want to rewrite
the work authorization again until we agreed, but we definitely need the
geotech and I can include it
Mr. Hanks stated one of my concerns
with those headwalls is it is not going to be a simple situation. You are not just going to be able to go ahead
and specify. I think what you will have
is you will design the foundation system, because if this is like any of our
other canals we have that cap rock, then we have some slope, whether it comes
back under the cap rock or comes vertical, once we start to disturb it by
breaking through that cap rock we are going to have to make a whole scale
structure. I wanted to make sure that
was in there and covered.
Ms. Early stated we can include
it.
Mr. Hanks stated survey and
as-builts.
Ms. Early stated Mr. Cassel has a
survey done. As-builts will be done by
the contractor. That will be included in
the bid documents that he has to provide as-builts.
Mr. Hanks stated it is basically a
standard civil engineer type of scope where the owner provides the survey.
Ms. Early stated the survey is being
paid from the FEMA grant. Mr. Cassel
coordinated it. I have been in contact
with Brewer & Associates. We are
going back and forth. He has provided
some of the information already.
Mr. Hanks stated please clarify the
monitoring well.
Ms. Early stated there are
monitoring wells in that parking lot. We
just want to make sure that if we have to relocate them; that is coordination
of that. If we do, it will be put in the
plans.
Mr. Hanks asked is there going to be
an additional charge later on down the road with the monitoring well?
Ms. Early responded no. There are, I think, three monitoring wells
behind the dry cleaners. We did see
those. Whether we will have to move
them, it is something we already started contacting the permitting agencies about.
Mr. Hanks stated construction dewatering
is going to be a big issue.
Ms. Early stated that will be in the
contract as well. When we do the
contract documents it will be clearly spelled out. Whatever he needs to do, he cannot come back
for extra.
Mr. Hanks asked is it something you
are designing? My experience with SFWMD
is they are requiring construction dewatering to be addressed at the time of
the environmental resource permit.
Ms. Early stated we have not had
that recently, but I will talk to SFWMD to see what is going on with that.
Mr. Hanks stated and it is not going
to be standard general because you are in a contaminated site. That is a big issue which will be out there
and I want to know whether it is under...
Ms. Early stated if that is
something we need to draw up we can do it.
I will include it and give you a rewritten work authorization.
Mr. Hanks stated now that I have
gotten all of these things added it is time for me to start cutting. On your breakdown I had some trouble with
some of the charges. $5,000 per sheet,
29 sheets, right off the bat there is a cover page, notes, legend and existing
conditions.
Ms. Early stated that is an average
just like the inspection. We are not
going to have one person at $110.
Mr. Hanks stated I understand, but I
am looking at it as an example; 29 sheets, most of these sheets are standard
details you are going to have. You are
going to earn your money on the design of the headwalls. You are going to earn your money on the
utility relocations and figuring out a way to get around all of these
facilities. Landscape removal and
replacement is up in the air. I do not
know where you are going to be going on this route. You might have nothing or you might have a
lot.
Ms. Early stated I think we are
going to have something.
Mr. Hanks stated there is going to
be something involved, but that is going to be at your risk. It is something you decided to pull into your
purview. I really start to get some
concern about things on the erosion and sediment control plans. If you take it as an individual item,
according to your fee schedule, you are looking at about $10,000 for that. The same thing with traffic control striping
plans. That is about another $10,000. Now if you go back to your culvert plan
profile, you are charging about $25,000.
Utility relocations is $15,000.
Ms. Early stated there are some big
FPL things there.
Mr. Cassel stated it is right at the
corner of the school and commercial property.
There is a big FPL vault.
Mr. Hanks stated the $5,000 per
sheet gives the appearance that the traffic control striping details, which is
going to be a note….
Ms. Early stated last month I did it
by an hourly rate. I tried to do it a
different way. The geotech might be
$15,000. I do not know what he is going
to charge for that.
Mr. Hanks stated you would have to
work out the scope with him on that.
Ms. Early stated he will have to be
a sub to us.
Mr. Hanks stated at one point I was
thinking if we are looking at these charges for utility or erosion control, let
us go ahead and talk about bringing in and spreading the wealth to some local
engineers who are short on ability. For
erosion control and sediment plans get a quote from different engineers. For that job it will be under your
threshold. I do not know how you want to
do this. I am just looking at this again
and still coming back with $300,000 for this job.
A couple of things I had not thought
about until I was talking to some other engineers about this project. What are some of the things we need to be
considering; they brought up construction dewatering. That is something I want to make sure we have
nailed down before we go ahead and put this out for bid. I think with SFWMD, especially with the
contaminated site, those issues will need to be identified up front so we are
not in a position where the contractor wants to go and they cannot move forward
on this because there is not real solution to construction dewatering.
Ms. Early stated we will meet with
SFWMD and find out exactly what they are going to want ahead of time. All of these things need to be answered
before we can go to bid.
Mr. Fennell asked so how much?
Ms. Early responded I added the
bidding and the permitting. None of that
was in there before. Now we are adding
the geotech and making sure we have dewatering construction plans in
there.
Mr. Hanks asked are you asking for a
counter?
Mr. Fennell responded we need to
reach an agreement on an amount and work.
Mr. Hanks stated we are getting
there.
Mr. Fennell stated and at the same
time slowing this down.
Mr. Hanks stated I was all set
coming into this meeting to say let us go ahead and cut some of these things
out and get some different prices out of some of these components, but if we save
$10,000 on erosion control and sediment, how much additional work are we going
to be creating?
Ms. Early responded I spoke to Mr.
Williams at FEMA. Any input from
personnel such as Mr. Frederick is onsite with us, Ms. Woodward is doing
paperwork and they keep track of those hours, it can be considered part of
CSID’s 25%. That is a way to save money. I will get with him to see exactly what he
needs. He said it is not like you have
to give him the hourly rates. I guess
you have to show the hours and days they are out there with us. There is a way you can show it.
Mr. Hanks stated the big ones that
were worrying me on this were the geotech, the monitoring wells and the
dewatering. Right there between those
three there could be a substantial chunk of money. I like the idea Ms. Early has come forward
and to say they are going to pull that into their scope of work. When I had some big issues last month I was
not thinking about construction dewatering.
Honestly; that is one of the scarier items on this site. You are on a built out site, you do not know
where you are going to put the water and is SFWMD going to have concerns about
potential contamination being spread because of this. I suggest we take engineering services during
construction. I would like to see that
as an hourly component, but in exchange for having that be an hourly component,
you provide us with the hours that each person worked and the description of
what they did for this project.
Ms. Early stated I can give you time
sheets. I will have them put on the
timesheet what they did that week.
Mr. Hanks stated I want a detailed
description. I would like to see where
that goes. I do not see 50 hours a week
for three months happening.
Ms. Early stated I calculated that
by figuring fulltime for the inspector.
Someone has to be out there fulltime with all the utilities that are
there. Then I figured Mr. Bohorquez
doing review or request for information.
Mr. Hanks stated on things like that
yes, but with the hourly rate, and this is where I am going to be looking out
also for them and for us, we do not know what kind of contractor we are going
to end up with. I want to have the
flexibility so we know they are going to be staying on top of them, or do you
guys want it to be a cap or do you want to go lump sum?
Ms. Early responded that is a good
point about the contractor.
Mr. Hanks stated I think the
$145,000 for the design and the permitting through SFWMD, Broward County and
Coral Springs with the geotech, the monitoring well and dewatering, I think
that is where we are. Are you saying we
should leave the construction the way it is?
Mr. Fennell responded yes. My big issue is I find that expediency will
save us money.
Ms. Early stated Mr. Bohorquez was
in the Keys and I brought him back to work on this project. He was scheduled to stay there for three
months. I could have waited three months
before I had him start, but I want to get this project designed and done as
soon as possible.
Mr. Hanks asked do you want to go
hourly not to exceed $66,000 on the construction services?
Ms. Early asked so everything lump
sum except for the ESBC?
Mr. Hanks responded yes.
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Ms.
Zich with all in favor Work Authorization 60 was approved as discussed to be
confirmed by documents submitted by Ms. Early.
Mr. Daly stated there was a concern
Mr. Hanks had last month regarding the length of time CH2M Hill was going to
take. Has that been negotiated?
Mr. Hanks responded with some of the
additional items we negotiated be rolled into the overall project is a question
of performance and not time. They are
going to have multiple parties working on it to move forward. I hope the construction services do not last
three months. It comes down to making
sure we are getting the services we need.
I want to make sure the District is getting value on the construction
services. This is why I requested back
up be provided to whomever is processing those invoices.
Mr. Cassel stated we are going to
need that back up for the compliance issues with the funding sources.
Mr. Hanks stated if there are
unforeseen situations I am not looking to just nail it to you guys because I
understand this is the other side of the coin.
Once you get into a contract issue, you never know exactly what you are
going to end up with.
Ms. Early asked did you know CSID
owns Ramblewood Drive?
Mr. Fennell asked do you mean
physically own it?
Ms. Early responded yes. There has to be some kind of maintenance
agreement because I know CSID has never done anything on Ramblewood Drive.
·
Resident
Feedback
This item is for informational
purposes only.
·
Monthly Water
& Sewer Chart
Mr. Fennell stated there is a
distributed billed water loss and the green line shows the difference between
the two I assume. It sometimes hits zero
and sometimes it does not. Generally
speaking the distributed is greater than the billed. Have you figured that out yet?
Mr. Daly responded no we have not.
Ms. Zich stated I get confused every
time I look at this.
Mr. Hanks stated just look at the 13
month average. That has not budged.
Mr. Daly stated if you look at it
monthly, my cycle is different than the readings for the amount that was
generated. There is no correlation
unless you take it over a longer period of time.
Ms. Zich stated I am glad to hear
that because every month when I look at this all I get are question marks in my
mind.
Mr. Daly stated it has to do with
adjustments we make.
Mr. Fennell asked what is the 13
month average?
Mr. Hanks responded it is 10%.
Mr. Cassel stated we are continuing
to look at our meters and our calibrations.
Mr. Stover has been running some diagnostics on our meters to look at
whether they are calibrated and reading properly. We are constantly checking that. We are looking at our billing cycles. We are looking at our meters; how many of
them are old or if they are off. Your
house meters can be off close to 10% and they are still ‘acceptable’. If all of your house meters read 10% low and
your meter at the plant is reading 10% high, you have a 20% spread there. We are constantly looking and analyzing where
are we, what do we think it is and trying to figure out where we are off. We replaced some meters recently that we
found were really off.
Mr. Daly stated we put those meters
at the mall and we are waiting for the mall to install backflows; otherwise,
one meter can actually run backwards. It
is not helping us until the backflows are there. Then we will be able to measure every gallon
that goes into any of the stores inside.
I can push the button and find out exactly what we billed those
stores. Typically a large meter is not
going to measure as accurately as a small one.
Mr. Hanks stated they should have
some low flow bypass meters. If you have
one or two shops pulling, it is going to leak past the 10 inch register.
Mr. Daly stated we put some meters
in Taravella. We are doing a lot of
different things to check this.
·
Utility Billing
Work Orders
This item is for informational purposes only.
B.
Attorney
There
being no report, the next item followed.
Mr. Fennell stated let me add one
thing. I have been attending some “Water
University” kind of meetings. The last
one I attended was about the state of change and what is happening to the
SFWMD. Different groups are very
concerned about this. Last year the
legislature had made a change to the budgeting of the water management groups. The Governor can now veto any line item that
comes out of there. He is also the
person who appoints everyone to the water management districts in the
state. He scared them by saying he wants
to see a 25% reduction in the SFWMD budget this year and next year, which will
be 50% over two years. Those are the
strong kind of political waters that are now flowing around the SFWMD. We are going to see huge changes over the
years.
Ms. Zich stated that is crazy.
Mr. Fennell stated that is not
crazy. It is what is happening.
Ms. Zich stated I know, but 25%?
Mr. Fennell stated I think we are
going to see major political changes coming through these districts. I think it is going to be up for grabs.
Ms. Zich asked what if we would have
said with CSID that we were going to cut our cost by 25% next year?
Ms. Early stated I am having a hard
time getting permits out of HRS and Broward County because of staff
reductions. They do not have enough
people and it takes forever to get a simple permit.
Ms. Zich stated I think taking a
stance like that on just a blank 25%...
Mr. Fennell stated but he actually
has the power to do it too. With the
line item veto given to him last year he can just cross out any items he wants
from the budget. I do not know if this
is good or bad, but you are going to see astonishing changes and political
things coming about here.
Mr. Daly stated even though they can
reduce the manpower to issue permits and review, they did not do anything to
limit the hoops you have to jump through.
Mr. Fennell stated you have to
understand the SFWMD as well as the other water management districts have taken
on numerous other tasks. I am trying to
give an impartial viewpoint. One
viewpoint would say they are not doing the basics, which is water control and
water management. They are instead
spending hundreds of millions of dollars on restoring the Everglades forever. It is true that lots of our money was going
towards restoration. There are three
traditional battles going on and a fourth one now. There were the farmers. The environmentalists were kind of a
stepchild to the water needs. We were
not getting much of a representation.
The government has come in with a
different agenda. I am not sure what
that agenda is, but the environmentalists are really afraid of it. I do not know about the farmers yet. It may actually, in some ways, benefit the
people of South Florida as far as getting water. It is amazing. You are going to see astoundingly big
political heads knocking for the next two years. I do not know which way it is going to roll
either. The guy who has the power is the
Governor. He is appointing people; he
has line item veto and an entirely different viewpoint from what the current
water management districts are doing. Do
not count on the same kinds of responses that you have had. I would get in there many weeks beforehand if
you need to deal with SFWMD. I would
think it is probably going to shock them like you would not believe.
Mr. Hanks stated if I can go back
really quick; the product literature for the lift in small print on the bottom
it says Thern products are not for
lifting people or things over people.
Mr. Cassel stated we will make sure
we have a lift that is for people.
Mr. Fennell stated another thing I
found out that is interesting is probably the biggest reason why the people are
not well represented is because it is just a bunch of small groups like us. We are mostly concerned about our local
area. We are not here to make water
policies for South Florida. We are just
hoping to keep our sewers open and water flowing. It is becoming pretty obvious that we are
going to have to have some kind of united group going forward in order to
represent the people of South Florida; otherwise, we are just too small to do
it. We really need to be working with
the City of Coral Springs and other groups around us as well as the county;
although, the county consistently lacks from the issue they do not have funding
or a real mandate to do anything about water.
There really is not anybody other than the SFWMD and us to do it. The county tries to take on these issues.
Mr. Hanks asked when you say water
issues; are you talking about water supply issues?
Mr. Fennell responded all of them.
Mr. Hanks stated that is one of the
issues before the Broward County Water Resources Task Force. We are trying to figure out as a collective
body what to do about the growing water needs of South Florida.
Mr. Fennell stated it is a good
topic. The problem they have is they
really do not have any real power over this like SFWMD. There is an issue there.
Mr. Hanks stated if we were subject
to Broward County, we would be faced with potentially mandatory reclaimed water
which is an expensive and energy intensive means of providing additional
water. We would be looking at different
means of disposing of our sewage.
Broward County and the City of Hollywood are faced with some very
serious issues related to water supply and to sewage. You couple that with standards the EPA is
forcing down on the State of Florida and the combined affects of both of those
are scary. Be very glad we have our deep
injection wells and we have our own self contained water and sewer system.
Mr. Fennell stated there is a group
that actually did some thinking about this.
CH2M Hill did a study about 10 years ago. I would like for you to get a copy of it from
your archives. It is the idea I kind of
had; we should do something along the Everglades and put some drainage area
around there so we can then put water back there and recharge it. You actually have done that. There is a study like that, which you guys
did. I think it is an excellent
study. The only problem with it is there
is a political stop to it. The biggest
problem I see are the assumptions made, which are keeping the Everglades as
they are and thinking they should not change.
That is a masterstroke of politics.
It depends on how you do it. I am
going to Miami this Friday. The area right
outside of Miami needs to be rehydrated.
I am going to go look at the rehydration.
Ms. Zich asked what part of Miami?
Mr. Fennell responded the Key
Biscayne area. It needs
rehydration. I am going to go down to
see how Miami is doing it.
C.
Engineer
·
Monthly Aerial
Photographs
·
Project Status
Report
Ms. Zich asked where is somebody from Lanzo? A year ago we wanted someone from Lanzo at
every meeting. I am looking at the first
thing here, Services During Construction
(SDC) for Plant ‘F’, awaiting repair proposal from Lanzo. I just feel like we have been waiting, and
waiting and waiting.
Mr. Cassel responded they submitted
the welding parameters a week ago.
Ms. Zich asked why do we not have
someone from Lanzo here?
Mr. Cassel responded I am not sure
why Mr. Bone is not here.
Ms. Zich stated nothing seems to be
going too well out there. It would be
nice to have someone here, which we said a year ago.
Mr. Fennell asked have you reached a
complete agreement on what to do about Plant F?
Mr. Cassel responded the parameters
that were set they are going to address as we discussed. They are removing the clarifier floor and
will be x-raying the welds and repairing them as necessary. They are going to be doing the air header
piping. All of the issues we addressed
they are doing. The one we have not
finished addressing yet is the concrete curb at the base CH2M Hill came out
with through the process of saying they were going to adapt. We are waiting on a response from them.
Mr. Fennell stated we discussed that
at the last meeting.
Mr. Cassel stated that was discussed
with them, but we were waiting for the last detail. The curbing was there, but there are pipes
that go in that we need to know how to get over the pipes. How did CH2M Hill envision their engineer
coming in with a curb to go over pipe? I
just got that last Wednesday or Thursday.
Mr. Fennell asked so there is
something actually going on rather than them just walking away from the issue?
Mr. Cassel responded yes. We are kicking it back to them telling them
what we envision for the concrete curb.
We then have to figure out how that concrete curb is going to be
done. Is it a cost to the District? Is it a cost to the contractor? That was not a part of the original design. Where does that cost end up? Who ends up eating the cost for the concrete
curb and what is the price? We still
have to hammer that out. They cannot do
the curb until they do all of the welding, all of the repairs and all of the
repainting and sealing. There is time,
but we continue to work on how we are going to do it and who is going to pay
for it.
Mr. Fennell stated the schedule
predicted is three and a half to four months from the last meeting to get this
done. If we are making this kind of
progress on the agreement, you might not get an agreement on this until the
work is done. We are looking for a
quicker response on this agreement.
Mr. Cassel stated I will push them
for a response.
Ms. Zich asked how is the nano plant
doing?
Mr. Easton responded we hit a lot of
milestones. The roof is basically dried
in. The electricians moved in. They are starting to pull wires. The drywall people have all the metal stubs
up. The air conditioning people have
been in there running duct work. There
is a lot of pipe testing. A lot of small
bore chemical pipe is being installed.
The painters are applying coatings to the interior on the ceilings. There have been a lot of sidewalks poured and
asphalt put down. They are moving ahead.
Ms. Zich stated that is good to
hear. Keep on it Mr. Easton.
Mr. Easton stated they are doing a
good job.
Ms. Zich stated it is nice to hear
that.
Mr. Fennell asked do you have
sufficient people to handle the paperwork and tracking of the funds?
Mr. Daly responded yes.
Mr. Fennell asked what was our
conclusion on the I&I evaluation?
Where was it coming from?
Mr. Hanks responded from the ground.
Mr. Daly stated Mr. Cassel and I
along with a couple of our field guys are meeting with a gentleman tomorrow
because we are looking into being a little bit more modern and using telemetry
data on our lift stations. The gentleman
we have working on our lift stations has been with us for 30 years. He is doing a great job. He works on a part-time basis. We do not want to have a problem with raw
sewage spills in case something happens on a weekend. We are going to meet with a gentleman who has
a product that has been in the market for a number of years and a lot of cities
are using it. It makes the lift stations
communicate with each other and supposedly save Winter Park a lot of money.
Mr. Cassel stated we found out we
had pumps coming on. They were pushing
against head pressures they were not designed to push against.
Mr. Hanks stated you have a lot of
stations with a lot of long run times.
If you had everything else working fine, you would not have those long
run times.
Mr. Daly stated he saved Winter Park
23% just in electricity for the pumps; not to mention what you are saving on
the wear and tear of the pumps.
Mr. Fennell asked can it measure
real flow?
Mr. Daly responded it can measure
anything you want.
Mr. Hanks asked how is this going to
be different than what Mr. Moore was proposing six years ago?
Mr. Daly responded I do not recall
what he was proposing.
Mr. Hanks stated neither do I; that
is why I was asking.
Mr. Daly stated Mr. Moore spoke to
this gentleman six years ago. It is the
same company. He was big on telemetry
back then. The problem was no one else
was. The investment for the telemetry
for the canals was made by CSID, NSID and PTWCD. They all put some money in towards a
system. Once Mr. Moore left no one ever
turned the system on. The operators
never bought into the system and how it could enhance their job. This will be different. This is why we are meeting with the actual
field managers tomorrow to let them help make a decision on which route to
take.
Mr. Fennell stated it is more than
just a telemetry system. You are talking
about putting data into a modeling system.
Who is going to do the modeling system?
Mr. Daly responded they have reports
already that come out. We are going to
find out more about it tomorrow. It is
supposedly a big full fledged system.
Mr. Fennell stated if you are able
to do something with modeling and figure out pressures, flows and intrusion,
then you have something.
Mr. Cassel stated that is when
telemetry becomes an asset versus a liability.
Mr. Fennell stated yes because a lot
of data that goes nowhere and is not used does not do you much good.
Mr. Daly stated we have all talked
for over a year about the infiltration with the water and we have not gotten
anyplace.
Mr. Hanks stated it would have been
nice to be able to see when this problem started happening.
Mr. Fennell stated I do not think we
had models like that at the time. I am
not sure we will here either. You are
going to need a centralized computer and then you are going to want to be able
to go back and turn on things remotely.
Mr. Daly stated you are and you are
not. The real issue started with what to
do in a graveyard shift when someone calls to notify that raw sewage is coming
out. If we had telemetry you could
actually see it, get an alert and turn it on.
It is going to be located in our 24 hour operation center, which is a
water plant who is also dealing right now with a brand new nanofiltration plant. We want an alarm on a graveyard shift so
someone can pick up the phone and call the field to say there is an issue so
they can come out to take care of it. You
can make it as big or as small as you want.
If anyone is around at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, you might want to come in.
Mr. Hanks stated I can probably
squeeze in a half an hour.
Mr. Fennell stated if you are
coming, I cannot. It constitutes a
meeting.
Mr. Daly asked would it not
constitute education and not a meeting?
Mr. Lyles responded if all you do is
listen and do not communicate with on another or in the open at the meeting
about what the Board might take up or do, I think you could both attend and
listen.
Mr. Hanks asked what if I was to ask
a technical question?
Mr. Lyles responded a technical
question is different from what issues might be important to the Board, coming
to the Board and what the Board will be interested in. I think a technical question would be within a
permissible kind of participation. In a
limited participation you might have to come in and listen to a presentation.
Mr. Hanks stated just like we could
end up at a Water University function
where we are getting the same presentation and we are able to ask questions in
that open forum.
Mr. Lyles stated yes.
EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of February Financials and Check Registers
Ms. Zich stated I looked through everything
and everything looks to be in good shape.
Ms. Woodward’s little numbers that we are always looking at is 1.56 so
the debt coverage service is good. We
look like we are in good financial shape.
We are getting all the money from the taxes. We actually received money from SBA.
Mr. Fennell stated a little bit.
Ms. Zich stated that is pretty nice
compared to what things have been looking like.
We got about $9,000. That is
pretty good the way SBA is coming.
Mr. Fennell stated I was thinking
maybe we need to create a reserve in the general fund to pay our part of the
culvert.
Mr. Hanks asked are we happy with
the revenues that have been coming in this year?
Mr. Daly responded Ms. Woodward and
I are very happy. This is something we
projected out knowing there was a rate increase. It is pretty good.
Ms. Zich asked how are we doing on
vacant houses in the area?
Mr. Daly responded they are still
selling.
Ms. Zich asked so we do not have
money we cannot collect?
Mr. Daly responded the water is not
on.
On MOTION by Ms. Zich seconded by Mr.
Hanks with all in favor the financials for February were accepted.
Mr. Fennell asked we are not paying
out the $4 Million yet are we?
Ms. Woodward responded that actually
comes out, I split it, twice a year. I
fund 1/12 of it into US Bank every month.
When we hit the six month date, the money comes out.
Ms. Zich asked where are the 2002
Bonds finished?
Mr. Daly responded three more years.
NINTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Adjournment
There being no
further business,
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded by Ms.
Zich with all in favor the meeting was adjourned.
Glen Hanks Robert
D. Fennell
Secretary
President