Members Present: The following Directors were present and acting:
- Jodi Lightfoot, President (absent)
- Ronald Krall
- Gary Osteen
- Brock Knez
- Mike Lomas, Vice Chairman
District Manager:
- Kasey O’Halloran
Guests:
- Tammy Lake and Mary Andre, CDC
Call to Order: The Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of Timbers Water & Sanitation District was called to order by Vice President Lomas on February 14, 2022, at 6:15 pm, noting a quorum was present.
Consent Agenda: The Board reviewed the regular meeting minutes, financial statements, cashflow sheet and the AR report from January 2022. Upon motion duly made by Mr. Lomas and seconded by Mr. Osteen, it was
RESOLVED to approve the consent agenda.
Invoices: Invoices for January 2022 were reviewed. Upon motion duly made by Dr. Krall and seconded by Mr. Lomas, it was
RESOLVED to approve payment of the open invoices except for holding off on payment of the Aslan invoice until the status of punchlist items is updated.
Transfer of funds from TWSD to TWSWA Enterprise:
A $5000 transfer was requested. A motion was made by Mr. Lomas and seconded by Mr. Osteen. The motion passed unanimously.
District Manager Update:
In general, all is going well within the District, John Fitzgerald and Tim Gibbons have not reported any issues this past month.
Old Business:
May Election – Two Board Member’s term expiration – Dr. Krall and Ms. Lightfoot’s terms will expire in May 2022. Dr. Krall does not intend to continue on with the Board unless necessary. Ms. Lightfoot has submitted her self-nomination form to take on another three-year term. Larry Iofredo has been sent the self-nomination form as he has expressed interest. Mrs. O’Halloran will follow up with Larry this week as the last day for nominations is February 25th.
Fire Hydrant 16 Update – The Board discussed the relocation of the fire hydrant and asked Tammy to get quotes for the cost to move it to the location that CDC has designated.
WWTF, Reclamation Updates and Pay App Status – Ms. Lake updated the Board about an email she sent to Aslan in regard to the outstanding punchlist items. She did receive an email back from Doug Crowl, but it was just his issues with the flowmeter components and not offering insight to resolution on the outstanding items. The Board is going to postpone payment on Pay App #10 until a plan is in place with Aslan on finishing out the punch list items. There is still no response from the State yet on the termination application for the lower lagoons to be abandoned. Once this is in hand, Timbers can cease monitoring well sampling.
Influent Flowmeter – Tammy provided the following update:
n prior correspondence, we summarized Hach’s recommendations – namely that while they would like to see Timbers upgrade the Flo-Station (the unit on the wall in the process building) to the newer FL 1500 logger because it works with the Flo-Sensor (the unit in the manhole, which is still a current unit) and is fully supported by Hach technical support. We also explained that Mike R. at Hach said that if the Board made the decision to replace the backup battery on the current Flo-Station at this time, Mike would assist John and me with instrument setup/reprogramming and calibration remotely by phone. Based on these two pieces of information, the Board decided to go ahead with the battery replacement ($400) and defer the upgrade ($4400) for now. John F. and I were on site on Monday, 2/7 and were on a long call with Nick at Hach tech support to get some help with the Flo-Station and we came to the realization that John would not be well-supported moving forward with the existing unit. With the effort and cost we anticipate getting the old flowmeter set up (a dedicated site visit plus coordination with Aslan) we are recommending that Timbers reconsider purchasing the newer FL1500 Flo-Station so that Hach can provide a tech for a site visit and accomplish the setup with less potential problems. We also believe that John and I will spend much less time overall now and in the future with this acquisition. It should be noted that while Aslan had planned on a Hach site visit for the samplers, Doug Crowl has been assuming that the same Hach tech person could address the samplers and the influent flowmeter, however, I have confirmed that is not the case and that two different Hach tech people would be required to address these items even if the new Flo-Station is purchased. This, combined with the fact that Timbers removed the Flo-Station for the backup battery replacement and is potentially considering a newer unit, probably muddies the water a bit on who should be responsible for the cost of the Hach flowmeter tech’s site visit. Perhaps a discussion of cost-sharing with Aslan for this particular visit (for setup of either the old or a new unit) would be in order since part of this effort (calibration) is an outstanding punch list item. I could request that the local Hach rep add “startup” services to the quote previously provided so that we know what that site visit would cost and could then discuss cost sharing with Aslan.
Per this information and the discussion that ensued, the Board decided to proceed with a new Flowmeter and have CDC coordinate that with Hach and John Fitzgerald. Tammy will provide more updates as they start the process.
Operations and Chemical Feed Pumps – Tammy provided the following update:
John installed the repaired Prominent pump for Micro-C (carbon) on 2/7. Both chemical feeds are now operational again. We have seen a decrease in treatment effectiveness in the last couple of months while the pump was down, and John was adding carbon manually and at longer intervals. We hope to see a return to our previous treatment level. I have created a spreadsheet to track monitoring results and have shared the cloud-based file with John F, Kile Snider and Jason Rysavy of Jacobs, and Roger Shafer of SCG so that we can all review results since startup. We will continue to assist John with reviewing results, chemical addition, etc. The pump repairs took longer than necessary because the pumps and skid had been purchased from a California distributor (not an authorized distributor for Colorado) and while the pumps met Jacobs’ specifications, the fact that they were procured from an unauthorized distributor (one outside Colorado) meant that they would not be supported or under warranty in Colorado. It’s not clear Aslan could have prevented this from happening as the California distributor should not have put pumps purchased from outside the Colorado territory on a skid destined for Colorado. Timbers got caught in a territorial dispute, of sorts, and it delayed servicing. Kip Anderson, our local Prominent rep, said that regardless of how the pumps were procured, moving forward he will be John’s point of contact for all support – warranty work, other work, questions, etc. and that Prominent will warranty them despite how they were procured.
Dam Project and Easement Discussion – No update – the chem feed pump, punch list, and flowmeter issues have been time-consuming for CDC and prioritized above the Dam project right now
Safety Items Grants – Ms. O’Halloran is waiting on the list of items desired from John and Tim and then will submit them for preapproval. Once/if approved, she will purchase items and then apply for the grant reimbursement on these items. This grant is through the Special Districts Liability Pool that the District utilizes for insurance.
Lot 1 Easement – Dr. Krall updated the Board on where the modified easements are standing. He met with Ms. Sherman and the existing surveyor, Walter McGill, last week. Ms. Sherman is aware of what legal documents will need to be prepared. Walter will prepare the drawings that will be necessary. He will have them reviewed by Willy Whelan and submit them to Ms. Sherwood to complete the legal documents. At the next meeting, the Board will ideally have the new documents to review and submit to homeowners. Mr. Lomas asked for assurance that the homeowners will cover all of those and Dr. Krall assured that they will per the letter the homeowners signed when this agreement was made.
Property Tax Bills – Mr. Lomas brought it to the Board’s attention that the Property Tax bill being received by homeowners in the Timbers is missing the Timber’s mill levy line items. He spoke with Lane Iacovetto, County Treasurer, about this and she stated it is a computer printing error and the mill levy is indeed being processed. Mr. Lomas asked Mrs. O’Halloran to preemptively send an email to homeowners about this error and direct their questions to the Treasurer’s office.
Water Tank Paint – Mr. Knez brought it to the Board’s attention that the paint is peeling on the water tank again. Dr. Krall stated he would get photos of it next time he is up at the tank and proceed from there.
With business concluded and upon motion duly and unanimously approved, it was
RESOLVED to adjourn the regular meeting the Timbers Water & Sanitation District Board of Directors at 7:30 pm, this 14th day of February 2021.
Respectfully submitted, Kasey O’Halloran
District Manager, Timbers Water and Sanitation District