MANAGER'S REPORT
04/14/21
Fat packets this month. There is a lot going on. A big contributor is the tighter procurement rules.
Budget Position Report
Operational income for March was $62,719.30. Operational expenses were $58,566.90. We took in $4152.40 more than we spent.
There were no capital expenditures in March.
We transferred $8,971.00 into reserve funds:
March YTD
Capital Replacement Reserve $ 4,771.00 $14,313.00
Major Repair Reserve $ 0.00 $35,729.23
Debt Service Reserve $ 4,200.00 $ 8,700.00
Total YTD to Reserves $58,742.23
The Reconciled Budget Position Report shows a fund deficit of $4,818.60. But we transferred $8,971.00 from the General Maintenance Fund to other funds. That is not money out the door.
There are no big budgetary surprises. The Main Repair – Contractor line item is actually for work performed in previous months.
To date we have collected $205,618.25 and actually spent $147,356.86, a total gain of $58,261.39.
I have included, in addition to the report for the General Fund excluding beginning balances, a full report for all funds.
Treasurer’s Report:
Fund Balances To Date:
Regular Maintenance $ 59,136
Capital Replacement $ 71,564
Major Repair Reserve $265,330
General Facilities $148,736
Total Funds Available $544,766
Copier
Specifications have been sent to Aberdeen Office Equipment. This acquisition falls under the “Vendor List” process.
3810 Aberdeen Lake Road
Dead issue.
State Auditor
The final report has been issued and is posted on the Auditor’s web site. I have included a copy in your packets.
Purchasing Manual
You all have copies of the draft of the Purchasing Manual. This manual addresses only those issues related to purchasing that falls under state regulations.
Scott has suggested a change. Rather than issuing a resolution designating the General Manager as the board’s “designee”, list the General Manager as the designee in the manual. This is separate from managing an emergency. It relates only to suspending the competitive bid process as a result of a declared emergency. I have made the change in the draft.
I would like to have this manual adopted at this meeting, though I understand if you have questions and need more time for review.
Small Works Roster/Limited Works Procedures
Scott unearthed a resolution that covers ongoing use of the Small Works Roster procedures. No need for a new one.
Request for Public Information
Our process needs updating. I will be looking at this after dealing with the Risk & Resilience Certification.
Emergency Declaration
See comment on the Purchasing Manual.
June Newsletter
I will be starting work on that shortly. It needs to be ready for your review at the May meeting.
Indefinite Delivery Contract
Publication is not necessary if a solicitation is sent to all the contractors on the Small Works Roster.
Given the time element, and the fact that there are only three appropriate contractors on the roster, I elected to go that route.
A copy of the solicitation is in your packets.
Reynvaan Extension
The engineer has been contacted. Estimate for engineering is $1,300 to develop the specification. I will generate the full Small Works Roster packet in-house.
In preliminary discussions with the engineer, we have managed to cut some of the cost and effort level of the project. If the project involved creating an additional pressure zone a project report would have to be developed and submitted to the Office of Drinking Water.
We have devised an approach that includes the downhill extension in the uphill pressure zone, thus avoiding a full blown project report. The difference is, that instead of installing one pressure relief valve on the water main, thereby creating a new pressure zone, we will install individual pressure relief valves at each service connection. The added benefit is that we can adjust each service connections delivered pressure to the liking of the residents.
Water Rights
NWS is recommending that we do not pursue. In any event, we need to determine a realistic projection of future connections. John Campbell has volunteered to undertake that research.
Payroll Report
No surprises. We will always have some overtime. There are tasks that have to be accomplished after hours, and there are always emergency responses.
We can expect to go over budget on payroll as we train Charli’s successor.
Hidden Valley Mobile Home Park
Through a succession of errors, we have managed to make a mess of this account. I have worked up a reasonable approach to a what amounts to a cutoff and start over solution to most of it.
I have had concerns about the meter. It is very old, well past replacement age, is very difficult to read, and is located in a vault that is a serious safety hazard. It needs to be replaced.
I have included a copy of the solicitation for replacement in your packets, along with the two bids received and the bid tabulation sheet.
I know this seems expensive for a service meter, but it is a very large meter serving 72 mobile homes. We will recover the the replacement cost within three billing periods.
Rognlin’s came out for a site visit. While we were standing there, for quite some few minutes, the needle on the meter did not move. I find it difficult to believe that, in that period of time, no one in a 72-unit mobile home park did not use some water.
I plan to have a proposed contract to Scott as of this writing, with a draft for your review at the meeting.
Pandemic
Phase 3 does give us the option of in-person commissioners’ meetings. Total attendance, including any public, is limited to 10 people.
Since the public rarely attends, and when they do it is only one or two people, we could return to in-person commissioners’ meetings. Anyone uncomfortable in-person could attend by phone.
Isolation Valves
Several paved over isolation valves have been found. We hope to raise those valves in April.
Past Due Accounts
I have included the “Collections List” report in your packets. Some of these folks are trying to keep up. Others have not made a payment in quite awhile and may be experiencing pandemic related hardships. However, no one has talked to us about that.
In generating the report I included accounts with balances over $350.00. With the average bill running about $105, that would put residential connections past due by three billing cycles. The total is almost $103,000.
We will need to take these shortages into account at budget time. I doubt very much that many of these people will be able to immediately catch up their accounts once we are able to pursue collections. In effect, those who have been keeping their accounts current will be subsidizing those who have not.
I am not sure how this report sorts “Owned” and “Rented”. Some of the accounts listed as “Rented” are clearly “Owned” by the account holder. There is only one tenant account, the first one listed. A three digit account number indicates a tenant, a five digit account number indicates owner-occupied.
I will not be posting this list on the web site in the interests of protecting privacy.
Damaged Fire Hydrant
We now have as complete a report as there is. Scott has sent a letter to the owner of the vehicle. I have enclosed a copy of that letter.
Well #5 Source Meter
The meter is on back order.
North Bank Reservoir
JWM&A is building a specification for re-coating the roof. I will generate the full Small Works Roster packet in house. The estimate for engineering is $1,300.00.
Ashley & Kayla
No Action in March
Hydrant Maintenance
Some hydrant flushing got done in March. We are still behind in tagging and painting. See “Maintenance Activity” below. We will be hitting hydrant maintenance hard in May and going forward into the Summer.
Rate Study
I have plugged the 2020 numbers into the rate study. It is a bit of a task, and I may change the format a bit to make it easier to get data from Bias into the study.
There is a report in your packets. It is the spreadsheet simply labeled “2020”.
For 2020 I did not include a breakdown of Allocated Usage and Overage Usage. It is difficult to arrive at those number using the Bias reports. I added a Budget column for comparison purposes.
We spent less on Maintenance & Operation in 2020 than we budgeted in 2019. The “Revenue” number is what we actually collected, not what we billed. We billed $911,983. The difference being the accounts that have chosen to defer payment until the Governor’s moratorium on collection activities is lifted.
I have also included the “Water Use By Class” report from Bias for your information.
Shop Fence
No progress on this project yet. This will take some discussions with the fire district as the 50-foot strip of fire district-owned property to the west presents some challenges as to where the fence should be located.
This issue has developed some complications as we have not been able to develop a working relationship with the new fire chief. That will happen soon.
I will need more information before I can propose a funding source.
New Regulations
No new regulations this month.
Personnel
Charli has announced her retirement. The effective date is May 28th, 2021. I have started the process of finding a successor. The process is moving along. I hope to have some candidates interviewed by the time of the meeting.
The only other news is the letter from Paul McDonald. I will not take any further steps without clear direction from the board.
Maintenance Activity:
I did get in a Manager’s Tour this month. For the rest, see the attached report.
Roads
Due to the contracting regulations, we will need a specification for these projects. Since I don’t think we can afford to do both roads in one fiscal year, I will schedule each of these separately.
We will need some engineering on these. I am awaiting an estimate from the engineer. I will generate the Small Works Roster packet in-house.
Contractor Repairs/Assistance
Service lateral repair on Aberdeen Lake Road.
Tank Cleaning
Awaiting a date.
Shop Organization
We may need to retain some temporary help to get the inventory done preparatory to surplusing all those old ductile iron fittings, and other items that are of little to no use. The district’s field techs are simply too busy on tasks more related to serving our customers to have the time to go through all the old parts.
It is apparent that this project will require my direct supervision.
I am reasonably positive that the value of the items we would want to surplus exceeds the $2,500 amount requiring commissioners’ approval.
As a side issue, we also have a collection of obsolete computers that need disposal.
I really, really, want to get this done and get all those old, and generally useless, fittings gone. I am sure that the disorganization in the shop is costing the district money. The first step to organizing the shop is getting rid of all the bits and pieces for which we have no need.
And there is the requirement within the Asset Management rules that there be an inventory control system. Though we have developed some of the pieces for such a system, the physical aspects cannot be planned or implemented until the shop is organized.
Training/Certifications
There are now some in-person training opportunities. Those are often easier than on line because we can get away from the office and concentrate on the training. I will still set up the online training facility. It just hasn’t been a high priority item...yet.
Safety
We have a mini safety meeting every morning. Kenny was victim to an injury of his finger that has required medical attention.
We have reviewed the necessity of IMMEDIATELY addressing even very small injuries.
Vehicles
Service Truck: The service truck has a brand new seat. The cushion was serviceable, so elected to just do the one seat. Holcomb can put these together in a day, so I saw no need to have a spare that just might get lost somewhere in the shop.
Pickup Truck 1: No Issues
Pickup Truck 2: No issues
Backhoe: No issues.
Web Site
The February Manager’s Report has been posted.
I have also posted a link to the Auditor’s report.
I have not had an opportunity to post Commissioners meeting minutes. That will require a new section on the site and conversion of the minutes from Word format to the .odt format used by the web design software we use.
New Connections
No new applications in March.
Fire Station
They have replaced an RPBA backflow device with a DCVA, at my suggestion, in an effort to improve water pressures inside the building.
Spoils Site
No News.
Capital Asset Management
Everything is proceeding according to the plan.
Disaster Management Planning
No progress in March.
Isolation Valve Exercise Program
On hold
Long Distance Service Laterals
No new thoughts or events.
Respectfully Submitted:
Reg Hearn
General Manager