Meeting place: Deborah Rawson Library meeting room.

Attendees: Amy Saks, Jeff Pavese, Kristen Yens, James Binn, Dan Lerner, Ann Kroll Lerner, Mac Lippert, John Byer, Brian Stevens, Jeffrey Earl, Fred Lavenberg, Kevin Trout, Dan Dube, Charlie Windisch.

The meeting was called to order at 7:07 pm

1. The minutes from the December 2023 meeting were approved.
2. Bill payment status: Marilyn Marshall reported (via an earlier email that all residents have paid up through the 4^th quarter of 2023. (Note: January 2024 bills are now due!)
3. Financials – Brian Stevens discussed in detail the balance sheets for 2023 and the outlook for 2024. We have paid off the bill for the greensand filter out of existing funds, but now also have the new loan dollars from the recent bond to replenish our reserves. There will be no increase in the quarterly payments, remaining at $235 per quarter. Brian also gave a short history on the older bond (taken out to make many upgrades to our current system) and that repayment constitutes about 1/3 of our current budget. It will be paid off in 7 years. Time to think what should be done then – put the extra dollars aside for inevitable upgrades and repairs? Lower the quarterly payments? Brian’s philosophy is to maintain steady, even payments rather than have them decrease only to potentially increase them due to unanticipated events.
4. Asset Management Plan – Feedback from the Prudential Committe is due to Engineering East. This is a detailed report that completely inventories our current system and expected lifetime. Once finalized the report will be made available to all residents.
5. Service Line Inventory (SLI) – A new Federal mandate requires a determination as to the type of pipe entering each home. The goal is to insure no lead pipes were used.  MSK Engineering is working with JFD #1 to complete this inventory. Please comply if you have not completed the inventory for your home!
6. A discussion was held regarding who is responsible for repairs in the service line to the home (section of pipe from curb stop to the home). In most cases the curb stop is clearly on the homeowner’s property, thus it is the owners responsibility. We have a couple of cases where a section of the service line is not on the homeowner’s property. Committee will decide in executive session what the policy is.
7. Joining the Champlain Water District – This topic comes up every once in a while in that residents feel it will solve many of our problems. The truth is we will still have our existing infrastructure  (and it’s problems). The only thing that would change is that we would get our water from a different source. An investigation done several years ago showed it would be cost prohibitive to tap into the Champlain Water line as our neighborhood is “on the wrong side of the river (Brown’s Trace)”. There is also some question as to whether the current CWD line is adequate to support an additional 72 homes.
8. The heater in the pump house needs to be replaced. The committee will contact Patterson Fuels to see about a replacement unit.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:33 pm.  

** Answer to the trivia question – There are more than 12,000 feet of pipe in our system. This doesn’t include the service lines to the homes. That’s a fair amount of piping! **