Minutes of Prudential Committee Meeting

Jericho fire District No. 1 (Foothills Water System)

March 24, 2014

Attendees: Brian Stevens, Fred Lavenberg, Mac Lippert, Ann Kroll Lerner, Les Allen

Brian reviewed the current “Income and Cash Flow” and the detailed “Income and Expense” documents. The only out of normal expenses were the charges related to the recent leak repair. ECI Construction cost was $7,277, SOS operator support cost was $1,775 and plumber cost to fix the line blockage at #35 Foothills cause by the leak repair work was $465. The total comes to $9,517.

This expense, plus the approx. $9,000 unplanned cost for last year’s creek embankment fix, is cause for us to consider a re-look at the Capital Replacement Fund balance before next year’s annual meeting. The purpose is to see if we still have sufficient funds for expected long term expenses.

Fred reported that his work to update the e-mail and call-em-all customer lists is nearly complete.

The latest Customer Confidence Report, the annual report of our water quality, has been received from the ANR and will be distributed to our customers in compliance with State laws.

Two Prudential Committee decisions made off line (for schedule urgency reasons) were ratified. These were;

1)      A decision to decline a State offer for a free professional leak detection survey. The reasons for passing on this were the pre-commitment required to the expense associated with any fix they recommended and the competitive nature of the bid application process.

2)      Our agreement to accept the SOS bid of $200 to produce an update to our Source Protection Plan. This is a State mandated update to our Plan, due by June 1.

We also received from the State a request to submit an application for a Phase II/V testing waiver renewal. This is due when and with the SPP by June 1. This is simply an accepted avoidance of water testing, not needed in the circumstance of our system. We only need to ask, again.

We agreed to a contract with Green Mountain Engineering for an inspection of our filter backwash, settling tank and leach field system. This is referred to as UIC (Underground Injection Control) for which our permit requires this annual engineering inspection and report. The cost for this is $350.

Les explained a complaint that he has. His grumbling are omitted for brevity. A legitimate inquiry regarding our water system is often made in conjunction with the sale and purchase of homes in the Foothills. Our web sitewww.jerichofoothills.org provides all that is needed. There can be found; our bylaws, our water system regulations, the Consumer Confidence Report, a diagram of the system and the management organization. Les explained his willingness to answer homeowner questions and potential home buyer questions but not realtor’s “tell me about the water system” requests. These have been all too frequent. Also, his name and phone number should not be provided to realtors or included on MLS listings. Please!

 

Respectfully submitted;

Les Allen, Clerk, JFD#1

Minutes of Prudential Committee Meeting

Jericho Fire district N0. 1 (Foothills water system)

February 18, 2014

Attendees: John Irving, Mac Lippert, Ann Kroll Learner, Les Allen

John reported that the work to fix the pipe leaks in the Reservoir building is scheduled for Wed. 2/19 at 9:00am (tomorrow). Water from the reservoir will continue to flow but without pump pressure. This pump off condition will only effect a limited set of customers, higher up in the Foothills as gravity feed will continue to supply water to the majority of homes. John will e-mail the “foothills-all” customer list and Fred Lavenberg will put out a phone message via our call-em-all phone service.

This expenditure, estimated at $550, was approved at our 12/17/13 meeting.

Other repair work completed, or in the works, and had been authorized via e-mail PC vote, were ratified at this meeting by vote of the Prudential Committee. These are;

1. $950 for a replacement propane heater in the filter building.

2. $440.93 to replace the worn impeller and associated gaskets in one of our booster pumps.

3. $100 to $200 estimate for the pump motor re-conditioning. This will allow the pump to be our spare, back up pump.

The schedule for the conversion of the reservoir building heat from propane to natural gas was discussed. Some of Vt. Gas work has been done but the final connection (underground) will be done when weather permits. Ann will follow-up with Vt. Gas for scheduling this final connection.

The need to re-establish an annual audit was discussed. Mac offered to take on finding a volunteer auditor and scheduling a YE 2013 audit.

Les will follow up his request to SOS for an estimate to re-do our Well-head Protection Plan. This must be completed for the State by June ’14.

Les commented on the work he must complete to transfer our Fire District records to a file cabinet (Fire District owned) in the Town Office. When completed, our records will have a long term repository and be accessible by FD officers.

Respectfully submitted;

Les Allen, Clerk

JFD#1

Minutes of Prudential Committee Meeting

Jericho fire district #1 (Foothills water system)

Dec. 17^th, 2013

Attendees: John Irving, Brian Stevens, Fred Lavenberg, Mac Lippert, Les Allen

System technical items:

John reported that the malfunctioning heater in the filter building had been replaced at a cost of $950. (just in time we might add)

John reported that the pump house has several pipe leaks that need fixing. It appears that vibration from the on/off of the pumps has caused loosening of some joints. This will require cutting and replacing portions of pipe. John had secured an estimate from a local plumber, Steve Chase, who had multiple recommendations, for $500 to do the work. This expenditure was approved.

John also reported that the Vt gas line has been partially laid to the pump house. The under driveway piece and the in-building connections remain to be done. When completed this will replace the current dependance on the more expensive propane.

Financial:

Brian provided and explained; 1) the balance sheet, 2) a summary of income and expense, 3) a cash reconciliation. A quick summary; we have a remaining State Bond Bank liability of $275,242. This is from the 2004 reconstruction of our system upon our initial ownership, we have a bank balance of $52,177 (this includes our capital replacement fund), we have a projected YE surplus of $18,533 (before yearly additions to our Capital. Replacement Fund).

From a review of current year expense and expectations for the next year it was concluded and agreed that there is no increase in water rates required at this time.

Administration:

Les reported that a meeting is scheduled on 12/19 with VTRAN auditors who have an obligation to perform financial audits of all recipients of FEMA funds for the 2011 “Irene” hurricane. (This happened)

Les also reported receiving a notice from the State that our Wellhead(s) Protection Plan is required to be updated by June 2014. After some discussion of the requirements it was decided that Les will ask our System Operator, Simon Operations Systems, for an estimate to do this work.

Others: Annual meeting notice

The Prudential Committee set our 2014 annual meeting to be on Tuesday, January 21,2014 at 7:00 PM, in the Conference room at the Lawson library.; with the following agenda.

Article I To elect a Moderator for one year.
Article II To hear the Treasurers report.
Article III Shall the JFD#1 accept the proposed or amended budget?
Article IV Shall the JFD#1 authorize the Prudential Committee to borrow money for the temporary needs of the Fire District?
Article V To elect a JFD#1 Prudential Committee member for a period of three years.
Article VI To elect a Treasurer for one year.
Article VII to elect a Clerk for one year.
Article VIII To elect a Bill Collector for one year.
Article IX Other JFD#1 business thought proper when met.

Respectfully submitted;

Leslie Allen, Clerk JFD#1

Minutes of Prudential Committee meeting

Jericho Fire District #1

Oct. 14, 2013

Attendees: Brian Stevens, Fred Lavenberg, Ann Knoll Lerner, Mac, Lippert, Les Allen

Finances: Brian provided a “Balance Sheet” and an “Income and Cash Flow Summary”. These show that the cash flow from operations YTD is on track with the Budget exception for the $9,350 for the Creek bank rebuild after the May flooding.

This work we considered an emergency as it had been so declared for the “Irene” repair. Because we proceeded to fix it as before, we neglected to file a notice with the State within 30 day of the Presidential disaster declaration. A FEMA rule. The consequence is we do not qualify for assistance. After some discussion about the rigidity of FEMA rules and the slim possibility of an appeal success, it was decided that we should try. Les will do this.

Brian also showed a “Summary of Income and Expense” that includes a detail listing of all payments made. Brian commented that an appropriate bill payment process would be for the treasurer to make payments only after a PC approval. The Committee approved his continuing to make payments upon receipt of bills and display the detail at the monthly meetings.

Technical: The installation of a VT. Gas line to replace the more costly propane at the reservoir, pump house had been delayed by a needed agreement between the Lerners and VT. Gas. It is from the Lerner’s property gas line that the water system line is to be accessed. Ann reported that the agreement was completed to their satisfaction and only needs a notary of their signatures.

WEB page: Our web page was temporarily down due to a needed renewal payment, which has now been payed. This brought awareness of it being not up to date. Fred noted that he believed some data may not be sufficiently “fire walled”. Fred will meet with Mike Wright, our web master, and discuss what to do about the web site condition.

Other: Les reported finding evidence of camping/partying on our lower well property. This past Saturday evening, at sunset, saw four cars parked at the road gate. The “no trespassing “ sign has been missing for some time. It was agreed to replace a “no trespassing” that adds “authorized persons only” to accommodate service persons. It was noted that all Foothills residents, as co-owners of the water system, are considered “authorized persons” and can/should feel free to enter for recreational purposes.

Respectfully submitted,

Leslie Allen, Clerk, JFD#1

Minutes of Prudential committee Meeting

August 20, 2013

Jericho Fire District No. 1

Attendees: Fred Lavenberg, Mac Lippert, Brian Stevens, Les Allen

Brown water: The recent multiple customer reports of brown water was discussed. Our System operator responded to a number of questions intending to identify the cause. Included in his response was; 1) the distribution line flush performed in June went according to plan and the water at each flush point ended with clean water, 2) the reservoir water with weekly observations, looks clean, 3) The filter back-wash reaches clean water discharge, The filter media treatment with chlorine instead of permanganate was manufacturer recommended and appears to provide an improvement.

The opinion of the operator, with our support, is that individual service lines from the system distribution lines to individual homes is the likely source of accumulated sediment. This accumulation is from disturbed sediment during the system flush. Because these lines cannot be flushed during the system flush, they should be done by each home owner by opening an outside faucet for 10 to 20 minutes, preferably bypassing any house filter.

Gas line conversion to reservoir building: Neither Ann Lerner or John Irving were in attendance to address the status of this item.

Treasurer’s report: Brian presented a :balance sheet, cash flow summary and a year to date I & E statement. The year to date cash flow, compared to the budget, appears to be on track.

A bill from C. Wiegand for work performed to re-construct the Creek bank after the May 22 flood erosion was discussed. The amount of $9,350 included the yearly brush hogging of the 14 acre site. The re-construction work resulted in a heightened embankment, larger stones and grass seeding to better prevent back side erosion if future flooding occurs. This May 2013 flooding far exceeding the water height that occurred from hurricane Irene in 2011. Les explained that none of this expense will be re-reimbursed from either State or Federal. Brian believes this is containable from our reserve fund but may result in some future risks.

Bill collector: Sandi Colbourne ended her service as one of our collector team members. We thank Sandi for volunteering her time for this task. We are pleased to accept Debby Lackey as Sandi’s replacement bill collector, with Dawn Makowenskyi continuing her team support.

Jericho town wide water system: Les provided copies of a letter he is sending to the Jericho Select Board, encouraging them to initiate a study for a “town” water system.

The motivation for this came from observing the conflict between geologist assessing the risks to the Jericho East wellhead from the proposed Dollar General store. The store will be at the extreme edge of the defined “well head protection area”. If the risk is sustained by the State assessment, it would mean that most of the Jericho Commercial Zone could not be developed.

Our system has two well sites and the Jericho-Underhill Water System has two well sites, all having additional wellhead protection areas that inhibit development. All of these restriction would be removed if the Town formed a water utility that absorbed these water systems and the Jericho Village water system (which abandoned their wells some years ago) and provided water from the Champlain Water System (lake) all of the public (and many private) wells could be abandoned along with the needed protection areas. Les hopes that a Town funded study would define if and how this might be done and the consequences to current water systems ownership.

Respectfully submitted;

Les Allen, Clerk, JFD#1

Minutes of Prudential Committee Meeting

May 21, 2013

Jericho Fire District No. 1

Attendees: John Irving, Mac Lippert, Fred Lavenberg, Les Allen

The meeting was relocated to Les Allen’s house when the Library was found closed. We hope that this didn’t inconvenience too many.

Les reported that P&P Septic pumped out the sediment from the filter back wash settling tank. This is the manganese that was captured by the filter. Total contents pumped out was 3,000 gal. Of which more than 2/3 appeared to be manganese sludge.

We received Green Mountain Engineering’s report of their State required annual inspection of our manganese backwash and capture system, conducted on April 25, 2013. This is referred to as Underground Injection Control (UIC) and a unique State permit is required to operate this portion of our system. This permit has not been issued and we operate under the former permit issued 1/30/1995. There are some fundamental deficiencies; an insufficiently designed capacity of the leach field to support the filter backwash needs and evidence of leach field failure. Additionally, the leach field junction box isn’t buried deep enough. Replacing the leach field is in our future and we will need to plan for this unplanned expenditure. Les will ask GM Engineering for an estimate.

Fred reported that he is expecting a schedule for the system distribution line flush from S.O.S. We will communicate this to our customers when we know, for awareness of temporary service loss.

Regarding the recent water service shortage (reservoir refill shut-down), we discussed the cause and related communications with our operator, S.O.S. Apparently a control wire was dislodged during a recent filter control replacement. This was work done by Culligan, subcontracted by S.O.S. We depend upon S.O.S. for their technical support and also for their management of any sub-contracted maintenance. Fred will follow-up with Kevin to see if and how we can secure more timely awareness of maintenance work being done on our system without increasing billable work.

Fred reported that S.O.S. requested authorization to buy an additional Chlorine pump. This is an necessary element in our system, not only for the sanitary effect but for the functioning of our manganese filter. The expenditure for this filter, approximately $800, was approved.

The conversion of our reservoir building from LP gas to Natural gas is still pending an agreement between Vt Gas and the Lerners on who’s property a gas line is preferred to originate.

Brush-hogging our lower property once this summer was approved. Les will contact Charlie.

Fred will seek through our customer billing, an update to our customer e-mail listing and the telephone emergency call system.

Fred will discuss the needed financial audit with Brian Stevens to get it scheduled.

Respectfully submitted

Leslie Allen, Clerk

JFD#1