Minutes of Prudential Committee Meeting

Jericho fire District No. 1

September 20, 2016

Attendees: Fred Lavenberg, Dan Dube, Sue Grab, John Irving, Ann Koll Lerner, Les Allen

Finances: Treasurer Brian Stevens was unable to attend but sent his report in advance. Of note is a) the 4th qtr. expected Income is not included and b) that less than 66% of the budgeted maintenance expense has been spent; good news.

Charlie Wiegand was paid $1,000 in Aug. for re-grading our lower property road to the filter building. Charlie also gave us a freebee for his $342 expense for brushogging the road to the wellhead.

Sue noted that a $10 late payment for 3rd qtr. was made and will be recorded as a 3rd qtr. Payment.

Technical Stuff: Our system operator, Kirk Patch, requested that we consider an upgrade to our “Mission” system. This is the control unit that among other things, puts out on a web site error messages when they occur. The issue is that some of these error messages were bundled together as a cost reduction of the initial installation. What is occurring is that the un-seriousness of some messages is being masked, resulting in unplanned and unnecessary trips to investigate the cause of messages. Kirk provided an estimate from Champlain Associates Inc. for the upgrade at $1,275. The discussion concluded with the PC asking for an estimate of the number of, or frequency of occurrences, to better understand the cost vs benefit. Les will follow-up with Kirk for this request.

The cause for two system leaks was discussed. Because a wellhead leak has occurred for the 3rd time, It has been speculated that vibration from the off/on well pump may have contributed to the pipe breaks. After sufficient discussion it was decided that cause conclusions will be considered after this 3rd leak is investigated.

System vs customer cost responsibility for service line repairs. In Aug. a water accumulation on Foothills Dr. at the foot of our reservoir property, was determined by a chlorine test to be drinking water (not rain or ground water). A contractor was hired to dig (carefully) through a maze of cables and wires at this location. The leak was found to be in the service line for #35 Foothills Dr. thus the homeowner’s responsibility for the $2,000 + excavation bill. The home owner was presented with this bill, a copy of the section of our Water System Rules and Regulations pertaining to this division of responsibilities, and with our operator’s report of the leak finding and fix in the customer service line.

This was discussed at this meeting because the homeowner has not responded to us regarding the disposition of the bill, as we had requested. It was decided that the PC should more formally submit a written request to the home owner. Fred Lavenberg will do this. It was also decided that we should contact the Municipal Assistance Center of the VLCT (Vermont League of Cities and Towns) for advice regarding the requirements that we, as a municipality, must meet in this situation. Les offered to do this.

Web changes. Dan Dube has made two changes to our web site. First is the addition to the main page of a direct access to the Rules and Regulations. The second, is an addition to the section of our R & R on billing to indicate that we bill forward, for services to be provided. This has been a cause for confusion at home sale closing.

Riparian buffer opportunity. Fred, Ann and Les met on 9/1/16 with Holly Kreiner from WNRCD (Winooski Natural Resource Conservation District) with regards to their desire to plant trees along creek and river banks where these plants will assist in preventing bank erosion. We received an informal positive response. We expect it to be followed by a formal request/proposal for us to accept their offer to do this planting next summer on the banks of both the Browns River and the Creek.

Respectfully submitted;

Les Allen, Clerk, Jfd#1

Minutes of Prudential Committee Meeting

Jericho Fire District No. 1

April 19, 2016

Attendees: Fred Lavenberg, Ann Kroll Lerner, Brian Stevens, Les Allen, Dan Dube

Brian presented our current, Operating Income and Cash Flows with 2016 revenues of $22,440 (see attachment). This does not include all of the 2nd quarter assessments. One more deposit of late receipts is outstanding.

Current cash balance is $28,033 with most operation cost on target. We are under budget for snow removal and we expect, by YE, to be over budget for sludge removal.

Les, acting as the interim, 2nd qtr. Bill collector, reported that all payments were received but the one from the abandoned house on Arcadia Circle. He also reported that twelve payments were received at varying times past the due date.

The faulty curb stop at #2 Ridge Rd. was discussed. According to our system operator, the fault was a bent pipe, into which the valve wrench is inserted to actuate the valve. This curb stop pipe, like some others, sticks up above the lawn where it is exposed to accidental bending when hit by lawn mowers or other items. In this incident, the water was shut off at the entrance to Ridge Rd (affecting nine homes) while the leak within the residence was fixed. Our system operator has offered to determine an average cost for repairing such a pipe so as to eliminate the pipe’s risk of future bending and/or correcting existing bent pipes. Our operator will also survey how many, if any other curb stops have similar bent access pipes. When these numbers are known, the PC will consider what action to take.

The PC approved the summer maintenance plan proposed by our system operator. This includes:

1. A Spring flushing of the distribution lines.
2. Cleaning and inspecting cell B of the two reservoir cells.

Les explained the events of our most recent sludge removal. This is a pump-out by our usual contractor P&P Septic. This time we were careful to pre-pump some of the clean water (resulting from the settling action within the holding tank) in order to ensure a single truck load (4,000 gal.) was not exceeded. However, the bill exceeded our expectations based on several previous billings. Discussions with P&P Septic did not explain the low prior bills but did explain the current billing methodology. We can expect a yearly cost for sludge pump out to be a minimum of $3,240.

Dan Dube, our new web master, showed us the work that he has accomplished with a revised web site and explained some of the differences. This web site is based in Google where-as the prior site was based in Yahoo. The location, jerichofoothills.org remains the same. The PC approved for Dan to proceed, in particular to install all of the known members (Foothills Residents) e-mail addresses. There will be an option for members to opt out, but starting with all in is easier and more efficient than offering a sign-up procedure. We are excited by what Dan has accomplished and thank him for his service.

Also, to our delight, two members offered to be bill collectors for our water system. These are; Sue Grab and Robert Nadal. It has been discussed, to split the tasks in a similar way that Debbie Lackey and Dawn Makowenskyi had done. Mac Lippert will assist this transition prior to the 3 rd quarter billing. We thank Sue and Robert for this generous offer to assist our operations.

Respectfully submitted

Les Allen, Clerk, JFD#1