Board of Water and Sewage Commissioners
Monday, February 11, 2008, 12:00 p.m.

PRESENT: Eugene Tubbs, Mae Nachman, and Jim Cooper.

ALSO PRESENT: Mayor Halverson, Kim Halverson, Eric Niffenegger, Joel Lemke, Brenda Thomas, Rob Molski, Jaime Zdroik, Pat Planton of S.E.H. and Angel Gebeau of Earth Tech.

EXCUSED ABSENCE: Paul Adamski and Carl Rasmussen.

Index of these Minutes:

I. ADMINISTRATION
1. Approval of minutes of the January 14th, 2008 meeting.
II. ACCOUNTING
2. Consideration of claims for the Water and Sewage Treatment Utilities.
3. Consideration of sewer bill adjustment for Sentry Insurance.
4. Consideration of sewer bill adjustment for the Walmart building.
5. Consideration of chemical bids.
III. WATER OPERATIONS
6. Discussion and action on S.E.H. studies recommendation.
7. Report on water distribution operations.
8. Report on water supply operation.
9. Report on Collection System Maintenance.
IV. SEWAGE TREATMENT OPERATIONS
10. Report on sewage treatment operations.
11. Report on U.V. Replacement Project.
V. ADJOURNMENT 7

I. ADMINISTRATION

1. Approval of minutes of the January 14, 2008 meeting.

Kim explained to the Commission that in last month's meeting minutes the motion for Item #4 Consideration of Schedule of Charges for 2008 was omitted. The motion is as follows; Motion made by Carl Rasmussen, seconded by Jim Cooper to approve the schedule of charges for 2008. Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried. This will be taken to City Council for reapproval on their February 18th meeting.

Motion made by Mae Nachman, seconded by Jim Cooper to approve the minutes of the January 14, 2008 Water & Sewage Commission meeting.

Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried.

II. ACCOUNTING

2. Consideration of claims for the Water and Sewage Treatment Utilities.

Eugene Tubbs presented the statement of claims for the Water Utility for January. The balance as of January 1, 2008 was $2,563,876.79; the bank deposits recorded in January 2008 were $842,946.13. Checks issued since the January 14th, 2008 meeting numbered 41935 through 41975 were in the amount of $973,813.01. Checks numbered 41976 through 41999 for $234,366.35 were presented for action on February 11th, 2008. The net balance on hand February 11th, 2008 was $1,953,402.33.

Motion made by Mae Nachman, seconded by Jim Cooper to approve the water utility claims for the months of January 2008 as audited and read.

Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried.

Eugene Tubbs also presented the statement of claims for the Sewage Treatment Utility for January. The balance as of January 1, 2008 was $2,152,982.38; the bank deposits recorded in January 2008 were $400,609.59. Checks issued since the January 14th, 2008 meeting numbered 25974 through 26003 were in the amount of $93,927.93. Checks numbered 26004 through 26027 for $20,218.52 were presented for action on February 11th, 2008. The net balance on hand February 11th, 2008 was $2,422,805.84.

Motion made by Jim Cooper, seconded by Mae Nachman to approve the sewage utility claims for the month of January 2008 as audited and read.

Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried.

3. Consideration of sewer bill adjustment for Sentry Insurance.

Kim said the Sewer Charge Adjustment Policy states any adjustment over $2,000 has to be brought to the Stevens Point Water & Sewer Commission for approval.

Kim explained Sentry used a larger amount of water for irrigation and their bills for sewer have never been over $5,000 so when they received the sewer bill for $11,839.88 they were surprised. They did not understand the policy for commercial properties where they pay for sewage based on water consumption.

They have paid the bill in full but are requesting they be credited for half of the sewer charge, $5,845.44.

Kim feels their request is fair.

Sentry will be adding exemption meters to their system in order to prevent this from happening in the future.

Motion made by Jim Cooper, seconded by Mae Nachman to approve the sewer bill adjustment for Sentry Insurance for $5,845.44.

Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried.

4. Consideration of sewer bill adjustment for the Walmart building.

The vacant Walmart building at 5601 Hwy. 10 East had a toilet leak found by our servicemen. The consumption came to 213,400 cubic feet with a sewer charge of $4,097.28. Their average consumption for the vacant building is 200 cubic feet.

The sewer charge adjustment being requested is for $2,048.64.

Motion made by Jim Cooper, seconded by Mae Nachman to approve the sewer bill adjustment for Walmart for $2,048.64.

Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried.

5. Consideration of chemical bids.

Kim's recommendation for the Water Department is to go with Hawkins for both Form 1 and Form 2 even though it's slightly higher for Form 1 than Wausau Chemical. We had Hawkins before Wausau Chemical and operator involvement when Wausau Chemicals delivers verses Hawkins tripled. So even though Hawkins bid is $600 more than Wausau for Form 1 that would be more than made up in operator time.

Kim recommends Wausau Chemical as low bidder for the Wastewater Department. There have been no problems with deliveries for the treatment plant.

Motion made by Mae Nachman, seconded by Jim Cooper to approve Hawkins for the Water Department in the amounts of $25,931.00 Form 1-Bulk Sodium Hypochlorite & Hydroflousilicic Acid and $9,837.90 Form 2-Chlorine & Hydroflousilicic Acid Drums and Wausau Chemical for the Wastewater Department in the amount of $4,182.00 for Form 3-Sodium Hypochlorite & Caustic Potash Flake.

Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried.

III. WATER OPERATIONS

6. Discussion and action on S.E.H. studies recommendations.

Pat Planton of S.E.H. presented the studies recommendations to the Commission as follows:

Well 11 Exploratory Work

• No known nearby contamination sources exist
• Saturated thickness is substantial in this area
• Separation from Plover River is more than adequate
• No bedrock encountered while drilling 160 feet deep
• Preliminary estimate done by Ranney Collector Well estimates this site could yield 6-8 mgd (Well #10, largest capacity well that Stevens Point has pumps 5 mgd)
• Excellent water quality with exception of Manganese

Patch Street Collector Well Evaluation

• Contamination source inventory-DNR database search showed several remediation sites within ½ mile this was expected because it is in an older/industrial part of the City
• Structure in good condition
• Well Performance Testing - performance since lateral installed in 1989 declined not quite 50% but has had minimal reduction in performance since the testing last done in 1995
• Ranney is estimating the well could pump 4.5 mgd in winter and 6 mgd in summer
• Water quality is somewhat of a concern; it could potentially be considered under the influence of surface water by the D.N.R.
• Laterals would need to be reconditioned

Well 5 Nitrate Blending Investigation

• Well 5 water approaching nitrate primary drinking water standard
• The D.N.R. will require the well be shut down if the mg/l's reach 10.4
• Nitrate samples for the fourth quarter that were sent to D.N.R. were at 9.2 mg/l
• Trends have been showing the nitrate levels slowly going up every year
• Well 5 needs to be rehabbed hasn't been done for 20 years
• D.N.R. will require water leaving blending facility to have nitrate at 7 mg/l or less
• Nitrate levels in other wells will affect feasibility
• 50,000 gal underground concrete tank would have to be installed for blending
• Flow control valves would have to be installed also

The information for these projects were based off of the master plan.

Kim, Joel and Pat had a meeting with New Page to discuss their usage. Process changes implemented by the mill have reduced usage but the demand is still there at certain times.

Kim stated the D.N.R. has recommended us to have more capacity in past annual inspections.

The current reliable supply needed is 13.4 mgd, available 12.6 mgd and if Well 5 would need to be shut down due to nitrate levels then we would be at 11.2 mgd available with our largest unit (Well #10) out of service. Demand management would have to be implemented if this should occur.

S.E.H. Recommendations:
Proceed with nitrate treatment of Well 5 and a preliminary design study
Well #11 detailed aquifer testing
D.N.R. well site approval for the Patch Street Well and Well #11 site to secure for possible future use

Kim recommends getting D.N.R. well site approvals for Patch Street and Well #11 for possible future use. She also recommends the rehab of Well 5 along with nitrate removal project for an estimated cost of three million dollars.

Motion made by Mae Nachman, seconded by Jim Cooper to getting D.N.R.well site approvals for Patch Street and Well #11 to secure sites for possible future use and rehab Well 5 along with nitrate removal for an approximate cost of $3 million.

Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried.

7. Report on water distribution operations.

The report was distributed.

A total of 3 valves were operated in 2008.

A total of 0 business properties have been checked for backflow preventors in January 2008 for a total of 0 in 2008.

Joel stated we received the software package to start working on the backflow prevention and cross connection record keeping.

8. Report on water supply operations.

Our pumpage in January was 160,152,000 gallons, a decrease of 12,298,000 gallons of water from January 2007.

9. Report on Collection System Maintenance.

Rob stated they worked on flushing-92,050 feet, jetting-700 feet and cutting-2,800 feet. We had a backup on Oak Street.

The spot maintenance repairs on the Fremont Street main worked out well.

Kim and Rob had a meeting with the sewer crew to start planning possible projects for a five year plan.

Kim and Rob will be attending a school next month on sewer collection systems.

IV. SEWAGE TREATMENT OPERATIONS

10. Report on sewage treatment operations.

Eric stated the plant is running well.

B.O.D. (4.11 ppm), Phosphorus (1.24 ppm) and Suspended Solid (5.24 ppm) limits were met for the month of January 2008.

11. Report on U.V. Replacement Project.

Kim explained that the proposals came in over $25,000 so therefore this was bid. Two bids were received. Kim recommends Staab Construction Corp. with low bid of $29,700.

Motion made by Mae Nachman, seconded by Jim Cooper to accept the low bid from Staab Construction Corp. at $29,700 for the U.V. Replacement Project.

Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried.

The next Water & Sewage Commission meeting will be March 10th, 2008 at noon.

V. ADJOURNMENT

Motion made by Mae Nachman to adjourn the meeting.

Ayes all. Nays none. Motion carried.

MEETING ADJOURNED
1:11 pm

BOARD OF WATER AND SEWAGE COMMISSIONERS
EUGENE TUBBS, SECRETARY

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