Meeting Minutes 5-11-2015

MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING

OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES

HOLIDAY SHORES SANITARY DISTRICT

Monday, May 11, 2015

 

The Board of Trustees of the Holiday Shores Sanitary District met on the above date in regular session pursuant to laws and rules of said Board of Trustees and in accordance with the terms of the notice of regular meeting.

Richard Hayes, President called the meeting to order.  Trustees present were Jeff Sedlacek and Dennis Van Sandt.  Also present were Carla Lankster, District Clerk, and Ken Dulle and Kevin Dulle of Du-Con.

OPEN FORUM

Allen Shepard of 573 Clover was in attendance to discuss the high usage on his recent water bill.  He feels the bill is wrong, however it was an actual reading and the meter was not changed out during the recent changes for the radio-read meter system, so that would not cause a leak.  Mr. Van Sandt and Kevin Dulle commented on the possibility of a large bill for a leaking toilet, but Mr. Shepard said he checked his toilets with dye strips.  Mr. Van Sandt also said that water meters that fail always fail in the customer’s favor.  Ms. Lankster gave a background on the readings.  There were two estimates on his house, so the actual readings were on January 23 and not again until April 8 and 25,000 gallons went through during that time, so whatever happened was during that time.  When Chris did the reading on April 24, only 2,000 gallons went through and the leak detector was not moving.  Mr. Shepard asked, “what if this happens again?” It was explained that the new system will rarely, if ever have the need for estimating, which has caused some problems like this recently.  The trustees agreed that a credit cannot be given, because the water went through the meter.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of April 13, 2015 regular meeting were submitted for approval.  Mr. Van Sandt made a motion to approve the minutes for the April 13, 2015 regular meeting.  Mr. Sedlacek seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.

The minutes of the Special Executive Session held April 27, 2015 were submitted for approval.  Mr. Sedlacek made a motion to approve the minutes for the April 27, 2015 Special Executive Session.  Mr. Hayes seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.

FINANCIAL

The Summary of Accounts was reviewed for the month of April, 2015.  No motion necessary.

DISBURSEMENTS

After reviewing the disbursements for the month of April, 2015, Mr. Van Sandt made a motion to approve the April 2015 disbursements.  Mr. Sedlacek seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.

Du-Con submitted Invoice No. 05-12, dated May 11, 2015, for the month of April, 2015 for managing and operating water and wastewater treatment.  Mr. Sedlacek motioned to approve Du-Con invoice No. 05-12, dated May 11, 2015.  Mr. Van Sandt seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.

APPROVAL OF APPLICATIONS

The water and sewer applications for April, 2015 were reviewed, and included 6 customer transfers.  Mr. Van Sandt made a motion to approve the April, 2015 applications.  Mr. Sedlacek seconded the motion and all the Trustees voted “Aye”.

OTHER

A request was submitted for approval of two bank account transfers.  The transfers are for two invoices from Midwest Meter for water meters and ERT’s with splicing kits for the new Radio-Read water meter system.  Invoice 0065232-IN for 370 water meters was in the amount of $37,144.30.  That amount was transferred April 24, 2015 from Water Trust Reserves to Water Supply.  Invoice 0065577-IN for 1170 encoder ERT’s with splicing kits and connectors was in the amount of $89,505.00.  That amount was transferred May 7, 2015 from Water Trust Reserves to Water Supply.  Mr. Sedlacek made a motion to approve a transfer of $37,144.30 and a transfer of $89,505.00 from Water Trust Reserves to Water Supply for the Midwest Meter invoices.  Mr. Van Sandt seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.  President, Mr. Hayes signed the request.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

At the April meeting, the Trustees asked Ms. Lankster to run some numbers on the 8% and 9% increases to see what would best cover the Water Plant loan and the operating expenses over the next three years.  The current water rate is $4.80 per 1,000 gallons and Sewer is $3.14 per 1,000 gallons.  At 8% the average bill for 5,000 gallons would see a total increase of $3.15 per month.  After a discussion, it was decided that the ordinances are to be written up for an 8% increase on the water and sewer rates this year, then an additional 4% for each of the next two years.  Mr. Hayes made a motion to approve 8% this year and 4% for each of the two following years. Mr. Van Sandt seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.

There was a short discussion of the preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2016.  Ken Dulle said that the only questionable operations expense that could increase substantially is the Maintenance charge for Water Tower # 2 on the contract with Utility Service.  The 8% rate increase has not yet been figured into the revenues, so they should be higher.

NEW BUSINESS

The District makes an annual request for a .0499 increase in the tax rate.  The trustees are in favor of making the request again this year.  An ordinance will be written up for approval at the July 2015 Meeting.

OPERATIONS

Installation of the new water meters and ERT’s should be complete in a couple of weeks.  We need about 20 additional meters, which have been ordered.  All routes have been tested, with only a few corrections necessary.

The Deerfield lift station will be replaced as soon as the weather permits.  The District has already started collecting revenues to pay for the replacement.  Since it was included in the 2015 budget, we need to try to show the expense in FY 2015 if possible.

The Moro Road lift station needs repairs.  It blew out the top three foot section. So the section will have to be replaced and the electrical wires will have to be re-run.

One more notice had to be put in the Holiday Times for the June issue regarding the IEPA violations.  We are no longer in violation, so that should be the last notice we need to run.

ADJOURNMENT

Mr. Van Sandt made a motion to adjourn the regular meeting.  Mr. Sedlacek seconded the motion and all the Trustees voted “Aye”.

Respectfully submitted,

Carla Lankster, District Clerk