Meeting Minutes 10-9-2023
MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES
HOLIDAY SHORES SANITARY DISTRICT
Monday, October 9, 2023
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 and Trustee called the meeting to order. Trustees Brennan Murphy and Jeff Hebenstreit were present. Also present were Carla Lankster, District Clerk and Rob Clarkson, General Manager.
OPEN FORUM
Mr. Mike Babcock of Babcock and Associates was in attendance to discuss the upcoming renewal date of December 1, 2023 for Employee Health Insurance. The current plan is $61,295.76, and to renew the same plan would be $68,736.96 per year. There is a Blue Cross plan that has much higher deductibles and co-pays. The plan would save approximately $1,000.00 per month. A comparable plan, with slightly higher in network deductibles and much higher out of network deductibles at United Healthcare would be $600.00 per month more. Humana and Aetna will not compete for small groups in Illinois. Mr. Hayes stated that we have been with BlueCross BlueShield for several years now, and there have been no complaints about the insurance coverage. Therefore, Mr. Hayes made a motion to approve the renewal of BCBS Option number 1. Mr. Murphy seconded the motion, and all Trustees voted “Aye”.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of September 18, 2023 regular meeting were submitted for approval. Mr. Murphy made a motion to approve the minutes for the September 18, 2023 meeting. Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.
The minutes of Special Meeting held September 25, 2023 were submitted for approval. Mr. Murphy made a motion to approve the minutes from September 25, 2023 special meeting. Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.
FINANCIAL The Summary of Accounts and Statement of Revenues and Expenses were reviewed for the month-end balances on September 30, 2023. Transfers are being made from Water and Sewer to General Fund for overhead expenses. Also, the interest on all accounts is being transferred to General Fund. No Motion necessary.
DISBURSEMENTS
September 2023 Accounts Payable disbursements were reviewed. Mr. Murphy made a motion to approve the September 2023 disbursements. Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.
Certop, Inc. Invoice #10012023.05, dated 10/1/2023 for $5,435.00 for September 2023 Class A Water Operator services was submitted for payment. Mr. Murphy made a motion to approve Certop Inc., Invoice #10012023.05, for September 2023 services. Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.
There were two invoices over the amount of $500.00 that were signed by Mr. Hayes. One invoice is for legal services of Unsell, Schattnik & Phillips 7/25-8/23/2023, in the amount of $1,196.79. The second invoice was from Skidsteer Hauling for mowing the lagoon, in the amount of $1,500.00. These services were previously approved at meetings.
APPROVAL OF APPLICATIONS Water and sewer applications for September 2023 were reviewed. Mr. Murphy made a motion to approve the September 2023 applications. Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.
OTHER
The Annual Financial Report will be filed with the state of Illinois in December. Ms. Lankster was discussing who will be listed on the report as the Chief Financial Officer, which is the Treasurer/Secretary. So, this year Jeff Hebenstreit will be listed for this position. Also, the Purchasing Agent will be the General Manager, Rob Clarkson, for this year’s report.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Two Operations employees, Joe and Chris, are taking on-line training for the Class A water license certification. They have submitted registration applications for the test. The test is tomorrow October 10, 2023. Mr. Hebenstreit wants to continue a monthly update, until one of them becomes a Class A Certified Operator.
Mr. Hebenstreit wants to review one or two older ordinances that need to be updated and be made available for electronic viewing. Ms. Lankster presented two original ordinances along with any amendments. Ordinance 97-01 is the purchasing and bidding ordinance, which outlines the procedures in line with the Illinois Sanitary District Act of 1936. The other ordinance is No. 90-07 which lists Employee Benefits for Holiday Shore Sanitary District. There have been several Amendments to this ordinance, however portions of the ordinance need to be updated and more clearly written. Mr. Hebenstreit would like the ordinances to be put into a word document format and sent to the Trustees to be reviewed for changes that need to be made.
There are no updates yet for the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 audit. Scheffel Boyle will provide a draft of the audit report later this month. Ms. Lankster will review and ask any necessary questions.
There was a discussion regarding the upgrade of the office accounting software. The Trustees are in agreement that this needs to happen, but it was removed from the new budget. There will still be research to find software to improve the office procedures, and bids will be requested to compare similar packages and services. Mr. Hebenstreit has requested to leave this on the future agendas.
Mr. Clarkson presented some guidelines for Sewer Credits for Customers at last month’s meeting. Mr. Hebenstreit would like to keep this on the agenda, and form a policy by sometime next year.
NEW BUSINESS
Since Mr. Mike Babcock attended the meeting regarding the health insurance renewal, the discussion was held during the Open Forum.
OPERATIONS REPORT
One of the two Raw water pumps, required to pump the water from the lake to the Water Plant, was removed by The Pump Shop and was taken back to their shop for repairs. The repairs have been completed, and has been returned and installed, and we are back to normal, 2-pump operations. We plan to have the second raw water pump pulled in the spring, for maintenance and necessary repairs. These are the original pumps from 12 years ago, when the new plant was built.
The second round of extra Lead and Copper testing is completed. One house of the 20 houses tested was in exceedance, and it is a vacation home, not a primary residence. The lead came back 20 parts per billion, and the maximum allowed is 15 parts per billion. We should be back to the normal 3-year intervals for testing now.
PH Probes have been installed.
The raw water metering at the water plant is awaiting contractor response for pricing.
There were 12 Grinder Pumps changed out in September. Some repairs were minor and completed in house. We continue to work repairs as time allows. We may need a few pumps sent out to have repaired, in order to avoid getting further behind.
The Dam Road lift station had a failure of the pump guide rails. Corrosion of the mounting hardware caused the pump to break away from its mounting location. Had to switch to one-pump operation. Contractor was called, and the repairs were made.
The Association needed to replace the large culvert at the North end of the lake. The Sewer line By-pass was completed September 29th. The Association was told it was clear for them to continue with the culver removal. Emergency locates were called in on Monday October 2nd, and Joe went to the site to mark the water main, which is outside of the original Culvert footprint. Upon the completion of the culvert replacement, we will go back in and re-connect the forced main in its original location. The By-pass will be removed, and Mr. Engleke’s property will be restored to its original condition. An email was sent to Angie Webster, HOA Manager, informing her that we intend to bill the Association for a portion of the cost of the By-pass.
The lagoon project is progressing. Sarah of HMG Engineering is in the process of talking with the farmer on the adjoining property, regarding the use of his property for the sludge out of the Lagoon. She will be meeting with him this Thursday.
Mr. Hebenstreit had a question regarding the monthly Consumption report. He asked about the differences between the amount pumped and the amount sold. The amount pumped is usually higher than the amount sold. This can be due to leaks in water mains, Water Towers being drained for maintenance, the timing of the when the drive-by readings are taken and when the reading at the plant is taken. We want to stay below a 10% variance in a one-year average.
ADJOURN TO EXECUTIVE SESSION
There is nothing new to discuss regarding litigation, therefore there was no Executive Session called.
ADJOURNMENT OF REGULAR MEETING
Mr. Murphy made a motion to adjourn the regular meeting. Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.
Respectfully submitted, Carla Lankster, District Clerk