Meeting Minutes 9-18-2023

MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES

HOLIDAY SHORES SANITARY DISTRICT

Monday, September 18, 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

The customer at 1411 Biscay was not able to attend the meeting, for the third time, so there was no discussion.  Mr. Murphy said he probably will not make it to a meeting.

Angie Webster of Holishor Association and Ty Van Ryswyk, Holishor Board member, were in attendance to discuss the area where the road collapsed, and had to be closed at the North end of the lake.  There was not a representative from Stutz Excavating in attendance.  Our Sewer main is on top of the culvert that has collapsed, which is an old rail tanker car.  Holishor is increasing the size of the culvert, so their contractor will have to dig deeper, and they do not want to risk hitting our sewer main and have sewerage running into the lake.  Therefore, they are asking us to move the main.  It will have to be a temporary move, because the property that borders the road belongs to the farmer.  HSSD will ask for permission to have a temporary bypass on that property.  The two shut off valves that will need to be installed, and will remain as part of the sewer main will cost at least $14,000.00, just for the parts. Three contractors have been contacted to provide bids, for the total cost of labor and the bypass.  Then a special meeting will have to be called to make a decision on which contractor is the best option.  The time-line must be coordinated with Holishor Association and the contractors. Mr. Van Ryswyk stated that he doesn’t understand why shut off valves were not installed in the sewer system, when it was originally put in.  He feels this is a design fault.  Mr. Clarkson stated that it is a Forced Sewer Main System, that only flows in one direction and cannot be stopped or go in reverse.

There was also a discussion regarding who should be responsible for the cost of the By-pass.  Mr. Hayes stated that it should be the responsibility of Holishor to pay it.  Mr. Clarkson said it would be nice to have help with at least part of it.  The Valves will remain in place and will become part of the sewer system. However, the By-pass will be removed.  So, the District would pick up the cost of the valves.  Mr. Hayes said, the District split the cost of repairing the Morning Glory Gate several years ago.  It was $25,000.00, and we paid $12,500.00 to Holishor Association.  Ms. Webster said Holishor already has $70,000 in this emergency repair.  Mr. Van Ryswyk said that the other utilities are not charging Holishor.  Then, Mr. Clarkson asked Ms. Webster if Holishor has a Franchise Agreement with HSSD.  She is not aware of one, but will check.   

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of August 14, 2023 regular meeting were submitted for approval.  Mr. Murphy made a motion to approve the minutes for the August 14, 2023 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 August 31, 2023.  Mr. Hebenstreit asked about the Summary page that the Finance Committee came up with, being used at the monthly meeting with updates, showing the big picture of the funds available.  Ms. Lankster was not aware that was the intent of the budget summary page, but will look at how it can be updated for the next meeting. 

DISBURSEMENTS

August 2023 Accounts Payable disbursements were reviewed.  Mr. Murphy made a motion to approve the August 2023 disbursements.  Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.

Certop, Inc. Invoice #09012023.06, dated 9/1/2023 for $5,435.00 for August 2023 Class A Water Operator services was submitted for payment.  Mr. Murphy made a motion to approve Certop Inc., Invoice #09012023.06, for August 2023 services.  Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.

There were three invoices over the amount of $500.00 that were signed by Mr. Hayes.  One invoice is  from HMG Engineers for the lagoon project, and the two Cincinnati Insurance quarterly invoices for Workers’ Compensation and Commercial Property.  These were all previously approved at meetings.

APPROVAL OF APPLICATIONS                                                                                                                                              Water and sewer applications for August 2023 were reviewed.  Mr. Murphy made a motion to approve the August 2023 applications.  Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.

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.  They are waiting on test date availability.  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.  The Budget took priority this month, so he asked Ms. Lankster to provide a couple of ordinances for the next meeting to discuss necessary updates.  He asked to make them available by email for review before the October meeting.

There are no updates yet for the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 audit.  Scheffel Boyle will provide a draft of the audit report when it is available.

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.

NEW BUSINESS

The FY 2023-2024 Budget Ordinance was presented for approval.  The Budget Ordinance must be published at least ten days prior to the end of the first quarter of the fiscal year, which is September 30, 2023. The Budget compiled by the Finance Committee has been available for the community to review for the past 30 days, at the office. The Revenues for the year are expected to be $1,713,000 and expenses are expected to be $1,635,000. Which would be $78,000 extra which could be possibly be used to pay for new software. The Revenues include a Water rate increase of $1.50 per 1,000 gallons and a Sewer rate increase of $3.00 per 1,000 gallons. Ms. Lankster entered the budget and prepared the Ordinance for tonight’s meeting.  Mr. Hebenstreit made a motion to approve Budget Ordinance No. 20232024.  Mr. Murphy seconded the motion and all Trustees voted “Aye”.

Mr. Clarkson presented some guidelines of Sewer Credits for customers.

OPERATIONS

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 are expected to be $18,000.  The pump is 12 years old.  Because of the age of the pumps, we might want to consider purchasing a back -up pump.  However, Mr. Clarkson said that a new pump would cost over $60,000.  So we may want to look at that in the next fiscal year’s budget.

We do have an agreement with Fosterburg Water to provide or receive water in case of an emergency, and we have a connection.  The agreement was a long time ago, so we need to update the agreement.

The Counter-top lab equipment was sent to Hach for Calibration.  The DR 2800 had a bad circuit board.  The DR 2800 is obsolete and the board is not available.  The unit will be replaced with a new DR 900 Colorimeter from Hach.  The Turbidity meter was calibrated by Hach and returned to the district.

The two new pH probes have been received from Hach, and will be installed to be in communication with the PC at the water plant.  This should be completed by September 22, 2023.

The raw water metering is awaiting contractor response for pricing.

Mr. Clarkson reported that it is still a struggle for the operations staff to keep up with pump rebuilding.  We have had a run of call outs, adding extra hours.  The sewer system is aging, and older pumps are failing.  We need to take a good look at hiring an entry level person in the near future.

The Pump on Britany that services three houses, had to have a new Panel installed and it had to be determined which house was providing the power.  That has been repaired.

The lagoon project is progressing.  There was another permit approved by the IEPA this month.

ADJOURN TO EXECUTIVE SESSION

Move to closed Executive Session pursuant to Statute 5ILCS 120/2 (C)(1), to discuss employee compensation.  Also pursuant to Statute 5ILCS 120/2 (C)(11), to discuss possible litigation.  Mr. Murphy made a motion to adjourn to Executive Session.  Mr. Hebenstreit seconded the motion, and all Trustees voted, “Aye”.

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