CHISAGO LAKES JOINT SEWAGE TREATMENT COMMISSION Regular Commission Meeting Minutes August 18, :00 P.M.

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1 CHISAGO LAKES JOINT SEWAGE TREATMENT COMMISSION Regular Commission Meeting Minutes August 18, :00 P.M. 1. CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Mark Wolcott called the meeting to order at 4:02 P.M. at the Lindstrom City Hall. 1a. ROLL CALL Commissioners in attendance were: Joe Zerwas, George McMahon, Mark Wolcott, Bob Gustafson, Joe Wishy, Curt Flug and Steven Zerwas. Absent Commissioners: Chuck Lucia, Don Taylor Attending Staff: Plant Superintendent Mark Nelson and Clerk Debbie Steele Guests: Chuck Janski, CLJSTC Engineer, Tom Dye, CLJSTC Engineer Ted Alliegro, CLJSTC Attorney, Nora Holt, South Center/South Lindstrom Sanitary District Clerk, Eleanor Trippler, South Center/South Lindstrom Sanitary District, Mark Pothen, IUOE Local 49 Representative, Dan Zarembinski, CLJSTC Employee, Kurt LaValla, CLJSTC Employee, Bill Straub, City of Lindstrom, Maintenance Department, Mark Dzubay, City of Lindstrom, Maintenance Department and Dave Huisenga, Representing Chisago City resident, Don Huisenga. 1b. APPROVE AGENDA A Motion was made by Bob Gustafson to approve the August 18, 2014 Regular Commission Meeting Agenda. The Motion was seconded by Steven Zerwas. All Ayes. The Motion carried. 2. CONSENT AGENDA 2a. Minutes of the July 21, 2014 Regular Commission Meeting A Motion was made by Joe Zerwas to approve the Minutes of the July 21, 2014 Commission Meeting. The Motion was seconded by Joe Wishy. All Ayes. The Motion carried. 3. PAYMENT OF BILLS 3a. Bills for Approval 3b. Disbursements A Motion was made by Bob Gustafson, the Motion was seconded by Joe Zerwas to approve the payment of the Bills for Approval list totaling $929, All Ayes. The Motion carried. The Disbursements Report listing the check sequence and voided checks was reviewed. 1

2 4. CORRESPONDENCE AND COMMUNICATIONS 4a. Letter from League of Minnesota Cities-Sanitary Sewer Lift Station Claim Dave Huisenga, representing his father Dan Huisenga, who resides at Stinson Avenue Chisago City. Dave Huisenga talked about how a sewer backup on June 20, 2014 affected his home. He talked about expenses related to the backup and the amount that was received from his personal insurance claim. He said that the expenses exceeded the amount he received from the insurance claim. The amount that Dan Huisenga has received from his personal insurance claim was about $10, The expenses that have been paid by Dan Huisenga are approximately 22, Dave Huisenga said that this amount doesn t include lost personal possessions or any work done by family members. Dave Huisenga said that if his father could get the other $12, his father would be very happy. The Claim Letter received from the League of Minnesota Cities denied the claim and stated that Chisago Lakes Joint Sewage Treatment Commission was not negligent with respect to maintenance, design or inspection of its sanitary sewer lift station. Mark Nelson explained how past backups at lift stations had been resolved. Mark Nelson also said that there was no defect in the lift station. The letter from The League of Minnesota cities explained that the Chisago Lakes Joint Sewage Treatment Commission had properly responded to the sewer backup and fixed the issue that caused the sewer backup. Dave Huisenga asked what could be done and that he felt that something was very wrong about the situation. The Commission decided to refer the matter to the CLJSTC Attorney, Peter Grundhoefer. The Commission recommended that Attorney Grundhoefer talk to the League of Minnesota Cities and then come back to the Commission with his report on the matter. Mark Wolcott asked Mr. Huisenga if it would be OK if our Engineers and Mark Nelson can come over to see what is there and come up with some ideas on what can be put in there to prevent something like this from happening in the future. Mark Nelson said that disposable rags were the cause of the problem. Chisago City is investigating the source of the rags. Mr. Huisenga said that items from the basement were placed on the carpet upstairs and that the carpet is now contaminated. Attorney Grundhoefer will talk to the League off Minnesota Cities and report back to the Commission. 5. Reports 5a. Attorney s Report 1. Easement Right of Way for Proposed Reconditioning of Highway #24 Engineer Janski said that in front of the plant they are improving the road and that the Highway Department was trying to clean up right of way descriptions. At the July 2014 Commission Meeting a Motion was made to approve the correspondence from the Highway Department about the easements and right of way plats pending review by Attorney Grundhoefer. Attorney Grundhoefer is not present today to present his review. 2

3 5b. Engineer s Report 1. Lindstrom Main Lift Station Construction Update Engineer Chuck Janski said that we are still waiting for Xcel easement for the Electrical. The gas is already arranged, but we don t have the signed document for the power lines coming into the Lift Station. Chuck Janski said that the Lindstrom City Administrator is working with the property owner to get the Easement signed. The project is on hold until the Easement is signed. Engineer Janski mentioned that at the last meeting a Motion was made to extend the Contract completion date by 30 days after Xcel has the power to the site. Pember Companies send a letter to Ron LaFond at Stantec expressing concerns that depending on when Xcel has completed their work if 30 days would be sufficient to coordinate all of their subs. Pember has requested to review the 30 days or hold off on setting a completion date until we know Xcel s completion date. Pember Companies has said that they will accommodate the delay with no additional costs as long as they receive a change order with reasonable completion date accepted by all parties. Joe Wishy expressed concern about when the project would be completed. A Motion was made by Bob Gustafson, the Motion was seconded by Joe Zerwas to to accept the request from Pember Companies to extend the time to accommodate subcontractors after the Xcel completion date, and to authorize that Chuck Janski work with John Olinger to work on solutions to get the project done. All Ayes. The Motion carried. A Motion was made by Bob Gustafson, The Motion was seconded by JoeWishy to accept the Payment Request #2 from Pember Companies for $64, All Ayes. The Motion carried. 2. Pond Testing Project Update Engineer Chuck Janski said that the barrels were assembled and placed by R.E. Peterson at the end of July. Mark Nelson started taking readings right after that. Chuck Janski said that the project has gone very well and that the data received so far looks like all three ponds will pass the original standards set by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Chuck said that they will take a couple more days of readings to get plenty of documentation to the MPCA. Chuck said that tomorrow they will be rechecking the elevation of the barrels to make sure there wasn t any movement or settlement. The results will be submitted to the MPCA on Wednesday or Thursday. Chuck said that he expects that they should get approval by September 1, Chuck talked about the Pay Request from R.E. Peterson for $42, which is for the bulk of the project. He said that the only thing remaining is to remove the barrels. Chuck said that there is a possible use for the barrels on a future project, or to rent or sell them. Because of the investment of the barrels we thought it would be worth it to keep them. A Motion was made by George McMahon, the Motion was seconded by Curt Flug to accept the Payment Request from R.E. Peterson. 3. WWTF Operation Privatization Comments from Engineer Thomas Dye To be discussed later in Commission Meeting. 3

4 4. Midi Loan Final Draw of Funds Chuck said that the balance of the Loan would be paid out on or about September 1, Engineer Janski said that most of the line items related to the loan are completed but there are still a couple pending. It looks like we will have some excess funds in the loan amount which can be repaid to bring the balance down. Chuck recommended that the Budget Committee or the Executive Committee review it to determine what to do with the remaining funds. According to the documentation from the Rural Water that early pre-payment could be made in March of Chuck Janski said that these funds will be distributed on September 1, Chuck Janski said we should have all of our projects done my March 1, We can refund what we don t need or invest it in other long term projects. Referred to Budget Committee. 5c. July 2014 Operation s Report Plant Superintendent, Mark Nelson said that the flows are up for the year. The Treatment is good. The plant is running well. 5d. July 2014 Operator s Report Mark Nelson talked about moving pumps from the Commissions Lift Station that is being remodeled and moving them to another Lift Station to try to increase pumping capacity in two of our other Lift Stations by reusing some of our existing equipment. Mark Nelson talked about possibly using some of the excess funds from the loan to purchase pumps for our Lift Stations. Mark talked about the insurance claim that was submitted related to the Power Outage at our Odor Control unit. He said that there was more damage than originally anticipated. 5e. July 2014 Budget Report Nora Holt talked about the Treatment and Maintenance charges for the South Center Sanitary District. She said that she felt that the South Center Sanitary District should have some kind of representation on this Board and that they had some comments they would like to make later during the Privatization Discussion if they may. Joe Wishy asked if the South Center Sanitary District wanted a member on the Board. Nora said that is what they had requested for some time and haven t had a response from the Commission in order to do that. Mark Wolcott said that it would require an adjustment to the Joint Powers Agreement which can be done if all the Entities that are current members to the Joint Powers would agree to that. 6. Business 6a. Engagement Letter-David Drown & Associates The Engagement letter is only necessary when we are doing bonding. 4

5 6b. IUOE Local 49-Discuss the request for a Qualified Contractor Search for the Treatment Plant Dan Zarembinski, the Lead Operator and the Union Steward for the 49ers said he had been doing all the negotiations for Union Contracts since He said that every year when they negotiate the Union Contract we are always told how good we are at what we do and now we are looking at Privatization. Privatization is the last step in a bad situation. We just want to know why? Mark Wolcott said some of us want to know why too? There are some empty chairs at the table, but you are welcome to speak to whoever is here. Dan also asked why this has gone this far. He said we do everything we can to maintain budget, safety, liability and service and we feel we have done a great job. Steve Zerwas said he was looking into privatization strictly on a cost analysis type scenario. I never said you guys did a bad job, it was strictly a situation where we were curious to see how much money could be saved. I suspected that there wouldn t be a whole lot of cost savings, but I didn t know. Veolia and People Service provided information, but I was looking for numbers, that were not provided in what was sent. Dan Zarembinski said we have tried several things over the years to keep costs down, Dan said he works with Mark Nelson monthly on the Budgeting future projects. Dan said he has done everything possible to keep down the electric costs. Dan said he is down to bare bones on chemicals and can t cut it more without effecting the phosphorus. Joe Zerwas said that he is on the Budget Committee and that he tries to squeeze as hard as he can to save money. Joe Zerwas said that when it comes to Budget items we have to provide for the needs. Joe Zerwas said that he was 100% against it since the beginning. Joe Zerwas said that if he saw something that was broken, he would say let s get it fixed, but that he didn t see anything broken. Joe said he saw that we have spent upwards close to $3, already for no reason investigating this. Joe Zerwas said that in my opinion, I wish the rest of this Board would go along with me, I d like to say let s just wash this out and get it over with, why keep this dragging on from meeting to meeting to meeting and spending more money. It absolutely makes no sense I think we should just get rid of it and forget about it, let these guys do their job, they are doing an excellent job in a cost effective way. That is my opinion. Mark Wolcott said he wished that all of the chairs were full if we are going to make any kind of decision. Mark Wolcott said that he didn t know why some members were missing. Mark Wolcott said that Bob Gustafson had an appointment at 5:00 P.M. Mark Wolcott said that Chuck Lucia was not in favor of this. Mark Pothen, representative for the 49ers said there was no real reason except to cut cost. Joe Wishy said he agreed with everything Joe Zerwas had said. Joe Zerwas made a Motion that we discontinue looking at Privatization. The Motion was seconded by Joe Wishy. Steve Zerwas said that since they didn t come back with numbers, and that was what we were looking for, he would agree. Chuck Janski clarified that the Statement of Qualifications didn t ask for numbers. This was meant to be more of a screening process. They only asked for budgets from similar plants. 5

6 George said we were in a dilemma since we didn t ask for their numbers to run this plant. George said that what we were looking for was an audit of our plant and then they give us their numbers. George McMahon said he wanted to add an amendment to the Motion that Thank you for your submission, the Commission has reviewed the submissions, and has decided not to go forward with any Privatization. All Ayes. The Motion carried. 7. Adjournment A Motion was made by George McMahon to Adjourn the Commission Meeting, Joe Zerwas Seconded the Motion. All Ayes. The Motion carried. The Commission Meeting Adjourned at 5:35 P.M. 6