by Neil Richard
The Service Authority Board of Directors began their meeting at 6:31pm on March 19th.
There was one amendment to the Agenda. An item was added to the Action Items section regarding budget line item transfers.
There was no Public Comment.
In an effort to keep the meeting short due to an expected longer Supervisor meeting later, most of the presentations were shortened. Christopher Werle's report was simply that he attended the budget work session on March 18th. Richard Granger said he attended as well. Cathy Binder said she would pass on her update and would fill everyone in during the next meeting. Ruby Brabo had no report. Mike Bennett's report had two items. He attended the same budget work session on the 18th and participated in a conference call with Davenport on the 15th that was related to the Service Authority's financial options going forward.
The Consent Agenda was approved.
The County Attorney, Eric Gregory, had no report.
Regarding the adoption of the Code of Ethics by the Board of Directors, Mike Bennett, Chairman, stated that in the past, the Supervisors were the Board of Directors so there was no need to adopt this policy. However, with two citizen members, Bennett said "we're as ethical as they are" and the policy applies to the citizens just as much as the Supervisors. Bennett said he and Christopher Werle think it's important to formalize that tonight. The Code of Ethics was approved.
Next was the budget line item transfer. Jonathon Weakley, General Manager, said the transfer was necessary because the Ferry Dock pump station was not working and they had to pump and haul the waste daily to prevent sewage from backing up into people's homes. Weakley said that because 3-phase power was too expensive to install, the pump station would need to be retrofitted with a submersible pump. The project would cost about $40,000. To cover the cost of the project, funds need to be transferred in order to bring the pump the pump station online.
Bennett asked how much the 3-phase power would cost to which Weakley said it was roughly $200,000. Bennett replied that $40,000 was certainly less and that the project couldn't wait until the start of the next fiscal year. After the transfer was approved, Brabo asked if the 3-phase power was something that could be installed in the future to resolve the issue. Weakley said the submersible pumps would solve the issue. He added that for the same cost of 3-phase power, he could buy the whole pump station three times over. He added that by fixing the issue now, it also reduced traffic in the area and freed up Service Authority resources.
Bennett then discussed the proposed change in policy for remote participation at meetings. He said that Brabo had tried to participate in the last meeting remotely but because there as no policy, she wasn't allowed to do so. Bennett said the Supervisors have adopted a policy like this and expected the Service Authority policy to be ready by the next meeting.
Jonathon Weakley then gave a shortened General Manager's report. He said the air compressor motors had been ordered for Hopyard Farm and the third well at Fairview Beach was online and operational. On the waste water side, he said the nutrient credit invoice was $3,454.20. In other business, Weakley added that the March 27th budget work session was moved to April 1st and that a preliminary Wiley Wilson Utility Master Plan discussion would take place on the 20th. He said that some of the information in the report would need to be redacted for security reasons. On the same day, the local Governor's School students would be touring the Dahlgren Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) as well as the Fairview Beach well house. Weakley said he was also working to schedule a tour for Fairview Beach residents of the WWTP. Bennett said his concern was that with so many people, it might be safer and easier to split them into two tour groups. Weakley agreed and said he was looking at two dates to see if that would help. He was also concerned that he didn't want to schedule too many tours as it might increase the amount of overtime costs for staff to be present. [EDITOR'S NOTE - Neil Richard, a co-founder of Project94, was a chaperone on the Governor's School field trip.]
Jumping back to the Governor's School tour, Binder suggested the bus could park at Potomac Elementary School. Brabo said that wouldn't work because there's no sidewalk. Binder clarified that the bus could drop them off at the WWTP then park at Potomac to wait until they were done. Bennett thanked Binder for her suggestion.
Bennett said they were trying to rush a bit because the Board of Directors was going to move off the dais to the tables on the floor to discuss the decommissioning study by Draper Aden. He then invited Jeff Bueche and John Jenkins to join them along with the representatives from Draper Aden.
EDITOR'S NOTE - During the Feasibility Study Presentation by Draper Aden, the presentation on their findings was not made public because it needed to be redacted for security reasons. Additionally, because of the lack of microphones at the tables, it was difficult to hear all of the conversations. What follows is simply a high-level overview of their presentation.
Draper Aden's study was to perform a cost benefit analysis of decommissioning the Purkins Corner WWTP and the Oakland Park WWTP. Taking these two plants out of service would then require additional infrastructure to move the waste to the Hopyard Farm WWTP. While Purkins Corner and Oakland Park are operating relatively efficiently for their age and capacity, it was noted that Hopyard Farm was operating under capacity and therefore not efficiently. Additionally by taking two WWTPs out of service, it would require less work on the part of the Service Authority and would make permitting easier with Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Draper Aden's two main options were to reverse the flow of the pipes going into Purkins Corner and add more pipe along Kings Highway (Route 3) to feed into Hopyard Farm WWTP. This portion would cost about $3.6 million. A similar plan was created for Oakland Park but there were two options given. One was to have the flow to Hopyard Farm start at the end of the line near the Industrial Park at a cost of about $3 million. The other option was to have it go towards Sealston and then go to Hopyard Farm. The idea behind this second option was to allow more customers the option of tapping into the sewer system in the future should the County want to promote development in the Sealston area. There would be an additional cost to this option though, roughly $2 million more, because of the extra mileage of pipe that would need to be installed.
There was some confusion about the size of pipe being different, the number of pumps needed, and the amount of effluent capacity. Draper Aden did a fair job of explaining the rudimentary aspects of septicity in pipes, how far a pump can pump sewage, and the difference between effluent capacity at the WWTP versus at the pump station. Draper Aden also explained that if the County opted to run the line from Sealston to Hopyard Farm WWTP, they factored potential growth into their findings already so that the proposed system could handle twice the existing amount.
Purkins Corner, built in 1997 and upgraded in 2002, and Oakland Park, built in 1993 and expanded in 2003, are the oldest WWTPs in the system and near the end of their useful life. With that in mind, Draper Aden said Hopyard Farm WWTP was the best end point for their effluent. Hopyard Farm WWTP is currently running under its 375,000 gallon per day capacity and is already permitted for 500,000 gallons per day. Additionally, with some minor upgrades and a new permit, it could handle a million gallons per day. Draper Aden said that with a full build out of Hopyard's 900 homes and commercial plans, plus the current flow from Purkins Corner WWTP and Oakland Park WWTP, the ending amount of effluent would still be under the current capacity of 375,000 gallons per day.
Draper Aden then got into the projected costs. The bottom line cost for their recommendation was about $9.7 million. Although it wasn't shown to the public, they said they ran some estimates on costs. And although some of those listening seemed to be confused by the variables used, it was obvious Draper Aden made reasonable assumptions based on current data and projected costs. They said the County could continue to run all three plants as they are now at a cost of $14 million over the next 20 years. Or they could shut down Purkins Corner and Oakland Park and shift everything to Hopyard Farm at a cost of $21 million over the next 20 years. In a nutshell, it would cost 50% more to operate with two fewer plants over that 20 year span. However, what wasn't factored into that cost projection was any funding from federal or state grants or any local contributions from the County.
There was some question as to grant applications and if applying for a grant obligated them to use it and the answer was no. The Service Authority could apply for a grant but could turn it down if the financing options were not positive. It was at this point that Jeff Bueche said he felt like the Service Authority should be looking at selling to a private company because it wasn't financially stable enough to sustain its own operations. Bennett said that this is a long range project and not something that would happen in the immediate future. Bennett said the Service Authority has been "beat up and is bleeding from multiple wounds." He said AQUA came in and stopped the bleeding. Brabo added "but we're still in the ICU." Bennett said true and there is still a lot of rehab ahead. He said the Service Authority is still trying to get back on their feet and it may take awhile because "we have issues to deal with right away" but this project was something to look at doing in the future.
The Directors then went back to their chairs on the dais. Bennett continued by saying the Service Authority has talked about making things public and they were working on it but because it deals with public infrastructure that may be possible targets for terrorists, certain things would need to be redacted.
The meeting adjourned at 7:45pm.
Meeting Attendees:
Christopher Werle (Board of Directors)
Jonathon Weakley (General Manager of Service Authority)
Richard Granger (Board of Supervisors)
Michael Bennett (Chairman, Citizen)
Ruby Brabo (Board of Supervisors)
Cathy Binder (Board of Supervisors)
Neiman Young (County Administrator)
Eric Gregory (County Attorney)
Meeting Agenda
Next Meeting:
The Service Authority will next meet on April 1, 2019 at 6:30 pm at the Revercomb Building.
Previous Meeting:
Read about the previous Service Authority Meeting.
The Service Authority Board of Directors began their meeting at 6:31pm on March 19th.
There was one amendment to the Agenda. An item was added to the Action Items section regarding budget line item transfers.
There was no Public Comment.
In an effort to keep the meeting short due to an expected longer Supervisor meeting later, most of the presentations were shortened. Christopher Werle's report was simply that he attended the budget work session on March 18th. Richard Granger said he attended as well. Cathy Binder said she would pass on her update and would fill everyone in during the next meeting. Ruby Brabo had no report. Mike Bennett's report had two items. He attended the same budget work session on the 18th and participated in a conference call with Davenport on the 15th that was related to the Service Authority's financial options going forward.
The Consent Agenda was approved.
The County Attorney, Eric Gregory, had no report.
Regarding the adoption of the Code of Ethics by the Board of Directors, Mike Bennett, Chairman, stated that in the past, the Supervisors were the Board of Directors so there was no need to adopt this policy. However, with two citizen members, Bennett said "we're as ethical as they are" and the policy applies to the citizens just as much as the Supervisors. Bennett said he and Christopher Werle think it's important to formalize that tonight. The Code of Ethics was approved.
Next was the budget line item transfer. Jonathon Weakley, General Manager, said the transfer was necessary because the Ferry Dock pump station was not working and they had to pump and haul the waste daily to prevent sewage from backing up into people's homes. Weakley said that because 3-phase power was too expensive to install, the pump station would need to be retrofitted with a submersible pump. The project would cost about $40,000. To cover the cost of the project, funds need to be transferred in order to bring the pump the pump station online.
Bennett asked how much the 3-phase power would cost to which Weakley said it was roughly $200,000. Bennett replied that $40,000 was certainly less and that the project couldn't wait until the start of the next fiscal year. After the transfer was approved, Brabo asked if the 3-phase power was something that could be installed in the future to resolve the issue. Weakley said the submersible pumps would solve the issue. He added that for the same cost of 3-phase power, he could buy the whole pump station three times over. He added that by fixing the issue now, it also reduced traffic in the area and freed up Service Authority resources.
Bennett then discussed the proposed change in policy for remote participation at meetings. He said that Brabo had tried to participate in the last meeting remotely but because there as no policy, she wasn't allowed to do so. Bennett said the Supervisors have adopted a policy like this and expected the Service Authority policy to be ready by the next meeting.
Jonathon Weakley then gave a shortened General Manager's report. He said the air compressor motors had been ordered for Hopyard Farm and the third well at Fairview Beach was online and operational. On the waste water side, he said the nutrient credit invoice was $3,454.20. In other business, Weakley added that the March 27th budget work session was moved to April 1st and that a preliminary Wiley Wilson Utility Master Plan discussion would take place on the 20th. He said that some of the information in the report would need to be redacted for security reasons. On the same day, the local Governor's School students would be touring the Dahlgren Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) as well as the Fairview Beach well house. Weakley said he was also working to schedule a tour for Fairview Beach residents of the WWTP. Bennett said his concern was that with so many people, it might be safer and easier to split them into two tour groups. Weakley agreed and said he was looking at two dates to see if that would help. He was also concerned that he didn't want to schedule too many tours as it might increase the amount of overtime costs for staff to be present. [EDITOR'S NOTE - Neil Richard, a co-founder of Project94, was a chaperone on the Governor's School field trip.]
Jumping back to the Governor's School tour, Binder suggested the bus could park at Potomac Elementary School. Brabo said that wouldn't work because there's no sidewalk. Binder clarified that the bus could drop them off at the WWTP then park at Potomac to wait until they were done. Bennett thanked Binder for her suggestion.
Bennett said they were trying to rush a bit because the Board of Directors was going to move off the dais to the tables on the floor to discuss the decommissioning study by Draper Aden. He then invited Jeff Bueche and John Jenkins to join them along with the representatives from Draper Aden.
EDITOR'S NOTE - During the Feasibility Study Presentation by Draper Aden, the presentation on their findings was not made public because it needed to be redacted for security reasons. Additionally, because of the lack of microphones at the tables, it was difficult to hear all of the conversations. What follows is simply a high-level overview of their presentation.
Draper Aden's study was to perform a cost benefit analysis of decommissioning the Purkins Corner WWTP and the Oakland Park WWTP. Taking these two plants out of service would then require additional infrastructure to move the waste to the Hopyard Farm WWTP. While Purkins Corner and Oakland Park are operating relatively efficiently for their age and capacity, it was noted that Hopyard Farm was operating under capacity and therefore not efficiently. Additionally by taking two WWTPs out of service, it would require less work on the part of the Service Authority and would make permitting easier with Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Draper Aden's two main options were to reverse the flow of the pipes going into Purkins Corner and add more pipe along Kings Highway (Route 3) to feed into Hopyard Farm WWTP. This portion would cost about $3.6 million. A similar plan was created for Oakland Park but there were two options given. One was to have the flow to Hopyard Farm start at the end of the line near the Industrial Park at a cost of about $3 million. The other option was to have it go towards Sealston and then go to Hopyard Farm. The idea behind this second option was to allow more customers the option of tapping into the sewer system in the future should the County want to promote development in the Sealston area. There would be an additional cost to this option though, roughly $2 million more, because of the extra mileage of pipe that would need to be installed.
There was some confusion about the size of pipe being different, the number of pumps needed, and the amount of effluent capacity. Draper Aden did a fair job of explaining the rudimentary aspects of septicity in pipes, how far a pump can pump sewage, and the difference between effluent capacity at the WWTP versus at the pump station. Draper Aden also explained that if the County opted to run the line from Sealston to Hopyard Farm WWTP, they factored potential growth into their findings already so that the proposed system could handle twice the existing amount.
Purkins Corner, built in 1997 and upgraded in 2002, and Oakland Park, built in 1993 and expanded in 2003, are the oldest WWTPs in the system and near the end of their useful life. With that in mind, Draper Aden said Hopyard Farm WWTP was the best end point for their effluent. Hopyard Farm WWTP is currently running under its 375,000 gallon per day capacity and is already permitted for 500,000 gallons per day. Additionally, with some minor upgrades and a new permit, it could handle a million gallons per day. Draper Aden said that with a full build out of Hopyard's 900 homes and commercial plans, plus the current flow from Purkins Corner WWTP and Oakland Park WWTP, the ending amount of effluent would still be under the current capacity of 375,000 gallons per day.
Draper Aden then got into the projected costs. The bottom line cost for their recommendation was about $9.7 million. Although it wasn't shown to the public, they said they ran some estimates on costs. And although some of those listening seemed to be confused by the variables used, it was obvious Draper Aden made reasonable assumptions based on current data and projected costs. They said the County could continue to run all three plants as they are now at a cost of $14 million over the next 20 years. Or they could shut down Purkins Corner and Oakland Park and shift everything to Hopyard Farm at a cost of $21 million over the next 20 years. In a nutshell, it would cost 50% more to operate with two fewer plants over that 20 year span. However, what wasn't factored into that cost projection was any funding from federal or state grants or any local contributions from the County.
There was some question as to grant applications and if applying for a grant obligated them to use it and the answer was no. The Service Authority could apply for a grant but could turn it down if the financing options were not positive. It was at this point that Jeff Bueche said he felt like the Service Authority should be looking at selling to a private company because it wasn't financially stable enough to sustain its own operations. Bennett said that this is a long range project and not something that would happen in the immediate future. Bennett said the Service Authority has been "beat up and is bleeding from multiple wounds." He said AQUA came in and stopped the bleeding. Brabo added "but we're still in the ICU." Bennett said true and there is still a lot of rehab ahead. He said the Service Authority is still trying to get back on their feet and it may take awhile because "we have issues to deal with right away" but this project was something to look at doing in the future.
The Directors then went back to their chairs on the dais. Bennett continued by saying the Service Authority has talked about making things public and they were working on it but because it deals with public infrastructure that may be possible targets for terrorists, certain things would need to be redacted.
The meeting adjourned at 7:45pm.
Meeting Attendees:
Christopher Werle (Board of Directors)
Jonathon Weakley (General Manager of Service Authority)
Richard Granger (Board of Supervisors)
Michael Bennett (Chairman, Citizen)
Ruby Brabo (Board of Supervisors)
Cathy Binder (Board of Supervisors)
Neiman Young (County Administrator)
Eric Gregory (County Attorney)
Meeting Agenda
Next Meeting:
The Service Authority will next meet on April 1, 2019 at 6:30 pm at the Revercomb Building.
Previous Meeting:
Read about the previous Service Authority Meeting.
No comments:
Post a Comment