by Neil Richard
The Service Authority Board of Directors held a special meeting on July 16, 2019. The meeting was held at the County's Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Services Company 1 while the Board Room was being renovated. The meeting began at 6:32pm.
Shortly after the Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance, Mike Bennett, Chair, made sure the doors were not locked so members of the public could get into the meeting.
There were no amendments to the Agenda.
There was no Public Comment.
Christopher Werle reported that he attended the joint work session with the Board of Supervisors and the Economic Development Authority (EDA) on June 20th. He also attended a meeting on June 28th with Hazel Homes to discus the potential capacity of Hopyard Farm Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) as well as the potential increase in flow from Oakland Park WWTP should the facility be decommissioned.
Richard Granger reported that he attended the joint meeting on June 20th as well.
Cathy Binder also said she attended the joint meeting on June 20th as well as other meetings with Bennett who could probably provide a better update than her.
Mike Bennett reported he attended the joint meeting as well. He also attended a meeting regarding the Potomac Landing development on June 21st and went to the Town Hall hosted by Jeff Bueche on June 27th. At the Town Hall, he said that Yvonne Richard shared information about several potential grants that could be used at Ralph Bunche that would help the Ralph Bunche Arts and Humanities Center with their project as well as help the Service Authority increase their service in the area. Bennett said he asked Weakley to look into the grant programs. Bennett said he attended the meeting with Hazel Homes on the 28th and participated in a conference call on July 1st with Schnabel Engineering and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Bennett said Schnabel will be conducting the Environmental Analysis (EA) for the riverbank stabilization project instead of FEMA because they can do it faster. He said Schnabel is running into a few issues with other agencies not wanting to believe they have FEMA approval to do the EA. Also on July 1st, Bennett attended a joint meeting with Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, King George County, and the Service Authority. Bennett said the idea behind the meeting was to see how the three entities could join forces in certain areas. As an example, he said with the purchasing of chemicals, they could get a better price. He did say that the base would continue to operate their water and waste water facilities. Bennett said the Service Authority was a small part of the discussion but he felt the idea was sound enough to consider including Colonial Beach, Fort A. P. Hill, and Caroline County to increase savings. He said it may also serve as a template of cooperation with the base with regards to other issues and that it may take six months to a year before any project is brought to fruition. On July 15th, Bennett met with the Hampton Roads Sanitary District and Tri-County/City Soil and Water to conduct their first round of testing in Fairview Beach to determine the source of the water contamination. Bennett said they tested about 15 locations, including a Service Authority manhole. He said they were shocked at how much "stuff" was going through the manhole but they felt it would serve as a good data point when determining the source of the contamination. Bennett said that it will take some time to process the tests and get results. He said that when tests were done in November, it was during a very wet period of time and there were several streams flowing. He said with this most recent test, things were much drier so fewer samples were collected than they had hoped for. He felt this may help determine if the surface water was the source of the contamination. Bennett said that out of nine Virginia Department of Health (VDH) tests done so far this year, there have been three advisories for the Potomac River. He said for the four weeks in June, there were no advisories so there may be a correlation between wet weather and the contamination. Bennett also participated in a conference call with Davenport and Associates earlier in the morning. [EDITOR'S NOTE - Neil Richard, a co-founder of Project94, is the spouse of Yvonne Richard.]
The Consent Agenda was approved.
The County Attorney, Eric Gregory, had no report.
Davenport and Associates representatives Kyle Laux and Griffin Moore then began their presentation on the search results for a flexible line of credit for the Service Authority. With Moore doing most of the talking during the short presentation, the results looked promising. Moore said that several banks returned proposals however many of them would require the Service Authority to draw down or borrow the full amount of $15 million. He also said several of them had higher than desirable interest rates or a delay in prepayment. In the end, the proposal from Atlantic Union looked the most promising with a fixed interest rate of 2.399%, which was lower than the planned rate of 3%. Included in their proposal was no minimum draw down or loan amount and treated it as a truly flexible line of credit. Additionally, Atlantic Union proposed no minimum withdrawal amount and would allow a prepayment at anytime with no penalty. Moore said that other banks, such as BB&T and Capital One, had higher interest rates, flexible interest rates, or required the full $15 million to be taken out even if it wasn't needed. The next step, said Moore, was to have the Board of Directors and the Board of Supervisors approve a resolution for the line of credit at their August meeting. In concert with this was the debt restructuring process. Both the line of credit and the debt restructuring should be complete by the end of August.
Bennett asked if the stock market would have lower rates in the future, as it seems to be indicated recently. Laux said that they may be able to go back to the bank and get a lower rate if rates do drop. He said that within the last week, it seems that the Fed will take rates down but said the short answer was that if there's a rate decrease before closing, they can certainly go back to the bank. Bennett asked if the current rate of 2.399% was locked in with the bank and Laux said it was. Bennett asked if the maturity date in five years would be for the entire loan amount and what would the Service Authority do if they couldn't pay for it with the cash they had on hand. Laux said the intent was to draw on the line of credit over time and then at the end of five years, use long term financing. He also said that grant funding and other evolutions in the capital program may reduce how much is necessary to finance on a long term basis. Bennett reiterated that the big ticket item was the potential decommissioning of the Purkins Corner and Oakland Park WWTPs, at roughly $9.7 million, as well as bringing pump stations into compliance. He said it won't be hard to spend the money on capital improvements and repairs. Bennett said he was really impressed with Davenport's work and felt they really "nailed it." He said a year ago he wasn't sure "banks would offer us $15 let alone $15 million."
Bennett asked for a motion to approve the plan to allow Davenport to move forward with Atlantic Union. The Board approved but made it contingent on legal review and the Board of Supervisors approval of their moral obligation.
Next on the Agenda was a discussion about the rate section of the Service Authority's regulations. Eric Gregory, County Attorney, explained that in years past, the Board would approve of new rates then amend the regulations to include those new rates. He said this was not a legal requirement but rather a hold over from previous Boards. He continued by explaining that the Board could amend the regulations to remove certain sections. This would result in it no longer being necessary to add an extra step in the process. Gregory was careful to explain that the change would not impact the public hearings that would still remain in place any time a rate change was made. Bennett added that it would also save time and money by not requiring staff to create an additional public notice. Bennett asked how much it would save and Weakley said over $2,000 just in ad expenses. Bennett said he gets in trouble when he says it but he felt like it was a "no brainer" in making this change. He said amending the regulations would also help save time and money when changing the connection fees as they are also included in the old process. Gregory said the desire was to not eliminate the whole section in the regulations but "rather to surgically excise what isn't needed" and to leave what was still necessary. Bennett said that during the joint meeting with the Supervisors and EDA, they discussed how difficult it was to find comparable connection fee rates from surrounding areas. He said his goal was to instead make it easier for people to find. Granger asked if there would be no public hearings for rate increases and Gregory said the public hearing would still remain in place and that public access and transparency would still be there. Bennett said it was essentially removing a second step that wasn't needed. With that, consensus was reached to move forward.
Next was Jonathon Weakley's discussion on fat, oil and grease. He said the industry acronym was FOG and that many jurisdictions have a FOG ordinance or FOG permit in place but King George does not. He said that FOGs will cause problems at WWTPs like clogs in the pipes and overflows at pump stations. Weakley wouldn't name any specific customer but said there was one customer that was the only one served by a pump station and it was repeatedly a source of issues. He said the FOGs inside the pump are often bad enough the pump has to be chiseled out. Weakley said that the initial plan is to simply educate customers on what can and can't be put down the drain as well as what de-greasers, cleaners, and traps are recommended. He said it wasn't a revenue program but more of an education program. Weakley said he was sensitive to the cost burden it would place on businesses but said that there's also a cost burden to the Service Authority in treating the FOG at the WWTP. He said his goal wasn't to come out swinging and label it as enforcement but rather to raise awareness. Bennett asked him to coordinate with Dr. Neiman Young, County Administrator, and the Economic Development Department to ensure it doesn't create too many issues for businesses. Granger asked if large residential areas could be the cause of high FOG levels at WWTPs and Weakley said it was in some cases but usually FOGs came from restaurants. He said de-greasers can be added. Bennett mentioned grease traps and Dr. Young said they are required but there was no "teeth" to enforcement according to the Community Development Department. Weakley added that the local Health Department is also involved but agreed that there needed to be more teeth in enforcement. With that, consensus was reached.
Weakley then updated the Board on his changes and additions to the job descriptions. Bennett and Werle agreed that he didn't need Board approval for what he wanted to do and it was more of an update than a request for permission. Weakley said he wanted to streamline some positions at the manager level and create positions below that. He said it would put similar jobs on the same level and provide room for advancement from within the department. Weakley said that the County's Human Resources Department has already approved all of the changes. Bennett said that the money for the newly created positions was already in the budget and there was a desire to promote from within. He said this not only allows for people to move up in their career but also allows the Board to do some succession planning in case somebody wants to leave the Service Authority.
Weakley then, as he usually does every meeting, shared his General Manager's report. Once a month he also shares the Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) measurements for each WWTP. With number steadily dropping to within permitted levels, Weakley shared with the Board that the staff at the Dahlgren WWTP has found the best "recipe" to get ideal numbers and it was reflected in the amounts he shared. Dahlgren WWTP has a TN limit of 3.0 mg/L and the June measurement was down to 2.4 mg/L. Although the yearly average is slightly above permitted levels at 4.3 mg/L, he said there were still six months to go and the recipe is locked in. All of the other WWTPs were operating within permitted levels except for Purkins Corner which had a yearly average TN of 10.7 mg/L. The permit limit is 10.0 mg/L. Weakly said staff was still working to get under permit levels and that some of the higher numbers were due to faulty equipment that has been replaced. Bennett asked if the improvements at Dahlgren were because of chemistry or equipment and Weakley said both.
Continuing his report, Weakley said maintenance work has already begun on the water towers and he was pleased by what he saw when he went to inspect their work. He said the Service Authority has been in contact with Dr. Benson, Superintendent of Schools, to keep him informed and that the crews on site felt they may be finished sooner than expected. Regarding the My Place Hotel being constructed in Dahlgren, Weakley said Mr. Murphy submitted the necessary "like place" usage from a My Place Hotel in Lebanon, Tennessee. Bennett asked and Werle confirmed that the hotel is already booked for the first year with 100% occupancy. Bennett said he wanted to make sure the hotel in Tennessee was not operating at 50% occupancy when data was collected and wanted to make sure the Service Authority got viable information to plan for full occupancy. Weakley said they should be able to extrapolate from the data to predict the correct amounts for Dahlgren. Weakley said he was working towards a more formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the school system regarding the owner/agent agreement. He said he found nothing on file, nothing signed, and no record of one other than an incomplete draft from former management. Gregory said he had no immediate thoughts on the MOU but would certainly like to discuss it with Weakley.
With that, the Board entered into Closed Session at 7:50pm and invited Gregory, Young, and Weakley to attend. They returned from Closed Session at 8:57pm and adjourned immediately after.
Meeting Attendees:
Christopher Werle (Board of Directors)
Jonathon Weakley (General Manager of Service Authority)
Richard Granger (Board of Supervisors)
Michael Bennett (Chairman, Citizen)
Cathy Binder (Board of Supervisors)
Neiman Young (County Administrator)
Eric Gregory (County Attorney)
Absent:
Ruby Brabo (Board of Supervisors)
Meeting Agenda
Next Meeting:
The Service Authority will next meet on August 6, 2019 at 6:30 pm at the Revercomb Building.
Previous Meeting:
Read about the previous Service Authority Meeting.
SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE
You can subscribe via email here. You can make a charitable donation here.
The Service Authority Board of Directors held a special meeting on July 16, 2019. The meeting was held at the County's Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Services Company 1 while the Board Room was being renovated. The meeting began at 6:32pm.
Shortly after the Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance, Mike Bennett, Chair, made sure the doors were not locked so members of the public could get into the meeting.
There were no amendments to the Agenda.
There was no Public Comment.
Christopher Werle reported that he attended the joint work session with the Board of Supervisors and the Economic Development Authority (EDA) on June 20th. He also attended a meeting on June 28th with Hazel Homes to discus the potential capacity of Hopyard Farm Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) as well as the potential increase in flow from Oakland Park WWTP should the facility be decommissioned.
Richard Granger reported that he attended the joint meeting on June 20th as well.
Cathy Binder also said she attended the joint meeting on June 20th as well as other meetings with Bennett who could probably provide a better update than her.
Mike Bennett reported he attended the joint meeting as well. He also attended a meeting regarding the Potomac Landing development on June 21st and went to the Town Hall hosted by Jeff Bueche on June 27th. At the Town Hall, he said that Yvonne Richard shared information about several potential grants that could be used at Ralph Bunche that would help the Ralph Bunche Arts and Humanities Center with their project as well as help the Service Authority increase their service in the area. Bennett said he asked Weakley to look into the grant programs. Bennett said he attended the meeting with Hazel Homes on the 28th and participated in a conference call on July 1st with Schnabel Engineering and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Bennett said Schnabel will be conducting the Environmental Analysis (EA) for the riverbank stabilization project instead of FEMA because they can do it faster. He said Schnabel is running into a few issues with other agencies not wanting to believe they have FEMA approval to do the EA. Also on July 1st, Bennett attended a joint meeting with Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, King George County, and the Service Authority. Bennett said the idea behind the meeting was to see how the three entities could join forces in certain areas. As an example, he said with the purchasing of chemicals, they could get a better price. He did say that the base would continue to operate their water and waste water facilities. Bennett said the Service Authority was a small part of the discussion but he felt the idea was sound enough to consider including Colonial Beach, Fort A. P. Hill, and Caroline County to increase savings. He said it may also serve as a template of cooperation with the base with regards to other issues and that it may take six months to a year before any project is brought to fruition. On July 15th, Bennett met with the Hampton Roads Sanitary District and Tri-County/City Soil and Water to conduct their first round of testing in Fairview Beach to determine the source of the water contamination. Bennett said they tested about 15 locations, including a Service Authority manhole. He said they were shocked at how much "stuff" was going through the manhole but they felt it would serve as a good data point when determining the source of the contamination. Bennett said that it will take some time to process the tests and get results. He said that when tests were done in November, it was during a very wet period of time and there were several streams flowing. He said with this most recent test, things were much drier so fewer samples were collected than they had hoped for. He felt this may help determine if the surface water was the source of the contamination. Bennett said that out of nine Virginia Department of Health (VDH) tests done so far this year, there have been three advisories for the Potomac River. He said for the four weeks in June, there were no advisories so there may be a correlation between wet weather and the contamination. Bennett also participated in a conference call with Davenport and Associates earlier in the morning. [EDITOR'S NOTE - Neil Richard, a co-founder of Project94, is the spouse of Yvonne Richard.]
The Consent Agenda was approved.
The County Attorney, Eric Gregory, had no report.
Davenport and Associates representatives Kyle Laux and Griffin Moore then began their presentation on the search results for a flexible line of credit for the Service Authority. With Moore doing most of the talking during the short presentation, the results looked promising. Moore said that several banks returned proposals however many of them would require the Service Authority to draw down or borrow the full amount of $15 million. He also said several of them had higher than desirable interest rates or a delay in prepayment. In the end, the proposal from Atlantic Union looked the most promising with a fixed interest rate of 2.399%, which was lower than the planned rate of 3%. Included in their proposal was no minimum draw down or loan amount and treated it as a truly flexible line of credit. Additionally, Atlantic Union proposed no minimum withdrawal amount and would allow a prepayment at anytime with no penalty. Moore said that other banks, such as BB&T and Capital One, had higher interest rates, flexible interest rates, or required the full $15 million to be taken out even if it wasn't needed. The next step, said Moore, was to have the Board of Directors and the Board of Supervisors approve a resolution for the line of credit at their August meeting. In concert with this was the debt restructuring process. Both the line of credit and the debt restructuring should be complete by the end of August.
Bennett asked if the stock market would have lower rates in the future, as it seems to be indicated recently. Laux said that they may be able to go back to the bank and get a lower rate if rates do drop. He said that within the last week, it seems that the Fed will take rates down but said the short answer was that if there's a rate decrease before closing, they can certainly go back to the bank. Bennett asked if the current rate of 2.399% was locked in with the bank and Laux said it was. Bennett asked if the maturity date in five years would be for the entire loan amount and what would the Service Authority do if they couldn't pay for it with the cash they had on hand. Laux said the intent was to draw on the line of credit over time and then at the end of five years, use long term financing. He also said that grant funding and other evolutions in the capital program may reduce how much is necessary to finance on a long term basis. Bennett reiterated that the big ticket item was the potential decommissioning of the Purkins Corner and Oakland Park WWTPs, at roughly $9.7 million, as well as bringing pump stations into compliance. He said it won't be hard to spend the money on capital improvements and repairs. Bennett said he was really impressed with Davenport's work and felt they really "nailed it." He said a year ago he wasn't sure "banks would offer us $15 let alone $15 million."
Bennett asked for a motion to approve the plan to allow Davenport to move forward with Atlantic Union. The Board approved but made it contingent on legal review and the Board of Supervisors approval of their moral obligation.
Next on the Agenda was a discussion about the rate section of the Service Authority's regulations. Eric Gregory, County Attorney, explained that in years past, the Board would approve of new rates then amend the regulations to include those new rates. He said this was not a legal requirement but rather a hold over from previous Boards. He continued by explaining that the Board could amend the regulations to remove certain sections. This would result in it no longer being necessary to add an extra step in the process. Gregory was careful to explain that the change would not impact the public hearings that would still remain in place any time a rate change was made. Bennett added that it would also save time and money by not requiring staff to create an additional public notice. Bennett asked how much it would save and Weakley said over $2,000 just in ad expenses. Bennett said he gets in trouble when he says it but he felt like it was a "no brainer" in making this change. He said amending the regulations would also help save time and money when changing the connection fees as they are also included in the old process. Gregory said the desire was to not eliminate the whole section in the regulations but "rather to surgically excise what isn't needed" and to leave what was still necessary. Bennett said that during the joint meeting with the Supervisors and EDA, they discussed how difficult it was to find comparable connection fee rates from surrounding areas. He said his goal was to instead make it easier for people to find. Granger asked if there would be no public hearings for rate increases and Gregory said the public hearing would still remain in place and that public access and transparency would still be there. Bennett said it was essentially removing a second step that wasn't needed. With that, consensus was reached to move forward.
Next was Jonathon Weakley's discussion on fat, oil and grease. He said the industry acronym was FOG and that many jurisdictions have a FOG ordinance or FOG permit in place but King George does not. He said that FOGs will cause problems at WWTPs like clogs in the pipes and overflows at pump stations. Weakley wouldn't name any specific customer but said there was one customer that was the only one served by a pump station and it was repeatedly a source of issues. He said the FOGs inside the pump are often bad enough the pump has to be chiseled out. Weakley said that the initial plan is to simply educate customers on what can and can't be put down the drain as well as what de-greasers, cleaners, and traps are recommended. He said it wasn't a revenue program but more of an education program. Weakley said he was sensitive to the cost burden it would place on businesses but said that there's also a cost burden to the Service Authority in treating the FOG at the WWTP. He said his goal wasn't to come out swinging and label it as enforcement but rather to raise awareness. Bennett asked him to coordinate with Dr. Neiman Young, County Administrator, and the Economic Development Department to ensure it doesn't create too many issues for businesses. Granger asked if large residential areas could be the cause of high FOG levels at WWTPs and Weakley said it was in some cases but usually FOGs came from restaurants. He said de-greasers can be added. Bennett mentioned grease traps and Dr. Young said they are required but there was no "teeth" to enforcement according to the Community Development Department. Weakley added that the local Health Department is also involved but agreed that there needed to be more teeth in enforcement. With that, consensus was reached.
Weakley then updated the Board on his changes and additions to the job descriptions. Bennett and Werle agreed that he didn't need Board approval for what he wanted to do and it was more of an update than a request for permission. Weakley said he wanted to streamline some positions at the manager level and create positions below that. He said it would put similar jobs on the same level and provide room for advancement from within the department. Weakley said that the County's Human Resources Department has already approved all of the changes. Bennett said that the money for the newly created positions was already in the budget and there was a desire to promote from within. He said this not only allows for people to move up in their career but also allows the Board to do some succession planning in case somebody wants to leave the Service Authority.
Weakley then, as he usually does every meeting, shared his General Manager's report. Once a month he also shares the Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) measurements for each WWTP. With number steadily dropping to within permitted levels, Weakley shared with the Board that the staff at the Dahlgren WWTP has found the best "recipe" to get ideal numbers and it was reflected in the amounts he shared. Dahlgren WWTP has a TN limit of 3.0 mg/L and the June measurement was down to 2.4 mg/L. Although the yearly average is slightly above permitted levels at 4.3 mg/L, he said there were still six months to go and the recipe is locked in. All of the other WWTPs were operating within permitted levels except for Purkins Corner which had a yearly average TN of 10.7 mg/L. The permit limit is 10.0 mg/L. Weakly said staff was still working to get under permit levels and that some of the higher numbers were due to faulty equipment that has been replaced. Bennett asked if the improvements at Dahlgren were because of chemistry or equipment and Weakley said both.
Continuing his report, Weakley said maintenance work has already begun on the water towers and he was pleased by what he saw when he went to inspect their work. He said the Service Authority has been in contact with Dr. Benson, Superintendent of Schools, to keep him informed and that the crews on site felt they may be finished sooner than expected. Regarding the My Place Hotel being constructed in Dahlgren, Weakley said Mr. Murphy submitted the necessary "like place" usage from a My Place Hotel in Lebanon, Tennessee. Bennett asked and Werle confirmed that the hotel is already booked for the first year with 100% occupancy. Bennett said he wanted to make sure the hotel in Tennessee was not operating at 50% occupancy when data was collected and wanted to make sure the Service Authority got viable information to plan for full occupancy. Weakley said they should be able to extrapolate from the data to predict the correct amounts for Dahlgren. Weakley said he was working towards a more formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the school system regarding the owner/agent agreement. He said he found nothing on file, nothing signed, and no record of one other than an incomplete draft from former management. Gregory said he had no immediate thoughts on the MOU but would certainly like to discuss it with Weakley.
With that, the Board entered into Closed Session at 7:50pm and invited Gregory, Young, and Weakley to attend. They returned from Closed Session at 8:57pm and adjourned immediately after.
Meeting Attendees:
Christopher Werle (Board of Directors)
Jonathon Weakley (General Manager of Service Authority)
Richard Granger (Board of Supervisors)
Michael Bennett (Chairman, Citizen)
Cathy Binder (Board of Supervisors)
Neiman Young (County Administrator)
Eric Gregory (County Attorney)
Absent:
Ruby Brabo (Board of Supervisors)
Meeting Agenda
Next Meeting:
The Service Authority will next meet on August 6, 2019 at 6:30 pm at the Revercomb Building.
Previous Meeting:
Read about the previous Service Authority Meeting.
SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE
You can subscribe via email here. You can make a charitable donation here.
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