Board Meeting
July 22, 2024
Transcript
Describer:
Board Meeting Agenda
Monday, July 22nd, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. 7404 Yorkshire Drive, Castle Pines, CO 80108
I. Welcome. Call meeting to order. Pledge of Allegiance.
II. Roll call. Determination of quorum. Disclosure of potential conflicts.
III. Consider approving the July 22nd, 2024, board meeting agenda.
IV. Consider approving June 24th, 2024, board meeting minutes.
V. Public comment period. (Three-minute maximum per person).
VI. Request for service and inclusion. JAM Ranch, Jim Fitzmorris P.E.
VII. Communication Director’s report.
VIII. Finance Director's report.
A. 2023 Audit Update, consider audit extension.
B. Ratify claims for payment including check numbers
28683 - 28729 and electronic payments issued from June
20, 2024 through July 18, 2024.
June July Totals
June Checks $26,355.79 July Checks $518,302.69 Totals Checks $544,658.48
Electronic Payments (all funds) June $20,699.11 July $19,683.60 Totals $40,382.71
Total Expenditures June $47,054.90 Total Expenditures July $537,986.29 Total Expenditures $585,041.19
IX. Legal Counsel's report
X. District Manager’s report
A. Rate Study
B. Monarch Waterline Update
XI. Consider: Necessity of August Study Session
A. Review draft of district finance policy, to potentially
consider adoption at September board meeting.
XII. Director’s Matters
XIII. Adjourn
Board President Jason Blankaert:
Good evening again, and welcome to the Castle Pines North Metropolitan District Board meeting. This is Monday, July 22nd, 2024 at 6 p.m.. We will begin the call with a Pledge of Allegiance.
All:
First. I Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Jason:
All right. Thank you. we'll move on to a roll call here.
Board Member James Mulvey:
Jim. Present. No council.
Board Member Tera Radloff:
Tera present. No conflicts.
Board Member Leah Enquist:
Leah. Present. No conflicts.
Jason:
And I don't think we have Jana just yet, but she may join us later.
And I am Jason, and I have no conflicts.
So we'll move on to item number three and combine this with item number four. Consider approving the July 22nd board meeting agenda, and consider approving July 20th 4th or June 24th, 2024 board Meeting minutes.
Tera:
I move that we approve the July 22nd, 2024 board meeting agenda as presented and approve the June 24th, 2024 Board meeting minutes as present, I'll second.
Board Voting All Speak:
Having a second.
We'll go to vote. Jim. Approve. Tera. Approve. Leah approve. And I approve as well. So we will close those two items. All right. item number five will open up to a three minute public comment period. Do we have anybody in house or online that would like to say anything?
Hearing and seeing none. I will go ahead and close out the public comment period.
District Manager Nathan Travis:
Jason, just to give you a heads up, the for whatever reason, the zoom meeting is asking for a passcode. and I do not have one set, so I'm trying to figure out what's going on with that,
Jason:
do we need a couple minutes to let Jana join in,
Nathan:
Jana and then, Andrea as well for finance.
Jason:
Okay, we'll just take a five minute break. That works.
Describer:
Screen Drops to black for a moment.
Jason:
Okay, great. Thank you for sticking with us there. I think we've got everybody on that needs to be here or wants to be here. so where we left off, we, closed out item number five, which was the public comment period. And we'll go ahead and move to item number six, which is, the, request for service and inclusion with JAM Ranch and Jim Fitzmorris, P.E..
So there is a little talking icon on this, bass down here. If you'll press that, the light will turn red, and that would mean your live.
Jim Fitzmorris, P.E.. JAM Ranch:
Thank you very much, Jason. appreciate the opportunity to present to the, the board here a project that we're working on, just south of, your service area here, adjacent to the service area, Jam Ranch, owned by, Judge, John Schmidt. And so we have a couple of, exhibits here to show you kind of what the property looks like.
Describer:
A poster board is next to Jim but it is too small to make out the detail, Jim describes.
Jim
We're, just south of the roundabout that just got built off of, logging road and the property surrounded by, Happy Canyon Road there. So just wanted to get you guys a little bit familiar with this. There's a couple of existing properties on the. It's a little bit hard to to get to the, the board here, but hopefully you guys have seen this and.
With me is, Jeff Raymond. He's our client with, Raymond Development. He would like to talk to you about the, concept for the project. What we'd like to do is talk to the board about, considering service for the property. I know we'll have to do some additional studies, but that's kind of why we're here today.
So thank you very much. Thank you.
Jeff Raymond, Raymond Development
Good evening. I'm Jeff Raymond with Raymond Development, and I'm representing, Jam Ranch with John Schmidt, as he was. Jim said prior. basically, it's an absolutely gorgeous property. It's almost 90 acre south, starting with Happy Canyon. and at the top of it is kind of a vista or a ridge. And so what we started to look at the development, the property, we looked at the comprehensive plan of Castle Pines and our goals and objectives, looked at what was adjacent to the property.
currently to the north, there's it's zoned mixed, used, community. And so we kind of mirrored that as far as guidance for zoning. So we kind of flipped that. And we have like 30 acres, which would mirror the northern component with the same type of uses. So based on that, there's with the remaining 60 acres, we made that single family homes that would be throughout the properties in the south of that.
So the main focus we talked about now is the 30 acres, which is right off the off ramp, the Happy Canyon exit around the circle. It borders out and borders the other years, the city on the north side, our goal is to be annexed by the city of Castle Pines. And so we're going through this process to get the utilities, water and so forth, so that we can, be part of the community.
the general, design guidelines in the comprehensive plan was to establish a vibrant, pedestrian friendly community. Activity centers encourage, social space and entertainment and local events. And I'm quoting from your, your document. And so what we've come up with and it's there's parties. I've seen other places, most notably in Pacific Palisades. There's developer that since by putting the parking underground, it allows you to have pedestrian streets above, above it, and you don't see the parking.
And it makes much more efficient and much more open space and much more pedestrian friendly. So using the terrain or trying to put parking underneath sloped down and have the streets and so forth over that, that'll allow for the higher density in the in the village feeling, there are architectures, the planning architect on this and we've done some preliminary drawings.
I think everyone has a packet showing what we were trying to do. the quantitatively, we were requesting 400, dwelling units and 200,000ft² of retail, on that side. And, and again, that's kind of the guidelines of the comprehensive plan of 10 to 15 units per acre. And that's where those numbers came from. So we try to be consistent with everything, thing, which I think is unique again, is the design allows for a pedestrian access, and hidden parking.
And that's the critical component of this. the other thing I am concerned about, traffic is also designed to come in and off the off ramp so that people coming from other places will not be impeding Castle Pines neighborhood. They'll be coming off the 25 exit, the 25 too. So it's kind of a circular in that way too, has kind of a loop.
So hopefully that neighborhood will use it. But it's also would not the traffic should not impede the local neighborhood too. So those are kind of the basic guidelines of this project. But before we go further, we do need to do the practical stuff, utilities, civil engineering to make sure it all works within the guidelines. So as a city.
Jason:
So, from reading your, your, letter that you sent over, you're expecting 450 multifamily units.
Jeff:
we didn't specify multifamily. We just for put forth. We haven't really done the study, but there would be kind of ideas. Some of the retail there will be a part of that will be family units above it. So it's mixed.
So it has not been totally laid out and developed. But that was that constraint came from the comprehensive plan of 15 units per acre where that number came from.
Jason:
And how many single family homes are you thinking?
Jeff:
so the 60 acres be one per acre. Below would be the would be how many calls will be below that?
So 60, 60 homes. Yeah. Single family. And again those, those 450 units they'll be a mix and maybe townhomes. It just has not been laid out because we didn't know what our constraints were at the time.
Jason:
Nathan, do we have the capacity or the what is the infrastructure look like for something with that many units?
Nathan:
so that will depend on a number of things.
and that'll be part of once they, you know, assuming that they want to follow through and submit, the official application, the capacity evaluation is something that will be done by Kennedy Jenks. So they'll look at the existing capacity of the water treatment plant. We're also, pushing through, following the filter pilot. Once we get that information kind of pulled together to see if the state is going to allow us to increase our treatment capacity, that could have an impact on it.
and then they'll also have to look at the existing water resources that we have. So one, will the treatment plan, either before or after, hopefully, an increased rating, be able to supply that much water? And then do we have the ability to get that water there? so some of the things that they'll have to look at is, you know, what water rights and resources come with the property.
is it possible to convey those to the treatment plant? things for the board to consider will be, you know, are they renewable resources? Are they, you know, aquifer based resources, all of those kinds of things. So, it's really hard to give any kind of definitive answer on that. It'll really be answered by the evaluation that Kennedy Jenks would do, after they get the application submitted, they are going to need to know things like how many taps, how many units, specifically driving toward SFEs.
So, single family equivalents is a big number that they're going to need to have a pretty good handle on. And then our capacity at PCWRA the happy Canyon outfall, all of those come oops! all of those will kind of come into, come into play.
Jason:
Jana, did you have a question? Does any of the rest of the boards have questions?
James:
And maybe it's just maybe it's in here somewhere, and I just missed it. I read this over the weekend as well. just wondering, what discussions have you had, with the village itself, as far as you're looking at Castle Pines for inclusion, but, you're geographically, you know, there's a property in the way and you're, you know, closer to the village itself and some of the villages, metro facilities for water or directly adjacent to some of your properties as well as ours. But.
Jeff:
Yeah. we spoke with the Village Home Association of the Castle Pines Village, and they didn't, want to be part of the project. the answer, their request was that we don't call a village that they want to separate the two. That was kind of what they were after. we've preliminary approached the water department.
and we are looking at that as a possibility. We haven't ruled it out. but because we want to be part of the city of Castle Pines, we thought we look to the water district first to service us to be more continuity. We thought in the long run, we know there's a lot of engineering still to work out.
And we still anticipate in doing that, but as preliminary, like, to know if we'd be welcome in the district. So then we can work through those problems as we go forward.
James:
Okay.
All right. Thanks.
Nathan:
Yep. So, Kim apologizes for not being able to be here. but he. So he said that, kind of the next step of the process would be to fill out a petition that is pursuant to Colorado law. he can get you those forms. he just gave us permission, to go ahead and, passes contact information along so I can get you guys an email, so you can reach out to him and get that get that form to get that process rolling
Jim:
in terms of petitioning to the district. Correct. Is that what you are talking about?
Nathan:
Yeah. yeah, be a petition for inclusion.
Jeff:
And is that require a hearing or do you I'm curious what the process is once you submit the petition.
Nathan:
I'm sorry I missed the first part of your question.
Jeff:
oh, is it require hearing or what is the process after you submit to petition?
Nathan:
so once the petition gets submitted, then that would kind of trigger everything that follows that.
So it would be the, you know, the engineering evaluation, the, oh, I can't remember the official term, but basically, like, do we have the ability to serve you to serve the property at the projected levels? and then it kind of goes down that path through there. I'm sure, that Kim will be able to give you a pretty, pretty detailed outline of how that process goes from there.
But that first step is going to be to get that position of that petition in place. Okay.
Jim:
Yeah, we can certainly do that. Yeah. And would you like to see, like the water rights that are associated with the property during that process.
Nathan
Yeah. So I'm not entirely sure what the petition is going to need for that initial step.
But yeah, I mean, water rights, utility plans, SFE all of their general utility plans, number of single family equivalents, all of those things are going to be, important to.
Evaluate whether we have the ability to serve you guys.
Jeff:
Okay. All right. Thank you. One more question.
Leah:
I do have a quick question. and this is probably for Nate. Do you know, like, with the process be the same? if they were part of Castle Pines versus, like, where they are currently.
Nathan:
So the if they when you say Castle Pines, do you mean the city or the, I think the city's already annexed the property.
Jeff:
No, we're we're in Douglas County. We're not in any city or jurisdiction. And the city or means with them, they want us to make sure we have utilities before the annex. so it's kind of a chicken and egg issue. So we're kind of trying to push both forward to get us come together. But yeah. So we do need
Nathan:
so we're we're only, we are only both kind of really beholden to serve people that currently exist within sight within our Castle Pines North metro district boundaries.
so the city boundaries don't really even have an impact on it. So that's kind of what we're looking at here. So it's, the the property that they're looking at exists entirely outside of district. So their the petition would be to include them in the district, which is also a separate property, process from the city inclusion.
So they're all kind of, they're all kind of different. So if they were inside of our existing boundaries, that would be it'd be very different because we don't need to do the whole, like, inclusion process to, to get things going.
James:
Nathan, going through this process, getting Kennedy Jenks involved, is that something that they're looking to us to pay for, or is that something you guys.
Nathan:
Yeah, the cost would be fully on the land developer.
James:
That's what I thought, okay, thanks.
Jason:
Okay. Any other questions? All right. Thank you, gentlemen, for showing up.
Jeff:
Thank you for your time.
Jason:
We will go ahead and close out item number 16. And we'll move on to item number seven which is the Communication Director's report. Good evening.
Communications Director Bailey Budnik:
Good evening. as you can see, we had a little bit of a rearrange with the communications report. It is now structured by topics discussed and completed during the month, just to give more of a full scope of, everything that is going on and the different projects that we're working with, even if it's not showcased in an email update or a marketing, post.
So with that, the first page will always be the metrics. And that would, you know, just the website metrics, the email communication and then the social media engagement. And then from there it will cover any larger topics that we touched on for the month. So with that, does anyone have any questions?
Jason:
No. But I do like to layout.
Bailey:
Great.
I will also note that for the 2024 Water Quality Report rollout, we received no questions or comments. So it was perceived that access to the report was great. And yeah, we also changed it a bit where a physical copy was not sent out to every household, but instructions with the QR code, and the link was there to access it with physical copies.
Then at the district to pick up.
James:
And by the district, you mean this building here? Yes. Okay. question for Nathan. are they placed outside or someplace where people can just come by and get them? Not not during business hours, but whenever?
Nathan:
so they're they're not placed outside. But as you walk right into our main door, there's, kind of a big, I don't know, a bunch of.
Yeah. Magazine shelf that's mounted on the wall. The water quality report sits right there when they walk in.
Tera:
And a related question, has anybody requested the physical report
Nathan:
we've had I think probably like 5 or 6 people walk in, to grab physical copies. we printed I think we printed 100 of them or so and we'll, we'll bring them out.
So we've got like the party in the Pines event coming up. So we'll bring them out for stuff like that. Then we typically see a few more of them walk off, at those kinds of events. But
Jason:
how many times was, QR code clicked?
Bailey:
that is information that I will gather for the next meeting.
Leah:
I have a general question.
through your lens, like, so either kind of your experience or hearing from others. where do you think? Like we've made the most improvements, like from a communication standpoint and where do you feel like we still have the biggest opportunity,
Bailey:
any any updates that happen the community can trust that will communicate with them promptly and provide, you know, in the case of the the boil water notice will provide a full explanation and education on what's going on.
And also, as far as the metrics. So on page three and then under users viewing our content, I think it's really interesting to see and great that 99.4% of our engagement is coming from people that are not following us, but are still within the Castle Pines area. So we're reaching that new audience that would have not seen any of the information prior to that.
And then as far as things we can improve on, I know Nathan and I, we're working with the Daupler system so that if any emergency notifications come to play, I think we'll be really set to communicate that way much more efficiently. And then also just with email updates a little bit more consistently. it's one of those things where we don't want to overcommunicate and flood people's emails, but also, you know, maybe once or twice more a week and just little things coming up.
So.
Leah:
Great. Thank you. That's really great. Click rate or open rate by the way.
Bailey:
Definitely great to see. I just have you asked as far as printing it out, how can we make it bigger to ensure that the printer will, definitely. addressing that we can always create it comes from the user's perspective as well. On the printing side, you can always make it bigger.
for different viewing aspects, but also on the website itself, you can make it, you know, zoomed in to 240% whatever, aspect ratio is needed for that.
Castle Pines Resident off-mic:
I know I can read it that way, but in order to print it, it printed out one way. But you're right, I can read it differently, but it's of the pages a lot.
Yeah, I wanted a printed so I can read it, but you can't print it bigger.
Definitely. And you can. You can make it bigger. I understand,
Bailey:
okay. Yeah. If you need it printed slightly bigger in a formatted PDF without going through all the other trouble, you can email. And this connects to, kind of your other question about comments and concerns on the website.
There is, an area I believe it's under contact us. And then, it links billing or account questions or ask a director. and you can put it through there. And then that comes through our email. To who? it either comes to myself or Nathan. Got it OK Thank you. No problem.
James:
real quick, you talked about the new emergency reporting system. is there any thought or, I guess plan to test drive that to make sure it works as proposed? you put it in place, you know, we can do a test run and just, you know, standard, this is just a test run service message kind of thing in, no emergency, just to see that it works and it reaches people.
And that might be something that you can metric next month or the month after that, to make sure that we're reaching the people we need to reach. And it works properly.
Bailey:
Definitely. I love that idea. So Nathan and I will get started on that.
Nathan:
Yeah. And that's part of, Daupler does that as part of kind of like the onboarding process anyway.
So once we get all the customer information ported over to them and we kind of get that module live, part of that process will be testing it. So when we first brought them online, we did quite a bit of testing with the pager system, to make sure all of that works. But I'll make sure that we get that included again.
That's an excellent point.
James:
Yeah. I mean, you could just make it. I received a message click and you get your metrics that way.
Jason:
Great. Any other questions? All right. Jana?
Jana:
None. None for me. Thank you.
Jason:
Try not to forget you there. All right? We'll go ahead and close down. item number seven, and we'll move on to item number eight, the finance director's report. Andrea.
I think you might muted
Andrea, CRS:
Yes Good Evening. I just want to introduce real quick our new director over here at Chris. Janie, who's on right now.
Jason:
Hello, Janie.
Janie, CRS:
Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you. I'm in a we're in a period of transition, so I have nothing to contribute and everything to learn, so.
Well welcome and thank you for your work.
Janie:
Thank you. I'll have a list of questions for somebody, I'm sure. Nice to meet everyone.
Thank you.
Andrea:
as far as an audit update, I know we will be filing an audit extension.
we're still providing the auditors with everything, so I think they're really close, but I think they're just worried about making the the 31st deadline. So because we still have a few. Yeah. So assets to figure out.
Nathan:
So Andrea sorry too sorry to interrupt. So what we, we need to actually have, board approval to fire an audit extension.
so I think it would be helpful if you could kind of go into some of the reasons that delayed that. so, like, you know, why aren't we, you know, going to be and we can't file it until the board approves it anyway. So if it's not done today, it wasn't going to happen this month. So if you kind of give us some background on, why we need the extension, and then we'll need to seek board approval to, do the audit extension and then, assuming that they pass it, then we can have them sign it.
And I do have a signature copy with me.
Andrea:
Okay. Yeah, I know, well, one of the biggest reasons is, like I said, all the asset work. And then, we had, of course, in 23, a lot of things change, such as funds closing. and then we had to read.
Tera:
Can you expand on what the asset work is?
Andrea:
sure. So we have to figure out all the assets that need to transfer to the city of Castle Vines, and then which ones are staying in your district. so that has taken a little work to get through, with Nathan to figure out, you know, which ones are going to be on you staying on your guys's books, and then which ones were being transferred to the city.
also in 23 January through March, was like, different from April through December. So if we remember, we also transferred other, the recs and stuff over to the city of Castle Pines. So, we had to reallocate everything from April to December. It's basically like 65, 35% water and sewer, including payroll. and we're still trying to figure out to that, you know what
The city may still owe you because I know we are still paying some salaries as part of that, too. So, there's that calculation. We're still trying to figure out.
Jason off-mic:
That answer your question?
Leah:
As far as filing the extension, any impacts that we need to be, like cascading impacts that we would need to be aware of other than it's late?
Nathan:
no. So I did talk to the auditors about it, and make sure that they thought that it was, we copacetic? They didn't see any issues with it. I had a quick phone call with Phyllis this morning at and from my conversation with the auditor, it doesn't seem like there's going to be kind of any hurdles to even getting this on the agenda.
in August, I think I think it's a 90 day extension, really the only drawback is they could potentially withhold property taxes, but that wouldn't happen until those start getting paid out, like next February or March. it is, you know, not ideal. you know, obviously that we're into our third consecutive year that we need to file an audit extension.
this one did end up being quite a bit more complicated with the IGA with the city. So there's a lot of, but but kind of like final accounting that needs to, to get done. So that we can figure out who owes anybody money. So we may show the city more money. They may owe us a little bit, once we get all of those actual.
So that kind of slowed things down a little bit. the other thing that I talked to Phyllis about was, you know, making sure that we as quickly as possible get to a place where we're actually getting those, like, monthly updated financials and tracking in a, in a much more meaningful place. And so she again committed to that.
But, you know, I really, very much want to get to a place where we're not doing this. So I do think it is a little bit frustrating that we're in a position again, that we need to file it. But, you know, at this point, the only, the only downside we would have would be not filing on an extension or we're just simply not going to have it done.
You know, we need to have the presentation happening right now in order to get that in.
Jason:
Yeah. I thought we were on track to get this, audit signed off this year on time. So did Kim mention whether we need a directive or whether we need a motion to approve this, extension?
Nathan:
Yeah. So we we do need a motion and a vote to approve signing the extension, and then, any board member can sign it, but I have a signature copy with me, and then I'll get that to Phyllis, and she can file it with the state.
Jason:
Okay, I'll make a motion to approve the extension for the audit for fiscal year 2023.
Board Voting All Speak:
I'll second having a second. We'll move to vote. Jim. Approve. Tera. Approve. Leah. Approve. Jana. Approve. And I approve as well. So that passes.
Jason:
Okay. And next item, we need to, ratify the claims for payments.
Andrea:
Yes. for check numbers 28683 through 28729. And electronic payments issued from June 20th through July 18th. and then you see, total expenditures for June were $47,054.90. Total July expenditures were $537,986.29, for a total of $585,041.19.
Tera:
So, Nathan, can I ask a question regarding some of these items that we've had expenses for? Why do we have items for parks, trails and open space? there's several things in here that are, the account description is it's charging it to the chart of accounts for parks, trails and open space. I'm a little curious about that.
Nathan:
I did not see those. Since they don’t belong to us anymore. Yeah.
Tera:
so, for instance, Gilmore. Electric antenna, mast and bass. There's some underneath, level engineering and and inspection for parks, trails and open space.
Nathan:
I gotcha, so I'll have to touch base and make sure that those are being account for correctly, 60, 60, 59. Oh, gotcha.
So that's the the line item is cut off. So what the rest of that says parks trails and open space agree that's IGA. So we have specific account codes in the water and wastewater that are related to the inclusion agreement. And so anything that we bill that we put under that line item is, for the getting the inclusion stuff done.
So that's all the level engineering stuff. And then we separated that. So level engineering is handling like all the survey and all of the title paperwork, all of that goes in there. as part of that effort, there was a base station for survey mounting or for surveying that gets, that is getting installed at the water treatment plant.
and that provides like a local geo geographic grid that you can use off to get more accurate survey data that we'll be able to use in perpetuity. And the city will be able to use as well. Really anybody in the area. so anything that goes into that account code is then billed to the city for their 50%.
Tera:
Okay. Thanks.
Jason:
Okay. I'll make a motion then to, ratify claims for check numbers 28683 through 28729 and elect electronic payments issued from June 20th, 24 through June 18th, 2024. For total expenditures in June for $47,054.90. Total expenditures for July. $537,986.29, for a total of $585,041.91.
Board Voting All Speak:
I'll second. Having a second. We'll move to vote. Jim. Approve.
Tera. Approve. Jana. Approve. Leah. Approve. And I approve as well. So that motion carries.
James:
Can I just ask a question about, you know, we talked about a 50% split. how is that managed? Is that month a month, or is that just going to be at the end of this process? They pick up that half that you're coding?
Nathan:
so I'll have to double check with Susan. I think she's doing it invoice by invoice. So every as we get individual invoices for that process, she, we pay them, she codes them, and then she sends the invoice to the city, and asks for the 50%. But I'll verify that that's how that process is working. and get back to you an email.
James:
Okay. Could you I mean, we do the finance director stuff. Can we kind of see that if it's money coming back to the Metro, it'd be nice to at least touch on that as a topic. Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate it.
Jason:
All right. Great. so are there any questions for the finance director? Seeing none of you ahead and close out, item number eight. Thank you very much. And we'll move on to item number nine, which legal counsel is not here tonight? I didn't see much in this packet either. So,
Leah:
I just had one question. It was about the consolidation inquiry from Hidden Point Metro District.
I can't we are we trying to reach out to them or did they reach out to us and we're trying to,
Nathan:
so we originally reached out to, reached out to them. It's been a conversation that's kind of been ongoing for, a number of years. And then so I can't sometime last year, I'm sorry.
Jason off-mic:
There Attorney retired.
Nathan:
Yeah. And so sometime it's sometime I think either early this year or late last year, the board authorized us to kind of move forward with that process. We reached out their attorney, their attorney retired. And so Kim's been working to try and get that process, up and rolling again. Okay.
Jason:
All right. We'll go ahead and close out the legal counsel's report. Since he's not present. And we'll move on to item number ten, the district manager's report. Nathan.
Nathan:
yeah, I think I'll jump into there's a couple things, that I wanted to specifically point out, the first of which is a rate study. So Andrea and I had our initial conversation, with, Bartle Wells to update our rate study.
it seems like, it doesn't sound like it's actually, all that complicated of a process. So we still don't have all of the CIP stuff completed yet for the asset management, even though we're getting a lot of things caught up. Kennedy Jenks has, a specialist now that's getting all of those things in place. but to at least kind of get things moving since we haven't done anything since, I think like 2019, we're going to do an update to that rate study.
They really just need things like the accounting actuals past, present, and they think that they'll be able to get that accomplished. by the September our board meeting, which is, far enough in advance that we can include that as part of our conversation with the budget. when we do the, draft presentation of the budget in October.
so we've got we've got that rolling and then, the, monarch part of the monarch project, that or I guess the, the monarch project that we're doing with this, with the city, is almost complete in terms of the waterline. The first phase of the initial contract is in. We just have, I think like 800 or 1000ft to go off of that.
there are some conversations about potentially doing the next phase of that entire project this year. So the city is looking, looking at potentially taking it past the, its current, its current target spot as Glen Oaks, ultimately goes all the way to, Winter Ridge or Winter Berry. And so the city is looking at potentially getting extending that work beyond the current existing contract.
And so, I don't have any information beyond that, but so, that's something that we would obviously want to want a partnership with them in, because that water line needs to be replaced for the majority of that stretch. So we need to go to, Hidden Point for, for ours. And so the, the kind of thought process behind that is, is really trying to minimize the resident impacts.
Well, we've already got like the road taken down. We already have pricing in for this year. So kind of the hope is that they want to try and you know, if they can try and keep the pricing, we've got to extend that to avoid any potential future price increases. but that's in very, very, very early stages.
and so I don't have a lot of other information. I just want to give you guys a heads up that that is a conversation that is, that is happening and potentially something that we, that we might look at, the additional line work is, is things that, you know, it's a capital project that we would have had planned to do with them next year when they did their extension anyway.
So it's nothing that we weren't ultimately planning to look at. So, ESI is also in the process of being purchased, which is kind of may throwing some wrenches in there. So I don't know if it's something that will or won't happen, but I definitely want to give you guys a heads up just in case, because it's something that we do want to try and look at moving forward on.
Tera:
So quick I beat me to it. Yeah, I was going to say, how did you know what I highlighted in your report and what I want to talk about? But what are the, what? I don't know that you have enough information to answer those, but what are the budget impacts? Because we don't have that in this year's budget.
Nathan:
We'll have to look at, Kennedy Jenks is, was already working on designing that stretch anyway for next year. So we really just have to look at the materials and quantities. The and I don't have the budget with me, but the the amount that we had budgeted for that stretch of road was, I think 7 or $800,000 over what the award.
actually might have been. So there's a chance that we could fit a good chunk of it inside of the the amount that we had originally budgeted for that project this year anyway. All right. But that's, we'll have to look at.
James:
I mean, I, I totally agree that if you have the people there and the equipment there, it makes a lot of sense.
So no issue there. But, really looking at community impact and the people that are going through that area, including myself, and Leah, and initially I think it was September or was it October, we were going to have this whole thing wrapped up this year. Yeah. So I'm just in it. Part of that goes back, you know, my kids aren't in school anymore around here, but families having to drag their kid around the horn, so to speak, and in Buffalo Trail, quite frankly, is kind of falling apart.
And it's only going to get worse in the winter time and beat up. So, I mean, there has to be a conversation there as well as what what the community impact is. I still agree. It makes a lot of sense to have the people there. And if they're, you know, there's no other impacts. I think it makes a lot of sense.
But, we want to understand what the schedule impacts would be. Absolutely.
Jason:
And ultimately, how far down do we need to replace this water line? Do we need to go all the way down to Serena?
Nathan:
no. So we, we only need to go to Hidden Point Boulevard. Just, like, I don't know, 50ft past Hidden Point.
and that is for, that's the PRV two connection. So where the interconnect pipeline comes into the district, it connects at three separate points. The first one is at Serena, the second one is right there, at Hidden Point. And then there's one by lift station three. And so we only need to go to that hidden point connection.
We're actually not that concerned, with the water line condition there. The water line seems to be holding up pretty well, but it's undersized. So if we're using the interconnect pipeline, pushing through that second PRV, the water line that currently exists isn't big enough. So we need to run a, 16 or 12 inch water line. I can't remember where that reduction happens along that line, but we need to upsize the water line to that point just to make sure that our system velocities, are within range.
And standards assuming that we're, you know, if we ever had, you know, we take most of our water through that PRV three connection. But if we ever lost that connection and we were pushed to use PRV two or PRV one, we need to make sure that we're, we're sized appropriately to do that. So we'd go to that connection, and stop there.
And then the city would their ultimate plans for the road way go to Winter Barry, which isn't significantly further than that. and then I think that that gets them caught up or connected to the work that they did on their northern project last year. Thank you.
Jason:
Jana, did you have any questions?
Jana:
No. Thank you.
Jason:
All right. Very good. Anybody else have any questions for Nathan?
Leah:
for the rate study. How long does that normally take?
Nathan:
it depends on how comprehensive it is. So this one, you know, we're giving it about a month and a half to get done because it's more of an update, to haven't actually gone through an entire rate study from bottom to top at, the impression that I got from my conversations that they usually take a couple of months to get through
Tera:
When is the last time we done rate study,
Nathan:
I, I'd have to go back and look at it.
I think the last rate study we did was in like 2018. it only went through 2021 or 2022. We did the suggested increase in 2019 and then haven't done anything else. we did talk a little bit about, kind of the approach that we want. So we, we do have a little bit of a shortfall in terms of the money that we're collecting versus our operating expenses, but we also have a pretty healthy account balance.
and so the the approach that we'll be looking at is kind of looking at the capital projects that we've got coming up. What are those impacts going to be on the money that we have saved. And then, trying to set up a rate schedule that kind of that allows us to use the money that we have saved as a little bit of a buffer and kind of slowly bring them in to catch up to where they're moving, to where they're going even.
But the, the, you know, the capital projects that we're looking at in the next 3 or 4 years, we'll have an impact on that. So I don't have an end of that sentence.
Jason:
Okay. Any other questions? Hearing none. We'll go ahead and close out. Item number ten, the district manager's report. And will open up item number 11, the consideration of, and necessity of an August study session. Jeez.
Nathan:
Yeah. So for the, August study session, I have been working on a draft of kind of like the, finance policy, which is one of the, one of the bigger things that we need to update. And as far as our rules and regulations, so it's really up to you guys, if we want to hold a study session just to kind of like review that draft, I can have it there or if that's something that we want to, we get incorporated into the August board meeting, kind of like over overview that draft.
Make any suggestions or changes on that? It's really, really up to your preference.
Jason:
how much data is in this.
Nathan:
it's probably going to be like a, right now it's tracking to be around about a 15 page policy. so it's not super, super heavy or expansive. And then if there's anything you guys wanted to see, the study session also, of course,
James:
I was, wondering status of inclusion, then report that those guys are generating that we approved, I guess a month or two ago.
And maybe that's another topic. I don't know, they're supposed to be doing a study for us, right? As well as other.
Nathan:
so I think the only inclusion that we've talked about is, Jam Ranch. And so that that would be that won't be triggered until they can inclusion.
James:
Well, I was just we talked about that in open session.
Not not the specifics, but we did do something
Nathan:
yeah. So we yeah, we may we, we may have on the at the next board meeting, we may have an executive session to talk about potential regional water partnerships.
Tera:
So from my perspective, I say let's add a policy into our already scheduled meeting on Monday. Okay. But I'm one of five, so.
Jason:
I'm open to whatever the rest of the board's thinks.
Jana:
I'm open also, whatever you guys think is best.
Leah:
So if we added it for the Monday meeting, that would be like where we just review it and provide feedback. Yeah. I mean, it could go a number of ways. If it's in the regular board meeting and I, it would actually give you guys the opportunity to approve it. You could approve it with changes.
You could push it another month. you could do a bunch of different stuff with it, which is an advantage of putting it inside the regular meeting is that you can actually take action around it. which we wouldn't be able to do it, at a posted study session.
Leah:
Okay. I would be supportive of that. Okay.
James off-mic:
I think we're all kind of in agreement.
Right, Jim, for just having it on the Monday meeting.
James:
Yeah, or as long as it's only 30 pages. Yeah. Sorry. 15 pages. No worries. Yeah.
Jason:
All right, so, we are going to forego the August study session then, so we can close out item number 11 and, open up item number 12, which is, director's matters. Do any of the directors have any thing they'd like to discuss?
Hearing and seeing none. We'll go ahead and close out the directors Matters item number 12, and we'll move to item number 13 and adjourn the meeting. Thank you all.