Board Meeting
March 23, 2026
Transcript
Describer:
Castle Pines North Metropolitan District Regular Board Meeting Monday, March 23, 2026 at 6:00 PM MDT to Monday, March 23, 2026 at 9:00 PM MDT
Agenda
I. Call meeting to order
Presenter: Jason Blanckaert
A. Pledge of Allegiance
B. Roll call & disclosure of potential conflicts
II. Public comment period (three minute maximum per person) Public comment is designed to share your thoughts and concerns with the district, but it is not an interactive discussion.
If you would like to participate, please sign up at the back of the room or if you are attending virtually, type your name and address in the chat feature to be placed in the queue.
III. Consent Agenda
This is a group of items to be acted on with a single motion, second and vote by the Board to expedite the handling of limited routine matters. The Board has previously received information on these matters and/or discussed them at a prior study session. Any board member may move an item from the consent agenda to the meeting agenda at this time.
Proposed Motion: I move to approve the items as presented in the consent agenda.
A. Approve February 23rd, 2026 Regular Board Meeting Minutes
B. Approve February 16th, 2026 Work Session Minutes
C. Ratify claims for payment including check numbers 29524 – 29607 and electronic payments issued from February 12, 2026 to March 11, 2026 totaling $1,859,339.06
D. Ratify Engagement Letter with Rubin Brown for the 2025 Fiscal Year Audit
E. Approve Short-Form Contract
IV. Present & Consider: Lift Station Renovation Scope Bid Award
Presenter: Lisa Schwien, P.E., Kennedy Jenks
V. Presentation: NEXT Meters
Presenter: Arek Ryzak
Presentation from NEXT meters. Presentation from NEXT metering technology. We are looking at doing a potential pilot program utilizing this new technology. This is not an expenditure
request at this stage, pricing information is still needed from our current vendor. The board can anticipate a potential request at a future board meeting, likely in April. Included, is the quote for the proposed pilot study, installation would be completed in-house.
VI. Finance Report
Presenter: Molly Janzen
Guest: Eric Harris
The Finance Director will present an overview of the District’s financial condition, including budget performance, revenue and expenditure activity, cash balances, and other financial matters for the Board’s review.
VII. Legal Counsel Status Report
Presenter: Paul Polito
Legal Counsel will provide an update on legal matters affecting the District, including but not limited to: contracts, compliance issues, ongoing or potential litigation, and other legal considerations for the Board’s information and guidance.
A. Rules and Regulations Amendments
B. Hidden Pointe Inclusion Agreement
VIII. District Manager Report
Presenter: Nathan Travis
The District Manager will present a report to the Board regarding district operations, project
status, administrative activities, and other matters pertinent to the District
A. Emergency expenditure notification
Main break last night (3/22-23) on Croft Court. Pipe failure from corrosion. Estimated cost
$45,000.
B. Douglas County Water Commission
1. Douglas County Water Provider Focus Group
2. CPNMD Provider comments
C. CORE Electric Cooperative rate code adjustment
D. Stantek Regional Water Supply Study Update
IX. Operations & Engineering Report
Presenter: Nathan Travis
These reports are included in the monthly Board Packet, this agenda item serves as an
opportunity for the board to ask any questions they have regarding the reports.
X. Director's Matters
Board members may raise and discuss items of interest, concerns, or announcements that are
not otherwise included on the agenda.
XI. Adjourn
Board Member Director Jason Blankaert:
Good evening, and welcome to the Castle Pines North Metropolitan District regular board meeting. Today is Monday, March 23rd, 2026, approximately 6:00 pm. We're going to call the meeting to order,
Okay, I will go ahead and take roll.
Board Member Director Tera Radloff:
We got Tera. Present. No conflicts.
Board Member Director Jana Krell:
Jana. Here. No conflicts.
Board Member Director Leah Enquist:
Leah. Present. No conflicts.
Jason:
And we're missing Jim tonight. And this is Jason Blankaert. And I'm present with no conflicts. We'll go ahead and, close out, roll call, and we will bring up item number two, the public comment period. The public comment period is designed to share your thoughts and concerns with the district, but it is not an interactive discussion.
If you'd like to participate, please let us know in the chat feature.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 4
CONSENT AGENDA
The Board reviewed the following items on the Consent Agenda:
A. Approve January 26, 2026, Regular Board Meeting Minutes
B. Approve January 19, 2026, Work Session Minutes
C. Ratify claims for payment including check numbers 29524–29566 and electronic
payments issued from January 14, 2026, to February 11, 2026, totaling $1,895,968.59
D. Approve 2026 Gittlein Farms Lease
Upon motion duly made, seconded, and unanimously carried, the Board approved the items as
presented in the Consent Agenda.
Jason:
I'm not seeing anybody on chat, so we'll go ahead and close out. Item number two the public comment, and we will move on to item number three. The consent agenda. This is a group of items to be acted on with a single motion. Second, and a vote by the board to expedite the handling of limited routine matters. The board has previously received information on these matters and discussed them at a prior study session.
Any board member may move an item from the consent agenda to the meeting agenda. At this time.
Not hearing any motions.
Board Voting All Speak:
I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Wonderful. We have a motion and we have a second. Let's move to vote. Tera. I. Jana. I. Leah. Approve. I Approve as well. The motion passes.
Jason:
We will go ahead and, close out. Item number three. The consent agenda.
And we'll move on to item number four. The presentation and consideration of lift station renovation scope bid award. Do we have Lisa with us tonight?
District Manager Nathan Travis:
Lisa. Lisa you there?
Jason:
We're not hearing you, Lisa.
Nathan:
Hold on. Lisa's calling me.
The Comedy of Errors continues here. Lisa is having some difficulty with her microphone. She's going to try to reset it. I think, if nothing else, I can probably, handle this section. And then, you know, we can relay any questions to Lisa and she can respond in the chat.
Jason:
Okay. Sounds good.
Describer:
On screen. Nathan is navigating the On Board system to get to the right documents to show on screen.
Nathan:
Let me click you.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 44
BID OPENING SUMMARY
Lift Station Upgrades Scope B
Castle Pines North Metropolitan District
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
10:00 AM
KJ Job Number: 2246035*00
A Kennedy Jenks contractor chart which lists the contractors who bid on the projects, their bid amounts for each part of the project and their total bids. Nathan describes.
Nathan:
Before the bid opening, we had several plan openers. This is for, bullet station scope B, so this is lift stations one, three, four and six. We had, several several companies buy pick up plan sets. Ultimately, we only had these four, submit bids to us. They're kind of two big ones that we've work that we know really well or Fillac and Aslan.s
And both of them came in, higher, on the higher end with their total bid. Low bid for this one was CGRS with GSE, coming in above them with about a $500,000 difference. Lisa was able to go through, verify all the, bid tabulation. That's also the bid tabs also included in the paper in, packet.
We are actually, ultimately recommending that we do not go with the low bid on this one. We're recommending that we move forward with GSE construction. Not for public dissemination, but we did include in the packet, a release. I'm sorry, the summaries from the, references that we checked. So the board has that for the reference is not publicly available.
The biggest driver there, is really just how critical or the reason that we're recommending. Not going with the lowest bid. The biggest driver there is that, CGRS just genuinely doesn't seem to have, any contracts that they've done really at this scope or this scale? Certainly not in this dollar amount. And considering how critical the project is, how complicated this project is going to be.
Having, you know, partnering with an organization that, has that previous experience is going to be fairly vital. We have worked with GSE directly before. They did our, well vault rehab program. for the most part, they were good to work with. We were able to develop a pretty solid working relationship with, with the PM.
They had on board member their field management team. We've been told that we're going to get that same, that same group again or that we would get that same group again. Worth noting GSE is also the only one of all four bid respondents that did not have math errors, on their pay or on their their actual bid application.
So Lisa had spent quite a bit of time going through individual, the individual bids just, just a total them up. And GSE was the only one that didn't have a fairly significant mistake. I think I'll leave it at there. Does anybody have any questions, anything that they'd like to address thoughts on? Not in this instance.
Not following the lowest bid and moving with a contractor that's got a little bit more experience. Do you have any questions?
Lisa Schwien, P.E., Kennedy Jenks:
Can you guys hear me now?
Nathan:
Hey, there we got her. You just waited for me to get through with your presentation.
Lisa:
Good job Nathan. No I had to unplug a bunch of stuff. I think we're good now.
Nathan:
Lisa, did I miss anything? No, I guess, yeah. Just the points I was going to make is, the, I guess the size of the project, the dollar amount, like you said. And just, you know, we had mixed reviews from a lot of different engineers and clients. Owners for both contractors. So it was tough. It was tough to make a decision, but just mainly, the size of the projects they've done and the fact that we worked with the PM and the superintendent and the superintendents really close to castle Pines North. He lives really close.
So on the other project we did with him, he was if there was an issue, he was on site almost immediately, which, makes me feel good for the lift station project that he would be nearby. But yeah, it was tough because we had kind of mixed reviews on both contractors.
Leah:
I was going to ask about that.
Lisa, when you said mixed reviews. Does that include the contractor that, you and they are ultimately recommending? And if so, like, what were some of the more constructive reviews?
Lisa:
Yeah. It was for both contractors. We had mixed reviews. So I think the main one for GSE was that they did a really good job. The product was was really good.
Like the end product was great. They came out the owners with a lot of change orders. So the owner and engineer had to spend quite a bit of time kind of fighting those or battling those. But in the end the project ended up, you know, within budget to the next bidder, if that makes sense. So like and some of the change orders weren't their fault.
It was like changed conditions or whatever. So I think overall most people we talked to were happy with the end result. It's just kind of battling through those change orders that they bring up and then some personality conflicts, which is kind of funny. Engineer that I work with at Aurora a lot and really respect, mentioned a specific, PM for GSE, the one we're going to recommend, and that's the one we'll have on this project.
And, he and I kind of butted heads on the other project we worked on at first. And then I think in the end, we were working really well together. So, you know, I know who the Aurora PM was talking about. Kind of made me laugh because I know the guy he's talking about from GSE, and I know how the personality conflicts can come up, but I think, you know, toward the end of the project that we did with them, Nathan and I, we're working really well with our team.
So we just had to kind of get on the same page.
Leah:
Thank you for that. Any, I mean, have you guys talked about any way to mitigate kind of change orders if that was some constructive feedback?
Lisa:
Yeah. I really, I feel like that's one of my strong suit, actually. Is just sticking up for my clients and standing up to the contractor.
And usually once I do that, we're in a much better place. They have respect. And, you know, Nathan is very fair. So it's not like we're trying to have them do things for free. But, he's very fair. But we're also not going to get bulldozed into paying a bunch of change orders that we shouldn't be. So I think, I'll just continue what I do.
I keep really good documentation. We have a really good feel guy who documents everything, you know, writes down when things are out of scope. Lets me know. Hey, this came up. We had to. We had to change course. And so I keep track of all that. And I, last time we had some, we had a contractor who wanted payment for rock removal in the trench.
And it's kind of funny because, yes, I had actually helped me write that rock removal spec on another project. So I showed him, no, actually, you guys use tired teeth, and if you do that, you don't get paid for rock removal. So anyways, I just I think that's one of my strong suits. And I'll help I'll help the district through that.
But I think we're going to end up with a really good product. We'll just have to kind of battle through some of those change orders. Thank you.
Nathan:
Yeah. We've also talked about just directly addressing that with the contractor too upfront. Yeah. I don't think there's anything wrong with just very plainly saying like, hey, this is our reputation that you guys have.
We're happy to move forward with you. We're confident we're going to end up with a good product. But this is something we're paying attention to. And I think that I think it'll go okay.
Lisa:
The other thing is with the first scope, the first three live stations that we're working on right now, I feel like we learned some things that could make the specs and plans tighter, and we implemented those things for this scope.
So I think we've got a really good, a really good, set of contract documents.
Jason:
Great. Does anybody else have any questions regarding this?
Leah:
Non-related quick note. Just wanted to call out that Jim joined the meeting. Thank you.
Jason:
Good evening. Jim. So. Okay.
Board Member Director James Mulvey:
Hi, hi, it was a little rough getting in here.
Tera:
So GSE was the only one that didn't have math errors?
Lisa:
Yeah, it was pretty rough. I've never really seen. Usually I have one contractor with a simple math error, but, we had some pretty major ones, and we fix those all on here on this spreadsheet, and it didn't change the order, but they all came in at as far as price.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 45
A spread sheet of the project in details is shown but no part of it is described by Lisa or Nathan.
Lisa:
So that stayed the same. When the when that changes, it's, you know, it's a little bit trickier because what you read at the bid opening isn't the order that they're in in the end. So sometimes you just have to explain what you fixed on their math. But yeah, I think I think we got everything, as it should be on here, but yeah, GSE was only on that their math all checked out.
Jason:
All right. So are we looking for a motion on this?
Nathan:
Yeah. We would, ask the board for a motion to award the list station scope B package to GSE.
Board Voting All Speak:
Okay, I'll make that motion. Second. Having a second, we'll go to vote. Jim. Approve. Tera. I. Jana. Approve. Leah. Approve. I approve as well. So the motion passes.
Jason:
We will award that bid to GSE, and we'll go ahead and close out. Item number four, and we will move on to item number five, presentation from Next Meters. Is it, Arek with us?
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 46
Products & Services
Item & Description Quantity Unit Price Total
Item & Description NM4-20-AMI-USG 3/4'' Ultrasonic Meter, NEXT Ultrasonic Meter, AMI comms stack, USG - antenna not included Quantity 250 Unit Price $236.00 Total $59,000.00
Item & Description COMM-Quad-PP20 Quad (VER/ATT/TM/USC) Cellular Plan, 20 Year Prepaid Quantity 250 Unit Price $131.00 Total $32,750.00
Item & Description H-SAAS-PP20 Head End Software As A Service, 20 Year Prepaid Quantity 250 Unit Price $33.00 Total $8,250.00
Item & Description A-10 External antenna pit set for NMO ultrasonic meters-10' Quantity 250 Unit Price $11.50 Total $2,875.00
Item & Description Startup- 3,000 Total system accounts under 3,000 -Includes: TRAINING-REMOTE/HESMD/INT - Flat File/INT-MTR EX-STANDARD/HES-APP/HES-CP Quantity- 1 Unit Price $9,000.00 Total $9,000.00
One-time subtotal $111,875.00
Total $111,875.00
Arek Ryzak, Next Meters:
Yes. Right here. I'll reprise that. Yes, sir. How are you doing?
Jason:
Good. How are you this evening?
Arek:
Oh. Loving it. It's a great, great day.
Okay, weather still.
Jason:
So what, what are we looking at here?
Arek:
I see, Nathan. Thank you Brought that up. Nathan, you want me to your presentation first, or do we want to do the pricing?
Nathan:
Oh, I'll let you take over the screen for the presentation. Perfect, perfect. Yeah. And so, yeah. And then while he pulls that up.
So we we're looking at, we've got roughly a third of our water meters that we need to ultimately replace with the long term goal of moving to some sort of fixed base or automatic reading system.
Describer:
On screen. Next Meters Presentation Title Slide 1 Page 50
Next Meters Castle Pines North Metropolitan District
March 23rd, 2026
Arek Ryzak.
Nathan:
Next Meters has, some pretty cool new tech. It's an old company. They've been around for a long time, but they're stepping into the, utility space.
And so this is something that we would be looking at, potentially replacing a vendor. So I that's Arek come today to do just kind of a brief presentation on kind of the meter and the meter tech. I also have his proposal in, in the packet. I'm not seeking approval of that proposal tonight. But I just wanted to get, get the meters in front of the board, and then we'll probably bring that back again, next month.
But I just want you guys to have have some background, some more background information before we do. So, so I will turn it over to Eric.
Arek:
Excellent. Thank you. Nathan. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Yes, yes. Perfect. Just making sure, because I changed a bunch of stuff on my computer. So, appreciate you invite me to be here today.
Nathan. And hello again to everybody at, Castle Pines North metro District. my name is Arek Ryzak. I'm the regional sales director for, Next Meters, specializing in utility, infrastructures and metering. I'm actually based out of Littleton, right down the street from you guys here. South side of Littleton, about half an hour away.
So, I love to work with anybody that's in an immediate area of me because it lets me respond to my customers a lot faster.
Describer:
On screen. Next Meters Presentation Page 51
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Next Meters pioneers utility industry innovation with cutting-edge metering and conservation solutions.
120+ team members, 4 Million Devices/Meters Deployed, 190 Utility customers, $46 million donated to community causes, 2 Locations, 14 years in operation
Arek:
So jumping into this here, let's see here, company wise, we've got over 120 team members, 190 utility customers. We have two locations. Tampa is where we have our distribution building, and our main headquarters is in Logan, Utah.
We've got 4 million devices, deployed already as Nathan mentioned, we are not a new company. We've been around, here over 14 years. And the last part I want to mention about the company, because we do take pride in this. We've, in the last 14 years, we've donated well over now $46 million to community causes as, around the United States, Utah, and actually out in Africa as well.
Describer:
On screen. Next Meters Presentation Page 51
Vertically Integrated Business
Engineering
• Unmatched Product Design and Functionality • Hardware and Software Road map control • In house HES team bug fix and feature function • Portfolio optionality – Road map control
Manufacturing
• 6-8 Week Lead times • Production management • Quality assurance • Engineering oversight • Supply chain logistics
Sales
• Expert solution sales team • Drives product requirements • Supports channel partners • Drives market penetration
Delivery
• Onboarding excellence and oversight • Pre-integrated integration tool • Project status oversight • Highest standard of customer training
Support
• Unmatched Product Design and Functionality • Hardware and Software Road map control • In house HES team bug fix and feature function • Portfolio optionality – Road map control
Arek:
Which I could always touch base on that at a later time, if anybody would have questions about that. So moving forward, as a company, we are a vertically integrated business. So what does that mean and why is that important, especially for metering or technology? So we own every aspect of our business from the production and the facility where we produce our product down to the components that we produce all the way through the delivery and the support, the product.
We don't own the Fedex, but of course, we ship, you know, through our partners. But everything outside of the shipping part itself, we own every single aspect that allows us to provide a product that is going to be true and through for the next 20 years. That's and it's going to provide the product that it's supposed to.
It also allows us to warranty anything or take any take care of any issues, before they become issues, essentially, since we aren't dependent on the other manufacturers. Continuing on, what are we putting in?
Describer:
On screen. Next Meters Presentation Page 54
Next Stack AMI
Multi-Carrier Cellular
5G/LTE-M Multi-Carrier for best overall IOT network and connectivity
RF AMI
RF 900MHz Fixed network for high density areas and gap fill solutions
Drive-By
Long range RF 900MHz radios allow quick and efficient
drive-by connectivity
Manual/Walk-By
Manually enter reads, or utilize short range radios for auto
gathering reads as you walk-by
Arek:
So, what this product would be essentially it's, radar read and my system. So we're bringing in your meter reads, from the homes through the air on a cell, cell service backup our on a cell service system.
Bring that over to the utility office to let the utility view all that data. Beyond the cellular part of our product, we also have a, RF. So, radio read system, a drive by system, and a walk by option. They all are in the product together, so if one were to have an issue for some reason, Verizon can't get the signal out or AT&T can't get the signal out, the meter immediately switches over to RF background or backup system to make sure the reads come through.
Describer:
On screen. Next Meters Presentation Page 55
Largest Global IOT Network
• Credit card processors
• Scooter rental
• Air pumps/Tire Filling Stations
• Dog collars
• John Deere
• Ring doorbell
• Remote car start from app
• Smart City Trash Compactors
• Hospital equipment
• Military, Police, Fire, Ambulance
Ideagram - LTE-M is surrounded and connected to Connected Medicine, Smart Metering, Smart Cities, Automotive & Logistics, & Smart Buildings
LTE Cat-M1 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. According to a Gartner Research study, LPWAN (LTE-M and NB-IoT) will grow to reach 1.2 billion by 2026.
Arek:
We do all of this using, as I mentioned, cellular. We back everything through the LTE, network, which is, similar to what, I believe Nathan's phone as well as, any utility, devices, communicate on. So we don't depend on 4G, G5, G6, or any of that. We use a LTE-M band, which essentially is going to be there, for the long haul.
It's what, majority of emergency systems, as well as different companies now use and depend on for their cellular, communications for the devices.
Nathan:
Hey, Eric, sorry to interrupt real quick. Yeah, I'm going to stop sharing my screen real quick. I just got a text. I don't think anybody can actually see your presentation. And, they were showing up for me, but if you want to try and share it again.
James:
Oh, I could see it.
Jason:
I can see it.
Tera:
I can see it.
Nathan:
Yeah. Oh. How strange. Okay. Nevermind.
James:
Okay, I did I did have a question on the last slide if you could. Yeah of course. Yeah, yeah. What you got.
James:
Now it's not okay now.
Arek:
Was it this one here or.
James:
It was actually one back.
The multi carrier cellular. What's weird is the live stream. I have it on my cell phone to talk with, but I had it on my PC and it's not updating on my PC but on my cell phone. But anyway, I'll talk to it. Multi character cellular. You said that's Verizon based.
Arek:
So for us and I that's a very good question James.
So most manufacturers, there, we go and an AT&T or Verizon or T-Mobile, in our case our meter. It has a roaming SIM built into it. So actually, uses Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T and technically US cellular, but US cellular just got bought out by Verizon and T-Mobile. So, it's T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. The way it works is it connects to the strongest signal.
So say Verizon's the strongest signal today. But hypothetically, six months down the road, they do some work on their tower. The signal drops a little bit. The radio will automatically switch over to T-Mobile or AT&T, whichever, whichever is the next strongest. In the case of a disaster where all cell service were to, for whatever reason, go down. Our system also has a back up RF system built into it.
James:
And what is their range on that RF AMI? The Sim.
Arek:
Yeah. No. Good question. So RF AMI. So we are currently priding ourselves in this our documentation says upwards to 4 to 5 miles in range. Realistically I'll put this at a mile and a half to two miles, three miles in good conditions. But we are able we we pride ourselves for the strongest and furthest reaching range for a unlicensed product.
But now that would be your backup as as in the case of if cellular were to go down for whatever reason, something happens. Catastrophic. This way you still get your reads in.
James:
Okay now, does that require, a base station or something?
Arek:
Not with our product. So it's actually a just a solar panel, that has four antennas coming out of it.
It's roughly 2.5ft by three feet and about three inches deep. So we can hang it on anything from, side of a building to a tree anywhere you get sunlight.
James:
Okay. Appreciate it. Thanks. That's all I have. All right.
Arek:
Great questions. Thank you so much. Perfect. So I'll keep rolling here.
Describer:
On screen. Next Meters Presentation Page 57
This is a picture of a Next Meter. It is a small rounded rectangle with a white face with a liquid crystal screen which reads HELLO. Next Meters logo is at the top center of the white face and the model number and barcode information below the screen. It indicates throughput RF cable connections on both sides of the device.
Arek:
This is, actual meter that we'll be putting in, without bothering everybody too much.
It is a revolutionary product. The best way to compare is, analogy. I like to use that most of us could, understand. Everybody remembers that candy bar phones are the flip phones from back in the day. Everybody remembers the blackberries, and everybody knows what the iPhones and the smartphones are. So majority of the manufacturers out there, or what the utilities have right now is the candy bar phone in the ground.
Many manufacturers out there are putting out a product that would be comparable to what the BlackBerry is these days. And with this meter where we're talking smartphone, because in this meter, we do have all of the Reading AMI technologies, we have the RF technologies, we have drive by, we have walked by, and most importantly, we have a massive screen for the customers to be able to the utility to open up and view in case, in case they need it.
There's no menus to switch from or switch through. It's very simply, built. Most importantly, the product comes with a 20 year warranty, which allows you to pretty much replace it if even on year 19 it were to fail. We are this confident in the product. We will replace it at 100%, year 19 and give you a brand new one, knowing that these will last all 20 years.
Any questions about the meter? Because I could talk about for next 25, 30 minutes. Is there any specifics that anybody would like to know about the meters themselves?
Leah:
Broad question, and this one might be more for Nate, but, like, what's what's driving this?
Nathan:
So we have been moving toward, kind of a fixed base two army system for a while, and we're in a little bit of, kind of in-between zone. And so that meaning, like, right now we drive around, we have, we collect, meters or meter readings using a truck that has some equipment in there that actually, like, kind of directly on it.
We have just kind of a lot of programs and process. Another one we've got about a third of our water meters are due for replacement. They've just aged out. Those need to be replaced with, a meter more like this anyway. Like a plastic composite, 100% lead free, meters. Roughly a third of them that the whole meter needs to be replaced.
And we've got another 800 or so that need to be updated from an old meter reading technology, to like something similar to this. It's like an old short band versus a new one. And those old radios are aging out. So because we need to, already replace about a third of our meters, we've got a third of the radios associated with our meters that already, are also in need of upgrading and updating, ultimately all in the name to move toward that fixed base where we could read meters instantly and from the office and get customer portals to track usage more accurately and get leak alerts.
And all of these, kind of like newer technologies. Castle Rock has something similar in place. It's it's very similar to like water hawks that Parker and Highlands Ranch use. And so we've been moving that direction. Looking at Next Meters, and this is kind of the, the, the last missing piece there. Whether or not it would be cheaper or more expensive, but at the very least it's going to be comparable to in price to completely potentially swap our system over to next meters, as opposed to having to install the fixed base stations, which can be, you know, up to a million, million and a half just in those,
Plus the additional meter change outs, just for the additional meters that we need to do and the radios that need to be upgraded. And so since we're in that mode anyway, this is a technology so far that, Arek's not wrong. It has a lot of a lot of things about it that the utility industry and districts have been looking for for a long time, all the way down to using brass threads on a plastic body meter for installation stuff.
The cost is right down the compare. We're pretty comparable. You're roughly $400 for, our Next Meter, which includes that cell service. The meters we're doing now are about half that. But you only get the meter, and then we have to spend another $220 bucks to get the radio. So the price per the actual full meter unit is fairly comparable.
And then, yeah, it's just to be a really solid workflow. So what we're, what we're looking at is one, I want to make sure that we get our cost comparisons taken care of with, you know, continuing down the path with our existing technology, with sensors, compared that to what a full next meter change out would look like?
And then the interim step, between those two would be a, limited deployment of a pilot program. So it would be looking at doing like 250 out of our 4000 meters, targeting areas, that have like would be the most challenging ones, poor cell reception and poor cell signal, that kind of stuff. Poor access. And then, you know, do, a defined pilot for probably six months or a year before we make a decision, to either move forward with next meters or revert back to going with, census products.
Leah:
Thank you. One last question. Assuming we implement something like this, like, would would there be a potential for the costs to be offset by declining personnel costs, needing needed to read the meters?
Nathan:
Not no, not for not for reading the meters. It's really more of a customer upgrade. We've only got, one person on staff now.
They the cost savings there with with Troy with our meters or with our field services technician. It would be kind of tasking him with installing all of these. And that's something that's going to happen regardless irregardless if we're doing next meters or we continue with census products and the cost savings is having them in-house, but there's not going to be any additional staffing reduction, cost savings.
Leah:
Okay, thank you.
James:
Nathan, where did they get installed? This is outside installation. I'm assuming inside where the where the water comes into the house.
Nathan:
In our district, the vast majority of them are inside meter set. So we have a few neighborhoods that have outside meter pits, mostly duplexes, multifamily, but the vast majority of them are in basements.
James:
Okay. And we can still get a signal out because mine is essentially eight feet below ground. You know, where my water, where the current meter is.
Arek:
We shouldn't have any issues whatsoever. We have an antenna that plugs into the meter on the back that will make its way up to the rafters or higher.
James:
Okay. Yeah. All right.
And for outside installations. And forgive me, I package electronics for living. So, we have an LCD screen. The housing for this is plastic or metal looks plastic.
Arek:
So it's, it's, it's, it's plastic housing and actually does have a lid. And just for the, for the sake of the image here, I mean, hopefully this will let me show that's, you know, it does have a lid on there to protect, the actual top in there.
But yes, the meters that we make, as well as any meter that would go into the ground, they are Ip68 rated. They are rated for being in water and dust in a meter environment. 4 to 20 years of the product. We have all the batteries, all the electronics are fully epoxy coated on the internals. So there's no water or dust or anything getting to any parts of the electronics or important parts of the meter.
Nathan:
And that's it. It's not remarkably different from the current meters that were installed. The other camera grabs it, but they're also plastic body meters.
James:
Okay. So if we, if we get a good warranty on these, I guess I'm good with it.
Arek:
And one thing I did want to just add real quick, and I have, like, two more slides to cover here, but, very important factor that Nathan, mentioned is the price, because in that price, that $400 in change that we're talking about per, per connection, per meter, we're actually we include the full 20 year warranty in that.
But that also includes your communication fees as well as your software fees for that meter for the full 20 years. So, pretty much that price from us is an all in price versus, you know, any the next leading manufacturer would have a ten and ten year warranty, where the first ten years are 100% covered and the second ten years are prorated from us with the $400 and change.
We're looking at a full 20 year warranty from us. That's that. Nobody else on the market offers that. To my knowledge.
James:
Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Describer:
On screen. Next Meters Presentation Page 59
Let’s Talk Customer Care and Support
Our US-based support team answers in seconds, not minutes. They are available 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday and offer free training whenever you need it.
Arek:
Of course. So, last, last few slides here real quick. I just want to make sure you all know, you're not alone in this. We, our customer care is based out of, Logan, Utah, and they pretty much work 12 hours a day, every single day.
Within a 30, 30, second to one minute pickup time that we pride ourselves in. So, when it comes to customer support, you guys have me right here down the street. And, of course, our entire customer support team, based out of, Utah. I'm not going to bore you all with the technologies of our software, but I do want to jump to a very important slide here that Nathan mentioned with our software, with our service, with this package and everything included.
Describer:
On screen. Next Meters Presentation Page 61
Smarter AMI. Smarter Homes.
• View detailed meter reads • Monitor daily and hourly usage trends • Detect unusual usage spikes • Set custom alerts for high usage, leaks, or freezing • Access portal from any device • Reduce utility service calls through self-service tools. The slide depicts access on every type of mobile or computer device.
Arek:
All of the residents of Castle Pines North Metro, Water District will have access already with this package to view their own water usage on a daily basis. They can set their own alarms on, essentially, reminders that they get, you know, past a thousand gallons of water a day or whatever threshold they set. They get notified on that saying, hey, you've used more water than you want to do that today.
So all that's actually included from us, versus many other manufacturers, that would be just another add on, another service fee to pay.
Describer:
On screen. Next Meters Presentation Page 62
We are not new to meters…
This is a map of the continental United States with Next Meter clients marked in red dots.
Arek:
And lastly, I just want to mention, as I showed earlier, we've been around for 14 years, we are the largest sub metering manufacturer in America at the moment. If you've driven by a tall building in Colorado, there's I would say at 89% chance, that's most likely, our meters and our system already deployed in there.
So, I thank everybody for the time and if there's any other questions, by all means, please let me know.
Jason:
Thank you. Does anybody else have any questions regarding this?
James:
Appreciate the presentation.
Jason:
Yeah. It's very nice presentation. Thank you very much.
Arek:
Thank you everybody.
Jason:
We will go ahead and close out this presentation. Item number five. And we will move on to our next presentation the financial report with Molly Janzen and Eric Harris.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 64
TO: Board of Directors – Castle Pines North Metropolitan District
FROM: Eric Harris, Elevated Clarity (EC)
DATE: March 23, 2026
RE: Financial Report – March 2026 Board of Directors Meeting
General Fund Activity
Actual revenues as of January 31, 2026, were $200,457. As of January 2026, the District recognized $15,822 in property tax revenues received from Douglas County and $6,095 in specific ownership tax revenues. This represents 1.63% of the budgeted property taxes from the District’s mill levy year-to-date. The District receives the majority of annual property taxes February through June of each year.
Total actual expenditures as of January 31, 2026, were $327,405, resulting in a negative change in funds available of $126,948 as of January 31, 2026. It is typical to end January with a negative change in funds available since minimal property taxes are collected in January.
For most categories of revenues and expenditures, the actual amounts align well with the amounts budgeted. Two categories of expenditures that are trending to be over the amounts budgeted are Property and Liability Insurance and Software Support. The amount anticipated in the 2026 budget for Property and Liability Insurance was reduced to compensate for the parcels that were transferred to the City of Castle Pines. We will be conducting a review of the insured properties in the 2026 policy which may result in a decrease to the 2026 cost. Software support includes the financial software in 2026; this was recorded in 2025 in Accounting and Payroll so was not anticipated in the amount budgeted for Software Support.
It is too early in the year to begin estimating annual costs; we will begin projecting annual costs with the first quarter financials that will be presented in May 2026.
Enterprise Fund Activity
Billed water usage in the month of January 2026 was 21,463,000 gallons, a 5.78% increase from water usage in January 2025. The report continues.
Financial Director Eric Harris:
Good evening board on page 64.
You have a financial report for tonight's board meeting. This includes a budget, actual reporting associated with your January 2026 financials. I just wanted to, I think the report is pretty self-explanatory. I will, we're pretty early on in the year for this, at this point. So we're going to we're talking about the January financial activities.
So we're not quite hitting, the weather, if you will, and, additional perhaps, peaker more usage that would happen in March just yet. But we'll get those numbers here pretty soon. So a couple, not too many variances to report at least, on the financial statement. But just to let you know of a couple projects, we're continuing to work on the billing system implementation, as well as, auditing some of the reporting out of Blackbaud financial edge.
So all of those will be forthcoming here pretty soon. But really, we're spending a lot of time in the accounting system right now, finalizing our trial balance to submit to the auditors to have an efficient, audit preparation period here in a few weeks.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 69
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
STATEMENTS OF REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES WITH BUDGETS
BUDGETARY (NON-GAAP) BASIS
December 31, 2025 Actual
Actual, Budget and Variance Through January 31, 2026
Eric describes.
Eric:
Moving forward, to page 69, just a couple, variances and I ams I want to note, though, or just updates on where we are for the year. What looking at the bottom for the Water Enterprise Fund were approximately $1.62 million to the positive fund balance. That's, $42 million compared to the budget, three of $40.4 million.
Right now, the story of the enterprise funds collectively is you're having, your capital projects underway right now, whether it be scope for the workstations or the filter bed rehab project. So that's just an important point I would like to make. moving forward to page.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 71
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
STATEMENTS OF REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES WITH BUDGETS
BUDGETARY (NON-GAAP) BASIS
December 31, 2025 Actual
Actual, Budget and Variance Through January 31, 2026
Eric describes.
Eric:
71, this is your general fund activity. You there is, pretty large expenditure related with property liability insurance. We had a budget of $85,000 this year thinking that, compared to prior year, we were going to have a lower, insurance expense because we're moving a lot of assets off of our books. Right. So as we kind of dug into the insurance renewal process and late fourth quarter to get that finalized with the agent, we actually found rates to go up significantly.
But it was pretty, pretty clean for what we expected. We are insuring all the right assets were insuring our assets and not the town's assets. So, what we saw was a, a premium of approximately $125,000 for this year, so that, that was, that was just an important point. So, really that overall reflected about 8.6% increase, in the prior year activity.
So really where that came into, like I said, was we thinking, looking through all the support paperwork we had at the time that all the property, all the easements, you know, all the stuff that wasn't in fact moved off, but a majority of it was in those, you know, in this timing period, as we go throughout the years to transfer everything to the city.
But, the rates did go up as well. I, I don't necessarily feel like we're over insured right now, but it is something to dig into a little bit more, perhaps, and do a work session when we look at the upcoming years as well. So just want to make a point. Moving forward to page 72, this is your water Enterprise fund.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 73
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
STATEMENTS OF REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES WITH BUDGETS
BUDGETARY (NON-GAAP) BASIS
December 31, 2025 Actual
Actual, Budget and Variance Through January 31, 2026
Eric describes.
Eric:
Like to make a point that the Chatfield Reservoir annual assessments were, well, came in under budget. Nathan, next page, please.
73, 73 I apologize. Came in under budget. We had a budget of $168,000, and it came in roughly at $153,000. That's the operating assessments that we, district pays for the Chatfield Reallocation Mitigation Company. Another, another item to, mention here as part of the water meter program that we did mention, we did have a budget in here, which was for a volume of meters, with it.
And it was in our rate study, as well as $180,000 for the program associated with this. And that didn't necessarily tie necessarily to the quantity meters, but we did use some initial preliminary numbers within this budget for this upcoming year. So we do have a budget for meter replacement. And we did have that in our at our rate study as well.
Moving down to the bottom related to utilities. Utility expense came in pretty low for this, for the month of January, that's the center column of $40,000, $40,254, compared to a budget through of $103,000. Mainly because what we're doing is we're relying on our deliveries, right now to our interconnect, due to the filter rehab project.
So you do have that same expense for that delivery fee through Highlands Ranch Water that came through in the financial statement as well. So just wanted to make that point.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 74
CASTLE PINES NORTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
STATEMENTS OF REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES WITH BUDGETS
BUDGETARY (NON-GAAP) BASIS
December 31, 2025 Actual
Actual, Budget and Variance Through January 31, 2026
Eric describes.
Eric:
Moving on to the next page. Our fixed fee rate structure or overall our rate structure of rate structure has been implemented for this. This set of financials.
So you have our the capital of permit fee, which is that fixed fee, which should be that is billed monthly, 160 $169,864. We're right on budget of where we should be right now. So we will see that revenue very much flatline throughout the year, adjusted for any new accounts that, potentially come on board in Lagae.
So just wanted to make that point. And then of course, as mentioned before, that you have the capital expenses and all the capital projects occurring right now. So you'll start seeing that activity for the current year flowing through these financial statements. With that, are there any questions as it relates to the financial report tonight?
Jason:
Hearing none, I guess not. Jim, did you have something?
James:
I was thinking about it, but I think I'll hold it. Thanks.
Eric:
Okay. And as we get into, the upcoming few months, we will be rolling forward our project reporting so that we are capturing all this activity with these upcoming projects. Now that we have contracts in place.
Jason:
Great. Thank you. Thank you very much for the report. Very, very well done. We'll go ahead and close out the finance report then, unless anybody has any other questions, and we'll move on to the, legal counsel status report. Good evening. Paul.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 82
MEMORANDUM
TO: Castle Pines North Metropolitan District
FROM: Seter, Vander Wall & Mielke, P.C.; Paul Polito, Esq.
DATE: March 23, 2026
RE: Legal Status Report for the March 23, 2026 Board Meeting
MATTERS REQUIRING BOARD ACTION
MATTER: RULES AND REGULATIONS UPDATE
Status: The Board requested the District’s rules and regulations be updated to account for limited district functions regarding parks, trails, and open spaces. Legal counsel has revised the District’s rules to account for the City’s assumption of Parks, Trails, and Open Spaces, as well CPNMD’s former Stormwater system. Counsel has added a new Section 15 to the rules to satisfy CDPHE’s requirement for back flow and cross connection regulations. Counsel has also updated the rules to account for all rule resolutions enacted since 2015, and has inserted new language re maintenance of sewer service lines.
Action: Consider approval of draft rule updates.
MATTER: HIDDEN POINTE METRO DISTRICT INCLUSION
Status: Hidden Point Metropolitan District (HPMD) Board had originally advised Mr. Travis that it wants to move forward with an election regarding inclusion at its regular election in May, 2025. A preliminary inclusion agreement was drafted and counsel revised the preliminary inclusion agreement based on discussions with HPMD’s district manager. Counsel provided the draft agreement to HPMD’s district manager for review. HPMD responded on February 16, 2025, with proposed revisions. Counsel discussed inclusion terms with Hidden Point representatives on March 11, 2025. Hidden Pointe’s new attorney responded with redline edits on February 23, 2026. Counsel accepted the edits on March 6 and CPNMD staff conducted a conference with Hidden Pointe representatives on March 17 to finalize the terms of the agreement and discuss procedural steps. Hidden Pointe will be conducting a special meeting during the week of March 22, 2026, to approve the attached inclusion agreement.
Action: Consider the inclusion agreement for approval.
Legal Counsel Paul Polito, Esq.:
Hi. Good evening everyone. So, the status report, the top two items there, the rules and regulations update in the Hidden Point Metro inclusion I'll be discussing in just a little bit, so I'll skip over these for now.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 83
MATTER: STANDARD INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR AGREEMENT TEMPLATE
Status: Counsel has drafted a new, comprehensive Master Services Agreement (MSA) template for the District's use with independent contractors. This updated form is designed to streamline the engagement of on-call and recurring vendors by establishing robust legal protections, including TABOR compliance, governmental immunity, and independent contractor acknowledgments, which will govern the entire relationship. Specific projects and compensation can now be authorized efficiently through a standardized "Task Order" process without renegotiating the base contract.
Action: Consider the draft MSA for approval.
Paul:
On page 82 or I'm sorry, 83. There is the, there are the entries for the standard independent contractor agreement template. This was that, form, template for independent contractor agreements that we had discussed last meeting or I'm sorry, a couple meetings ago. I inadvertently got left off the last one. So it was put on the, consent agenda today.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 83
MATTERS IN PROGRESS
MATTER: SERVICE PLAN AMENDMENT
Status: The intergovernmental agreements with the City of Castle Pines require CPNMD to amend its Service Plan to eliminate Park and Recreation and Stormwater services. The board approved the second amendment at its February 23, 2026 board meeting. The amendment specifically removes the District's authority to provide, own, or maintain parks, trails, open space, and stormwater systems to reflect the property transfers to the City of Castle Pines. Additionally, it establishes a maximum operations mill levy cap of 7 mills, as required in the IGA regarding Park and Recreation services. Staff met with the Douglas County Planning Department on March 18, 2026, for a pre-application meeting to discuss the logistics and
procedure of the amendment filing. Upon request by the Douglas County Planing Department, counsel will be filing a formal application for amendment with Douglas County, after which the Douglas County Planning Department will schedule a meeting for a first review.
Action: Nothing required at this time.
Paul:
So that's that's if anybody was wondering, the service plan meant we had very productive meeting, with Douglas County on March 18th. What I suspected is turning out to be true. They're going to waive most of the requirements, since what we're doing is not typical of, of a service plan amendment, since we're really just reducing the two services.
So they gave me, a clear path forward, some forms to file with them. They want an amended and restated service plan, which I have a paralegal worked on and, will be providing that this week. Getting the process started. Then the planning department meets. Me and Nathan will eventually be, going down to county hearing to, make our case, which again, I don't, I don't see any of this being controversial.
But that's the, that's the service plan amendment right now. Those are, obviously those are the items for the district at the moment. There is one more newer item that that has just come up that I'd like to discuss. They it's not on the legal status report, but, I just want to flag for everybody, you know, I want to flag an item for the board's awareness regarding, national PFAS drinking water settlements.
And so for anybody who's not familiar with PFAS, that is an acronym for a class of chemicals known as, polyfluoroalkyl substances, or per fluoro alkyl substances. They come in different forms. The unifying theme is that they are carbon chains with fluorine ions bonded to them. And that's that carbon fluorine bond makes them incredibly strong and resistant.
And it's why they were referred to as forever chemicals, because they don't break down in the environment for thousands and thousands of years. Extraordinarily dangerous. And, you know, even one drop in an Olympic sized swimming pool has been confirmed to cause, all sorts of effects in humans, carcinogenic. It it destroys your immune system.
It's it's bad. So, you know, typically, these have been widely used in consumer and industrial products for decades. The most common ones, firefighting foam, known as AFFF, acquiesce film forming foam, they use they use this a lot at airports, and tons at Navy sites. You always see a lot of contamination around around, any sort of Navy or Air Force base.
It's a huge problem. So the widespread use of these products over decades, has resulted in the contamination of drinking water sources across the country. I mean, across the planet. In America, this has led to a massive consolidated federal lawsuit. It's called the AFFF Multi-district litigation. So this is against the manufacturers of PFAs mainly. That's 3M and DuPont.
There's a few others, such as BASF, but those are the two big ones. So through this litigation, there's been a settlement. It totals over $14 billion. And it's to compensate public water systems for the costs of addressing PFAs contamination. So under the terms of these settlements, all qualifying public water systems, including, this special district, were automatically included unless they affirmatively opted out.
And that was back in December 2023. The district didn't opt out, which means that the district is a settlement class member. So what does that mean? so as a class member, the district has, released its right to pursue independent litigation against 3M and DuPont for any sort of PFAS related drinking water claims. In exchange, the district isn't entitled to a settlement or an allocation of the settlement.
So we just have to make sure that we submit timely claims with with required documentation. There are a few claim deadlines approaching this summer. I'll be working with Nathan to see what testing has been done. What testing needs to be done. You know, I’ll talk with Eric about what sort of cost we may be able to include.
We do have a meeting with, an outside consultant on this. We're trying to schedule for this Friday. Just to, just to see it apparently is, a federal sort of consulting firm. So we're just kind of we're going to hear them out and see if there's anything that we're missing here. So I will keep you updated, as we go along here.
What claims the district may be eligible to submit? I will say I was talking about this with Nathan, already, and, apparently the district has not had any sort of, it's had non detect spurts, PFAS. It hasn't found any PFAS in its water systems, which is great. That's that's amazing. It will lower the amount that the district is ultimately, you know, entitled to for compensation.
But obviously a non detect is the best case scenario. So this district is seems to be doing well. And you know, at least as far as PFAS contamination. I know that there's a lot if anybody has any questions based on that or the status report, I'm happy to answer them. And otherwise I'll jump into the rules and regs.
Leah:
Just super quick question. How often do we test for PFAS?
Paul:
Well, for for a long time nobody ever tested for PFAS. It wasn't a regulated contaminant under the EPA. They they only just classified as a hazardous substance back in 2024. Right. Yeah. Now don't get me started. I mean they knew we've known about this since the 90s. Right. Dupont knew about it since the 70s.
But, no. Yeah. The regulation has unfortunately been snail pace. So, and a lot of that is because it's so ubiquitous. It was hard to regulate. It's in everything from carpets to, food pellet fertilizer, pellets and farms. I mean, it's it's all over the place. There's starting to phase a lot of it out now, but yeah, it just was hard to regulate for a while.
So, long winded answer to your question. They started requiring testing, I want to say about 2 to 3 years ago. Nathan, correct me if I'm wrong there, but it was about that ballpark. It might have before. And now there's a lot of required testing for this. And I want to say the district had its test done.
Nathan was it was in about a year ago.
Nathan:
Yeah, about about a year ago. So we haven't done any distribution system testing, meaning that we haven't tested like the delivered water or the water that's in our system. What we did do is include the testing, as part of our source water testing for the filter pilot project. So we checked all of our source water well, for, for the different pH, for PFOA.
And so like Paul mentioned, we were all non detect on that end. Highlands Ranch has done more frequent testing Highlands Ranch water. And since we're, you know, a secondary system to them, they do fairly regular testing on it. In their distribution system, they have found P1, PFOA in their treated water streams. But they are below the current federal guidelines, which I think is 1 or 2 parts per billion.
They already had in their plant. They had activated carbon, which is one of the approved or recommended treatment, processes. Anyway. So, they've been able to, to meet that regulation and with all with the exception of like one test that they did, they just required a process, chemical adjustment.
Paul:
And for what it's worth, those, the safe levels are constantly being revised downward.
The consensus is quickly becoming that there's no safe level of this stuff.
Nathan:
Yeah. The that the level is really more being driven right now by the equipment's ability to test for it at those smaller confinements. So, the they really want to set the regulation at zero. But you can't definitively prove a zero. So they're down to like, I think three parts per million is as low as those tests can go.
So either three parts per billion or above or you get a non detect which is slightly different than a non present. It just means that you're below that three part per billion marker.
Paul:
Yeah. That's yeah that's well said.
Tera:
So Nathan I think you answered this. But basically our source water is because because of the source is pretty it's good water.
It's good pretty good water. Pretty clean.
Nathan:
Yeah. The confined aquifer has been great. Which isn't to say that it is bulletproof. There are districts that are pulling water samples out of confined aquifers that are, popping positive for PFAS. Rene.
Deputy District Manager Rene Santini:z
Yeah. I just mentioned the limit is parts per trillion.
Nathan:
Parts Per trillion. Thank you.
Rene:
I've done some some sampling, and, I mean, there's a whole procedure.
You can't wear sunscreen before you sample. You can't wear lotions. And certain materials, because, I mean, you look at it wrong and you'll get a spike, you'll sneeze, you know, you'll you'll get a spike. It's just the detection limit, like I mentioned, is just so. So tiny that we're at the edge of what can be measured and, yeah, that's the the the whole sample collection procedure is, is also pretty, restrictive so that you don't get a false positive.
James:
Yeah. Can I ask a quick question? Yeah. Okay just a scenario, our delivered water fails. Can we quickly shift over to our, well, water or aquifers and, or is there some plan in place? Obviously, you said they have carbon filtration and what have you, currently as part of their program. But in the case that something did happen or did they had an escape, their equipment failed.
Whatever. Do we have the ability to kind of shift over to our, well, water? Because I, I only asked because if I, if it did occur, I would like to have a ready answer for the people in town. And when they ultimately would ask, you would have to notify. I'm assuming, and then we would have to have that conversation.
So it'd be better if we had something. You know, you don't have to have a whole plan or anything but a response, basically, you know, next steps kind of thing.
Nathan:
Yeah. One of the things that we were doing offer, that we’re going to be looking at doing operationally is, trying to keep the treatment plant even more on our connection with Highlands Ranch, trying to keep our treatment plant running at a just a low level.
So, you know, if, if we're meeting a really small percentage of our demand with that aquifer water, then we're keeping our plant in an operable condition. That would allow for that change to happen really, really quickly. That would be like flip of a switch speed. If our plant was fully offline, we're talking about a matter of hours.
You know, we've got a process. We'd have to go with the treatment plant, but we could probably go. Go from not on the interconnect to our treatment plant fully up and running and probably three, four, five hours. The slowest part of that process would be, if there was a full system flush that was required. So that could take several days if we needed to turn the water over through hydrants or whatever, after we get the plant brought on line.
But yeah, it's it's not a difficult transition to make.
James:
Okay, I appreciate it. I'm glad you guys thinking about it.
Rene:
Yeah. I just I wanted to mention this is not something we would know right away. The testing, you know, I'm trying to look it up because I don't remember, but it's not very frequent that we have to test.
And then, you know, the lab takes a week if they're fast to get, results back. So it's not like we would know immediately, that they, that we have exceeded the limit, which it doesn't it doesn't become a hard MCL for a couple of years.
James:
Yeah. I mean, I think the answer is, as soon as you hear about it, you can change over within the day, essentially, is what I'm hearing. Correct.
Okay. I mean, that's I think a reasonable response.
Paul:
Yeah. And notoriously difficult to treat as well. And Nathan or other engineers would have, would have a better take on this. But reverse osmosis is essentially the from what I've heard, the only way to filter this and.
Rene:
No, there's, there's ion exchange. That's the primary.
Okay. I think the classic definition, then granular activated carbon will also remove it. It that tends to be pricier because that's a single, use. And it it's sort of a catch all, so it grabs so much stuff, that it gets spent quicker. And you have to replace that. But the, the resin last years and years, there's, there's a plant in Whitefield that I worked on.
I think and, and they have some pretty elevated levels, the Air Force actually paying for the whole thing because, they don't want the bad PR, but I believe they're like seven years in and it's still the same resin.
Paul:
Well, that's good to know. Okay. That's promising. Well, good.
Jason:
Thank you for sharing. Yeah, I just want the rest of the board to know that today is Renee's first day.
And, we had him today for a tour of the the water treatment facility, and, welcome. Sounds like you are a wealth of knowledge that we're really looking forward to tapping into. So thank you.
Rene:
Yeah, I'm glad to be here.
Paul:
Yeah, I appreciate that. Appreciate the knowledge. So yeah, if anybody has any any questions or comments, happy to answer them or look into it.
James:
Anything I would say. And Nathan, again, this is a board thing. So just be you know, if you had a policy or procedure or something like that, or at least a paragraph response that says, you know, if we did encounter this, you know, especially if we're doing like water treatment, plant tours or something like that, somebody I guarantee you will bring it up at some point of what do you guys do if this happens kind of thing.
You know.
Nathan:
We can do that. Yeah, absolutely.
James:
Yes. Throwing a little paper at it might be worthwhile to prevent a lot of other questions.
Paul:
Yeah, I'll think about what the best form for that would be, maybe some sort of policy document or some very small addition to the rules of. Well, I'll chew on that a little bit.
And see what I come up with here.
Nathan:
Yeah, Paul I think we do this, quick policy document on our end, and then we could do like a public facing FAQ here. That kind of ties to it.
Paul:
Yeah, I like that. Okay, okay. That works for me. Okay. If I have any other questions about the AFFF litigation, or the legal status report?
Eric:
I'll just do a quick follow up, if you don't mind.
Just from primary care, what is a timeline for potential for the settlement, that you see, are we 3 or 4 years out right now?
Paul:
Until, until we actually see some money from this until things are actually paid. Yes. Well, yeah, probably.
Eric:
Okay. I didn't know about. They had a timeline set yet. Okay. Thanks. Yeah.
Paul:
No, we're we're likely years out.
Eric:
Okay. Perfect. Thank you.
Paul:
Yeah. And, Eric, I'll do a little bit of homework on when we can. We can expect that. I'll, I'll send it over to you once I have it. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions, comments, concerns from anybody before I move on to the rules and regs.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 87
CPNMD RULES & REGULATIONS
Adopted: October 19, 2015
Amended: March 23, 2026
Paul:
Okay. That brings us to page 87. This is a much prettier document than what you saw before. It is. So this is the finalized version of the rules and regulations. The track changes version. It starts on page 126. This is all the same. That as was presented at the work session, except for article 15.
On page 187 of the packet.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 187
ARTICLE 15. Seen in blue
CROSS-CONNECTION CONTROL AND BACK FLOW PREVENTION
15.3 (a) Site specific deviation criteria. Multi-family connections are those served by a single service line that supplies three or more separate residential dwelling units. Connections that serve more than two but fewer than six dwelling units, do not provide water for irrigation, do not have a pool, hot tub or similar, do not have a fire sprinkler system, do not have any connection to a non-potable or alternative water source, and are free from other hazards that are not typical of a single family residence, are exempt from annual testing, and device tracking. An initial survey to verify conditions is still required. Paul explains.
Paul:
Okay. What you see in blue is new. We included some language, under this cross connection control and back flow prevention article to exempt certain multifamily residences from some of these requirements. And the reasoning for this is because they don't have there's not the same concern that, any sort of effluent would back up, into the system.
You know, it's more reserved for commercial industrial properties, larger, you know, say apartment complexes as well, where they have certain, boiler chemicals, things of that nature. So that's the reasoning for this change. If you go to page 188 on the next page, you also see, you also see a little bit of blue that's that's again the, the only change it's been done to the well, another change that's been done to this section.
And this is really, you know, ultimately, if we distill this, it's we just wanted to establish that, we can include any surcharges in on the customer's bill or any sort of testing the district has to do for this. And instead of requiring the customer to submit testing results, instead we're having them, allow the district access, to test when it wants to.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 187
ARTICLE 15. Seen in blue
15.7 Uncontrolled Cross Connections. All uncontrolled cross connections must be controlled within 120 days of discovery. Either through the installation of the appropriate device, method, or discontinuation of service until the connection is properly controlled.
Paul:
So those are the changes is also, on page 189 and then next page, there's one more section for uncontrolled cross connections must be controlled within 120 days of discovery.
Nathan:
And so this is all language that's largely driven just by the state statute, regulation 11 for cross connection control programs, including, the kind of carve out for the site specific deviation for those specific multifamily units, in terms of the number of actual connections, that, that carving out that multi-family allowance takes about 35 or 40 service connections off the list of devices that we have to track.
And that's all. Well, it's all within, defined guidance of the document. We, we have been kind of operating under the, like, state authority provided by that Reg 11. One of the things that came up in, one of the sanitary surveys along the way was basically just a heads up from the, state inspector and like, at some point when we did an update to our rules and regs, they would like to see this codified as part of the rules and regs update.
So we're just following through on, on that. This is largely, just a, a capture. It's largely capturing the, the program that we've already had in place for a number of years. So there's no substantial new change. We're just codifying it.
Paul:
Thanks, Nathan. And again, just for everyone's benefit, very quickly, the reasoning for all this, again, was just to incorporate all of the changes, that have been enacted through a number of resolutions since 2015 within the district, as well as to remove the parks, open space, and the stormwater functions and the city has taken those over.
And then just a little general cleanup and the additions of this section as well, which is required by CDPHE, as Nathan was just saying. So, that's the big picture here. Those are the only changes in blue that have been made. In blue are the changes that have been made since the last work session. But you've all had a little bit of time to review this well.
So happy to happy to answer any questions about these rules or regulation. amendments.
Jason:
So anybody have any questions?
Paul:
All right. I think that was a good sign. Yeah. Easy enough.
So, at this point, the board can entertain a motion, to, adopt the amended rules and regulations.
Board Voting All Speak:
So moved. I'll second that. Having a second. We'll move to vote. Yeah. Approve. Tera, I. Jana.
I think you said approve. Leah. Approve. And I approve as well. The, motion passes.
Paul:
All right. Thanks, everyone. That brings us to page.
My apologies. The rules to page 193.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 193
INCLUSION AGREEMENT
This Inclusion Agreement (“Agreement”) is entered into between Hidden Pointe Metropolitan District (“HPMD”) and Castle Pines North Metropolitan District acting by and through its Water Activity Enterprise and its Wastewater Activity Enterprise (“CPNMD”). HPMD and CPNMD are referred to herein individually as a “Party” and collectively as the “Parties.”
Paul:
And I am very happy to finally present this to the board. It's been a little while. So this is an inclusion agreement with the Hidden Point Metropolitan district. This is and this is substantially the the same agreement that was presented to the board, months ago. Hidden Point’s new attorney had reviewed it and made some minor changes.
None. None of which change any of the substance of it. They're still paying for the election. They remove the election date, which, update on that as well. After going through, election timelines, requirements. Everything else, this election has to be held on November 3rd of this year. The reason for that is that, it is imposing.
It is technically imposing a mill levy on people who are not currently subject to the levy. So because of that, it's a, it's a Tabor question. It has to it has to be, decided upon on a number of different dates. One of them, the closest one being, the next state general election, which is on November 3rd of this year.
So essentially that means that we'll have a pretty quick time frame from that election, to get everything paper. But I'm pretty confident and, well, some of this will depend on the timing of the district court and how quickly they can get it back to us, but that aside, I'm quite confident we can get this done before the December 15th deadline.
So that the mill levies and everything can be, you know, everything can be set at the proper levels by December 15th for collection next year.
Leah:
Hey, Paul. On hidden Point, doesn't? They're not subject to the mill levy, I guess. I don't know if that's the case. I didn't catch that. Are there any other areas within Castle Pines that are in a similar boat?
Paul:
So they're there for quick clarification. They're not subject to our mill levy. So they do the city's 12 mills for parks, trails and open space that they put in place. Hidden Point Metro District also has an existing mill levy in place. I think it's 4 or 5 mills. And then it's kind of the second part of that is once they adopt our mill levy, my guess is that they're going to move forward with eliminating theirs and then fully dissolving the district.
Eric:
That is correct.
Paul:
Yep. Yep. That's right. So even though they technically most likely would be paying less under this agreement, it's still, a new levy that will be imposed upon them. So, it's a it's a Tabor question. And it goes to that general election on November 3rd.
James:
Question, are they also their board of directors?
Do they have a simultaneous election going on at that point in time or is that.
Paul:
So Their board will be meeting this week, to approve this agreement. We had a meeting with them last week, and finalized that we all agreed on, on this version. So they're calling a special meeting this week to, to vote on it.
Okay. Yep. And then under pursuant to the state statute, we have the district Castle Pines North has to, conduct the election. So it will be, paralegals in my firm Ms. Baraso we will be in a DEO for it. But Hidden Point will compensate for the costs.
James:
Yeah. Just one. I was thinking if they were also electing officers at the same time we're doing the general election there.
Could be interesting.
Nathan:
Yeah. They're on the same election schedule that we are. So they go in May for their or election.
James:
And that's great.
Leah:
So if we include like if they include into our district, will they still have their own board.
Nathan:
No. No. They'll dissolve and you will be representatives of them at the next election, following inclusion, residents of Hidden Point would be eligible to run for election to our board.
Eric:
And Paul, I don't know if you'll add to this or not. We are, a considerable amount of folks on this call, including the management company, the attorney, as well as, Mr. Hough. I and, so a lot of coordination here with it. And to Paul's point, there's probably about a 7 to 10 day window to get this actually filed and accepted to when we actually certify our mill levy. A lot of these conversations happen, you know, ahead of time. We'll start having conversations with the assessor, making sure we create the tax area with the meets and bounds associated with hidden points, so we can actually quickly turn that around.
So we choose, they're, there. This is very quickly. And Paul, I'm not meaning to step on you at this point. This is purely just an inclusion is not a disillusion. So ultimately they would choose in next year to work towards dissolution at that time, but there was wonderful coordination between us and them so that, you know, if we end up certified mill levy, they will not if that makes sense and vice versa.
But if we aren't able to certify timely, what they will do is they, they will certify and remit those funds to us next year. The equivalent of that, if you may. So ultimately, what that might do is it might push our budget hearing for this year, for the district in the first week of December. So we're going to kind of be planning for that just because there's some, material differences on what we actually choose to assess, the week of Thanksgiving, if that makes sense.
Paul:
Well, thank you Eric. Much Appreciated.
So, yeah, that's that's essentially that is essentially it as if the board has any questions about this agreement, the timeline, the procedure.
Tera:
Paul, I do have a quick question. This is paper ballots, mail ballots. And then is it just simple majority or do we have to have like two thirds of metro district respondents or what's what does that look like?
Paul:
It will be mail ballots and simple majority. Yep.
And I anticipate we'll probably have those results once a 15 days I think is the most conservative estimate because, assuming there are any overseas members, you have to allow them to to vote and get their, get their votes in. So, yeah, we'll do about conservatively, 15 days after probably probably about seven days after.
Tera:
The, a simple majority of the, the ballots that are returned, it doesn't have to be like two thirds of the, didn't point boundary or anything.
No, no.
James:
How many people, are in hidden point, right now. I mean, roughly?
Nathan:
I don't know about the population. We just looked up the number of accounts I can remember. It was 300 something.
Paul:
That's what I was going to. Yeah, I thought it was right around that 300 ballpark.
James:
Okay. All right. Yeah, I wasn't sure.
It's kind of spread out. So maybe seven, 800 people total or something.
Eric:
And the district. Management said that you're going to work with the HOA to start, to the extent that they reasonably can with, electioneering laws, start communicating, through newsletters and stuff like that.
James:
Yeah. Yeah, it's a pretty positive. I talked to Jeff Hough a little bit at assembly and he made it sound like this shouldn't be a problem moving forward.
They're ready and things so.
Paul:
Yeah. And I think we're all on the same page now. Yeah.
Tera:
Just because if you're doing a dissolution, then you have to make sure that you're getting home owners and trying to get Ahold of homeowners and not renters or voters or whatever. So that's what I was just looking for a little clarification on.
Paul:
Yeah and so that is the question as to who is eligible to vote?
Nathan:
I think it was just a comment.
James:
Yeah. I was just wondering, is this the size itself? That's all.
Nathan:
Yeah, it's, a little bit I was I was off by a little bit. It's, we have contact information for 189 residents. So probably about 220 somewhere in there.
Paul:
Okay. Okay. Yeah. And then will be, eligible electors of the district, meaning resident, property owner, under contract, to buy property. And or if you actually own some personal property within the district as well, like a qualifying like typically the commercial personal property. So, yeah, this which obviously doesn't apply here. But yeah, that's that's typically who you're looking at for eligible electors.
So if they have any other questions about the the inclusion agreement.
Jason:
Not hearing any Paul. I think we can wrap this part up. Do we need a motion on this or do they have to accept it first?
Paul:
Nope.
We can have a motion to then, we have a motion to enter the agreement, and you can, you can make that motion now.
Jason:
Okay, I'll create a motion to enter into the,
Paul:
Hidden Point inclusion agreement.
Jason:
Hidden Point inclusion agreement.
Tera:
Second. ....
Nathan:
Tera's always preloaded.
Board Voting All Speak:
So a lot of excitement about this one. So we'll move to vote now. Jim. Approve. Tera. Approve. Jana. Approve. Leah. Approve. I approve as well. The motion passes.
Jason:
Thank you, Paul.
Paul:
Alright, much appreciated everyone. I'll keep you updated as we go along here. You're not gonna hear anything mean for a little bit on this one because, again, we're waiting until November.
But I will, keep you updated as we go along. And I think that brings us to the end of legal.
Jason:
Very nice. We'll go ahead and close out the legal session, and we'll move on to item number eight. The district manager report with Nathan.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 201
Memorandum
From: Nathan J. Travis
To: CPNMD Board of Directors
Date: 03/23/26
Re: District Manager’s Report
AGENDA ITEMS
Emergency Expenditure Notification (Agenda Item A)
• Last night, an emergency water line break occurred on Croft Court. Upon investigation, the failure was attributed to the severely corroded and deteriorated condition of the existing pipe. Emergency repairs were
authorized and completed at an estimated total cost of $45,000. Crews responded promptly, replaced the damaged section of pipe, and restored full water service to affected residents. This was a prolonged outage,
taking approximately 15 hours to repair. Residents were directly notified by operations staff.
Nathan:
Okay. Good evening everyone. I apologize for not getting my report uploaded and as timely as a fashion as I would like.
There were a lot of moving parts coming into this weekend. Information with the station bid stuff. So, that is why, I didn't include it on the report. But today, as Jason mentioned earlier, was Rene's first day. first day went great. I can't imagine him hitting the ground running much harder since we walked into this morning.
To go visit a main break in progress. Walk went straight from that to a meeting with the EPA and then a tour of a water treatment plant with the board president. So we we got in and got after it. So along those lines, rather than send out an email, the separate notification, I just wanted to include it in my board report.
I do have an emergency expense expenditure notification to let the board know about cross court, which is just south of the district offices on Yorkshire. Had a waterline break. Last night at about 6:00. This pipe was in really, really rough shape. We ended up having to take just shy of 17ft of it out. Before we could get to a section of pipe, we felt confident retrying on to,
So we kept the pipe so that we can, you know, evaluate it as part of our distribution condition assessment. The extended outage and the, you know, just having a crew there for that long, as well as the size of the asphalt packs, this one's going to be a little bit more expensive. Anticipating to come to have that total cost come in around $45,000.
We did not use the Daupler notifications system, since it was just the one cul de sac. Crews were able to walk through knock on everybody's doors on Sunday evening. Some of those people were home. And then because of the prolonged outage, I was actually really happy to hear Semocor call the operator, called Matt with Semocor, took it on himself to about five, 5 or 6 this morning.
Whenever King Soopers opened, he went over and bought a case of water for everybody in the cul de sac and drop those off. So, we have a couple of resident concerns, some people that weren't happy with the prolonged outage, but overall, I was really happy with the response and was, especially pleased with, Matt kind of going above and beyond there to get people some drinking water this morning.
Any other questions? Oops. Any other questions about the emergency expenditure?
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 201
Douglas County Water Commission (Agenda item B)
• I have been asked to participate in a user group for Douglas County Water Providers as part of their ongoing effort and study for the Douglas County 2050 Water Master Plan. There are two meetings scheduled, the first
of which is next week. It is not clear what involvement or roll this will play in the overall report, I will include an update at the April Board Meeting
• Austin Hamre has provided comments, they are included in the board packed under the “supplementary materials” and are not intended for broader distribution
Nathan:
All right. Douglas County Water Commission, I have a couple updates here. The first one is I have been asked to participate in a user group, related to the study that's being done for the 2050 water plan from the commission. I do not have a lot of other information about what that role is, what the user group is going to be.
I just know that it's a water provider user group. I don't know who else is in it. But just in taking the opportunity to kind of get more, get the direct district more directly involved in that process. I accepted the invitation. I'm waiting to hear back if I can plus one Renee, into those conversations with me, if I can.
We'll bring him along. right now, except for two, two, half day, roughly half day for four hour sessions. The first one is scheduled, the week after next, so at the next board meeting, I will report back and let everybody know how that went and what I found out. The second component, for tonight, for the, related to the water commission, Austin Ham, Hamre, Hamre, Hamre.
I've only known him for a decade now. I'll get his name right one of these times. Austin gave us, was able to finally complete his full review of the 2050 water plan. So we do have, comments that we have submitted back to Force Gren his Force his Force Grand. Easy for me to say. Who's doing kind of like that overall plan.
So we got those comments back and they address largely some of the things that we notice, like being, you know, labeled as a wholesale system from, Highlands Ranch Water. So we corrected that to show that it's a wheeling agreement. Voice a couple other concerns with data and information. That that is all included in your packet under supplemental materials.
So that's not, immediately available for the public just because it's water rights. And our, attorney sent it over. So, the board has access, but it's not included in the in the broader packet.
Anything I can clear up for that section?
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 201
CORE Electric Cooperative rate code adjustment (Agenda item C)
• Last week I met with Angie Bedolla to discuss finalizing our electric rate code adjustment. While not quite the discount we were hoping for, we do anticipate approximately $30,000 in annual savings by adjusting the rate codes we are charged under. Additionally, Rene and I will be attending a CEO connects meeting hosted by Core electric with other Douglas County Water providers, including Parker and Castle Rock.
Nathan:
All right, we'll keep moving along. for agenda item, agenda item c. I finally got, in touch or not in touch with but finally kind of nailed down CORE to have our final rate study meeting to see what we can do about our electric costs. So I met with Angie, our account rep, or the, the large customer account rep.
Last week she gave me kind of, a breakdown of all of her rate, the different rate codes, what we're paying now, what the, adjusted rate codes could show in terms of savings. Was able to forward that to Eric, and he and I briefly discussed it. Originally, we had been hopeful that we'd get somewhere on the order of a 4 to 5% reduction in our total costs.
It doesn't look like it's going to be, quite that advantageous. But they are projecting with, change in rate codes, we're going to do about a $30,000 a year annual savings. And so that's, that's a process that we'll go through January, February of every year with CORE. And just, you know, see where we're at with the different rate codes.
And so the, the main differences for the rate codes are whether or not your, you know, time and capacity based. So if we're you know, rate codes that are based on when we're using electricity or if they're just the total amount, some like surge pricing, they're, they're similar to us where they just have like a ton of different rate codes that they can apply.
And, different, different ways. So we'll, we'll change a few of those and we'll see how it goes.
We'll also Renee and I'll also be meeting they're doing another CEO connect, which is their CEO hosts the meeting talking about kind of emerging trends in their industry, how those might apply to, their large users. And so they are doing a specific water provider one, next week or the week after. So we'll bring in Renee and I will be attending that, to see what other options might be out there or just get an idea of what's going on.
Overall, they did tell me that they're expecting over the next like seven years or so, kind of a total rate increase of like 25 to 30% with the, large lion's share of that being front-loaded. So this year and next year, when we'll probably see the most steep increases. .... Excuse me. They'll settle down a little bit after that, but, something to pay attention to.
Our electric costs are, only going to keep going up.
All right, any questions before I move on to the Stantec study update?
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 201
Stantec Study, Regional water supply study (Agenda Item D)
• Stantec will be reaching out soon to receive feedback on schedules for a virtual meeting at the end of April to discuss findings from the water yield analysis and for an in-person workshop in mid-May to review the
study findings prior to review of the draft final report. I encouraged him to send this sooner rather than later so that it does not become too challenging to get on our calendars.
• The project remains on budget with approximately $60,000 remaining. These funds will be spent on the water yield analysis, the remaining workshops, updating the data, and finalizing the report.
• The milestones for the remaining project schedule include:
o Mid- April — Spheros Environmental – Finalize water yield analysis
o End of April – Virtual meeting to review water yields findings
o Mid-May 2026 — Final in-person workshop
o End of May 2026 — Draft Final review
o June 2026 — Final Deliverable
Nathan:
So, I'll save the Board of reading directly what's in the packet. But Stantec moving forward, inside in the packet is kind of the next steps for the various deliverables that we're expecting. Everything is moving forward, under budget. We've got about $60,000 left, and we should have the final deliverable, by the end of June, beginning of July.
And so we'll bring that to the board somewhere around that time, which we're going to be pushing pretty hard to get it done, then that lines up really well for budgeting season. And then we'll be able to move forward and kind of figure out where we want, what we want to invest in, what program, what projects make sense?
But it's it's coming. It's moving forward. And I'm pretty excited to see what comes out of them.
Leah:
I guess, Go ahead. No. You go ahead, Jim, because I have an unrelated question.
James:
All right. I was just about the study. There on agenda item D. Beyond what we can read in the packet and things. When are we going to have, like, a representation of that, to kind of go through it in detail?
Nathan:
When we, yeah, that'll be like June, July depending on when that final deliverable comes through.
James:
Okay. Yeah. I was just wondering. Rough timing. Thank you.
Leah:
And I mixed up my pages. I don't think we're I when we get to the Ventana, like, agenda item. I have a question about that.
Nathan:
Oh, gosh, I did. I don't know if I had a specific agenda item for that, that I can certainly talk about.
The request for service from Ventana.
Describer:
On screen. Regular Board Meeting March 23, 2026 book page 202
Request for Service- Ventana Capital
• Holdover: Last December I met with Darwin Horan to discuss the possibility of CPNMD providing water service to a development known as the “Crowsnest”, a property also being considered for annexation by the City of Castle Pines. Ventana hopes to develop this land with relatively high structure density, the location is non-contiguous to CPNMD’s current boundaries and would require a significant amount of infrastructure to connect to the area (located near Stroh Road, and Crowfoot Valley). This inclusion would require that we purchase water from Parker to provide service. After an informal discussion with Ron Redd of Parker water on the matter, Parker, understandably would not likely have an interest in providing water to us, to provide to Crowsnest. Sanitary Sewer treatment capacity is another strong issue with no clear answer on how we would be able to treat the wastewater for the proposed development. Unless something drastically changes, this development will need to find service through Parker Waters and Sanitation District.
Leah:
Well, so it was more that I'm like doing my best to keep up and correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like the city is going to think through like annexation guidelines, meaning that like they would have to resubmit once those are published. So assuming that's correct, like, are we a part of that?
Like, should we be a part of that? Like when we think about like annexing and providing water.
Nathan:
So the city's annexation process, one of the things that there is my as I understand it, one of the things we're trying to shore up is really getting that water wastewater provider piece much more effectively defined and really just kind of defining the whole annexation process.
The city annexing a property does not put our give us any obligation to serve. So the city is welcome to annex properties, but then that doesn't do anything to us. With this specific development, I don't realistically see any reasonable path to us ending up being the water wastewater provider. And so we have our we have our own requirements for inclusion, which are probably, and this is just 100% my own kind of guess assertion.
I would imagine that our the requirements we already have in place are much more stringent than the city would have put in place given the opportunity to do the same. So we have that renewable water requirement, regardless of what the city does for their annexation process. It won't, it won't impact them.
Leah:
Okay. Thank you. That makes sense.
James:
I mean, I kind of agree with you, with Parker. Is there anybody else, like, a Castle Rock that could get involved in this, or is that, you know, just geographically nonsensical?
Nathan:
Castle Rock is from a system perspective, they're closer than we are. They have. I haven't heard anything that indicates that they have a remote desire to even begin to try and serve it.
I think Ventana is really in a spot where, their, their really only functional options, potentially functional options would be to create their own metro district and try to move forward down that path. Unlikely because they don't have the groundwater rights that they would need to even serve a good area of that size, let alone wastewater capacity.
And then the other option would be Parker Water and Sand. And that certainly has its own challenges as challenges as well. But those are unless there's some dark horse that I'm completely unaware of, it's going to be one of those two. Gotcha. Thanks.
Jason:
All right. Any other questions regarding Nathan's district manager report? All right. Hearing none. We'll go ahead and close out item number eight, and we'll move on to item number nine. The Operations and engineering report.
Nathan:
I am still waiting on the operations report. Will was in the process of getting it to me Sunday when the cul de sac jumped out of the ground.
But if there's any any questions the board has about the engineering report, feel free to ask and go forward the operations report along as soon as I get it.
Jason:
Nathan, this is unrelated, but, so my on board just log me out after in for inactivity even though I’m live in this meeting. Is there a setting that, we can adjust so that doesn't happen?
Nathan:
I will look into it. Thanks.
Jason:
Okay, well, he's looking into that. Does anybody have any questions regarding the operations and engineering report. Okay. Hearing none. We'll go ahead and close out. Item number nine. we’ll move on to item number ten, Directors Matters. Anybody have anything?
Leah:
I have something, and I'm bringing it up not necessarily like, not to talk about now in this meeting, but, to to talk about, like, if it makes sense to talk about it in a more structured way.
So. Given this past winter, and just a really low snowpack and kind of water concerns. I have seen some other water providers, I believe, like primarily Denver, implement some measures. And I just like I didn't know if it was something that we should consider and talk through as a board. And even like what our options would even be.
Nathan:
Yeah. So, you're half a step ahead of me on that one. So that is something that I wanted to bring up, at, April study session to kind of try and discuss what we might want to do. Very, very broad strokes. Our water resources aren't really in, jeopardy since we're primarily the aquifer all summer, and we've also got really old water rights, we're still probably going to get our allotment and everything.
In Reuter Hess. I do think that there is some value in that conversation in terms of just like regional solidarity too. As soon as like Parker and Castle Rock and everybody start to go in for more stringent, restrictions. We're also getting, a decent number, probably half a dozen to a dozen phone calls from residents that have already kind of, either expressed concern over their neighbors watering already. Since we’ve
Been so dry. Or have reached out asking what we might be doing in terms of watering restrictions throughout control staff. So I think that's, absolutely a worthy conversation to board. And something that I want to bring at the study session so that it's still actionable for this year.
Leah:
Okay. Oh, awesome Nate. And that was kind of also where I was going with just, you know, opportunities for regional collaboration or coordination.
Is it made sense. And yes, I have a neighbor who waters every day already, twice a day. So just, you know, thinking through stuff like that and, and again, like what options we have, what makes sense. Yeah. So thank you.
Nathan:
Yeah. The the people that are. And maybe, maybe it's even worth getting some communication at a minimum, getting a communication out about now. The people that have elected or the residences that have elected to start watering already are, we're already bracing ourselves for some very angry residents when bills go out.
Because there is no they every, every resident in the district, regardless of lot size during this time of year, is restricted to the same indoor water use budget. So there's really not a lot of fluff there for outdoor watering. So any watering that they do is going to very likely put them into our tiered structure.
So I think we're going to get some unhappy residents that started watering earlier that are going to get some pretty severe tiered penalties, from watering when they don't have the budget to do so. So we could probably get some communication out about that. And that's really kind of our mechanism for controlling water usage outside of that irrigation season.
But yeah, I think we're gonna see a lot of, a lot of early usage.
Tera:
So you just said it. Let's get some communication out. We don't like to surprise people.
Leah:
Yeah, yeah. And and then a follow up. I apologize if I don't read this. Well, but my understanding is, you know, everyone has a water budget. If you go above that water budget, then you pay more, for water. Like, is that something that we could increase or is that typically part of like a rate study, like those types of fees.
Nathan:
Yeah. So that would be part of a rate study. And that's actually that's we had that discussion. That's something that I brought up with the Erics when we were going through that process. And we already have a pretty, even compared to our neighbors, we've got a pretty aggressive tiered schedule already in place. So I think, advertising that word would be helpful.
Where the, there is some more room we could do with the board is really in terms of, you know, if we want to go from three watering days to two watering days. If we want to, strengthen our commercial and irrigation watering schedules. If we want to put them on the same watering schedule or have, like a day, a week where nobody waters. We could do stuff with the enforcement structure, all that kind of stuff.
That's something that I looked at as part of the rules and regs update too, is making sure that the board had the leeway to do that. And so, the way that the rules and regs were currently written doesn't actually specifically necessarily call those policies out, but it does give the board the the power to put those policies in place.
So we could do that, relatively quickly as well.
Rene:
And Nathan, would the smart meters allow us to know if somebody is breaking the policy by checking water usage on a Thursday?
Nathan:
Is that that's well, that's a good question.
Leah:
That’s where my head went Rene. An enforcement mechanism.
Nathan:
Before. I did, especially with the conservation stuff. Enforcement is the harder part of it.
I don't think our current meters have that ability, but I can definitely ask, the next meter representative, if that's something that they can, that they can do.
Leah:
My last related thing. And I'm only saying this way, don't forget, is, I notice quite a bit like HOA fees in the city, watering like it, like 1 or 2 in the afternoon on some of the hottest days of the summer.
And so to me, like that just seems like a low hanging fruit of like, you know, and maybe as part of that broader discussion, just thinking through, like though. And I know, Nate, like you were trying to, you know, get to know the HOA, but, you know, maybe more explicit organized outreach there and, and, education.
Nathan:
Yeah, absolutely. Completely agree. Great point.
Jason:
Do we dictate the Parks and Rec too like how much water they get?
Nathan:
So every everybody gets an irrigation budget based on the irrigable area of their property, their lots. So HOAs, city parks, individual homeowner schools all have that same kind of setup.
Paul:
Just to just to add a little bit, onto this, there's there's a few different ways the board can, can enact these changes. You can, you know, you can have some framework in the rules and regs. It has stage declarations. You know, with, with, with specific watering restrictions at each level. You know, 10 a.m. to 6 a.m. irrigation prohibition and stuff like that with some enforcement teeth.
You can do I've seen turf conversion rebate programs where, you know, you place a rebate where, you know, customers replace, you know, water intensive, vegetation with, with some sort of turf or, xeriscaping. You can do irrigation season restrictions by resolution without doing a full roll amendment. So there's, there's different ways to to skin this cat.
Jason:
That would be a great topic.
James:
Yeah. I think I would rather just kind of do the notification and then instead of doing an enforcement activity, you know, give them a heads up that. You're going to hit a tier and you're going to pay more. And we would prefer not to have an enforcement activity. I don't think you want to be a water cop.
At least that's my personal opinion. I mean, if you have to have to, but I think if you just educate them, I mean, there's always going to be people that I see in my neighborhood that are watering every single day. But, you know, hopefully you can reach the majority of people to some sensible conversation.
Paul:
And I know I've certainly seen a lot of districts
Handle it that way. And from when Nathan said, it seems like the rate structure with the escalating surcharges are is already pretty aggressive to begin with. And that's, you know, that's a way a lot of different districts like to handle it so.
Tera:
And more to come with the study session, but it certainly lends some, weight to the earlier smart reader, implementation where people, if they have, can tell what their usage is real time.
Yeah, that seems like a great tool.
Eric:
One important note just, I would like to mention is we're in the middle of extracting every parcel's water budget out of the billing system. Because that is exactly like essentially the system of record that we have right now for all that information. And so we're, we have bits and pieces of all the permanent information associated with every single water account, kind of some of it's in operation, some of it's in the billing system.
And so there's going to be more transparency with that, especially as we, potentially and probably replace some water meters. So that we have all that permanent information, because obviously everyone's individual water budget is a factor of where their tiers are. And so, where there's a pieces of it that we're rebuilding, not much of it, but we're trying to get the all that data very centralized on the district's operations.
Jason:
Very nice. Okay. Any other director's matters for this evening? All right. Hearing none. Once again, thank you for joining us Rene. It's, glad to have you on board. And, thank you, everybody else, for joining. We'll, move to closed director's matters and adjourn the meeting.