[0:14] calendar.

[0:39] That's about

[1:36] again.

[2:21] Instruction.

[3:55] Make sure

[5:31] First order,

[5:45] here.

[6:25] changes

[6:35] motion.

[6:38] So move

[6:50] Any

[7:00] comments?

[7:30] So, I'll move that we wave the actual reading accept.

[7:42] Any discussion?

[8:03] » Okay. So, I don't have a whole lot to go over.

[8:10] Apologize. interviews or something. But I guess the

[8:15] biggest thing has

[8:20] got a notice of violation for

[8:26] industrial sampling.

[8:33] I'll let Lonnie kind of talk about that a little.

[8:38] Also, I The right way to say it is

[8:43] [clears throat] I give out a little old information at the last board meeting

[8:49] about chronic manholes. We were working off of some old data.

[8:54] We didn't

[9:05] bring what I wrote back to her, but you guys will be able to see all of that.

[9:12] And a lot of this so that we kind of understand, right? This isn't a finger

[9:16] point. We're doing things very differently.

[9:21] Water and sewer department has been done.

[9:24] in the past. Uh there's a there's a lot of data missing. There's a lot of things

[9:29] that are happening and and you know, we're doing what we can to make sure

[9:35] that when we report things, we do that accurately.

[9:40] So, so I just want to kind of get that out there, let everybody know that we

[9:45] did put out a little little mis data. probably

[9:52] I don't want to say a number today until we get done with the review

[9:56] and our engineering on exactly what that is. Okay, I did send in uh to the state

[10:05] I think it was six or seven tap applications.

[10:10] Uh those are you know pertorium.

[10:15] I got a note back this morning that is reviewing them and they will let me

[10:20] know what they res

[10:31] into the system. Uh so as we do taps now we take the

[10:36] application map it out show how it goes from there

[10:41] to the plant and if there's any manual problems it send

[10:48] We did six or seven.

[11:03] The other part of the report was you guys let us start the bond process.

[11:13] Passed it. first

[11:17] resolution. So, we are going to apply for

[11:22] bonds going to borrow $10 million. We probably have that in the bank

[11:28] somewhere around the first of August and what I sent to finance

[11:37] as I stated all projects through this committee.

[11:44] We just want the money so that the project not

[11:50] so way we broke it down to finance so that you guys have understand wastewater

[11:58] treatment plant we put 10% or$2 million funding water distribution system we

[12:04] felt like it would be about 20% or$4 million of the funding

[12:09] and then mitigation of we put 60%

[12:14] which is about $12 million and then we had a kind of a contingency buffer fund

[12:19] of 10% as things go up. So that's $2 million. Okay,

[12:26] there again all projects come through this board to approve it go to Bulma and

[12:33] that's how we get the money. We just didn't get the money, we're going to

[12:36] start, which is what everybody seems to think that we now

[12:41] spend. That's not how this works. But St. John engineering is working on

[12:46] several projects. Stack them up, pull them out, come here,

[12:51] give us money, go to

[12:57] update, be clear about that. Um, in the debt side of it, uh, we had

[13:03] our financial advisor come to the board meeting this week. The highest peak of

[13:09] this board's debt was $1.8 million as a payment. Okay. We're going to be below

[13:17] that at the $10 million mark. And then part of it drop off

[13:24] the second $10 million. It's all

[13:40] we're going to borrow 10 this year. As soon as we get it spent,

[13:45] we're not going to take all we're going to aggregate it. So that and look, while

[13:50] we're doing some of that, I mean, part of it, you get to gain a little as we're

[13:55] getting this done and it'll offset some of our payment. But but that's how we we

[14:01] talk the board the resolution and stuff was written so that we can fun project.

[14:07] There was some questions brought up by

[14:12] others about interest rates and borrow money from the state for projects

[14:17] which you can get a better interest rate but you have to turn the project in.

[14:22] They have to approve the project and a long period of time. Now, I'm not saying

[14:26] there won't be projects coming up that we don't use that system. That's another

[14:30] debt to take right now. We need the flexibility to work in those areas as we

[14:37] find these problems.

[14:46] » You have to turn a project in. They rank the project and and what our financial

[14:51] guy says, the projects that are more maintenance related aren't funded as

[14:56] much as new projects and some of those things get on the list because there's

[15:00] only x amount of dollars that they

[15:05] all agreed those are avenues we can continue to look at as we do these

[15:09] things to rebuild our system and fix it. But for what we're trying to get

[15:14] accomplished to keep the momentum going forward

[15:18] felt like this was the right path and it did pass believe it or not unanimously.

[15:26] So that that was a good show that we all believe we're moving in the right

[15:32] direction.

[15:37] » 4.25 is what we project. We won't know till

[15:41] they sell the bonds in July and we will have a buffer to say no if

[15:48] we don't like the rate and wait that was part of it I think in the

[15:53] actual paper it's set up to% but I think as a board I heard loud and clear

[16:02] will pass on things we

[16:31] I've talked to our engineer. He's here tonight. We're pushing pretty hard on on

[16:34] grant projects that we're working on, but we already know one project that we

[16:39] want to tackle that we'll start is the pumping of the wastewater collection

[16:45] tank where we know we're losing 10% of the volume because of the sludge that's

[16:50] at the bottom. That's probably going to be top on the list. The next one is

[16:55] working on the quote electronic monitoring of the meters in

[17:01] the ground that we were discussing in here. That will be another project and

[17:05] then we'll go into the bigger build projects and that's going to be based on

[17:10] a series of things that we've been doing.

[17:15] But I would say those two projects will be one of the first that we roll out.

[17:24] Yes. I mean, listen, we're not going to let grass grow under our feet, so to

[17:27] speak, because I want the next 10 million because that means we've done

[17:31] that much work. And and it shows everybody that we're committed to

[17:35] getting this right in a short period of time.

[17:41] Yes, sir.

[18:08] And to be honest with you, that $2 million toward the end and we

[18:13] absolutely probably will. But anything that you do with building

[18:21] You just got to have a number to start the project. And so that's how we broke

[18:25] it down. I mean, but that wouldn't be in the first $10 million. I guarantee you

[18:28] that. >> No, that would

[18:41] probably take off pretty quick, too. We're probably going to bring to you a

[18:46] new water tower for 4 We we've identified 15 acres that we

[18:51] believe will be donated to us and I think that would be a 750,000 gallon

[18:56] tank. Is that what we were looking at?

[19:03] » It's one of the two either half million or 750 which raises all the pressures in

[19:07] that area and gets everybody good water pressure all the way out through those

[19:11] lines. But we do have a donor that's willing to give us some land so we don't

[19:16] have to purchase it. And we think that uh tank based on some information Hills

[19:22] give us on the tank they just put up saying we're using the same tank but

[19:26] it's probably around 2 to2.2 million. So so you know we've identified

[19:33] roughly $5 million that we intend to really get busy with as engineering

[19:40] continues to build projects that we do.

[19:58] So [clears throat]

[20:06] » yeah, I mean if you remember the first thing we wanted to do which we did get

[20:12] passed was the half million dollars for the head

[20:16] Once we get that done, you know, there's still probably some amount of money that

[20:22] we will be bringing to you in that that is maintenance items that we haven't

[20:27] been able to repair. A lot of it is not necessarily upgrading the plant because

[20:33] we have a lot of capacity left there. It's just getting caught up on the

[20:36] things we've let go.

[20:41] » We've signed the paperwork and stuff. I think

[20:45] Everything's being built right now

[20:55] to kind of see where

[21:00] » not yet.

[21:05] » Yeah, we've already funded that out of this year's budget. Yes, sir.

[21:12] » And and once we get that in place, right, we start catching all the trash.

[21:15] Then we can move into phase two, which is empty. So we get the full capacity of

[21:48] As you know, my report is attached if I have a question, but just kind of piggy

[21:54] back on what the mayor said, but the t I'm going to accept full

[22:00] responsibility for that. It was a sampling issue. We did collect the

[22:05] sample. We just did not collect it within a lot of time that required. We

[22:11] have a new pre-treatment coordinator as well as a new uh chief plant wastewater

[22:16] plant operator and going on with they took the sample a little bit later. We

[22:23] recognized it immediately had the sample taken

[22:28] trying to hide it in that instant but I'll accept responsibility for that.

[22:34] We since talked with G everything is straightened out. Now we're on the list.

[22:39] We know exactly what dates are and moving forward everything will be done

[22:44] on time.

[22:58] » And the same thing with the manual he was speaking on that I'm [snorts] going

[23:02] take responsibility for that one as well. We were going on old data off of a

[23:07] old spreadsheet that my staff nor myself could manipulate. So we were basing it

[23:14] on data that was on the spreadsheet that shouldn't have been on there and vice

[23:19] versa. Some that should have been on there that wasn't on there. But

[23:22] everything is getting updated now. Like I said, I don't want to give a a good

[23:26] number yet because we're still in coordination with TK right now. We're

[23:30] still counting. I'll have probably an official number next week and I'll send

[23:36] it off to you all immed. But we're going in the right direction. Not an

[23:40] astronomical number. We have been doing work. But I I just want to make sure

[23:46] that we're reporting accurate numbers and what I give to the mayor reports to

[23:50] the public is accurate. So I'll take the hit for that one as well. It's not like

[23:55] I said, we're not trying to hide or do anything underhanded. We want to keep it

[23:59] everybody. always trying to be transparent as possible.

[24:03] on those two fronts. That's all

[24:08] that goes back to June.

[24:15] We do have some missing stuff and so trying to recreate some of that as

[24:24] we didn't actually label manholes correctly

[24:29] and some of that. So now as we the street and the manhole number

[24:36] so that there's no more confusion about which

[24:41] we may have several on that street. And so we named ourselves for some

[24:50] » Right. Right. What we appreciate is that when manholes are overflowing and seeing

[24:57] that the public is now reporting to the department so we can put our eyes on it

[25:02] and report it as well, not just know about it and post it on social media

[25:06] where it goes because there are certain parameters that make manhole.

[25:12] You know, just because you overflow, you know, five or six times in the same day.

[25:17] There are certain parameters that go by to judge how many overflows that is. And

[25:22] a lot of that data was wrong. It was backwards.

[25:26] people calling in saying, "Oh, it overflowed 15 times, but the way that

[25:32] recognizes overflow, it may have only been

[25:35] due to the timeline that overflows happen. So when we started recognizing

[25:40] that, that's when we realized that our working.

[25:45] So we just get everybody to continue reporting to us. You see overflow, let

[25:50] us know so we can prop it

[25:56] as it needs to be.

[26:09] » Yeah, we had we had quite a bit of rain. We we we have mitigated a lot of those

[26:13] overflows. We had now when I say that some of the same manholes are

[26:17] overflowing. We had 14 uh overflows during that heavy heavy rain. But again,

[26:24] some of them are the same manholes over and over and over again.

[26:29] And some of that within the 24hour period, it may overflow six times, but

[26:34] it's on account because it's within 24 hours. So, we we we had quite a few

[26:39] overflow, but not not nearly as bad as you would with the amount of rain that

[26:44] we had. >> 14

[26:49] overflows.

[26:57] Five times in the

[27:08] » right there's a difference between a release

[27:11] but if it comes out it's considered I believe a release is if it gets into

[27:16] the stream I don't know I don't have If it comes out of the pipe,

[27:28] » it could be it just depends on which man. For example, we have one in the

[27:32] park that overflows all the time. Every rainy get ready for it to overflow. It

[27:36] might be overflowing now. We come back three hours from now and it stops and

[27:41] then we can go back two hours after that and it's overflowing again, but it's

[27:45] still

[27:49] Also,

[27:54] I think it's worth

[28:01] measure.

[28:12] There is no mechanism for that.

[28:17] I think Sometimes we

[28:22] estimate sometimes we may best we can based on

[28:28] standards that we have.

[28:32] I think it's worth noting

[28:44] all that help us maintain and understand

[29:03] We don't treat sewage. There's gray water.

[29:09] That's one of the applications that I sent in

[29:14] water. >> No, last year Uh

[29:19] it's been got cancelled but we did issue permit

[29:24] last year

[29:31] but we have applied

[29:41] » absolutely every bit of that goes water is treated.

[29:47] There's some provisions in there that says event.

[30:02] » No, they don't have any sewer taps on the property.

[30:21] That's about monthly since I've been here.

[30:34] » They read the

[30:44] I meanbody

[30:57] [snorts]

[31:03] else.

[31:16] Right.

[31:40] They all have

[31:56] That's where people

[32:11] started.

[32:14] Right. Call it straight to it. And we confirmed

[32:18] though that if [clears throat] a citizen calls or

[32:22] anybody outside of Manchester uh city employee, it's not. So even if

[32:30] you have that speed and you're trying to get us in trouble and call, they're

[32:34] going to refer you back to the utility utility formally reported. Now they may

[32:39] make a mental note. you don't call, hey, we just got this call, but

[32:45] they don't they don't call

[32:50] and that's why we encourage everybody to call.

[32:56] It's not like we don't want to go make sure that it's happening or not. You

[33:00] know, you think you're doing good by day, but actually not.

[33:09] They're not coming out. I mean, call us. Let us go out and

[33:15] our goal is to get

[33:49] Well, I mean, exactly. Because just imagine you have a pipe with holes in it

[33:55] and you got the river when it rains, the river builds up, pipe fills.

[34:01] So until we can correct the holes in the pipe which would cause the ping all the

[34:05] hole anytime the water raises the water level raises and you being there close

[34:10] to the river

[34:17] » as as the river over the bank gets over our pipes are it makes the bigger as the

[34:25] water sits on ground it goes into our pipe versus back into the river so

[34:30] you're saying is exactly true. It's not that the river, it's when the river gets

[34:34] outside.

[34:41] So as the rain goes and river expands and we run along river

[34:50] it's easing

[35:06] in

[35:19] And that's what we're working on with trying to clean.

[35:30] So we've got them on. cleaning machine is not as big or as we're inst

[36:07] Another question.

[36:34] We're finishing up

[36:42] slow down expenditures so that we can finish.

[36:55] » We actually stopped ours

[37:00] or something. We well ahead because I knew we needed to to catch up. a lot of

[37:07] still a lot of old outstanding bills before me that were paying. So kind of

[37:13] stopped it early starting

[37:25] and kill us like it did this year,

[37:32] » right?

[37:35] That was kind

[37:41] » we had a small line item to line that just passed and take a second but

[37:48] yes they're him stopping his spending. It's letting us catch up as he stated

[37:58] bills and stuff that have come in from a year ago and so trying to get

[38:06] everything cleaned up. Give us 30 45 days. Let everything system start off

[38:13] July.

[38:23] » Yes. >> Yeah. We've just moved things around

[38:27] inside. I mean, you know, we had$100,000 vehicles and stuff that we didn't

[38:33] bought. So, we used that in some other areas that kind of

[38:37] So it was just

[38:47] » Yes. And a lot of

[38:56] work is being there's no ch

[39:06] people direct.

[39:22] They didn't want to negotiate. They didn't want to talk. They didn't

[39:24] understand about the email. They said it's due. We're coming,

[39:32] » right? Everything is

[39:38] It's is actually we have a double check system on there's a threshold for

[39:44] getting the bill from purchasing but we also have an inhouse system that I match

[39:49] up invoices to go through that list every days at the

[39:54] end of

[39:59] it we actually use it because lots of people put it in their pocket I don't

[40:06] never married us. It's just walking around.

[40:12] We have a better system in place now to where we kind of catch that. We have a

[40:17] really good relationship with purchasing agent. She stays on

[40:22] his own more than anybody. But we have a really good relationship. So, we're able

[40:27] to have >> with that agent

[40:32] for the whole city, right? I don't want everybody

[40:42] to not her personal email.

[40:48] So that's how people outend

[40:57] their personal email in the city that

[41:17] Yeah. So, we passed the first reading of the budget flat. We're not asking for

[41:23] any increases whatsoever from taxpayers. We were able to give between a six and

[41:29] 8% raise to the city employees. and also covered their insurance. Uh,

[41:36] their insurance went up 11% this year, which was about 270,000

[41:41] spend. We covered that as well. So, financially, we probably have I think

[41:49] Anthony reported 14 or 15 million on hand and probably 17 million total, but

[41:55] some of it's in funds, but we're very uh physically resp responsible as a city

[42:04] right now. We have a AA credit rating which is extremely

[42:11] » farud

[42:18] we balanced our budget last year as well.

[42:23] Now you know we had an extra million dollar line item where we sold some

[42:28] property at the industrial park and we did that on fire.

[43:08] That's the one I sent you up

[43:15] once we had

[43:19] all the large water that have been gone out for years.

[43:25] We spent the $39,000 that I knew we were going to start

[43:34] to back it up. So now you're seeing the results.

[44:03] historically been in the last several years.

[44:18] There's a little bit of state

[44:30] It's a$150.

[44:56] Yeah, I think I'm kind of behind on I I should have I held it on my desk. I

[45:03] should have presented the first month,

[45:09] but I had even talked to the mayor about it, but the mayor got a hold of it

[45:15] fast. >> You did?

[45:19] Yeah, that's what went to B before it came here. But I just wanted y'all to

[45:22] see the package, be aware of what what the plan was for this monitor

[45:30] helping us with overflow. It is mandated by part of the project that we're doing.

[45:36] We did it last year. We have to show again what we

[45:41] infiltration by. So all the repairs we've done, all of that is going to be

[45:46] able to be seen. We put the back in the same location that they were before, but

[45:51] we were losing thousand gallons. Just hypothetically, we lost and now we put

[45:56] these back in and we recognize that hey, now you only lose 800 gallons, for

[46:01] example. Okay, y'all remove 200 gallons that uh and this will just be it's going

[46:08] to be a longterm thing for us because we're going to try to keep in there as

[46:13] we do repairs. So, the repairs we do this year will do the same. We'll try to

[46:17] do it next year following we get it down to a manageable

[46:22] part of this

[46:29] jumping

[46:39] system.

[46:43] So it wasn't intentional. I passed it back and he said no. I said yes.

[46:55] Something I had to do to meet the date,000.

[47:15] So the project back in

[47:22] was successful and we were able to shut down

[47:31] the water all the way down to I still want to move forward with project as we

[47:36] have originally drawn up to all that stuff out of that building

[47:42] outside that building. We can do it now%

[47:48] sure we can shut it down. We test cut it and we know it worked. So that was a

[47:52] good spin and a good decision to make. Also we were we were able to replace the

[47:58] hydra in front of Manchester time out of service for I don't know how long. They

[48:03] have a brand new in there now as well. So that project we moving forward with

[48:10] probably some of this $10 million try to get that project

[48:16] get out of that building because it's just too unsafe for staff to go in

[48:19] there. Water over your shoe when you walk in

[48:25] right up

[48:30] we have to go in there because we got to go in there. But if we can avoid it,

[48:34] then we're going to do the best we can.

[48:40] Um, we have a sketch. We have everything pre-drawn up by by St. John.

[48:47] Originally, we were going to do all the work in house, but staff we have, we

[48:52] don't have the talent to do it. So, I would prefer to go outside and make it

[48:58] turn. So now just going to see I don't know

[49:09] » right and and I even I've even instructed the guys like unless there's

[49:14] all hell breaking loose and whining and screaming people out of water you know

[49:18] you can check it from the door you know look in everything look good don't go in

[49:22] I mean it is that dangerous so it'll be put up as an e

[49:30] or 10 million. We can make that up because like everything's grown out. We

[49:34] just need to try to get some contractor

[49:46] » probably oldest city.

[49:56] » Right. [laughter]

[50:02] I think we're trying to peace. Let's just

[50:20] » Right. And that was my thing. This is their specialty that do what they

[50:24] specialize in. >> I mean, We do have some guys that are

[50:27] pretty sharp that could probably do the work. It would it would take us from our

[50:31] regular everyday operating duties and that would put the citizens at a

[50:35] disadvantage. Now we're taking long to respond to

[50:39] backup concrete

[50:44] build.

[50:58] Where are we on the

[51:02] brackets

[51:08] that us

[51:17] once we get that pipe back installed? There is some that we don't have to have

[51:22] those pumps except in the case of

[51:27] So that was the backup plan so that we can get the building out of commission

[51:32] and stuff for a period of time. Couple things we've been working on.

[51:47] » Believe it or not, I only have two meter reader and the assistant director.

[51:56] And we have applicants for both. I haven't pulled the trigger on assistant

[52:00] direct

[52:05] finding a lot of wellqualified people but not for what city

[52:14] we had one acceptance and of course

[52:22] we're two

[52:30] I'm not looking for a not looking for anybody with strategic planning all that

[52:35] long. I need somebody that's going to come in here boots on the ground uh

[52:40] field manager, field general kind of person that can help us resolve some of

[52:45] these issues that we have, some of this construction issue that we're having.

[52:49] Everybody get stuck in analysis paralysis. 10 to 15 years go by and you

[52:54] still have the issue you have now. I need somebody with construction

[52:58] background that can come in and lead team that knows waste water that can

[53:03] that can instruct and guide contract know how to read blueprints that kind of

[53:09] not not really another engineer. We have St. John right now. That's all I need.

[53:21] and I [clears throat] have the I have the strategic planning, the vision. I

[53:25] have all that myself. I don't want another meeting. I need somebody that

[53:28] can help the staff get on board so we can get projects completed.

[53:34] So that that's kind of what has been applied has been your

[53:40] really really high civil engineers, mechanical engineers who want double

[53:45] what I'm making a year. to be paid and majority of them don't

[53:49] want to they want to work from home. They don't want to come here. It's like

[53:53] wow I would too. But >> so but we have we have a few applicants

[53:58] in there now. One of them it looks really good to me. So I'm going to set

[54:02] up some interviews with with HR probably next week.

[54:08] » And also this is gone through this before. We did have a

[54:13] candidate. We made an offer

[54:18] pulled it down for a short period of time back up to refresh it so

[54:28] I need

[54:33] a lot of things

[54:37] out.

[54:45] » [clears throat]

[54:58] » You just

[55:01] thought

[55:12] I've got one on street

[55:19] corner

[55:29] semiis come down

[55:36] So >> well and and just so that everybody kind

[55:41] of understands the process, right? So Lonnie and them guys do the works.

[55:49] George got a little bit behind jobs, but we will get there.

[55:54] » Well, they did alleys.

[56:03] I'll bring that to

[56:09] quite a bit now right now.

[56:17] I'll get a

[56:20] » Well, that's a I'm not trying to pass, but that's a public works. I mean,

[56:25] Lonnie and them guys made a deal that we'll buy the material and George does

[56:29] the work. So, >> well, we're not water department,

[56:34] believe it or not. We're not street papers. We're the hole diggers and

[56:37] filling it in. >> I brought that up several years ago.

[56:42] [laughter] >> So, we quit, right? We quit that.

[57:00] I'll

Conference Meeting 6-4-26

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