Call to Order:
Meeting began 10:00 am
Welcome: Darton, President
Present/Quorum (yes): Darton, Paul, Todd, Gini, Morris, Sam, Clint, Dave (Manager). Guests: Many including April, Bruce and Penny, Leda, Susie, Susan, Nicole, Carl, Shiela and Richard.
Consent Items
Approved? – Contents and order of this Agenda: Approved
Information Items
Guest Speakers comments (if any): None
Board Member : None
President’s Report :
- Darton began the annual board meeting. Mentioned we will be working this coming year on the Sandy Shores system and the Small System Plan primarily. Commended Angie, Skylar and Dave for doing such a great job.
Manager/Operator Report (Dave):
- This year we hired Skylar to become our backup operator. As a result we let two employees go who’s jobs are now done by Skylar. Once Skylar is certified as a full backup operator we will also stop contracting with NW Water who has been serving us in this role. One of the primary reasons we did this was that we need someone on island, and not over in Kitsap like NW Water is, to handle emergency situations and to allow Dave to go on vacation and we want a secondary person trained in case Dave no longer wants to be the manager.
- Sandy Shores filtration system is operating great. This new system has allowed our water silos to remain full even in the dry summer months.
- Because the filtration system has taxed our finances we are going to focus on lower cost projects this year like redoing our small water system plan. By updating this we will be in a good position to apply for grants to complete the more expensive projects we have planned for the future. Besides the small water plan we intend to demo the water building on 268th St. so it is no longer a danger. We will also be replacing the roof over the office at the DWA building and replacing soffits, gutters and fascias. Some of these items had been planned to be completed this year but haven’t happened yet.
- We are considering a community project to repaint the DWA. We are waiting to do a lead test before moving forward with this.
Committee Reports:
Finance Committee (Todd):
- Todd presented a financial report review. Please refer to the document on the website. He noted that billable water usage is lower than expected probably due to our wet weather. Staffing costs are a bit higher than projected probably due to the staffing changes. Business Operations are a bit higher than budgeted mostly due to the legal fees we incurred from the group lawsuit we were involved in vs King County. We are no longer involved with this. System Operations is under budget mostly due to having not yet completed the Small Business Plan and therefore not receiving a final bill. Taxes are as expected. We are still carrying the money for the Franchise fee because this case has not been settled yet. Operating Fund has been intentionally kept low. System Replacement fund has retained its funds because we need money available when pipes need replacing and for other such emergencies. We will be needing to find funding sources for future projects; grants or loans will be explored.
- In the proposed Budget we will drop System replacement to $185k. System Enhancements funds will improve from this year but will still be in negative territory. The total funds in our budget are $300K; down from the historical level of about $500K. Next year the total funds will drop to $238K which is low but should be ok. We may want to discuss ways to increase our budget in the coming year.
Water Production Committee (Paul):
- Paul noted that most of the items he would normally address here have already been discussed.
- One item we will be looking at in the new year is the property on 268th St. We need to explore the water potential here.
- This year the Franchise fee issue took up a lot of time. This is finished now for us and we can focus elsewhere. We need to return to the issue of the test wells in Dockton Springs.
CIP Planning Committee (Darton):
- Darton brought up map showing the service area with the proposed improvements that are planned. This year we will mostly be replacing pipes because it is what we can afford to do. We will focus on the lower Sandy Shores area in the future because it is a priority but we also need to be able to afford our plans. We also have other important projects that will need to be addressed, like Hake Road.
Pubic Outreach Committee (Sam)
- Sam hopes to increase transparency to the community.
Old Business / Carryover Items
- None.
New Business / Discussion Items
- Gini presented the vote tally from the ballot sent to DWA members. 90 approved the budget and 1 did not. Sam, Clint, April and Susan have been voted onto the board.
Other Business
- Various questions were asked during the meeting. One pertained to the employees that were let go and their severance pay. Others were regarding the timeline for working on the lower Sandy Shores PRV and pipes. The issue of fire flow in Sandy Shores was discussed in relation to this. This issue pertains to many areas of our system because our pipes vary from 2″ to 8″. DWA is upgrading pipes as funds allow. Questions were asked regarding funding for these projects. Could we get another bank loan? We will explore all options and for the near term get our small water system plan updated so we can try to get grants funded. A question was asked regarding our aquifer and water availability. We seem to have plenty of water and overflow runs into the Sound that can’t be accommodated.
What did we decide?
- Once we find out about lead paint Dave will move forward with the DWA building painting project.
Next Board meeting: July 23, 2022
Meeting ended 11:30 am