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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-SJC-2024-01-10SJC MEETING January 10, 2024 SJC Board members PP Rob Cantelmo, City of Ithaca P Dave Warden, City of Ithaca P Clyde Lederman, City of Ithaca P Rob Rosen, Town of Ithaca P Scott Reynolds, City of Ithaca P Jason Leifer, Town of Dryden P Rich DePaolo, Town of Ithaca P = Present, PZ = Present via zoom, A = Absent, E = Excused Staff P Steve Thayer, City of Ithaca P Peter Wernsdorfer, Camden Group P Scott Gibson, City of Ithaca P Joe Slater, Town of Ithaca P Rod Howe, Town of Ithaca E Dan Thaete, Town of Ithaca E Chanelle Corder, City of Ithaca E Susan Brock, Attorney to IAWWTF PP Ken Scherrieble, Camden Group P = Present, PZ = Present via zoom, PP = Present via phone Guests Cynthia Brock Jimmy Jordan-Ithaca Voice Introductions of personnel in attendance. Financial Report: Steve Thayer Revenue: So far in septage service $640,000.00. Will exceed the budgeted $650,000.00. For this fiscal year, we have received around $5,842,000.00. • All quarterly payments have been received for 2023 from owners. • Debt service invoices were sent in October and have received all payments. Expenses: So far, expenditures total $5,674,000.00 giving a surplus of around $168,000.00. This will change once the final payable and receivables are posted. • Contracted Chief operator Camden Group has been paid $402,000.00 so far this year. It is over $42,000.00. That is being offset by the unfilled salary positions. • Equipment parts will be over budget by the time all activity for 2023 gets posted. It is $58,000.00 over budget. That budget line has been increased for 2024. • Building maintenance supply is about $97,000.00 over budget due to emergency repairs that needed to be made. • Debt payments so far are at $1,618,000.00. All payments have over been made. No more payments for 2023. Is being offset by the invoiced debt on the revenue side. • Health insurance once all contributions from employees have been posted, next month, should be close to budget. • State retirement paid in December for a discount, budgeted is $101,000.00, will be under budget at just over $91,000.00. • Retirement rates ranged 9.5-15% of salary for 2023, will increase to 11-18% for 2024. • Capital activity had activity in the boiler repair and digester heat loop repair. Rich volunteered for interim chair of this meeting after quorum was established. Rich moved, Rob seconded. All in favor 5:0 Agenda review, no changes. Approval of December 13, 2023 minutes Rich moved. Scott Reynolds seconds. No edits to the minutes. All in favor 5:0. Operations and Engineering Report – Peter Wernsdorfer 1. Operations • Regulatory Compliance - Process Control remains stable. Effluent numbers are in the low single digits. a. Did have a fecal violation, just over threshold. • Personnel – Lost an operator in December. We continue to be short staffed. We are posting the positions of operator and operator trainee next week. 2. Maintenance • Blowers –We expect parts to arrive in late February with repair being done by the manufacturer and taking approximately two days. • Micro Turbines – Sill processing the majority of the heat with 3 micro-turbines. It is much more efficient. • Asset Management – Ready to start implementing. Reports should come out of ops works starting in July. • Clarifiers – We expect information on repair, refurbishment and replacement in February. • Boiler Replacement – The dual fuel boiler is scheduled for delivery in late January. The boiler should be online and in use in end of March/middle of April. • Facility Improvements – The VRF Heat Pump installation continues. About 65% complete. Should be mid-March when they are going to be used. • ActiFlo – no change, status quo. 3. Staff Management • Semi-monthly staff meetings continue. • Weekly and/or semi-monthly check-ins continue with function leads. 4. Reporting • Regulatory reports were sent as scheduled. 5. Business, Long-Term Development • Capital Planning – Responses to RFP are here and there is an evaluation scheduled. Relocation of the flare is going to be in as well. • Energy Management – Our Strategic Energy Management kickoff is delayed until February due to NYSERDA and NYWEA schedules. o Q: how does the energy management project dove tail with the capital planning? A: Going to look for more energy efficient processes and looking for better equipment for long-term improvements. 6. Operations Data • December DMR/MOR will be forwarded under separate cover. • Six-month gas usage report will be forwarded under separate cover. Q: Cynthia asked why the suspended solids were so much higher than our average. A: Peter: there were a couple of things that contributed. It coincides with the influent diversion bypass. Then increased dewatering for 6-8 weeks to get space in the digester so there was volume to do the bypass. It overloaded the clarifiers for a couple of days, went back to the headworks then through the plant again and resampled. Q: Scott Reynolds asked if we are seeing an increase in solids when we’re having a heavy event? Is it diluting it or purging the pipes? A: We are seeing debris, gravel for example, but not solids. Voting items: A. Discussion about other treatment plant rates and pricing structure. Accepting the septage rates for 2024: RESOLVED, That the Special Joint Committee adopts the proposed Septage Receiving Rates presented on January 10, 2024, effective April 1, 2024. Rich moves, David seconded. All in favor, passes unanimously. B. Review and consideration of letter of engagement for legal services (S. Brock). Rich moves to recommend retaining the services of Susan Brock pursuant to the terms outlined in her letter. Clyde seconds. No further discussion. Vote passes 5:0. Discussion items: A. Scott Gibson: Update on responses received to RFQ for Engineering Consultant Services for Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Project with consideration for selection. • Request for qualifications was put in for consultants to come in and get us through the capital improvement planning project. This will be both a short-term and long- term outlook. We received four responses: o GHD-have worked with GHD for many years. They were the original designer of the plant when they were Stearns and Wheeler. We are confident they can do the job because they have an intimate familiarity with the plant. o MRB Group- Not confident they have enough staff to take something this big on and be treated as a priority. o Barton and Loguidice- City has worked with them on several projects, knowledgeable large enough to handle a project like this and they are tapped into the state grant and federal grant streamline. They have a system they work with, and a lot of their folks are grants managers themselves. o Ramboll- from the city perspective, they can do it but they have never approached us from the stand point of “Hey, we’re here to help” like GHD and BL have been. • Plan to interview alongside of the town and plant staff. They are going to evaluate the plant for immediate need and develop a report based on that. That will be a separate report. That short term plan should be ready around the fall. • The two we want to focus on are GHD and Barton Loguidice. We plan to have them come in for an interview. We need someone with a trained eye to go through the plant with plant personnel. • We have to balance need, budget, scheduling and changes coming down the line. • The proposed timeline to select a consultant realistically will probably be by the end of February. • There is no money put in this years budget for it because at this point, it is just looking at consultants. The consultants will then put a proposal together, we’ll bring it back to the board and see how it’ll be funded. Could possibly be in the next intermunicipal contract in 2025. • Susan Brock recommends this be acted upon by the SJC as a recommendation to the municipalities and not just rubber stamp a selection in house. May need to add a month for the partners to put it through their legislative policies. • The initial plan should be done by the end of 2024. Agenda fulfilled, No other business to discuss. Rich Depaolo adjourned the meeting at 2:20pm. The next SJC meeting is February 14, and will include presentations by both contractors.