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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-SJC-2024-08-14SJC MEETING August 14, 2024 SJC Board members P Robert Cantelmo, City of Ithaca P Rod Howe, Town of Ithaca PZ Clyde Lederman, City of Ithaca P Rob Rosen, Town of Ithaca P Scott Reynolds, City of Ithaca PZ Ray Burger, Town of Dryden P Dave Warden, City of Ithaca E Jason Leifer, Town of Dryden P Rich DePaolo, Town of Ithaca P = Present, PZ = Present via zoom, A = Absent, E = Excused Staff P Wendy Cole, City of Ithaca P Peter Wernsdorfer, Camden Group P Scott Gibson, City of Ithaca P Joe Slater, Town of Ithaca P Mike Thorne, City of Ithaca P David O’Shea, Town of Ithaca P Ken Scherrieble, Camden Group PZ Debbie Swartz, City of Ithaca P = Present, PZ = Present via zoom, PP = Present via phone Meeting called to order at 1:00 pm. 1) Agenda Review and Approval of Minutes • Agenda review – no changes. • Approval of June 12, 2024 minutes, Robert Cantelmo moved and Dave Warden seconds. No edits to the minutes. All in favor 6:0. 2) Financial Report - Wendy Cole • Financial Report as of 7/31/24 – See attached. • No updates on Capital Projects, they will be updated next month. Discussion: • Debt service is currently being worked on and will be updated by next month’s meeting. SJC needs to review agreements with the sewer plant. The expiration dates of some agreements are based on the retirement of associated debt. • Sludge disposal fees are up due to chemical price increases, they have almost doubled. • Effective 8/1/24 - Will be charging by the tank size, instead of by the gallons disposed. • Hours have changed to Monday-Friday 6:30 AM–2:30 PM, Saturday 6:30 AM–11:30 AM, Sunday by appointment only with 48 hours request and approval. This is due to staffing shortages. 2025 Budget Process, Added discussion to Agenda – Mike Thorne • DPW turned in the budget to the City Manager. • Costs are going up and it was agreed to review a draft budget at the next SJC meeting. 3) Operations and Engineering Report - Peter Wernsdorfer • See attached for Report Discussion: • Question about compliance. In June we had a TSS excursion, we had a failed ferric pump in ActiFlo and it defaults to maximum. We used a lot of chemicals in two days, but it is corrected now. There was a settleable solids violation. We didn’t lose any biology, but lost iron. • Cost saving projects, will come out of both operating budget and capital project budgets. 4) Misc. updates- a) City of Ithaca Workgroup • Clyde and Mike are co-chairing this group. • Consists of 3 staff members, 2 council members and Scott Reynolds. • We will be meeting this Thursday. • The end of next year is the deadline. • We should look at options that council has reviewed in the past to address our staffing issues. • Currently we have 8 licensed positions on the roster and 2 of them are filled. • We have 5 trainee positions on the roster and 2 of them are filled. Hoping that will change soon with the current interviews in process. • Out of 13 operator positions, we are 9 operators short. • Looking at long-term recommendations, which will include a transition plan, timeline and cost. • Short term we will turn to Camden to fill the position we lost, which will modify their contract again. • We will be looking at labor contracts, market conditions and salaries. • Three options in the memo presented two months ago: o Establishing the plant as an independent public authority. Maybe look at Bolton Point as a model. o Town of Ithaca responsible for staffing the plant. o Private enterprise. • Current labor contract expires at the end of this year. • The City is charged to run the plant in the original agreement. • This working group is charged with updating their progress monthly. b) B&L CIP c) TSS violation – discussed in #3 above d) Plant improvements • Barton Loguidice capital improvement update o Scope of work was established based on processes o Will have meetings to work on priority needs o Discussed funding o Hoping for a signed contract by the next meeting o The next meeting is scheduled for 8/15/24 at 9:00 AM and will be held every 2 weeks. Contact Scott for the zoom link. o Once we get the scope, we can review with the SJC. Will know more about the timeline tomorrow and we will get a report each month. • We shut down the plant at 10 PM on 7/22/24-7/25/24 and reopened at 3 AM to replace two sluice gates in the influent chamber. It is the last major component in the boiler project scope. With replacing the gates, we have the ability to shut down sections to do repairs. The next project will be to dismantle two of the five influent pumps, because they are leaking. They will need to be resealed and maybe a new propeller and/or motor. We will also replace the isolation valve for those pumps • To shut down the plant, we monitor three manholes during the repairs. We get about four hours to work during minimum flow, which is about three million gallons a day. • We now have a written standard operating procedure for the next time. • If the sluice gates are inoperable, we have a bypass valve we can shut off. 5) Strategic Planning ad hoc committee- discussion • The group decided to wait until we get more information • Has the plant been named in a lawsuit? Not that we are aware of. The plant doesn’t cause pollution, we use best practices to get rid of it. Agenda fulfilled, no other business to discuss. Rich Depaolo adjourned the meeting at 2:08 PM. The next SJC meeting is September 11, 2024 at 1:00 pm, Ithaca Town Hall, Aurora Conference Room.