The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutMN-SJC-07-08-26ITHACA AREA WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY TOWN OF ITHACA CITY OF ITHACA TOWN OF DRYDEN, OWNERS 525 THIRD STREET ITHACA, NEW YORK 14850 (607) 273-8381 SJC MEETING July 8, 2026 P = Present, PZ = Present Via Zoom, E = Excused and A = Absent STAFF A Wendy Cole, City of Ithaca A Kelly Anderson, Town of Ithaca P Scott Gibson, City of Ithaca P Joe Slater, Town of Ithaca PZ Kelly VanRiper, City of Ithaca GUEST P Peter Wernsdorfer, Camden Group PZ Jesse Semanchik, B & L P Ken Scherrieble, Camden Group PZ Brigid Mulroe, B & L P Jackson Slade, Camden P = Present, PZ = Present Via Zoom, E = Excused and A = Absent Called to Order 1:00 pm 1. Agenda Review 2. No Quorum to approve minutes from 05/13/2026 & 06/10/2026 3. Financials – Carissa a. Review 2026 monthly ﬁnancials i. There are no updates on the Reserve Fund balance. 1. The Reserve Fund should be utilized for cash ﬂow and used to the extent of balance. 2. Reserve Fund balance should be a percentage of annual cost. This should also be a similar process for SJC and create a policy to follow. 3. The Reserve Fund should be used for emergency projects as needed b. Finishing up 2022 Audit with Bonadio. We believe that the 2023, 2024, and most of 2025 audits will be done next year. And completely caught up by 2028 with all audits. c. City is beginning the budget process for next year. 4. Operations & Engineering Report – Peter and Scott G a. Ken presented a PowerPoint with plant photos and an excel workbook of the plant needs. He addressed the facility needs from the immediate and urgent (eg. repairs to the Inﬂuent Pumps), through the interim period until upgrades begin (eg. repairing or replacing the transfer pumps and overhead access doors in Trucked Waste) and ﬁnally, the capital planning and upgrades that meet the proposed future regulatory requirements. Some of these are reﬂected in the report, particularly the Trucked Waste receiving facility, where recent events have strangled a revenue stream that we need to recover quickly. i. The total additional repairs are estimated at $5.9 million. ii. After discussing the repairs, the SJC decided that the repairs presented constitute emergency repairs and should be added to the current short term project scope. b. Operations i. May 2026 Op Report – presented as submitted c. Reporting - no issues noted, regulatory reports were sent as scheduled d. Capital Planning - Semi-monthly meetings continue, B&L will give update e. Energy Management i. We will continue our energy efficiency efforts using the Gazebo platform as our energy platform. ii. Once the blowers are repaired, we will begin the efficiency initiative to optimize the process. 5. Discuss Dryden Capacity Increase - Jason and Rod a. A capacity increase was last talked about in 2023 but not executed then. Dryden is looking at increasing their capacity from ~2% to 3% of total plant capacity. b. Need to wait for City to do Appendix II capacity calcs which will happen in the next month or so. 6. NYSDEC permit modiﬁcation - Jesse a. No updates currently from DEC b. Lake monitoring update. i. The outfall inspection was completed by ASI. We are currently waiting for the inspection report. ii. The inspection was successful and we have drafted the intimal sampling work. iii. The ASI report will tell us the actual outfall location and then we can ﬁnalize and distribute that out to the team. This will tell us the initial sampling locations based on the DEC mixing zones. Then we can start the additional lake monitoring program with Geosyntec. 7. Capital Improvement Projects Update – Jesse a. The anticipated timeline for bonding or banning depends on EFC closing, maybe mid to late 2027. This would be short-term closing and then disperse back already spent funds to the owners. b. B&L distributed an updated near-term CIP memo. i. An update for the costs for the waste gas burner has been added and the total cost in that was $28,520,000. The memo will need to be updated again to account for the additional repairs identiﬁed by Camden. c. Amendment 3 has been submitted which was additional CIP planning and the Headworks & Local Limits Study as well as Amendment 4 which includes design, bidding, and construction phase services for the near-term CIP. Both amendments are in the process of being approved by the owners. d. SEQR progress is on the agenda for tonight’s Common Council meeting. 8. Legal Services – Scott R a. All owners have executed the agreement. All fully executed documents were in the agenda packet. 9. Executive Session – Contracts – the Executive session did not occur. 10. Miscellaneous Updates a. Foundational Agreements approval progress – Rich Adjournment – 2:24 pm Upcoming Meeting Date August 12, 2026 Please See Attached Appendixes: 1 – July 8, 2026, Agenda 2 – May 13,2026 and June 10, 2026, Unapproved Minutes (Minus Appendixes) 3 – Financials for 2026 4 – Operator’s & Engineer’s Report 5 – DMR Report 6 – Gas usage Report 7 – Near-Term Capital Improvements Project 8 – Dryden Capacity Increase 9 – Amendment 4 – Engineering Agreement 10 – PMV Legal Engagement Letter 11 – Signed SEQRA – City of Ithaca Lead Agency 12 – SJC IAWWTF Critical Repairs Power Point