December Minutes - BRMWC

Best Road Mutual Water Company
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December Minutes

Meeting Minutes > 2018 > December
BEST ROAD MUTUAL WATER COMPANY
MONTHLY MEETING
Minutes of December 13, 2018
In attendance:            Board members: Nan Bustos, Summer Garcia, Julian Rogers, Marsha Poenisch
Guests:
                       
Meeting convened at 7:15 pm by Julian Rogers

Approval of Minutes from November 15 deferred

Financials
Marsha Poenisch provided an overview of the financials for the past year.  
A.      Treasurer Report: As of October, 2018
a.      CD:                                                $1,021.52
b.      Checking:                                        $49,105.47
c.       Repair & Replacement:                     $73,752.33
B.      Invoices and Expenditures: October, 2018
a.      Ellen Fisher’s Bookkeeping:                $450.00
b.      Bracewell:                                        $1,882.00
c.       PG&E:                                             $1,007,23
d.      AT&T:                                              $98.90

Water System Operations and Maintenance Report
A.      No Water System Operations and Maintenance Report available at the time of the meeting. Notes are added to the minutes below for approval by the board at the
next meeting.
B.      Power outage at the well on November 21st.  Transformer at the street went out and the well was off all night due to a PG&E outage.
C.      Monthly Report from Water Operator – DDW Reporting:  
a.      The monitoring report, Monthly Summary of Distribution System Coliform Monitoring and Coliform Reporting Form for the Best Road Mutual Water System
were submitted to DDW by email with a copy sent for the water system’s files. The monthly distribution system bacteriological sample was negative for both total coliforms and E. coli.
b.      The treated water and Wells 1 and 2 were monitored for manganese and iron and the treated water result for manganese was below the MCL. We have yet
to receive the treated water result for iron from the lab.
c.       The monthly monitoring of Well 1, Well 2, and the blended well site for arsenic was completed and the test result for the blended well was above the MCL.
We have yet to receive the arsenic results for Well 1 and Well 2 from the lab.
D.      Water System Operations and Maintenance Status
a.      Operations: There were no operational problems with the water system last month and 527,190 gallons were pumped while 556,380 gallons were
metered at customer homes.
b.      Maintenance: Routine maintenance was performed as required.
c.       Extra Services: Our operations staff met with the resident at 982 Foxhill Circle to explain the issue with the modifications to their backflow device which
came up during the annual certification testing of their valve.
E.       Both well heads have leaks that will need to be repaired.  Bracewell has provided a quote of $947 to repair the leak on one well head, and $624 to repair the leak
on the other well head.
F.       Flow meter is not working and will need to be replaced.  Bracewell has provided a quote for replacing meter in the amount of $856.
G.      Hydrants flushed in May, will flush again in November, 2018
H.      Street valve testing due March, 2019 (annual)
I.         Well #2:  No operational issues.  Online since January 16th 2017.
J.        Backflow certifications due October, 2018 (annual)
K.       Exterior storage tank inspection due November, 2018 (semi-annual)
L.       Status on Well 1: Cracked casing, livestock nearby, pooling water, all contributing to contamination issues.  Requested information on what will it take for us to
 get well #1 in compliance.  Must fix cracked casing in order to prevent issue of surface water influence.  

Actions
1.      Will have Bracewell investigate water odor issue at xxx Heatherwood Estates. One hour is authorized.
2.      Julian will continue to follow up on the SCADA system.
3.      Marsha will draft a procedure for board review, and then circulate to shareholders to establish a procedure.
4.      Julian will follow up with Bracewell regarding chlorination
5.      Summer will get backflow results and make sure everything has passed
6.      Julian will follow up on cross connection issues with the state
7.      Julian will follow up with Bracewell on deficiencies found by state during sanitary survey
8.      Marsha will follow up with John Van Den Bergh at RCAC Capital Planning
Executive Session
A.      F01 first notice sent
B.      H23 second notice sent
C.      H21 will send first notice
D.     F01 will send second notice
New Issues / Information
9.      Marsha reviewed bylaws to see if there is a process / guideline for managing accounts receivable issues, and there is nothing documented.  She will draft a
procedure for board review, and then circulate to shareholders to establish a procedure.
10.  SCADA system that we purchased a couple of years ago was never installed and is no longer supported by the vendor.  We will keep this on the agenda for
ongoing options on what to do with the system.  Not a top priority at this time due to other ongoing issues.
11.  Water line break at 780 Maranatha Drive.  Shareholder will request to pay standard rate for overages, as per precedence established by the board.
A.      Issues and accomplishments:
a.      Ongoing compliance issues:
                 i.      TTHM: Compliance Order 02_05_17R_001 TTHM). We are currently in compliance. Need to continue to report for one year after we meet
compliance.  
                 ii.      Arsenic MCL: 02_05_16R-005 Arsenic levels above recommended levels for drinking water.  
                 iii.      Well #1: 02_05_18R_002 Groundwater under the influence of surface water
                 iv.      Cross-connection: Blue valve water source does not have proper separation from BRMWC water source, therefore cross-connection.  This is a
compliance violation.  State has offered for us to provide results of the backflow testing for the past two years.  This will possibly satisfy our compliance issue.
                 v.      Lead compliance: Need to “prove” that we don’t have any lead in our water lines.
B.      Board members (Nan Bustos, Ed Flores, Marsha Poenisch) need to complete ethics course AB54 and AB240.  
C.      Backflow device at F04 was previously modified and was untestable.  This has now been modified and is in compliance.  
D.     Bracewell is suggesting that we turn back on chlorination, which is also recommended by the state.  
E.      Bracewell is still evaluating status of water system, and will continue to provide suggestions for improvements as well as a long term plan.
F.       SCADA system was purchased and not yet installed for several years due to other priorities with our water systems.  The company in which the system was
purchased does not perform installations.  In addition, the system is no longer supported based on the age of the system. Cost is $15,000 to update the system to current technology in order to be installed.  We will continue to work with the company to see if price can be further negotiated.  Both wells have already been configured in order to install the system.  We just need to see what can be done to upgrade the system so that it’s supportable.  
G.     John Van Den Bergh – RCAC Capital Planning will provide us with guidance in setting up our go-forward capital plan and record retention as expected by the
State.
H.     Board will review the policy on billing late fees and will work towards putting in place an equitable policy for shareholders when issues arise.  The objective is to
eliminate the amount of time the board is spending on individual issues with late fees.
I.        Future board discussion on investigating working with San Benito Water and Sunnyslope Water to see if there is any opportunity to tap into Sunnyslope Water.
J.        Annual Sanitary Survey was completed December 11th with Julian Rogers, Marsha Poenisch, and Summer Garcia and the State.  Overall feeling that meeting
went well.  State was found to be helpful in their approach to helping us with our issues. We feel confident that working with the state we will be able to come to a plan for compliance.
a.      Some deficiencies
        i.      Well one can only be used in case of emergency
                 ii.      Seal needs to be installed on roof access hatch on the tank to prevent insect entry
                 iii.      Check valve needs to be installed on well 2 – this is not an easy task
                 iv.      Plug holes in top of chlorine tank before use
                 v.      Treatment plant operations plan needs to be updated – this is being discussed with State and Bracewell
                 vi.      For well 1 – casing needs to be fixed, which it top 50 feet of well.  
Next Board Meeting – Annual Shareholder’s Meeting
Date:  Thursday, January 10, 2018         Time: 7:00pm
Location:  Water Office
Meeting adjourned at 8:47pm
                                                                       
Respectfully submitted,
Nan Bustos, Secretary, BRMWC
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