Woodland Hills Sanitary District

August 2017 Minutes

The August meeting of the Woodland Hills Sanitary District was called to order at 6:33PM. In attendance were Evan Hutchings, Beth Haivala, Garry Colasardo, Jim Stewart, Ed Striebel, Dylan Striebel and Lois Lund. Bobby Sadler was away.

Secretary’s Report: The July minutes were reviewed and there was a minor typo corrected. Beth made a motion to approve the minutes, seconded by Evan and the minutes were adopted by a 4-0 vote.

Income Report: Total income for July was $7766 which includes the special loan assessments. Lois noted the due date for water payments is the first of the month but many people are turning their payments in on the 5th. Currently, late fees are applied for payments made after the 5th. Now that water statements are being sent out mid-month and customers have two weeks to make a payment, Lois suggested that the late fee date be moved to the first. That would give her additional time to prepare the income statement and balance the accounts. Garry made a motion to change to late fee date to the 2nd of the month. Payments turned in after the 1st of the month will be charged a late fee. The motion was seconded by Jim and the motion carried by a 4-0 vote. Late fees will now be assessed on the 1st.

Jim made a motion to approve the income report, seconded by Beth and the income report was approved with a 4-0 vote.

Water Report: Dylan reported that water losses for the month were at 5 percent. There were two service lines that were leaking and repaired in July. The leaks were on houses in the area of the well house on Woodland Dr.

Dylan received calls about a water outage on Saturday, July 29 around 9:30pm. A lightning strike near the well house blew fuses in the well house and pump house #1.

Pump house #1 is the building near the corner of Junco Lane and Woodland Dr. The water system is equipped with lightning arrestors but they were not able to withstand what was determined to be a direct hit on the well which is near 8709 Woodland Dr.

Morford Electric replaced the fuses early on Sunday and it was discovered that a pump motor in the #1 pump house had been ruined by the lightning strike. The pump would restart but only operate for a few seconds before tripping a breaker. Dylan was able to have Dakota Bice Drilling on the scene to remove the pump and the motor was replaced with a spare from the Lark Lane building. The system was back online by 10:00am Sunday.

Ed recommended that a spare pump and motor be purchased to have for emergency repairs (like this one). The last pump and motor were purchased back in 2011 and was approximately $2,100 for the pair. Jim made a motion to authorized $3,000 for Ed to purchase a new backup pump and motor. Beth made a 2nd and the motion carried 4-0.

Ed and Dylan also discussed the failure of the SCADA system to send out low water alerts. The system was installed by Dakota Pump who worked with Ed and Dylan to get the system in working order by Monday, July 31. Apparently the SCADA was never properly configured when it was installed. Dakota Pump has apologized repeatedly for this oversight and this reconfiguration has been performed as warranty work. Dylan reports that testing of the SCADA has been successful and looks good now.

The lightning also popped the red light over pump house #1 and that has been replaced.

Ed and Dylan and the board agreed that an advisory system be developed to keep residents informed during water outages. The web site was updated by 8:30am on Sunday but Ed and Dylan had nearly 100 calls and text messages between them during the 12 hour outage. Jim Stewart updates the web site but did not check his cell phone or email until 8:15 on Sunday and first heard of the outage.

Continuing the water report. Ed discovered on Monday morning, July 31, that someone had pried the lock off pump house number #2. That is the small building near 9005 Woodland Dr. The outside spigot was turned on and left running. The damage was done sometime over the weekend of July 30. It is a violation of federal code to tamper with a water system (42 U.S. Code § 300i–1 - Tampering with public water systems).

Road Report: nothing to report.

Old Business: Picnic duties were assigned for the August 27 fun-in-the-shade day.

New Business: Officer assignments were made.

Bobby Sadler will be the new president.

Evan Hutchings will continue as vice-president.

Beth Haivala will continue as treasurer.

Jim Stewart is the recording secretary.

Garry Colasardo is the corresponding secretary.

Beth will assume the open two year term. Jim and Garry will take on the three year terms.

Randy Alexander had chatted with Chris Stover from the Forest Service regarding disposition of the slash piles just outside the entrance to Woodland Hills. The Forest Service has not set a time-frame for a burn.

Resident Comments: Doug Klinski had chatted with Jim about low water pressure since the system upgrade. Jim used a low-rent gauge and observed about 20 pounds of pressure. Low pressure is an issue along the section where Doug lives and also on Chickadee because of the lack of elevation difference with the reservoir tanks. Ed uses a Grundfos water pump to boost the pressure at his home will follow-up with Doug.

Board Comments: Evan inquired about web site traffic statistics for the Woodland Hills site. Jim will gather that information from the hosting company and report at the next board meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:20pm

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Stewart

Recording Secretary