Woodland Hills Sanitary District

December 2019 Minutes

The December meeting of the Woodland Hills Sanitary District board was called to order at 6:33pm on Wednesday, December 11, 2019.

Roll Call: President Bobby Sadler established that a quorum existed to conduct the meeting. In attendance were Lois Lund, Ed Striebel (Clearwater Consulting) and board members Garry Colosardo, Jim Stewart and John Knight.

Adoption of Agenda: Bobby presented the agenda to the board and it was unanimously adopted with an addition by Jim for a mention of the 2020 budget.

Secretary’s Report: The November minutes were reviewed and unanimously approved.

Income Report:

For November:

Net income was $4,979.

Gallons pumped was 441,049.

Gallons pumped a year ago 387,707.

Water Report: Water losses for November were 25 percent. If we get a warm stretch of weather Ed will call on the South Dakota Rural Water Association to use their leak detection equipment to find the source of the loss. Otherwise we will plan on doing leak detection in the spring.

An inorganic compound water test is due and once completed will be good for nine years.

On November 30 a power failure tripped the water system and SCADA sent an alert about a pump failure. Ed assumed once power was restored everything would return to normal. However, on December 1 the SCADA system alerted Ed to a low water level in the tanks at Junco Lane. Ed discovered there was no 120 volt power in the well house which had disabled the SCADA system's operation of the well pump. Ed was able to manually start the well pump and fill the tanks and also fill the Lark Lane tanks.. He then turned off the well house pump. On Dec 2 Morford Electric made repairs to a breaker in the well house to restore the 120 volt power. Dakota Pump remotely reset the SCADA system and well pump returned to automatic operation.

Road Report: The road account received a $5,981 tax deposit. Schulze Landscaping was paid $270 for plowing on Oct 22.

There was discussion of the plowing service following the November 30 snowstorm that dropped about 12 to 17 inches of snow in the subdivision. Randy Alexander was in attendance and was asked he would assist with plowing if we get another large snow fall. He agreed to plow Woodland Drive if we call for help but would not plow the lanes. That will be left for our plowing contractor. Jim had brought a copy of Mayor Steve Allender's Dec 8 letter to the RC Journal regarding the difficulties Rapid City had plowing after a large snow fall. Randy did open up Woodland Drive on Sunday and the plow contractor was able to plow most of the rest by Monday and Tuesday. Considering the snowfall amount the subdivision did ok getting the roads open.

Old Business: Lois had prepared some information regarding an early payoff of loan #2 which is the $5.86 special assessment on the water bill. The loan has a balance of $86,126 and paying it off early would save about $24,000 in interest. The board decided to take no action until leak detection and possible repair is performed. Ed mentioned in his experience that we should consider if an early payoff would have any effect on future loan or grant requests that our district might make.

New Business: Jim presented some 2020 budget numbers and will present more complete numbers after December closes. Generally, revenue was lower than budgeted but expenses were also lower than expected. Water sales came in at $53,275 and were projected to be $61,222. Expenses were $59,294 compared to a budget of $66,386.

Board member comments: None.

Resident comments: Sue Jones and other Chickadee Lane residents asked the board about financial assistance with the mailbox relocation expense that they had incurred moving their boxes to Chickadee Lane. Garry suggested that Sue speak with the Post Office about assistance. A couple of residents had written email to Jim (webmaster email) asking if the board will repay their expense for mailbox relocation. Garry and Bobby both noted that the Post Office instigated the relocation and the board had no part to play. Bobby made a motion to postpone any kind of payment action pending the Post Office response. Jim seconded the motion and it passed on a 3-1 vote with Garry opposed and preferring to turn down the request.

The board adjourned the meeting at 7:25pm.

Carefully noted and written up the best of his ability by Jim Stewart