August 13th 2018 public utility board meeting to order
We we're gonna take things a little bit out of order this
morning to start with we have
Before we go into our work session
We have quite a few
gentlemen outside that
We'd like to recognize and I'm gonna let Mario introduce if
you would
Thank You. Mr. Chairman. Good morning members of the board
I'm gonna turn it over to George more or our general
manager for
municipal electric to make some introductory comments and
and then allow the the folks out in the hallway to come in
to be
recognized
Good morning, George Morrow DME general manager
Chair Robinson and the pub. Thank you for the opportunity
to
recognize our our lineman rodeo teams
they had a great time and
We're very competitive down in sagin, Texas
Had the opportunity to stop by there myself very hot and
humid but it was a super event a week of weekend of the
July
21st we had two journeyman teams and four apprentice teams
So we had a good group of folks and as part of that we
provide also some judges for the other folks to
To to see the competition. So I want to introduce
Gonna pass the baton here to Brad Watts Brad's our
operations line
superintendent Brad led the team to
very close to super victory and I think he has a little a
few a
few photos he you might want to show you and he'll
introduce
introduce the folks so
Good morning George that I'm Brad Watts operation line
superintendent and
We did a real good job down there. This is the 22nd annual
lineman rodeo
It usually has 20 to 30 utilities that represent
different divisions investor owned municipal contractor
Cooperative and as George said the guys just did an
outstanding job. It's very competitive down there
This year it was one of the hottest that I've ever seen. It
was 112 degrees and
These guys were just I mean
Drenched in sweat, but they were working hard and they
practiced real hard leading up to this
I mean they put in a lot of hours on their own time
During the weekend coming in trying to sharpen their lin
eman skills up and that's you know
that's a chance you get to show them off down there and
I'll go ahead and introduce the guys
I
Hear the second we'll get you the face to the left
And as George said it's like this is the 22nd annual we've
only missed one competition down there
And that was due to note the island was underwater. They
had a bunch of rain down there
I'm gonna go ahead and introduce I'll start with the rodeo
coordinator
This is the guy that just I mean he gets everything set up
for the team when they need things
Listen events. I mean he's the go-to guy and this Lanny Am
ix and
Then I'll start with the journeyman team
Clinton peak
Cody Schneider
Blake Smith and then our other journeyman team is Tyler
rank
Garrett Dillard
Curtis Espadaugh and
Then we also had our apprentices that went down there
Jordan Padrone
Gustavo Soto Mitch Hassel and Jack Gray and
Along with competition teams down there
we also it's a big tradition down there that utilities will
provide a cooking team and they'll cook barbecue ribs bris
ket and
We took our team down there and that team was Lane Freeman,
which is lanes out. He just had a baby girl and
then Jason Wilkins and
Then also make the road the rodeo possible because there's
so many things that factor into the rodeo
They asked the teams to provide judges to go down there
because I mean these guys are on the pole
But there's also judges that are judging them which we can
't judge our own people wish we could but we
And those judges were Cliff Knight
Van Emman
Michael Pennington
Dave Dwanell
Ethan Horton
and Ryan Clearman and
Then we got one other guy that we big thanks goes to and he
's the one that makes sure that our tent get our awning
Get set up so we have somewhere to get out of the out of
the Sun
You know water and Gatorade for the guys
And we call him our logistics man. That's Tim Kudis
And we did very well down there we it's a very stiff
competition
I mean these guys are great journeyman and they're going
against great journeyman, but we had
The first team I called out Clinton peak Cody Snyder Blake
Smith Smith took second place in the journeyman mystery
event
And one of you guys want to explain what that event was?
I
Think we had to do is work with three pop bang. We had two
jumpers change out on each side
The event time was 15 minutes. We did it in 10 and we were
Two seconds away from third place and not second place
first
So it was a tight race
and then our second team
Which I mean no no special order one or two
But our other team took second place overall overall
journeyman municipal division
So they were the second second best journeyman team down
there in the municipal division
And that was Tyler rank Garrett Dillard and Curtis Espada
ugh, and that's all their events combined
We were don't think the data. I don't have our our teams
overall
overall the utilities down there
Ended up. I think fifth overall and sixth overall so I mean
we
represented it well these guys they worked hard to did a
lot of a lot of hard work on their own and
You know when they got down there
And that you know that work shows when they get back home
because they learn a lot of safety rules down there
How different utilities are doing things and it just you
know it helps didn't helps the service that we do provide,
but they did a great job
On the cooking team we took first place brisket and when
you
In the cooking world if you win brisket you're that you're
the king
Right now Denton's the king until we get dethroned
Well all the different teams that provide cooking teams,
which there's quite a few Jason how many teams were there
60 cooking teams down there well all the food that they
they cook all that goes towards the brisket dinner
The event the awards dinner that night so everybody's fed
real well
And I mean it's just a big you know family atmosphere where
all these all the different utilities come together
I mean and they get to they get to be brothers because Ly
man our brotherhood and
You know one another thing that I really take pride in that
when when you go compete in these events
If the chips ever got down here in Denton we know who to
call we got brothers out there
And they'd be here to help us and vice versa will help them
if they need to help
I'd I'll let the guys go out, and then I'll show you some
of the pictures from it
What you're one of the most important
And then this is the journeyman municipal division second
place overall team them getting their trophies and
Then there's our brisket Kings right there
And they do cook a good brisket
Here's one of the events that this is I
Can't see this is Tyler and Garrett on the pole doing one
of their events notice that you know all the cover-up
I mean when they're working up there, they're they're doing
just like they do here
I mean, they don't change anything. It's you know it's very
safety oriented and it has to be
And then this is the Curtis on the ground the groundman is
a big vital role in that team because he's the one that
sends
Everything up to the guys on the pole and gets them already
And then here's the other team. This is they were changing
out disconnects
And
When they that second team when they on that that event
they they they smoked it
I mean that's very fast the time that they had
And if y'all got any questions
I'll answer them if not I pre we appreciate the time and
you know the sport letting us go down there
The most important thing you said was you learn how to do
it safely and quickly to get the power back on and that's
the biggest
Part of the whole yes ma'am it is
Although the brisk it's probably
Thanks Brad appreciate it thank you
Okay
Before we go into work session
Want to welcome first of all Karen's Davini our newest
public utility board member
Welcome to the to the public utility board and hopefully
you'll
It's
It's it's a it's a good good good board to be on so welcome
Okay our work session
We're gonna receive a report hold a discussion and give
staff direction regarding proposed updates to the green
sense and incentive program
The green sense incentive program manual and distributed
generation manual for fiscal year 2018-19
All
Right George Morrow general manager of DMA and I also want
to thank the new pub board member welcome
Oh, thank you and
also recognize Liz Ruiz over here Liz is the mastermind and
Author and promoter of our green sense program and that was
one of the first things I looked at when I came to Denton
Work for the utility is hey, what kind of customer programs
do we have and I was very impressed with the green sense
program
there's a lot of meat there and
We made a few little tweaks to it. We're here to I guess
Reapprove it for the following fiscal year and here's a
little bit of history. It had been called some different
things over different time
Today, it's the green sense program. You can see some of
the changes that were made as it moved through time
Here's the history for this year so far
We've given
353 rebates for all the different types of things that we
do help our customers
Accomplish about a hundred thousand dollars so far and the
PV photovoltaics or solar rebates is at the very bottom
So far this year, there's been
Let's see here 66 actually installed. We have 81
applications. So there's some to be finished
408 KW which is not bad and there's the rebates that we've
provided
And basically paid out all of our money, you know committed
all of our funds pretty early in the fiscal year
And that's something we wanted to address during the the
redo of the program
Here's a little bit of history of some of the different
things that
Comprised the program you can see we started in F
200,000 for solar rebates last two years. It's been about
300,000, but the rebates as I indicated go pretty quickly
So we're proposing to up that to 500,000 this year. That's
you know as we
You know stand in the shoes of trying to make
Dent in a green city a renewable city
It just seemed like the right thing to do is to at least
have enough money for most if not all of the fiscal year
For everybody that's interested in putting
solar panels on their on their home
So those those are kind of the numbers
The things we're proposing to do the tweaks I'll call them
for the next fiscal year is one we've added
Weatherization as a category to get a rebate for so it's
kind of like do-it-yourself
Solarization so you can go buy some different products
bring us the receipt and
It's fairly modest. I guess in the first year. We're
looking at $50 as a as a rebate
weatherstripping caulk spray foam, etc, but
So that's one of our changes second is that we've been
providing $300 rebates for electric vehicles
But it wasn't really clear and it's something that Liz and
I talked about early about whether plug-in electric
vehicles qualify
So that would be like the Chevy Volt or Ford Focus that
have a small engine
But you know the batteries do provide a lot of the of the
propulsion and we said, you know what?
Let's do it. Let's let's clarify that to
Going forward that plug-in electric vehicles also qualify
for that rebate because they have the same benefit to the
utility
You know, they've become a customer. They use a lot of off-
peak energy
Off-peak energy consumption is good for us as a rate rate
item
standard offer incentive changes for commercial accounts
Seemed like it was very restrictive as as I reviewed it
this past year
There was a 200 KW minimum peak so you had to be a fairly
large customer to take advantage of this
incentive and
We just went ahead and removed that limitation though.
There is still embedded in the program a 50 KW
Project, you know if you do a project and we provide
incentives for that it needs to be at least 50 KW
So so it has some bulk but it didn't seem like it was
necessary to have the 200 KW
And also we had some tiered rebates in one category. We did
a hundred
Dollars per KW and another hundred twenty five. We just
kind of made it flat hundred and twenty five dollars
So for anything and so it's very flexible. I actually like
that a lot
Commercial customers can propose almost anything that gives
us a KW
reduction and peak load and we verify that analyze it and
Then we can provide the rebate to them. So I mentioned
already the
I guess that's a typo down there that should say 500 K for
solar systems and
type that hot off the press this morning and
And then we modified the solar rebates because in fact that
they were going so quickly we thought okay, let's have more
opportunity and
Instead of 75 cents per watt
We looked at a tiered system where we pay a little bit more
for the smaller system and then a little bit less for the
larger
systems and
You'll see probably very few systems over 10 KW unless they
're commercial take a W would be a very large home
program so I think for
Residential customers most are going to probably fall in
the three to five KW range
I'll actually get a little more incentive with that and you
can see we did the same thing with if you install solar
with a battery
There's not actually too many of them Liz. What about two
so far this year
So that hasn't really taken off yet battery is still
extremely expensive and the business case for battery is
still a little bit questionable
We don't have off-peak rates yet
So there you know, what do you charge it with and we do
give you credit for surplus solar no matter what time it is
So you don't have to put it in a battery to get credit for
it
We keep track of that and we'll we'll move that around and
let you offset some other usage at a different time frame
So that's actually a good a good program, but there are
some that want to put batteries in I think one
advantage of a battery is if you had a power outage which
does happen once in a while with some of the crazy weather
we have out here and
You can you know
You can draw the power out of that battery to keep your
lights on while we're out there getting getting the repairs
done
so so that's a
pretty much the
Nuts of it. Okay. Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. I just had a question
about
the 57 participants we had have had
Where would they fall in the?
Size of the system. It would be the three to five
Cool. I mean as Liz if she's got any any details
Come on up. Yeah
This year we had
varied between
four KW and 10 KW with with the
Price of solar coming down. You'll see a little bit more
larger systems coming on the residential side
Their size a little bit larger also for the homes
But it it does vary between four and ten KW five and six is
the average
Okay
Thank you. You know another reason for ramping down maybe
the solar rebate as you get to a larger size is that solar
is
basically economic today the costs have dropped
dramatically, so
Incentives for a lot of electric utilities are not as
necessary
We had a 10-year incentive program in California which
started at a high level and then it we were forced to lower
it every year
And it finally went away last year
so you can't get a solar rebate in California anymore
because basically the industry is is
Mature and commercial and it's not really necessary. So but
we still do it. We want to give folks
You know some additional incentive to do that
Okay questions comments
so the applications received 81 with the
Small requirements or the tiered
Size would all 81 of those have been I
Guess that combined with increasing the dollar amount to
so all the applications I
Guess the question I'm asking is if there were
57 participants and we had 81 sorry
She doesn't let me see the rebate applications
Go ahead oh, I'm just I'm just wanting to
clarify all the 81
Residential and commercial that we received applications
Would all of those have been?
Applications approved based upon the increase in the five
to five hundred thousand and plus the tiered
The smaller system. Yes had the tiered rebate been in place
this year
We would have been able to do the 81 plus the one
commercial the 82 and we would have ran out of funds at the
beginning
of July
So the tiered is gonna allow us to help more people do
solar right
Very good point. I like that. Yeah, it's making it more
accessible to
Okay, more people. Yeah, and then so we have that changed
so as you indicated we would be able to provide a lot more
rebates
With the tearing system and then we double down with the
additional money to make sure that we can handle
The interest that's out there and that was already included
in the budget in the it is now in the budget
Okay. Yeah, I was confirmed that this morning. It's there
and
We're gonna pretty good
Okay in the plugins how many have we had people get rebates
yet on the on the cars
Well, I had a Prius before having a Prius was sexy back in
2006 so I'm just curious
We have not for this fiscal year, but I did receive last
week two applications for it. So those will fall. Okay this
year
Thank you. Yeah, I think we had a little harsher
interpretation of what was in the program
Which is you had to be all electric so like a leave. Okay,
Tesla those kinds of things and
Didn't
Seem like now we're gonna have a broader interpretation is
the clarification that we're making so as
As a basically this point in time
Okay, I might have a hard time giving three hundred dollars
to somebody who can afford to Tesla. So I don't know
I was trying to think of another all-electric
Fiat
Okay
Any other questions I
think
You know what I'm hearing is I think everybody likes the
increased accessibility
Increased dollar amount. I think that's great. I'd be
curious at some point
to know
How it compares to
You know how much dollars we allocate to this compared to
You know say other utilities around the area. I think we'll
find we spend more per
per customer
Per meter, I guess if you will everybody want to count it
Liz may have that information, but let us put that together
for you and yeah to a report and we'll ship that out
and one of the Friday reports and
You know going forward so we're going to be taking a hard
look at the program this next year
See if you know to take it up another notch is sort of what
I'd like to do
This year we have sort of a depleted staff Liz Liz is the
staff at the moment
we've promoted a couple of our folks into other jobs in the
city and we're hiring some some replacement folks that
At even a higher level to kind of bring some more
experience and background into the program more excitement
and we'll try to
We try to take it to the next level next year. So that
should be a little more exciting
Than this year
Okay, thank you George. Thank you
Okay
We're also under our closed meeting this the item that's on
there does not require any action
So what we'll do is if we can't move that to the end of the
meeting
So we'll go right into our regular meeting now
And start with the consent agenda and would ask if there's
any
Any board member who would like to have?
any of these items a B
CVE F
G or H pool for individual consideration. I'd like item F
pulled
And I don't see Ethan so I hope there's somebody else
Okay, all right
so item F
Would anybody else like anything else pool for individual
consideration?
Okay hearing none then is there a motion on the consent
agenda I
Recommend approval
We have a motion to approve and a second any discussion
All in favor say aye aye any opposed
Okay individual consideration we have item F
And I am sure there's a good explanation
In looking at all the documentation it looks like we're
gonna be paying a lot more for 30 days when there was an
alternative
to pay
$9,000 to rent one
and
And I get the whole compaction that that we're gonna save
in the landfill space
But I I just still thought that maybe there's a little bit
too much money being left on the table
So and just for clarification, did you ask about the
possibility of renting a unit?
I saw in the documentation that somebody proposed we could
rent one for nine thousand dollars a month
Because we're really just gaining 30 days basically correct
. Yeah, there's hundreds whatever and
And just to walk through the the presentation really quick
that the the point that you made is
Correct. We are in a pretty bad situation right now with
our
826 is both of those units are down part of the reason is
that they had some specialized wheels added to them that
actually
Were heavier and required some of them screening that would
normally be in place to actually
remove the material
To be they were taken off and so we're pulling a lot of
material into our differentials and causing a lot of
breakdowns
so since about June 30, we've been basically
Using a bulldozer as a means of compaction, which is not a
good long-term solution
It's hard on that equipment and it's also not a very
efficient compactor. The 836 is are the ones that
were put in place by are recommended to be put in place by
Blue Ridge and
Can handle a little bit more versus a little bit less as a
unit of the average waste that we're that we're getting and
So you're absolutely correct the airspace savings
with regards to the remainder of the fiscal year is
Substantial between the two units we're getting about 300 a
little bit less than 300
pounds per cubic yard out of the 836 so at an average of
145 tons per day that really adds up and probably the
biggest issue
Is the one that's that's here at the bottom at five years
of operation of an 836
We'll actually gain about 11 months of additional landfill
time
Compared to the use of the 830s or 826s rather with the
heavier wheels
so
looking at the net benefit loss as you stated
By gaining that estimated period of time. We'll be able to
More than make up the the difference between the units the
the cat is also
a competitive vid versus a quote like we got for the BOMAG
and and all John because it's on a
Cooperative buy board and then we've also got a preference
for the cat units because they're the ones that we have
used in the past so
That was our rationale for getting the
giving the
staff
Direction of proceeding with the purchase of the Caterp
illar model 836 with regards to a rental
I'm gonna have to rely on
Randall Morris the landfill manager. I think that the short
answer to that is that the
availability of those
Compactors is is such that we would not be able to likely
get one in but I'll I'll let Randall go on to the details
Good morning
During this a quoting process BOMAG
Has offered us they are taking in a it's a smaller compact
or. They're taking in in on trade
Through their process and they said they could have it
available for us to rent here in the near future
It's not available right now as we speak, but it will be
available in the future
Hopefully we'll have one of our machines back up and
operational
Before that before the need for that one or before it's
available. I guess I would like to say
So where where do the numbers for the
efficiency of the
836 K and the
airspace savings who did who did those numbers?
It was actually Scott Libsack and Lee and we and I helped
out with it a little bit
We got a bunch of the numbers out of the Caterpillar
performance handbook
And I also got a spreadsheet from Holt Kat on what the 836
was capable of, you know doing compaction wise
Okay, so you're comfortable. Yes, sir
Yes, sir, okay, okay, and the 836 was the recommendation
out of the solid waste consulting. Yes
I mean I agree with the
Model that you're gonna be using and to stay with Caterp
illar because then you don't have you know
Two different parts and fleet and all that. Yes
I just needed to ask the question
Because that was a and the 826 is are actually overworked,
you know per our tonnage that we take per day
They're way overworked the one 836 can almost take the
place of two 826 is that we have basically
Thank you, thank you you're welcome
You think else I will move approval
Just had to ask we have a motion to approve item F second
and a second any further discussion
All in favor say aye. Aye any opposed
Next we have item a which is consider approval to public
utility board meeting minutes of July 23rd
2018
Sorry, okay, that's all right
We have a motion to approve the minutes. Is there a second?
second and a second
discussion
Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye any opposed any abstentions
Okay, thank you
Item B is to consider recommending adoption of an ordinance
of the city of Denton, Texas
Authorizing the city manager or his designee to execute an
advanced funding agreement in the amount of six million
864 thousand nine hundred seventy nine dollars and ninety
eight cents
by in between the state of Texas
Acting through the Texas Department of Transportation and
the city of Denton regarding water and wastewater
improvements
associated with the US
377-roadway widening project
That was the short version of that catch. Oh, thank you. I
appreciate that. Could we not have squeezed two more cents
out?
Good morning members of the pub. I'm Chad Allen deputy city
engineer
And yes, my presentation is about the four-orth drive
utility relocations project and it's associated with the
text dot us
377-roadway widening project. Welcome to the BV. Good
morning
Specifically I'm going to ask that you approve the
execution of an advanced funding agreement in a fa
It's between the city of Denton and text dot and it's
regarding our water and wastewater utilities that have to
be moved out of the right
of way
The amount of the agreement is six point eight six million
dollars
I'm going to talk about that later in the presentation
But we're gonna make two payments in the agreement
The first payment is going to be paid from city of Denton
funds and the amount of three point eight six million
dollars
And then we expect to receive additional RTR funding
regional total revenue funding from net cog and the amount
of three million dollars to complete
the
agreement
So this map shows the limits of the text up project it
starts on the north end at I 35 East and it extends to the
south
South of Country Club Road or FM 1830
Text out is going to widen the two-lane road to a six lane
concrete roadway with the raised median
They're gonna install traffic signal improvements at
various intersections
They're going to construct a storm drain system and replace
the roadside ditches
And then they're gonna build sidewalks along both sides of
the roads road throughout the project limits
Before any of that happens, we have to move our utilities
outside of the text out right of way. So
We're gonna move all of our utilities so that they do not
conflict with the text on improvements any of the text out
Improvements and every now and then we're gonna construct
new crossings of water and sewer lines across the right of
way
We have to do all of that before text. Dot can start the
roadway work
In order to pay for that we have to enter into an advanced
funding agreement because we're putting our
Construction plans in with the text out plans and it's
going to be one bid package
We hired a consultant they designed our plans
We combined them with the text dot plans and then they bid
it out to a contractor and the text out contractor is going
to build
our utility work
We're gonna pay for that with the advanced funding
agreement
We're gonna give money to text out upfront so that they can
pay their contractor to move our utilities
So on July 9th, I brought a draft version of the advanced
funding agreement here to PB for your consideration
At the time the amount of the aFA was based on our
consultants construction cost estimate
And at the time on July 9th, we estimated the cost to be
three point two million dollars
The very next day the very next day after I told you it was
gonna be three point two million dollars text dot received
bids for the project
There were nine bids for the project the low bidder for the
overall project was SEMA construction, Inc
They had a total bid of forty three point six two million
dollars that includes all of the roadway work and the
utility work
So here's a list of the bids SEMA's listed on top. They're
the low bidder their overall bid was low
Was the lowest and it's forty three point six two million
dollars
Unfortunately when you looked at their bid and you took you
looked at the public utility items
They had a very high bid for the public utility work six
point one million dollars
Which was almost three million more dollars than what we
anticipated the public utilities to cost
So I just wanted to show you that all of the utility bids
aren't that high
Bidder number four Austin Bridge and Road had a three point
five million dollar bid for the public utility work
We know them more as a utility contractor
Their numbers were very close to our estimates, but we're
obligated to pay as part of the F
AFA six point one million dollars for the utility
improvements because text dot has to select this low bidder
SEMA construction, Inc
So right when the bids were opened we realized the utility
numbers are very high
Unfortunately, all of our the other stakeholders in the
project realize the same thing
we immediately reached out to text out with our concerns
about the high bids for the utility work and
Text on and net cog and Denton County and us at the city
We all agree that the low bidder the overall low bidder for
the project had unreasonably high bids for the utility work
. So
We went to text on and net cog for a solution
Everyone agreed that yes
those it's those costs are unreasonable and that we and so
what net cog proposed to do was to go to the regional
transportation council and
Seek approval of an additional three million dollars in RTR
funding to cover the cost of the additional utility work
So all of our stakeholders are on board with that solution
at the October 2018 meeting
We fully expect the additional three million dollars in RTR
funds to be approved for use on this project
Seema's bid for the utility work is this number right here
6.1, but that's not all we're obligated to pay as part of
the aFA
Text out asked us to add additional costs and basically it
amounts to 12% additional on top of the utility bid
It's 2% for barricades 5% for mobilization and 5% for
contingency. So the total amount of the aFA is the utility
bid
Plus an additional 12% which winds up being six point eight
six million dollars
again
The city will be obligated to pay three point eight six
million and then we expect to get additional funding
RTR funding from net cog that makes up the other three
million
So this is how it's proposed to work and this is the
agreement that text is going to sign with us
The advanced funding agreement sets out the terms and
conditions for payment and right now it says that we're
gonna make two incremental
Payments to the state the first one we will pay right after
hopefully
Pub agrees to the aFA and so does council tomorrow will
immediately send a check to text out in the amount of three
point eight six million dollars
After that we'll receive the additional funding from net
cog of three million dollars and we'll make the final
payment to text dot
honor before February 16th after we receive those
additional funds
So we expect this to be the total amount of money that we
have to pay for the project
The only reason we would have to pay more than the six
point eight six million is if we ask the contractor to do
additional work
If we asked for a change order and we requested it we would
have to pay for that
But right now we think the total amount we're gonna have to
pay is the six point eight six million dollars
So
What I'm asking you to do is to recommend adoption of an
ordinance that allows the advanced funding agreement to be
executed between the city and
text dot in the amount of six million eight hundred and
sixty four thousand nine hundred and seventy nine dollars
And ninety eight cents for the Fort Worth Drive utility
relocation project and I'll be happy to answer any
questions if you have any
Questions I have one what if we don't get the three million
dollars
That's a good question
I can't tell you one hundred percent that we're going to
get the money
But all of our stakeholders including Michael Morris and
net cog and Denton County and text dot
They attend the RTC meetings and they vote at the meetings
and we have all of their support to get this funny
Everyone realizes that this is such a very important
project for the overall region
Everyone's on board to making the project happen and if we
don't get those additional funds
It's going it could cause serious delay in the project
Text dot could probably have to bid the project again or
some other solution would have to happen
No one in the region wants that to happen. No one wants
this project not to happen
I'm very certain
For the utility work was so high because that's not what
they do
Exactly. That's exactly it. So on that list there was big
roadway contractors
And then there was more contractors who do a lot of utility
work
We feel like a big roadway contractor won the project
They are gonna hire a subcontractor to the utility work
that subcontractor came in with high prices and then the
general marked it up again
Yeah that or they use the utility work
Which is done in the very front of the project to just get
more cash on hand at the beginning of the project
Sometimes contractors do that. Yeah, I feel like it's a
combination of those two things
So the advanced funding agreement is not contingent upon
Or is it contingent upon receiving approval?
That's that's correct basically all it says is we will make
two payments the first one immediately
3.86 million and then the second they delayed the date
until after we would get the funds approved from the RTC
and after we would receive
Those funds and so we don't have to make that second
payment until February. I'm very confident. We're gonna get
that additional three million dollars
Miss Chad mentioned we do expect the funds to come from cog
, but for some reason that would not occur
As you know, we're approving the agreement. We are on the
hook for the project
We'd come back with a solution of potentially how to rest
ructure our capital program or how to come up with those
funds internally
We don't expect that to be the case
But if it were we'll come back to you with a solution and
talk that through give you those options
It's the entire project is gonna take two to two and a half
years so
They're expecting to start in November of 2018. So it'd be
November 2020 or early 2021
The utilities will be done first in about 11 months
Should be green it is green there you go. That's it now. It
's always been green
I don't really see we have a whole lot of
Choices here really
Dollars that we I mean how badly would it impact all of our
capital projects? Yeah
Well, that's certainly a lot of money it would have an
impact at this point
We're proceeding thinking that we're going to get the funds
from the RTR and from cog as we've described to you
But it would be an impact. Absolutely for some other
projects, but we'd hopefully be able to restructure
projects brings
Maybe delay some other projects that we had and bring funds
forward to make this happen. This is a priority project for
us
It's ready to go and it's long long overdue
I don't suppose the public utility portion can be extracted
from the overall bid and bid separately
so
It would be possible to take that work out and rebid it
again and constructed it by some other methods and not use
the textile
Contractor, but that would cause about 18 months of delay
for the textile project
Then they would have to rebid their project and in 18
months their prices are gonna be way more higher than this
additional
$3 million for the job. Everybody understands that and that
that delay would really hurt them much more financially
than this would
And just to lighten it how will I get to mr. Frosty?
We need to make sure there's a good detail
Hopefully text on is considered that
Well, I
think this this is a
Big project and it's been it has been on the drawing board
for a long time. I know we've talked about it in
bond committees for probably
20 years and
You know text dot is bearing the brunt of the cost of
It's a much more
much better project than then, you know, if we were of
course we couldn't really widen the state road anyway, but
I know
Some of the history of it is it goes back to the
replacement of the railroad underpass text dots
taking all that
cost on
So yeah, it's it is what it is
It's the I'm on now, right?
Is the 3.8 coming out of the most recent bond or is it what
where the funds coming for the three?
So these are utility bonds utility revenue funds
There's money in the accounts to pay for that 3.8 6 million
today. We have to send text out a check
Immediately after the City Council meeting tomorrow
Well, it sounds like you're confident the other three
millions gonna come I'm very confident
I don't want y'all to think that that's not gonna happen
Okay
I'm excited about the project. Like you said, yeah
I was disturbed by this little hiccup, especially after
since it happened right after the last pub meeting that was
a shame
But we're about to get it resolved
And it sounds like a good solution. So
Okay, well the comments
Do we have a motion then on item B
I'll move approval
Motion and a second to approve item B
Any discussion I just want to recommend I don't want to
sound like
Doomsday here, but I'd like to recommend that we start
thinking about other options for funding before October
rolls around
You know just so that we're not caught by it
That's a good idea. That's a good point
Okay, any other discussion all in favor say aye aye any
opposed
Okay, thank you
Next we have item C which is ACM update. Good morning. Mr.
Chairman members of the board
Not much to report in your packet. There is a memo that
Indic that provides you a summary of all the utility rate
decreases and that are being recommended for fiscal year
1819 the only area that is not being decreased is the
is the
Excuse me is within the water fund. So all the other items
Utilities electric wastewater solid waste are all being
decreased for this next fiscal year
So if you have any questions, we have representatives from
finance here that can help answer any any detailed
questions that you may have
But very good news for didn't repairs this next year
nothing further
Very good
Okay, we will before we go into closed session I guess we
'll ask through any
Concluding Adams under section 551
102 the Texas Open Meetings Act is to respond to inquiries
from the public utilities board or the public with specific
factual information
Arrest station of policy or accepted proposal to place a
matter on the agenda for an upcoming meeting
I just have a quick question
Mine is really a simple question. I don't know if it falls
under those guidelines there
But it does does anybody know if Spencer station came
online when it got really hot last month
I'd heard that Spencer station was being mothballed
But when I rode by there on my scooter the other day it
felt like the cooling towers were operating
But I don't know you might have we handle that in closed
session. I have an answer
Okay, given that somebody else's power plant and whether it
runs or doesn't run is kind of competitive in the
marketplace
Just over but it was really just an observational question
I don't really need to know if it was performing well or
anything like that on or off I guess but that's okay
I'm just so no we do okay. We'll catch it right away. That
's not on the agenda for today
But we can look at trying to give you some information.
Okay. Well, I guess I just thought maybe it fell under
factual information
Yes, it was on no, it wasn't
Okay, okay then mine is on July 23rd in the Wall Street
Journal there was an article on
Russian hackers reach US utility control systems Homeland
Security officials say so
Can we have a report on what we're doing to make sure that
that isn't?
happening, I don't know that probably has to be closed
session, but you know check with Larry and
Obviously, we don't want everybody to know what we're doing
. But I'd like to know what we're doing
At least when I was doing something right
Okay, any other items for future agenda or for future
agenda items
Okay, if not we will convene the
Closed session at
948 to consider the following items