Aug 28, 2023 Public Utilities Board on 2023-08-28 9:00 AM

>> Okay. It is 9 o'clock and we do have a call to order the public utilities board for the City of Denton on Monday, August 28, 2023. The first item is presentations from the members of the public. We didn't get any e-comments, correct, Kim? Is there anyone from the public who wishes to speak? Okay. I see none. We'll move on to items for individual consideration. The first item is considered approval of the August 14, 2023 minutes. Do we have any changes or corrections? Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve? Thomas moves. And Barbara seconds. All in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Aye. Carries. Next item is consider recommending the adoption of an ordinance for the wood utility poles in the amount of $8,250,000. >> Good morning, members of the PB. Randy Key, electric engineering supervisor at DME. All right. Bringing forward a contract for wood utility poles. Wood utility poles are used by DME for existing pole replacements and new installations. These poles will be stored and managed at the DME campus on Spencer Drive. The current wood utility pole contract, 6813, is expiring. The NT for this contract was 3.125 million. We amended this contract by 25% here recently. The NT for this upcoming contract for 8252 is calculated using historical usage. The priority pole replacement project replaced 1,600 poles in the next three to five years. And also I'd like to bring up that prices for wood poles have increased by 80% and the lead times have increased by nine months. >> Wow. >> This is a table for our spend and we plan to spend around $1.6 million a year on wood poles. And we recommend approving this contract with Stella Jones. And at this time I'll take questions. >> I see Barbara's going to ask a question. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Yeah. Why do you think we only have one person that responds after all the requests you send out? >> That's a great question. So Stella Jones bought up all of the materials to manufacture the creosote. >> Oh. Pretty clever. >> Very clever. >> Have you considered using -- I know there's a price difference, but what in concrete or metal poles and -- >> Yes, ma'am. We have looked into that. We do have metal and concrete poles on our system. It's a much smaller percentage. Concrete poles is much more difficult to construct. And pricing wise it is much more expensive for both. >> Even over the lifetime that they would last? >> Steel poles, yes. And concrete, it's much more expensive to construct. We currently don't have the equipment to set the concrete poles. And so that would create more cost. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Other questions? >> Move approval. >> Thank you, Barbara. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Devin second. All in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Motion carries. Thank you, Randy. >> Thank you very much. >> The next item is consider recommending the adoption of rates and fees for the solid waste and recycling collection service. >> Good morning. Amy Caslik, interim finance director. I'm here today to receive your recommendation on utility rates. We do have a presentation. If you would like to see that, that covers this item as well as the next two. Would you like to -- yes. Go ahead, Lee. >> Sure. >> Better? >> Better. >> Will you go ahead and call the next two items? >> Oh, thank you. Since it's on all of them, okay, then I'll call PUB 23156. Consider recommending the adoption of rates and fees for waste water service. And item PUB 23158, consider rates and fees for water and waste water service. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mo Salo. >> Okay. A rate increase is not included for solid waste and recycling for fiscal year 2024. However, do want to keep in mind that a cost of service study is currently underway. So the results of that study will be brought forward at a later date. You do, however, see the rate history for this service including significant rate reductions over the last several years. While there are no proposed rate increases, we are including a proposal for a cart change fee of $50 as well as a recycling cart fee of 15. And the $15 would apply to any customer with more than two carts. So at that third cart, that rate would then apply for each additional cart. There's also some proposed changes to the language in the rate ordinance related to bulky waste. And it provides that waste in excess of four cubic yards will not be collected but instead will be required to be placed in a roll off container. Places outside of the container are limited to five per week at a weight limit of 50 pounds per bag. And finally, the ordinance specifies that dishwashers for the purpose of this ordinance are not considered appliances or electronics. >> Mr. Rybeck has a question. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Why are dishwashers excluded from appliances? >> Going to let Director Brian Boehner answer that for you. >> Thank you. >> Good morning. Brian Boehner, city of Denton. It has come to our attention and based on the feedback from our metal recycler, there is too much plastic in a dishwasher these days to be considered a metal appliance. There's no free on, no electronics that are hazardous materials that we have to manage in a special way. So that material will go directly to the landfill. >> Interesting. Thank you. >> And we will need to make a revision to the red line ordinance that you have in front of you to ensure that that $50 is stated in the ordinance. We are proposing rate changes related to -- >> Excuse me. >> Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. >> One other question. The cart change, this is a customer requests a different cart, like a larger cart or a smaller cart? >> Normally that is a free service. However, let's say it's a Tuesday afternoon and I decide I want a bigger or smaller cart and I need it there Wednesday, that's where the $50 comes in. Normally it takes us a week to process that. So what this is, is to allow us the opportunity to ensure we have the appropriate effort to make that next day's service available. >> Okay. So like urgent cart. >> Correct. For whatever urgent cart change out, emergency may occur. >> Yes, sir. >> Is this the recycling cart, is that a one-time fee or a monthly add? >> No, that is a one-time fee. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Everyone good with this slide? Okay. Thank you. I didn't want to move on again too quickly. I apologize. We are proposing increases in each of these rates related to grass, brush and leaves by $5 a piece. And these fees cover the cost of beneficial reuse. Yes, sir. >> I apologize. The $15 fee for the recycle cart is actually for additional carts. So you will get a free cart. But if there's additional recycle carts, then there's a $15 fee for that. Because we have some people out there with five and six recycle carts that are being used as garbage carts, for lack of a better term, at no additional cost. And that's what we're trying to help us abate. >> Okay. So if I could clarify. So then it's not a single charge for the delivery of the extra cart. It's a monthly charge. >> It is a monthly charge. >> For keeping the cart. >> Correct. The additional cart. >> The $15 cart. >> Yes, ma'am. So if you had a short-term need for an additional and then you were done with it, then you can send it back. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Or you could bring that material out to the City of Denton landfill or the North Lakes Park at no charge and deposit that material there. >> Yes, sir. >> We do have a couple of fee removals, and that is removing the fee for contaminated yard waste, old trees and stumps, which are not collected at the landfill, as well as concrete actually is then used to offset costs within the landfill. Anything? Yes. >> A lot of people are using crushed concrete for various things. Have we are we doing any of that? >> No, we are not. We cannot scale up to the size that would make it even cost effective for us to manage that material. And besides, there's three or four contractors out there that do that commercially and viably. There's no reason for us to get into that business. >> One more question. Don't sit down. >> My question is, you said commercial contractors, so do you mean commercial in the sense that they are only gathering those materials from commercial sites or are these contractors also available to pick up at homes that are doing major yard renovations? >> Most of the time, if you're doing major home renovation, major renovation at your home, you've got a contractor, they're going to haul it wherever. But if you're doing a DIY job that you can put the stuff in a box in the back of your pickup truck, that material will be collected. But what we're talking about is the large slabs of concrete that it just becomes impossible for us to manage. It breaks our equipment, things of that nature. >> I understand the concrete. I was thinking more in terms of the brush and grass and leaves and tree branches and all that kind of thing. >> Correct. Okay. Thank you. >> So next we're going to look at the wastewater proposed rates. So it includes an 11% increase across all customer classes for facility and usage charges. You'll see that in this rate history, the rate has remained unchanged since fiscal year 2019, at which time we reduced the rates by 5%. You may also recall from our discussions about the wastewater budget in our last meeting that there are significant capital investments needed not only for growth but also just to maintain existing infrastructure. So as a result, that rate is no longer sufficient to support the needs of the utility. Rate increases of 10 to 11% are projected each year for the next few years. So this slide shows the rate comparison. And when we look at this, we're actually using an AWWA standard that looks at the charge for a 3/4 inch meter and 8,000 gallons of usage. For that comparable rate, based again on those AWWA standards, we would go from a charge of $41.40 a month to $45.95. However, the average residential customer in Denton is charged $33 a month. They use an average of a little over 5,000 gallons of wastewater. So that increase would result in a $3.30 increase on their monthly water bill. We have here a removal of two rates and there's actually a correction that's going to be needed here. We are removing the dyno dirt overs. However, in a conversation this morning, it was clarified that because red mulch does not sell, they are going to quit selling red mulch. However, they are going to continue to sell black and brown mulch. So this rate will actually not be removed from the ordinance. We'll need to add it back in when we go to council. We are including water and I'm sure you saw from the redlined ordinance that we really are just changing the effective date for this particular rate and that's more of a technicality and really formally establishing those rates, particularly for customer cities. But there are no changes to any rates or fees for the water utility. Next steps, we'll be going to council or holding, I'm sorry, a public hearing on September 19th and then taking these rates and fees to council for adoption on the 26th. Any additional questions? So we should probably take each one separately. Is that correct, Marcella? Yes. All right. So PUB 23154, establishing rates and fees for the solid waste and recycling collection service. I think we need to have an amended motion to approve it with the changes in the $50 cut fee being added to the redlined ordinance. Correct. So do we have a motion to do that? Leave motions. Do we have a second? Devin seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. All right. Next is PUB 23156, consider recommending the adoption of rates and fees for the wastewater service and again, this one needs to be modified to include the mulch for colored mulch rate. Correct. To not remove it. To not remove that. Do we have a motion to approve that with that change? Move approval. Barbara moved approval. Devin seconds. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. PUB 23158, consider recommending the adoption of an ordinance for rates and fees for the water service. This one was without any changes. Do we have a motion? Thomas moves and do we have second? Devin seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. Carries. Thank you very much. Thank you. Management reports. Madam Chair, members of PUB, just going to cover the feature agenda items really quick. We just have on here listed a wastewater master plan will be coming to you on October 9th. Again, as I've said before, just because there's blanks here doesn't mean we're not going to cover other stuff, right? But for now, this will be outlined for you. And then the new action, new business action matrix, we do have a couple of items that Barbara Russell had asked when was an update on the coal plant. I'm assuming you meant Gibbons Creek. We'll be putting a memo together for you on that. And then the other item I was talking about regarding, you know, hanging or dangling what is really telecommunication lines, communication lines, Jerry Fielder and our folks from public works inspection are working on the memo as well. So we hope to have that to you for your next meeting. So those are the items that we have outstanding. The winter storm urea update, we provided that at your last meeting. And so I'm happy to answer any questions you have or if there's something else you'd like to add, let us know. So I have one one item. So I think I mentioned this at the last PPA we approved for large commercial solar within Denton. I'd like to see or do we have a policy or guideline or outline of what those large commercial PPAs would look like? I know it's it's challenging for if a business isn't target or embassy suites to navigate the negotiation process to even know the amount of money they might be able to generate from their solar installation, which is the first step to even know if they can usually install commercial solar. So if we have if we have guidelines or policies on commercial solar, and what we would generally like expect to pay potential, you know, potential solar installations, or what they might what benefits they might see on charge reduction on their on their bills, that sort of thing. Yeah, we can put something together for you on that. Thank you. That's all you have, Mr. Puente? Yes, ma'am. That's it. All right. That brings us to concluding items. Does any board member wish to add a future item or have something to say to the public? I see none. So it is 919 motion to adjourn. The motions to adjourn or adjourn.