Loading...
04/23/2001 - Minutes TIGARD WATER DISTRICT BOARD OF COMMISSIONER'S MEETING Monday, April 23, 2001 Members Present: Beverly Froude, David Strauss, George Rhine and Norm Penner Staff Present: Ed Wegner and Twila Willson Visitors Present: Paul Owen 1. Call to Order The regular meeting of the Tigard Water District Board of Commissioners was called to order by Commissioner David Strauss at 7:01 p.m. 2. Roll Call Staff called the roll. Commissioner Gretchen Buehner has still not turned in a written resignation and, therefore, was included in the roll call, but was not present. Commissioner Beverly Froude stated she would contact Commissioner Buehner to remind her that a written resignation must be submitted. 3. Approval of Workshop Minutes— February 26, 2001 There was no discussion or corrections to the minutes. Commissioner Beverly Froude motioned to accept the February 26, 2001, minutes as submitted. Commissioner George Rhine seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous to accept the minutes as submitted. 4. Visitor's Comments None 5. Abstract of Votes for TWD— March 13, 2001, election The Abstract of Votes was reviewed. Two write-in candidates (Bruce Stobbe and Mary Stobbe) were elected to the Tigard Water District Board of Commissioners. After canvassing the votes and agreeing with the final results, Commissioner David Strauss signed the Elections Division document. The Board of Commissioners requested the two newly elected Board Members be added to the mailing list for distribution of the agendas and packet information. Tigard Water District Minutes - 1 - April 23,2001 6. Intergovernmental Water Board Update Commissioner Beverly Froude reported on the discussion the Intergovernmental Water Board had about the leak adjustment requested by Mr. McKiernan. The matter has been turned over to the insurance claim's adjuster who will be making the decision about whether the Tigard Water System will pay the requested damage claim or not. The IWB also discussed several projects. • Aquifer Storage Recovery (ASR) • Bradley Corners • Clute property partition, appraisal and sale - Appraisal value was for $265,000 —� Goes before City Council Tuesday night for approval of sale —÷ Council will set a minimum bid amount (at appraised value or less) —* Surplus property will be advertised - Sealed bids will be taken for two to three weeks Sale will proceed without going through Council if minimum is met - Council must approve if highest bid is below the minimum set bid The City does not want to buy property for a park A neighbor is interested in the property to build a private dwelling • Reservoir sealing Joint Water Commission Ed Wegner reported that they have met twice with the JWC with another meeting scheduled Tuesday night. Reports have been received from Unified Sewerage Agency (USA) on the Integrated Resource Management Plan and the needs for additional water. They want to conduct a study on raising the dam at Hagg Lake. Our portion of the feasibility study over a two-year period would be $150,000. South Fork • There was a March meeting that was held shortly after the West Linn turmoil when the Public Works Director, City Manager, Finance Director and Community Development Director (and more) were fired. At the workshop meeting, their mayor said they had been too busy to read the report. In the report they were given three alternatives. • Tigard, Lake Oswego, North Clackamas River Commission and South Fork join together • Water rights transferred to us and we set up our own "water board" using those rights to build a treatment plant, etc. • Sell us wholesale water with a contract They were to take this under advisement and would meet again in April. They are still not ready to meet with us. Mr. Wegner thinks it is a dead issue at this point. We will wait for a written proposal from them with which of the proposals Tigard Water District Minutes -2- April 23, 2001 they would like to pursue with us. At this point South Fork is on hold or no longer an alternative for long term water. Portland Portland's Commissioner Sten made a proposal that the Bull Run become a regional operation. He said that Portland was the only municipality in existence in the beginning of the Bull Run water issue and got it through default. He wants Portland to offer to those interested suburb entities the creation of a regional entity that will own and help pay for water. Portland's Administrator's report given to their City Council shows $700,000,000 worth of improvements tabled for the next 25 years, which they want help paying for. We received a fax from Portland on Friday showing this as an agenda item for their Wednesday Council Meeting. The resolution is very broad in scope. Commissioner Sten hopes to pass the resolution and then contact each water entity individually about joining in the discussion panel to create the proposed regional entity. Mr. Wegner indicated there are two types of entities now. Supply entity—This is what the suburbs have been most interested in. Tigard would share in the costs of the Bull Run and then take care of our own local system. Combined Assets entity- Everyone involved would join all their assets together to create "one family" to help pay for the $700,000,000 anticipated debt. Mr. Wegner has not heard much regional support for this plan. He thinks the discussion will steer toward supply only. This process will take a long time, approximately ten years. Commissioner Sten hopes to have one meeting of interested parties this summer. The two consultants (Integrated Utilities Group and Clark Balfour) who were previously hired to help with the negotiations of the wholesale contract with Portland met with us last week. Councilor Joyce Patton from Tigard and Jim Duggan from Tualatin Valley Water District (TVWD) will indicate their willingness to support further talks with Portland about the resolution and the concept of a regional entity. They will also bring up the need for an interim contract and not the same contract that exists with the peaking issues. Commissioner Froude asked if this would be the only water source for the Tigard area or if there would be another back up source. Mr. Wegner indicated that Commissioner Sten was talking for other people that this regional entity should consist of not only the Bull Run, but the Joint Commission and Clackamas River as well. His mistake has been that he has not checked with these other areas about the possibility of combining forces. He did leave out the Willamette River as a possible water contribution. He has said that interties are needed. Tigard Water District Minutes -3 - April 23, 2001 We will not drop our negotiations with the JWC as a water source. The IWB will need multiple water sources. Commissioner Strauss asked if Commissioner Sten was speaking for the other Commissioners or just for himself. Mr. Wegner stated a recent newspaper article indicated all the Commissioners were in favor of the resolution. Wednesday morning at 9:30 is the public meeting and we will find out then. Mr. Wegner will go to the meeting and state our interest in supporting that concept as an option, but we also want to continue working on an interim contract as well as pursue other options. There may be some Portland residents who speak out who may not want to share their water with the suburbs. Environmental groups may-also oppose the proposal. The whole process may go through without any objections. The Intergovernmental Water Board postponed discussion of the drought plan until the May meeting. Commissioner Penner brought up the list of citizen members and groups who have been invited to be on the Bull Run Treatment Citizen's Panel. He noted that there are no representatives from the suburbs. Mr. Wegner said the panel was set up before Commissioner Sten made the proposal for the regional organization. Mr. Wegner said there was a representative from TVWD and Gresham who are the two biggest contractors from the east side and west side. Also on the panel to study filtration of the Bull Run is the former director of the TVWD. Commissioner Strauss inquired when Commissioner Sten was to come up for re- election. Mr. Wegner informed him it would be in two years. Commissioner Rhine asked how many additional entities realistically could be included if the regional concept were to come to pass. Mr. Wegner responded that he thought it would be between six to eight major players. That is approximately $100,0007000 each (if divided evenly) to pay towards Portland's improvements and upgrades. It does not include the improvements needed by those added entities. It could take another $500,000,000 to raise Hagg Lake, for the reservoir, conduits, filtration and pipes to transport the water. Commissioner Rhine asked if this is completely out of line or if it is within the realm of financial possibility. Mr. Wegner said it would depend on what was to be included. One possibility would be as a supply entity with participants taking water from the watershed and being run by the individual entities, who would be responsible for their own water mains, meters, and having employees of their own. Commissioner Sten is looking at something like the "Portland Metropolitan Regional Water Authority" with its own employees. The participating entities would give up everything to the new entity. The questions arise as to who is to Tigard Water District Minutes -4- April 23, 2001 govern the new entity, is it under the City of Portland's jurisdiction or does it include elected officials from the entire geographic area? Commissioner Rhine asked how it would fit financially from a supply side. Mr. Wegner stated that several years ago when it was studied, Willamette was the cheapest source, then South Fork, the JWC, and Portland the last. He thought that the Portland system would be the most expensive. He was not able to put a cost to any of the possibilities yet. Commissioner Strauss asked if it would free up federal funds easier. Under the current federal administration, Mr. Wegner said it would be hard to determine. He stressed the importance of an interim contract. All prospective scenario results are about ten years away. - Commissioner Penner reported on the Montgomery Watson report that was made in the last IWB meeting on the ASR project. One interesting test was to pump the water in the aquifer on Well #1 at Canterbury to see how the water level drops. For that particular test they pumped to a certain point and kept pumping but the water did not drop down further. The ground water level appears to be moving up. They were uncertain where the water for the aquifer was coming from. Mr. Wegner added that this area has a lot of wells that tap into this water source. Several years ago the water tables were lower. Several large water users of ground water are no longer pumping which has allowed the natural recovery of the ground water level to rise. This will not take us off the critical groundwater area, but will possibly allow us to use more water during the hot summer months. Commissioner Penner said the feasibility report would be at the end of this month followed by a pilot study. If feasible, the full-scale aquifer operation will be ready in 2005. Mr. Wegner announced that Dennis Koellermeier has been hired as the new Utility Division Manager for the City of Tigard. He comes from West Linn with over 20 years experience in their Operations Department of Public Works. Dennis will be working on the day to day work and Ed will handle more of the water supply issues. 7. 2001-02 Budget Discussion Mr. Wegner presented the suggested timetable for the budget process and a copy of last year's budget. The year to date expenses will be provided by the Finance Department and sent to the TWD board members for review in preparing the 2001-02 budget. Commissioner George Rhine is the budget officer. Two separate meetings will need to be held in May for the budget process and the regular TWD meeting. The scheduled meeting is May 28, which is the Memorial Day Holiday; therefore, it was determined that the week prior to that date would need to be when these meetings are held. The timetable dates for advertising may need to be changed. Craig Prosser, Finance Director, will be invited to attend. Staff will check on the availability of requested staff participants and Tigard Water District Minutes -5- April 23, 2001 meeting facilities. We will try for May 22 at 6:00 p.m. for the Budget Committee Meeting followed by the regular TWD meeting. Commissioner Rhine will contact the Budget Committee members. (Staff will provide him with the phone numbers.) The Budget Committee is made up of the TWD Board of Commissioners and the five appointed citizen representatives. 8. Non-Agenda Items None 9. Set next meeting date May 22, 6:00 p.m. will be the tentative Budget Committee Meeting date and time, followed by the regular meeting of the Tigard Water District at 7:00 p.m. 10. Adjournment The meeting was unanimously voted for adjournment at 7:59 p.m. Tigard Water District Minutes -6- April 23, 2001