Buckeye Water District Meeting - Thursday - 8/20/09

The BWD's regular monthly meeting was held Thursday morning at the Wellsville Village Hall. In attendance for the Board was President Mike Ryan & members Chuck Bibbee, Cal Carney, Jack Whitaker, Dave Lloyd, Tim O'Hara, Bob Wines and Jack Call. Also present was District Manager Al DeAngelis, District Legal Council Fred Emmerling & Office Mgr./Fiscal Administrator Sara Crouch.


Minutes of previous meeting were approved as read and there was no one wishing to address the Board during the Public Comment Period.


With the recommendation of the Finance Committee the Board voted unanimously to name Wellsville's Central Federal Bank as their new depository for the next five years. Allowing time for various administrative functions the contract will take effect 11/1/09. Other bidders for depository were Huntington National and 1st National Community. Huntington is the current depository.


Also under the Resolutions portion of the agenda Dave Sugar Excavating of New Middletown, OH was awarded the contract for the Phase A construction of the Salineville project. Phase A is the installation of the water line & hydrants from the new Water Treatment Plant to the Southern Local High School area on Route 39. Sugar was the low bidder at $2.7 million out of the 11 bids submitted. Engineer estimates were $3.4 million for this phase. After being approved by the District's engineers and upon recommendation of the Board's Engineering Committee the contract was awarded by another unanimous vote.


Awarding that bid is just Part 1 of the process. Before Notice to Proceed can be given to begin construction approval by the Ohio EPA must be given, finalization for financing the project must be completed and a bond must be filed by the contractor among other things.


Payment of a bill to Pusateri Excavating for $9,957 was approved for work done on the water line break two weeks ago. It was also announced that the district received the $15,000 grant from Homeland Security for surveillance cameras to be installed at the new facilities. Total cost for this project is $17,588 and cameras will be installed at the Pumping Station, Reservoir and the Water Treatment Plant. Once operational personnel will be able to monitor those areas via district computers at any of their facilities.

Various water line extensions were discussed when the County Liason Committee met recently. Phase B of the Salineville project will have bids ready to go sometime around late September or early October. This phase will be the continuation of the water line installed under Phase A into the village of Salineville. Bids for a bed for a new truck purchased by the District will be published soon.

For the District Manager's Report it was announced the new decking for the bridge was finished this past Wednesday at the old Salineville Water Treatment Plant. Board President Ryan said he went out to check on it and thought it was very substantial. It should allay any fears of crossing it. He commended the BWD employees for the excellent job on that.

DeAngelis went on to advise that ODNR will be conducting a warranty inspection on the new facilities August 31. Once satisfied the money tied up in bonds will be released. DeAngelis also announced that ODOT is requiring a $60,000 bond on Phase A of the Salineville project. Instead of going out and purchasing an actual bond ODOT has approved that the amount be held in escrow. Pusateri has begun work on repairing the slippage at the Route 45 holding tank. Completion of that job is estimated to be five weeks.

Next regular meeting is scheduled for September 17 at 9 A.M. at Wellsville Village Hall.

Following the regular meeting the Service Committee met will the owner of an apartment complex here in Wellsville and who was asking for some consideration for his July water bill. The complex has six units and all units are on one water meter. Monthly water bills are usually around $275/month. The bill for last month was $525 and after investigating the owner found three toilets that were constantly running. His tenants did not report that they were not functioning properly. District officials advised that toilets that don't shut off after refilling are the number one cause of enormous water bills. Committee Chairman Cal Carney apologized for the owner's hardship but advised the Water District was not responsible for malfunctioning privately owned equipment. Committee members Dave Lloyd & Tim O'Hara agree with O'Hara advising an extended payment plan for this bill could be arranged if necessary. The apartment owner thanked the Committee for their time stating he felt it was worth the effort to try. It may have effected his immediate cash flow but come tax time it's all deductible.

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