THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2008

REGULAR MEETING

7:30 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. Mrs. Hammond called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M., with Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mr. Sauer present. No members were absent. Others present were: Tricia Sanders, Jeff Fix, Kerry Hogan, Rob Shoaf, Stacey Bashore, Tim Hansley, Brenda VanCleave, Jennifer Frommer and others.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF September 11, 2008, Regular Meeting. Mr. Sauer moved to approve; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sauer, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

3. COMMUNITY COMMENTS: There were no community comments.

4. DEVELOPMENT:

A. Development Director's Report- Mr. Hansley stated that our economic development continues at a good pace considering 2008 is such a bad year nationally. He stated we have several projects that are moving ahead.

4. PLANNING AND ZONING DEPARTMENT:

A. Planning and Zoning Director’s Report. There was no report.

(1) Planning and Zoning Representative Report (Mr. Sauer) Mr. Sauer stated that Planning and Zoning had not met yet this month.

B. ACTION ITEMS: There were none.

5. SERVICE DEPARTMENT

A. REPORTS:

(1) Service Manager’s Report. Mr. Hansley stated Mr. Drobina was on vacation. Mrs. VanCleave reported that crews have been out working on cleaning up the debris from Hurricane Ike and it looks like we will be able to recoup 75% of our costs from FEMA. Mr. Hansley stated that we have determined that the bulk of the storm damage debris has been out and picked up and now we are finding more cosmetic types of trimmings and we will put a notice on it if we keep finding it.

(2) Staff Engineer's Report. Mrs. VanCleave stated she had submitted her written report and would answer any questions.

B. ACTION ITEMS:

(1) Review and discussion regarding TDS options and costs- Mrs. VanCleave stated she had submitted a written report and would answer any questions. She introduced Kerry Hogan and Rob Shoaf from URS to review their report with the Committee. Mrs. VanCleave stated that any development that occurs in the hospital area is going to be on our water and the sanitary flow will go to Little Walnut in Fairfield or Canal Winchester so there will be a dilution that we will receive back. She stated that the funding for this comes from the water fund and not necessarily the general fund and if there are concerns about how to finance it that can be addressed at the next Finance Committee with Dennis Schwallie. Mrs. VanCleave stated we discussed how our water plant operates and what we can do to operate it more efficiently to try and reduce solids without doing something radical, but what we came up with wasn't enough. Mr. Shoaf stated that we reduced the salt by 8 to 10%, but it wasn't enough to solve the problem. He stated that nearly all of the dissolved solids that are at the waste water plant are coming from the ion exchange softeners at the water treatment plant. Mr. Shoaf reviewed the TDS options with the Committee. Mrs. VanCleave stated that Canal Winchester currently has to report their TDS number to the EPA and that is how we started, so she didn't know if that would still be an option. Mr. Hansley asked if there would be a way to make the numbers lower but would not cause people to buy their own softener and Mr. Shoaf stated that this whole report was based on June 2007 and you can't tell because you don't know what people will complain about. Mr. Wisniewski stated that if we cut it down now it is only a temporary fix because there are still projects to be built. Mr. Shoaf stated that something that is promising is a dilution well at the WWTP that will let you take ground water and mix it with wastewater, but you will probably have to do some treatment for it. Mr. Wisniewski asked if there was any way to treat it more efficiently at the WWTP and Mr. Shoaf stated unfortunately there was not because it removes very little dissolved solids but not enough. Mrs. VanCleave stated EPA has reported that the best way to address the pollution source is at the source. Mr. Shoaf reviewed communities that currently use reverse osmosis and stated that most of the bottled water companies use reverse osmosis. He also reviewed probable costs for nano filtration and the Water Treatment Plant numbers. Mr. Sauer asked if it was possible to sell the softener system that the city currently has to use for the reverse osmosis and Mr. Shoaf stated it would be and you may be able to get around $150,000 for selling the softeners. Mr. Fix asked how big a problem the TDS was and how many violations have we received and Mrs. VanCleave stated we received violations four times last year and this year we violated once. Mr. Fix asked how far out of bounds were we and Mrs. VanCleave stated we were way out of bounds. Mr. Wisniewski stated that the problem is the limits are going down and where we are now that path is going to cross more. Mr. Shoaf stated that if there were weekly limits you would be violating at least four times and there is a monthly maximum. Mr. Hansley stated that the first round of violations you get warning letters and monetary fines and at some point they will shut us down if we keep violating. Mr. Fix stated that we need to look at this more. Mrs. VanCleave stated as a part of our WWTP permit it is a condition to solve our TDS problem, so we have committed ourselves to treating this problem. Mr. Sauer ask what action can they take against our WWTP and Mrs. VanCleave stated it would be a lawsuit because we violated the agreement and because we are now considered a major WWTP we are now being watched by the Federal government. Mr. Wisniewski asked what the maintenance costs would be for a Reverse Osmosis systems and Mr. Shoaf stated there would be around $45,000 that would be put into a fund under annual costs and after five years you would have enough to buy a new set of membranes. Mr. Wisniewski asked what the rest of the costs would be for annual maintenance and Mr. Shoaf stated under reverse osmosis there is around $33,000 in extra power and chemical prices drive the costs up to around $130,000 annually. Mr. Wisniewski stated that if we would be saving money on the reverse osmosis than that could be applied to the cost of the system. Mr. Shoaf stated that you could do the softening as well as the reverse osmosis, but there wouldn't be any more of a cost benefit. He stated that another benefit to doing reverse osmosis is the water will be far superior and you do pay a little more for that. Mr. Wisniewski asked what the issues would be for using reverse osmosis and Mr. Shoaf stated reverse osmosis is more complicated but shouldn't be a major issue. He stated that the reverse osmosis system could be installed before the end of the construction of the WWTP. Mr. Wisniewski stated that he wants to know how much the reverse osmosis system is going to reduce the TDS and Mr. Shoaf stated that up to the current water plant capacity you will have no issues. Mr. Shoaf stated he would get back with the Committee to let them know what the number would be for the reduction of TDS if a reverse osmosis system is installed. Ms Frommer stated she has had the same thoughts that it is a lot of money for no more than the City violates and wanted to know if there was some kind of review of the system's response to extra TDS and see if there was a minimal approach to solve it as opposed to putting a lot of money into it up front. Mr. Shoaf stated one strategy would be to look at the stream and control the discharge based on the flow of the creek and the EPA has not allowed that because it is too hard to enforce. He stated it could also cause a problem in the winter because of the runoff from the salts on the roads into the stream. Mr. Shoaf stated you would also have to be prepared to shut softeners off in the dry months. Ms Frommer stated that it may be helpful to determine what the system's sensitivities are and putting monitoring in place to educate ourselves. Mrs. VanCleave clarified that we do not have 18 months because on January 1 it goes to 1710 and when the plant comes on line it goes to 1632. Mr. Shoaf stated it would be an option but EPA would have to agree to a tiered limit based on the flow of the creek. Mrs. VanCleave stated it is somewhat difficult to predict and then if we get the violation she is concerned. Mr. Fix stated it could be a starting point to shut the softeners down when we know we are going to have dry months. Mr. Sauer asked as we increase our capacity is this a problem that is going to get progressively worse and Mr. Shoaf stated that the more water customers you serve that are not wastewater customers is the problem. Mr. Fix stated that eventually we will be facing this, but we don't know when. Mr. Shoaf stated the money would also be coming from the water fund that is self sustaining. Mr. Wisniewski requested that the TDS sampling data to date be provided to see if there are any trends. Mr. Hogan stated that there may be other short term solutions, but at some point a long term solution will have to be installed.

6. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CAPITAL PROJECTS.

A. WASTEWATER

(1) Wastewater Plant Expansion - Update. Ms Frommer stated that the preconstruction conference will be next week and there will be more information provided.

B. TRANSPORTATION:

(1) Diley Road Improvements Project: Ms Frommer stated there is a lot of a activity in the corridor now and there will be a traffic shift by the end of the year depending on the weather.

C. WATER: No Report.

D. STORMWATER. No Report.

7. CHAIRMAN. Mr. Wisniewski stated he had nothing to bring forward this evening.

8. OTHER BUSINESS:

A. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance authorizing the City Manager to enter into an agreement for Red Light cameras with RedFlex Traffic Systems, Inc. Mr. Wisniewski stated our representative from RedFlex was in and told us that we cannot get around the increase of time on the Yellow lights. He stated that hypothetically the type of accidents we are trying to reduce are the t-bone type and the two major intersections are Diley and Grandview by Drug Mart and the other S.R. 256 and Refugee. Mr. Wisniewski stated there are two ways to look at the lower number of accidents because it could either be because of the red light cameras or because there was another second added to the yellow light. He stated he didn't believe it was the red light cameras that were stopping the accidents. Mr. Fix asked how you would get the data on whether it is because of the added time to the yellow light and Mr. Wisniewski stated we could try it and see. Ms Frommer stated that Refugee and S.R. 256 is no surprise but Diley and Grandview would be a significant capacity issue. Mr. Wisniewski stated there are other options to reduce accidents besides red light cameras. Mrs. Hammond stated there could be more no right turn on red lights around the City that we could consider for safety. Mr. Sauer stated everyone wants to impede the ability to run a red light but people do race to get through yellow lights and common sense would be if we add another second to them creates a further safety risk. He stated that if there is a camera there to catch that action if you don't make it through the light people will think twice about it the next time. Mr. Hansley stated that Mr. Bosch stopped in to clarify that ODOT would let it up to us on the intersection at S.R. 256 and S.R. 204 and the signage would have to be on the freeway to let people know they are entering a red light camera zone. He further stated that ODOT wants to work with us on the ACS system and we could add that intersection at a later date once we have tried them elsewhere. Ms Frommer stated it is difficult to predict people's driving natures, but there should be some data that is after the fact. Mr. Wisniewski asked if there was any data regarding traffic flow and Ms Frommer stated the capacity issues have not been addressed as far as she knows and we could look into that with RedFlex and the City of Columbus. Mr. Wisniewski stated there have been studies that show accidents have increased where the red light cameras have been placed. He stated that he wants to see the data before and after the installation. Mr. Fix stated red light cameras modifies behavior and gets people to slow down. Mrs. Hammond asked what about lowering the speed limit and Ms Frommer stated that it can't be done without adjusting the thoroughfare plan. Mrs. Hammond stated she is opposed to cameras because big brother is watching us all the time and if there is a problem with running red lights put a cop there. Mrs. Sanders stated it would be worth it if it would save one life and she doesn't see a down side. Mr. Wisniewski stated he is not buying that it will save lives and he wants to see updated data and how it would affect the traffic flow by the next meeting.

9. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Sauer moved to adjourn; Mr. Wisniewski seconded the motion. Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Sauer, and Mr. Wisniewski voted “Aye.” Motion carried, 3-0. The Service Committee adjourned at 9:25 P.M., October 9, 2008.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Stacey L. Bashore, Deputy Municipal Clerk