WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2009

REGULAR MEETING

7:50 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Wisniewski called the meeting to order at 7:50 P.M., with Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mr. Sauer present. No members were absent. Others present were: Tim Hansley, Lynda Yartin, Ed Drobina, Brenda VanCleave, Jennifer Frommer, Fred Holmes, Deb Chuvalas, and others.

2. A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF April 22, 2009, Regular Meeting. Mrs. Hammond moved to approve; Mr. Sauer seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sauer, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

B. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF May 5, 2009, Special Meeting. Mrs. Hammond moved to approve; M. Sauer seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Hammond, and Mr. Sauer voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

3. COMMUNITY COMMENTS: There were no community comments.

4. DEVELOPMENT:

A. Development Director’s Report. Mr. Hansley stated he had nothing to add to the report he had provided to Council. Mr. Hansley stated he would answer any questions anyone might have.

5. PLANNING AND ZONING DEPARTMENT:

A. Planning and Zoning Director’s Report. Mr. Hansley stated Mr. Schultz was in a meeting with some landowners in another part of the building, but he had provided a written report to the Committee. Mr. Hansley stated he would answer any questions anyone might have.

(1) Planning and Zoning Representative Report. Mr. Sauer stated Planning and Zoning Commission met on May 12th, and had approved signage for the Shoppes at the Parkway, signage for Rule (3), and had approved an addition for a home in the old downtown being converted to a styling salon, and the addition to the Volunteer Energy building. Mr. Sauer stated the other discussion was regarding the request to approve a vinyl type curtain that had been added to the awning at Classics Pizza and the Commission did not approve that request.

B. ACTION ITEMS: NONE.

6. SERVICE DEPARTMENT

A. REPORTS:

(1) Service Manager’s Report. Mr. Drobina stated he had provided a written report and he would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Wisniewski clarified the speed limit was painted on the road in Fox Glen approximately three weeks ago and there have been no comments either negative or positive received. Mr. Drobina stated he had attended a training on the ACS lights for the past two days.

Mr. Drobina stated at Mr. Wisniewski’s request he had provided water and sewer rates for other communities. Mr. Wisniewski stated we are less on water than Canal but slightly higher on sewer. Mr. Wisniewski stated we are considerably cheaper than Fairfield County. Mr. Wisniewski stated, however, we are looking at a 13 percent increase for water and a 19 percent increase for sewer. Mr. Drobina stated the report provided by Mr. Cramer states sewer will be self-sufficient next year due in part to the agreement with Canal Winchester where we bill the residents of Fox Glen East and West and Sycamore Creek. Mr. Wisniewski stated we are billing our own residents more than what they would be charged at Canal’s rates. He stated he has received calls about this, and Mr. Drobina stated he has received a couple as well. Mr. Wisniewski stated the residents in those subdivisions that we are billing are not using our sewer system. Mr. Hansley stated our excess rate covers our cost of billing and we accept bad debt, we have to do the turn ons and turn offs, and we are administering the billing program on behalf of the Village of Canal Winchester which allows us to charge over and above theirs because we have direct costs. Mr. Wisniewski stated he understood that, but we have a fairly large segment of residents in those neighborhoods that could care less that Pickerington is administering a program for Canal Winchester, especially when they are going to be paying twenty percent more on their sewer bills for sewer service that they don’t use. Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to know if in 2008 we overspent on water capital by $477,000, and Mr. Drobina stated he would have to check with Mr. Schornack on those figures. Mr. Wisniewski stated that is what he would like to know. Mr. Hansley stated he would point out that the water fund is the exact opposite of the sewer fund in that we sell water to Canal Winchester at a profit so this fund would be less fiscally sound if not for the fact that we sell water at a premium to Miejer’s and things south of Busey Road. He stated the water fund is benefiting from having the outside customers for that utility. Mr. Hansley stated the reason we did this report was because of Mr. Wisniewski’s concern if this would be an appropriate time to freeze water rates and/or hold off on some capital improvements. He further stated he felt between Ms VanCleave’s report on the need for the water tower and this fiscal analysis it shows that it probably would not be a good time to freeze water rates or defer capital improvements, or at least that particular capital improvement. Mr. Hansley stated at some point in the near future we need to build a water tower and we barely generate enough rates with the planned rate increases to cover that capital cost, even with the Canal customers. Mr. Drobina stated also with the Diley Road expansion so many dollars from water was allocated to pay on that project. Mr. Wisniewski stated everything with sewer though is opposite of the water, he did not see anything in the negative category on sewer. Mr. Drobina stated that was correct, it was all positive on sewer. Mr. Wisniewski inquired if there was any reason we needed to do the rate increases for 2010, the 19 percent. Mr. Sauer stated in looking at our budget for this year, last year we actually came out ahead when you look at the sewer fund, and next year we are showing a gap of about $500,000. He stated without looking any closer his assumption is that is probably the sewer plant. Mr. Drobina stated we will actually not start paying on the sewer plant until 2011. Mr. Sauer stated our expenditures this year for sewer fund were a little $2 million and next year they are supposed to be about $3.18 million. Mr. Drobina stated if you go back a couple of years in the budgets, the transfers and reimbursements have really increased because she is transferring more money to pay debt than what she used to. Mr. Drobina stated when the initial analysis for rates was done in 2006, we said we would hold our expenditures at three percent growth. For the water in 2006 we estimated that our contractual service expenditures would be $482,000 and this year they are $511,000; so this year we are actually $28,000 higher than what we projected three years ago. He continued that in sewer we projected that our contractual services would be $704,000 and in actuality they are only $675,000; so we projected sewer a little higher than what it actually is. Mr. Drobina stated what Mr. Wisniewski is saying kind of makes sense, that we may not need to increase our sewer rates next year because we have held our expenses lower than what we projected three years ago. Mr. Sauer stated when he sat on the Utility Fees Review Commission it was supposed to reconvene at some date in the future when we were going to reconsider these rates. Mr. Drobina stated that was correct, the Commission was going to get back together at some point in time to see if we needed to continue with the increase or could the 19 percent be dropped off a year or two early and just make it 3 percent, 10 percent, or whatever. Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to review this information before further discussion.

(2) Staff Engineer’s Report. Ms VanCleave stated she had provided a written report and she would answer any questions.

B. ACTION ITEMS:

(1) Review and discussion regarding TDS options and costs. Mr. Drobina stated the lab that did the analysis on our effluent, it is not toxic to the species that were tested on. Mr. Wisniewski clarified we are putting out a little higher than 1500. Mr. Drobina stated the next step is to get with Mr. Steve Samuels to review this report and see where we need to go next. He stated the lab has been in contact with Mr. Samuels to set up a meeting, but it has not been scheduled as yet. Mr. Wisniewski stated this would remain on the agenda until we get the results from that meeting.

7. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CAPITAL PROJECTS.

A. WASTEWATER

(1) Wastewater Plant Expansion – Update. Ms. Frommer stated there is a lot of activity right now, and generally speaking the project is about 20 to 25 percent completed and is still slated for its current completion date. She stated as this Committee may recall, right after the project was awarded, URS did a value engineering review of some items. She stated one of the things that came up during the plan review and after the bid, was did we need a new grit building or could we modify the old one. She stated this Committee authorized some additional design up to $40,000 to engineer a plan to keep the current facility and modify it slightly, and she understood about $30,000 of that was spent. She stated that was engineered, and provided to the contractor. Ms Frommer continued that URS estimated in the realm of up to $400,000 they would like to see the contractor deduct. She stated the contractors information came back with an $84,000 deduct. Mr. Drobina stated his feeling was that being the change order is so little, not to mess with the old structure, trying to rehab it, but to build a new one. Mr. Wisniewski stated then we wasted $30,000. Mr. Drobina stated the contractor is supposed to look at his numbers again to see if he can do better, but he would be surprised if he came back at a number large enough to make that big a difference. Ms Frommer stated this kind of response from a contractor told her there was something else going on, because URS’s estimate was actually an itemized estimate that brought the numbers up to the magnitude they were in, and resulted in them recommending you do this. Ms Frommer stated it seemed there were some conversations to be had with the contractor and a progress meeting is scheduled for May 26^th and it will be discussed at that time. Mr. Wisniewski stated either URS was inflating the savings or the contractor is significantly devaluing it, but there is a serious disconnect that needs to be resolved. Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to have the information for that meeting sent to him as he might want to attend. Mr. Sauer clarified that this is a topic for that meeting and URS will also be in attendance. Ms Frommer stated there have been some work quality issues that have been dealt with that she had no doubt had some impact on the contractor’s bottom line. She stated the challenge lies between URS and the contractor’s numbers.

B. TRANSPORTATION:

(1) Diley Road Improvements Project – Update. Ms Frommer stated the contractor is working and she knew of no major change to the project’s completion date at this time. Mr. Drobina stated in the near future Columbus Street will be closed at the Diley Road intersection, but he did not know the date as yet. Mr. Wisniewski stated he did have an issue with the mowing along the road and the median. He clarified the contractor was responsible for that right now, and we are receiving calls about high grass in the neighborhoods and here we have two foot high grass along our brand new multi-million dollar road. He stated that was unacceptable. Mr. Wisniewski further stated he thought that the grass in the median was to be converted to stone. Mr. Drobina stated that had always been planned as grass, and Mr. Wisniewski asked if it was to late to change that. He stated he would like to see it look like the south end so we have some continuity up and down Diley Road where there is short landscaping and rocks that have minimal maintenance. Mr. Hansley stated Council has reviewed and approved the plans as they are now, but we could get a price on what it would cost to switch it and bring that issue back to Service Committee to take to Council. Mr. Hansley stated there may be some council members who prefer grass, and Mr. Wisniewski stated if that were the case he would like to have maintenance costs as well on how much it will cost to mow it. Mr. Hansley stated there is a grass strip on Diley between the curb and the bike path and we will have to get in the business at some point soon of having the equipment and being staffed to mow all the grass, so whether you have a grass island or if that would become concrete, we will still have other grass that will have to be mowed in the area anyway.

C. WATER: No Report.

D. STORMWATER. No report.

8. CHAIRMAN.

A. Review and discussion regarding utility rates. Mr. Wisniewski stated this had been discussed earlier and he had nothing further to bring forward.

9. OTHER BUSINESS:

A. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance authorizing the City Manager to pursue a natural gas aggregation program with Volunteer Energy Services, Inc. Mr. Hansley stated the Committee had received a draft ordinance and staff report on this issue. He stated he had received four responses to our Request for Proposals and staff was recommending we work with Volunteer Energy to develop the next step in the process. Mr. Wisniewski stated Mr. Hansley and staff would work with Volunteer Energy to come up with a contract that would then come back to Service Committee and then to Council, this would not authorize the City Manager to sign a contract. Mr. Hansley stated that was correct, and the main point would be that there would be a fixed dollar amount or percentage off of the existing Columbia Gas rate. Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to see a variety of options available. Mr. Wisniewski moved to approve and forward the draft ordinance authorizing the City Manager to pursue a natural gas aggregation program with Volunteer Energy Services, Inc.; Mr. Sauer seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Sauer, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

10. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Wisniewski moved to adjourn; Mr. Sauer seconded the motion. Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mr. Sauer voted “Aye.” Motion carried, 3-0. The Service Committee adjourned at 8:27 P.M., May 20, 2009.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk