Lake Wenatchee Water District
Commissioner’s Meeting
March 10, 2022
Fire Station #91
21696 Lake Wenatchee Hwy
Commissioners Present: Fred Guimond, Bruce Harris, Helen Deems (Quorum present)
Staff Present: Charlie Cruickshank, System Operator
Guests Present: Jeff Burgess, resident and developer of parcel 271718330200
Commissioner Guimond called the meeting to order at 11:00.
Commissioner Bruce Harris motioned to waive the reading of the minutes for February 10, 2022 and accept as written, Commissioner Fred Guimond seconded, motion passed.
Public Comments: Jeff Burgess asked to submit his Water Availability request to add 2 more meters to his property serviced by district (has 1 meter currently) property name – 3 rivers investments llc., Jeff Burgess. Commissioners agreed to accept the application request and review with Clerk (not present) and mail the availability notice response within a couple of days. Operations Manager discussed the location of mains and potential for tie-ins for the meters including Brown Road main and Fir Drive Main and possibly even Lake Wenatchee Highway Main because of the property location depending on where the parcel lines are drawn. Jeff said his plans are to do a
small subdivision – 2 additional meters for 2 additional parcels for a total of 3; He said he currently has a meter and is paid up to date on the parcel. He said he would like to hear back as soon as possible as he needs water availability in order to get short plat or boundary re-division and survey. .
Operations
Generator: Bruce said he still has had no contact with the contractor who installed the electrical feeds to the Kohler 38KW generator (First Choice Electric), but has been in contact with Brandon, the tech rep for the Kohler Supplier. Brandon is having difficulty assessing the electrical issues in order to establish financial responsibility and to start the repairs. Bruce reminded everyone that we are 1 of 5 systems on this particular FEMA grant that many are experiencing delays in labor, material and delivery and that this has impacted their completion schedule. Chelan County Natural Resource Department (CCNRD), the FEMA contract administrator, has said FEMA has agreed to negotiate an extension to the contract. Bruce said after conversations with others included in the FEMA grant that he believes the extension from FEMA 2018 agreement will be a COVID extension and it will be a 1 year from the March 3, 2022 expiration. None-the-less Bruce has asked Brandon to ask his Management about replacing all electronics or even the generator since we do not have a working generator in the very NEAR term; After a discussion it was decided that Bruce will ask for a write up of the probable cause for the generator failure, but Bruce will also wait for 2 weeks for next set of diagnostics report from Brandon. Bruce said that ultimately we need documentation with replacement costs and causes for us to seek claim on our insurance or seek replacement generator from Kohler (as a side note, Bruce revealed that the model generator we have is now out of production which increases the difficulty to get parts or replace). Helen asked if we can get a replacement generator of a newer model or even a different manufacturer based on FEMA’s grant or our insurance. Jeff Burgess volunteered that he thought Caterpillar a better brand with NC Machinery in Wenatchee for more local reps. Bruce will follow up with Brandon and his service manager to get something in writing stating what they believe the cause of the problem to be and determine if a replacement is possible.
Options for an additional Well:
Operations Manager, Charlie Cruickshank, said he is concerned that we are facing cavitation and a drawing down of the Brown Road well level combined with water bubbles and odor, which is not normal for this time of year. Jeff Burgess concurred that he has a well within a couple hundred feet from ours and he has experienced a low water table. Charlie’s conclusion is that we may need more water (ideally 20 gallons per minute?) to cover the area’s expansion and demand and that we should be looking into it now because of the length of the process. He suggested looking for properties that we can put a well on? Fred suggested taking from the dirty face falls or the lake however Charlie noted that water is considered surface water requiring a more intensive (daily) monitoring and treatment and approval from the state and that even a well close to the lake can be pumped dry. Charlie also said that he believes the state would prefer us to not use the Mountain Park system because it is only authorized as a class B system, up to 15 connections. They see the system well as under the influence of surface water. Helen suggested looking close to the existing wells and asking property owners to participate in the well search offering some incentive for selling us water if a well is deemed suitable. Commissioners agreed it made the most sense to look for wells near current infrastructure (pump house and main lines) so Helen agreed to draft a letter for the commissioners to review soliciting help from the appropriate property owners. Charlie agreed to contact Joe Woods the local “water dowser” for Tumwater Drilling to see what he would charge and when would be the best time to source water for a future well or from existing wells. Bruce said he also wants to make sure there is not a large leak that is going undetected and draining the water so he will do an early meter read and coordinate with Charlie on the pump house levels to see if there are some detectible discrepancies(other than known water leaks) before next meeting.
Bruce also suggested that commissioners (Fred/Helen) review well logs online from the Department of Ecology (DOE) to see what wells in our district stand out as larger producers. Fred reminded all that we have still have 0 hydrants revisiting the customer who had their house fire insurance cancelled. Bruce said the district could develop a new local improvement development plan (LID) to get new lines installed or upgraded through out and be able to add hydrants (meeting fire flow requirements). For time’s sake, that discussion was tabled.
Other System updates from Charlie: Charlie reported that the bubbles in water mean overdrawing water yield, and he lowered the input from the offending well and has not heard any other complaints.
Other Business: Monthly MEETING: Bruce asked if the meeting site has been reserved for future meetings. Fred said he would check to make sure we could reserve the fire station conference room for meetings every 2nd Thursdays for at least 2 hours.
Sign WSRMP Agreement Bruce motioned and Fred 2nd to approve the resolution (after Helen verifies with Bonnie (Clerk) the date and resolution number) as presented.
Customer A/R issues: New bookkeeper was unable to contact all past due customers last month. Helen will ask for clarification from Clerk/ Bookkeeper and determine if there is a needed resolution.
Financial Reports – the Commissioners reviewed the February 2022 financial data as listed below:
Accounts Receivable 2/28/22 $8,487.45 over 90 days past due, $1,654.60 60 days past due.
Treasurers Report: We have $28,144.24 in the general fund (account 682.701), and $90,120.87 in the reserve fund (total $118,265.12 at the County). Imprest balance is $698.88; $301.12 was paid to iPage for domain name and annual website fee.
LID #1: We received $1,534.48 in payments, last month’s interest from the LGIF investment was $44.61.
Commissioner Guimond motioned to approve the Febrary 2022 Financial Reports, Commissioner Deems seconded; motion passed.
Commissioner Guimond motioned to sign the O&M warrant in the amount of $ 4,461.15 and the CPF in $2,496.21 (total $ 6957.36 ), Commissioner Deems seconded, motion passed.
Commissioner Harris motioned to sign the February payroll warrant for $384.00; Commissioner Guimond seconded, motion passed.
NEW BUSINESS FOR NEXT MEETING: Commissioner Harris asked for a review of Section 12 Paragraphs E and J policies and suggested his own changes for costs penalties etc. Commissioners agreed to review for vote next meeting with the hope to adopt a policy and amend update to include the new date on it. Commissioner Harris reminded the commissioners that the policies could be found on the Lake Wenatchee Water District website under Documents and that policy reviews and proposed changes were typically done in June.
Meeting adjourned at 1:30pm
Next meeting: April 14, 2022