Lake Wenatchee Water District
Commissioners’ Meeting Minutes
Aug 10, 2023
Location: Fire Station #91
21696 Lake Wenatchee Hwy
Commissioners Present: Fred Guimond, John Colvard, Erin Colwell (quorum established)
Staff Present: Bruce Harris – Clerk, Charlie Cruickshank – district water operator
Guests Present: Barbara Harris, Birgit Jansen
Commissioner Guimond called the meeting to order at 9:35 am.
Commissioner Colwell moved to accept the minutes for July 13, 2023, as written. Commissioner Colvard seconded; motion passed.
Public comments:
A LWWD customer, Birgit Jansen, voiced her concern for water source availability if we allow new connections to the system (new construction) especially in such a dry period as we are currently experiencing. It was explained to her that most of the new construction currently in progress was with customers that already had LWWD metered connections on an existing vacant lot and that those customers made the personal choice to build at this time. They had requested approved water availability certificates for the Chelan County Building Department many months back to validate their water source before starting the construction plan review process. These certificates did not add any new customers when the connection was already there. Nevertheless, the discussion helped focus attention on the need to review possible new water sources for the district as more people continue to become full time residents in our water district.
Administrative
Clerk Report
Water Availability Requests (WAR) and Certificates (WAC):
No new water availability requests have been received since the last commissioners meeting.
Water Shortage and Leak Status:
During the last part of July and first week of August there have been occasions where the operator had reported that the reservoir levels in both tanks were, at times, unable to be maintained without using both Homestead wells at the same time. This caused other downstream non-LWWD wells that were on the same aquifer to drop to critically low levels.
It was agreed that most of the extra water drawdown in the system was attributed to high weekend visitation along with increased summer rental activity. Once this weekend high water usage dramatically reversed late Sunday, it allowed for reservoir levels to recovery.
Even though it was agreed that additional long-term planning needed to be done regarding additional capacity and/or water sources (new well), the commissioners felt a near term solution was required as soon as possible for handling immediate shortages and strains on the aquifer.
Commissioner Colvard motioned to approve the water system operator to coordinate with RH2 Engineering to review and optimize off hours pumping cycles of the Homestead wells, Commissioner Colwell seconded, motion passed.
The above revision to the pumping cycles in the homestead pump house is seen as a short-term solution. The operator suggested that we could also consider a portable water processing facility using Lake Wenatchee as an additional summer source. He was going to ask RH2 for their opinion as to whether this is a doable alternative in the current environment and under the current water rights belonging to the district. There was also discussion of requiring the limitation of irrigation to weekdays only, preferably at night, during summer months.
In addition, the commissioners discussed researching funding options for adding an additional well as a long-term solution. Commissioner Colvard asked the system operator to consult with Steve Nelson of RH2 Engineering for the purpose of obtaining the latest map of existing private wells within the district boundary. The map of existing wells would serve as a starting point to evaluate whether there are existing opportunities in the purchasing of a private well and water rights for further development or to focus on drilling a new one. Either option would require new infrastructure to pump, treat and transport the water to the system for reservoir storage and distribution. Commissioner Colvard commented he would provide to the next meeting what he could find out regarding funding or grant opportunities.
LWWD Small Works Roster:
There were no new applications submitted to the LWWD small works roster following annual ad run in the Leavenworth Echo/Cashmere Record newspapers on July 19 and 26th, 2023.
LWWD email issues:
The email environment has become very difficult to manage for the water district due to constant email bounce back returns – so much that it became necessary to move off the ipage service platform. Today’s new email filtering protocols administered by the receiving service providers to catch scams and spams has made it necessary to migrate to another servicer provider as soon as possible. A decision to switch to a new internet service provider (ISP) for email service was made by the commissioners at a previous meeting. This switch has just been completed and appears to be working fine. The LWWD website should not be impacted and will remain on ipage for now.
O&M and Payroll Warrants
Monthly financial reports: As of July 31, 2023, Treasurer’s balance sheet shows $52,613.13 in the general operating fund and $100,757.41 in the reserve fund. Imprest balance is $909.63.
Customer aging status as of Aug 1, 2023 was:
60 days – 5 customers @ 60 days ($ 1147.00)
90 days – 0 customers @ 90 days ($ 0.0)
Commissioner Colvard motioned to approve the financial reports as presented, Commissioner Guimond seconded, motion passed.
Commissioner Colvard motioned to approve the O&M warrant for $5,232.26, Commissioner Colwell seconded, motion passed.
Commissioner Colvard motioned to approve payroll warrant for $1,458.00, Commissioner Colwell seconded, motion passed.
Operations
Generator update:
Commissioner Colvard provided an overview of the status of scheduling the installation of the replacement activator board and load testing against the Homestead pump house facility. Once the part has arrived, Jim Kabrich of Yakima Generators will schedule a time to do the installation and test while the system operator is present. If this activator replacement component board is successful, the generator will officially go through startup registration and warrantee initiation (5 years). Commissioner Colvard will check on the estimated delivery date for the replacement part.
LWWD meter installation:
There was some concern about the amount of time a customer will hold on to meter inventory before installation occurs. The clerk agreed to present a suggested modification to the ‘Request for New Water Service’ form that might resolve that situation in the future. The new form will be reviewed at the September 15th , 2023 meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 10:55 am.
Next meeting – Friday, Sept 15, 2023 9:30 – 11:30 am (this is a one-time change)