11-09-16 Utilities - Laserfiche WebLink

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OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK T ITTLUTF,S Committee Members Present: Other Council Present: Ferlic Others Present: Agenda: NOVEMBER 9TH, 2016 5:00 P.M. Dr. David Varner, Regina Williams- Preston, Randy Kelly Jo M. Broden, Tim Scott, John Voorde, Gavin Bill No. 66 -16 – New Water Rates and Changes – Update Committee Chair Dr. David Varner called the meeting to order with one (1) item on the agenda. Bill No. 66 -16 – New Water Rates and Changes – Update Eric Horvath, Executive Director, Department of Public Works, with offices on the 13th Floor of the County -City Building, stated, For the last part, we'll specifically go over the financials and what we're looking at in terms of a rate increase and how that impacts what we're trying to do here in taking care of an aging system. Mr. Horvath stated that because water mains have such long useful lives, not much money has been invested in the updating of water programs. He explained that the problem of having one - hundred and twenty (120) year -old water infrastructure was one faced by many cities. He stated, The mains that we have aren't wooden, but they're cast iron. Most of our mains are cast iron, which is a brittle metal. They are past their useful life, and it's time to do some replacement. You'll see that we're not anywhere near replacing it at the rate that we need to. The rates haven't been raised since 2006, and even then we didn't have a lot of money for maintenance items of existing utilities and facilities. So, we've got a lot of maintenance issues that are happening. We've got a lot of pumps that are fifty (50) years old — and the useful life of a pump is nowhere near fifty (50) years. It's actually a testament to staff keeping it up and keeping it running, but it comes to a point where reliability is going to become an issue. The one thing that we're very blessed with is a good water quality source, here in South Bend. We have a very abundant aquifer, so we're very blessed there. It's also very good quality. We have nine (9) different places that we pump water from in the City, and we've got various levels of treatment —five (5) of those have full water treatment facilities on them. Councilmember John Voorde asked, Is that for iron, primarily? 455 County -City Building • 227 W. Jefferson Boulevard • South Bend, Indiana 46601 Phone 574- 235 -9221 • Fax 574- 235 -9173 • TDD 574- 235 -5567 • www.SouthBendIN.gov JENNIFER M. COFFMAN ALKEYNA M. ALDRIDGE JOSEPH MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/ CHIEF OF STAFF DEPUTY/ DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK