11-09-16 Utilities - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Horvath added, I think it's one - hundred and ten percent (110 %) or one - hundred and fifty percent (150 %) of the tank capacity. Mr. Greek showed similar images of decay of the Cleveland South wellfield, as well as the Fellows booster station and the North pumping station and the Northwest elevated tank. He stated, If we continue to repair as we have been repairing them, it would take us six - hundred and thirty-four (634) years to actually replace the water mains in town. I don't think they're designed to last that long. The hydrants would take one - hundred and sixteen (116) years. He presented a map to the Committee. Mr. Greek stated, We have veins that have been in place from probably 1875 all the way up to 2007. This gives you some idea of all the water mains that are on each street - -every street has a water main or two (2) going up and down. He showed other images of infrastructure. He stated, This was a pressure- reducing valve outside of Penn High. This actually maintains the pressure in the system. You've got to maintain your pressure in the water system, otherwise you get surges and you start breaking mains. He showed images of water gushing out of broken water mains. Mr. Greek explained that the 40,000 -plus water meters in the City needed maintenance, as well. He stated, They really only last for a fifteen (15) to twenty (20) year period, so you've got to come up with some way of maintaining the meters. A water meter to us is like a cash register to a grocery store. If you owned a grocery store and your cash register wouldn't ring up the amount of money that you were trying to charge for something, you'd get that thing fixed pretty quickly. That's what the meter is doing for us. And this pays for both water and waste water. When a water meter gets older, they can start slowing down on you. One two (2) inch meter running slow —if you've only lost five percent (5 %) of the readings, it can be $10,000 in lost revenue pretty easily. Councilmember Voorde asked, You still have your own test bench on Olive Street? Mr. Greek responded, We are currently putting a new one in. The cost for a fifteen (15) year meter change -up program is like $1,000,000 a year or more to keep that program up. Mr. Greek showed the Committee more images of infrastructure. He stated, We have to buy equipment and vehicles out of our capital money. Currently, if you stop to think about it, we have seventy (70) employees, we have repair crews, construction crews, meter change -up crews, service -type crews to do stops and starts —we're spending about $500,000 a year just to maintain the fleet and all the vehicles and equipment that it takes to do excavations, valve - turning, and all those kinds of things. That's another part of the budget that has to be maintained. John Julien, Umbaugh and Associates, 112 Ironworks Avenue, Mishawaka, IN, passed around copies of the five (5) year capital improvement plan to members of the Committee and Council. Mr. Julien stated that his intended role is to look at the situation from a financial perspective and help formulate a financial plan to allow the City to take on these repair and maintenance challenges. He explained that the papers he passed out, coupled with the Powerpoint presentation, represent the basis of their recommendation for a financial plan to address the needs that the Department of Public Works faces. He stated, The first page here is a look at your net income calculation for the last several years. A couple of things I would like to point out: the first line item is your history of operating revenues on an annual basis. What I see there is not a surprise. What you're seeing is, year- over -year, some slight declines. It's probably easy to say that it's not a result of any major users leaving the system. It's a reflection of what we're seeing