MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MONTHLY BOARD MEETING OF L.A. WATER COOPERATIVE HELD January 28, 2021 VIA ZOOM ONLINE.
Board Members Present: Don Wicks, Linda Fountain, Mike Steffl, Amber Morgan, Ken Aberle, Lisa Dutz
Board Members Absent: Tom Gunn, Malcolm Moreno
Staff Present: Laurie Lago
Members Present: None
This meeting of the LA Water Cooperative was called to order at 6:03pm by Don Wicks, Chairman
Secretary’s Report – The minutes of the Dec. 2020 meetings were presented in writing.
Motion to approve by Amber Morgan. Seconded by Linda Fountain. Voted & Passed
Treasurer’s Report – Presented in writing.
Motion to approve by Linda Fountain. Seconded by Amber Morgan. Voted & Passed
Operation Manager’s Report – Business, Field, and Water Loss Reports presented in writing.
Motion to approve by Amber Morgan. Seconded by Ken Aberle. Voted & Passed
Motion to offer a homeowner the option to return his certificate to the coop in exchange for his balance due by Ken Aberle. Seconded by Amber Morgan. Voted & Passed
Field Report – Report presented in writing is below:
Gaston Bridge Project: Running behind schedule, new finish date is now Feb. 24th. Much of our line work was completed within the last week. During installation of the new line, an unmarked line was hit which caused water loss to several customer for several hours while it was repaired. The line was not our maps. All meters that needed swapped to the new line were connected and temp is being removed. The final connection that completes our loop system has to wait for water to recede. As long as we do not have any major issues arise, it should not affect anything.
Gibson Pump House: PGE had another power surge with blew the drives at both Gibson and Lambert. Brightside has been helping get this repaired and the isolation transformer up and running to protect our equipment at Gibson. We did get a trouble ticket from PGE on the last incident which will allow us to claim for all the damage and replacement of equipment.
Hartley Road Leak: A leak was reported on Hartley on a Saturday. Mason found the leak and was able to cover and secure the site to prevent any overspray into the road. Since our equipment was out of service (illegal to drive) and only one customer was out of water (a customer that has been told numerous times she needs a booster pump and if she had one would not have been out of water) we chose to wait until Monday to hire Schmidt Excavating to come out and help Mason fix the leak. This allowed me time on Sunday to notify the 90 customers that would be out of water while the leak was fixed.
New Meter Installed & Hydrant Removed: An inactive certificate on Bald Peak was made active and a new meter was installed by the crew. At the same time the hydrant that was next to the new meter connection was removed as it was one that was slated to come out.
Weather Related Power Outage: The rainstorm and flooding caused area wide power outages. Fortunately, PGE was able to restore power before any tanks reached critical level and no customers lost water.
Vehicle Issues: We had vehicle weight issues. We have corrected all license plate issues and hauling capacity issues. A new trailer was purchased for hauling the excavator as our other trailer was insufficient. We should be able to sell the older trailer for close to what we paid for it. We have also applied for and were issued a USDOT #, which we found out we are required to possess.
New Business
1. Leak Credits
Motion to approve by Linda Fountain. Seconded by Amber Morgan. Voted & Passed
2. Cla-Val Altitude Valves and PRV’s – The Altitude Valves at Jordan Reservoir need re-built. One valve has been out-of-service for some time and the other is now leaking and in need of repair. Our PRV’s have also been neglected. They should be serviced and interior parts replaced every 5 to years to maintain their lifespan. We received a quote to have both Altitude Valves repaired and for the tech to also replace the insides on our oldest PRV and show Kyle how to do it, so he can do the rest of the PRV’s that need serviced. Total cost is $9,310.00.
3. Commercial Use Certificates – Customer requesting up to 45K per month usage for agriculture. – request customer to submit for additional certificates and present at next meeting with full review by Water Tech.
4. New Line Request – A resident on SW Sandstrom has inquired about connecting into L.A. Water. Our mainline from Hillsboro runs past their road. He understands the residents would need to pay for any improvement to our system to connect them. A quick question to Denny (our engineer) to find out if we can even connect to that line, was yes but they would need to install a pump house and reservoir with the line. Do we want to allow this? – decision made to look at options.
Other Business
Trailer Surplus – Currently own 3 trailers which is more than we need, permission given to sell the oldest trailer.
Tuition Reimbursement – Bring a contractual agreement for review to next meeting addressing the reimbursement of tuition for employees if classes they are taking are job related and benefit the Coop.
Motion to Adjourn by Linda Fountain. Seconded by Ken Aberle. Voted and Passed
Meeting Adjourned at 7:07pm
