DeKalb Sanitary District Board Meeting Minutes
DeKalb Sanitary District
January 17, 2007
Minutes
Approved February 21, 2007
February 21, 2007 Note: The third Wednesday of the month is the normal meeting day. At the January meeting, because of perceived conflict the March meeting had been rescheduled to the 14th. At the February meeting on 2/21/2007, the conflict having been resolved, the Board voted to put the meeting back to the original date of Wednesday, March 21, 2007.
The January meeting of the DeKalb Sanitary District Board of Trustees was held at the office of the District at noon on January 17, 2007. In attendance were Trustees Dennis Collins, Tim Struthers and Carol Zar and Attorney for the District Keith Foster and District Treasurer Richard Stokke. Michael Zima, District Manager; Janice Tripp, Assistant Manager Administration; Steve Olsen, Plant Foreman; Chris Stika, Maintenance; and Betty Jones, Secretary were present. Scott Trotter, P.E. and Mark Eddington, P.E. of Trotter & Associates attended. Diane Strand representing The Midweek newspaper, Rich Monas and Bryan Faivre of the City of DeKalb attended, as did citizens Pam Mau, Tom Engstrom and Jim Schneider.
President of the Board Collins called the meeting to order.
Trustee Collins moved and Trustee Zar seconded approval of the January agenda. Motion carried.
Trustee Struthers moved approval of the December minutes with the change of wording in the first paragraph of page three from “sewers” to “treatment facilities.” Trustee Zar seconded. Motion carried.
Trustee Zar moved to approve the transfer of:
- $150,000.00 from the Revenue Fund to the O & M Fund
- $6,421.75 from the Dedicated Tax IMRF Fund to the O & M Fund
- $4,566.60 from the Dedicated Tax FICA Fund to the O & M Fund
Trustee Struthers seconded. Motion carried.
Trustee Collins moved to pay bills as presented and approved the writing of an additional check for the NIU secondary meter refund after the meter readings have been confirmed. Trustee Struthers seconded. Motion carried.
Those present were asked if they wished to present public input, and they declined.
Treasurer Stokke presented the Treasurer’s Report and discussed investments anticipated soon.
Chris Stika was congratulated by the Board and awarded the financial incentive for completing his Class 4 Wastewater Treatment Operator Certification by Trustee Collins.
Trustee Collins moved to engage Sikich Group, LLC to perform the 2006-2007 Fiscal Year Audit at a cost of $11,625.00. Trustee Zar seconded. Motion carried.
Trustee Collins moved and Trustee Zar seconded renewal of the property insurance policies for the period of 2/5/2007 to 2/5/2008. Motion carried.
There were no annexation or pre-annexation requests to consider today.
Because Cortland’s treatment plant has not yet been completed and the sewer pipe that will connect the Nature’s Crossing development to it has not been finished, that development is without sewer service. The developer, Eagle Homes, has asked to be allowed to pay connection fees to the DeKalb Sanitary District and to pump and haul sewage for up to 28 houses to the DSD plant for a period of 120 days with the opportunity to renew the service agreement until they are physically connected to and serviced by Cortland’s treatment plant. The EPA has approved this methodology and Keith Foster and Mike Zima have developed a service agreement. Trustee Collins moved to approve this agreement. Trustee Zar seconded. Motion carried.
Mike Zima and Keith Foster are continuing work on an agreement to allot the remaining capacity on the 15-inch pipe that extends across the airport to Cortland. As per the Board’s instructions at the last meeting, no more than one-half of the remaining capacity will be allowed to the Town of Cortland. A service agreement will be developed granting that capacity first to the Grainger Townhomes and Phase 2 of Robinson Farms because Cortland has already allowed those homes to be physically connected to the infrastructure that the District services under its old agreement with Cortland. Each house must pay a connection fee and if the house is occupied before the Town of Cortland disconnects from the DeKalb Sanitary District that fee will be non-refundable.
Mike Zima and Keith Foster met with representatives of Cavel International. Because Cavel has started extensive pretreatment facility improvements, they are asking that the District hold the $25,500.00 Administrative Order fine in escrow and refrain from assessing further fines until the pretreatment facility is completed. They anticipate startup of the new facility by the end of January. Although the District assessed those fines for violations during January through September 2006 and may yet levy fines for the 17 violations between October and December 2006, Cavel plans to use their right under the District’s Enforcement Response Plan to ask for a review of those fines, and will probably ask to bring the matter back to the Board in March 2007.
The Trustees discussed the DeKalb Business Center’s request for annexation and the District’s participation in the expense of extending the sewer to their development. The Board felt it was necessary to finalize the Regional Infrastructure Policy (Agenda Item 14 C) prior to discussing this matter, and Trustee Collins moved and Trustee Zar seconded approval of that policy as stated by them at previous meetings and developed in writing by Trotter & Associates. The motion carried. The Board then directed that a draft agreement for the DeKalb Business Center’s annexation be developed by Keith Foster and Mike Zima based on the Regional Infrastructure Policy as adopted today. A vote on the DeKalb Business Center draft agreement will be taken at next month’s meeting.
In the Engineer’s Report, Mark Eddington said that the Storm water Improvements -- Wetlands Mitigation Project remains on hold until the Strand Review of the Facilities Plan has been completed.
Mike Zima says that he will be receiving a draft review from Strand Engineering the 26th of January. A meeting between Scott Trotter, Mike Zima and the Strand Engineers will be held to clarify the District’s needs, and Strand will make a formal presentation to the Board in February or March of 2007.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has verbally approved the Lions Park Lift Station location agreed to by the DeKalb Park District Board and District representatives. Written confirmation is expected soon.
Mike Zima reported that the Oakcrest DeKalb Area Retirement Facility has installed a District-approved grease interceptor that should reduce the likelihood of another excursion of grease into the public sewers. No word about the damage disputes was available.
Mike Zima and Janice Tripp reported on their ongoing investigation of what it would cost the District to issue its own bills for sanitary sewer service. All estimates seem to be considerably less than the charge proposed by the City of DeKalb. Discussions with the City as to the basis of their cost estimates and investigation of other sewer districts’ billing costs will continue.
Mike Zima presented data to the Board and to Mr. Monas and Mr. Faivre, who were present at the meeting, justifying his concern in regard to the District’s ability to meet its current biosolids utilization program requirements if it continues to allow the City of DeKalb to discharge radium to the public sewers. He stated that the Discharge Permits under which this is being done do state that the permits can be revisited to address the radium problem.
Trustee Collins moved and Trustee Struthers seconded approval of the Catastrophic Loss Relief request of Jean Nelson of 919 Huffman Court, which does meet all of the City and the District’s Policy requirements. Motion carried.
No one had any New Business to discuss.
Trustee Collins moved to adjourn the meeting. Trustee Zar seconded. Motion carried. Trustee Collins adjourned the meeting.
Dennis J. Collins, President