SCHUYLERVILLE/VICTORY BOARD OF WATER MANAGEMENT
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The Schuylerville/Victory Board of Water Management held a meeting on August
15, 2006 at 7:00pm at the American Legion Hall, Schuylerville.
Present: Chairman Travis Kline,
Commissioners Glenn Decker and Paul Shaver, Alternate Agatha White.
Steve Adams from Laberge Group,
and Mike Mantysko from the Department of Health.
Note: This meeting
was tape recorded due to the Secretary being unable to attend this
meeting. These minutes are a reflection
of the tape and there are some areas that are unidentifiable to be noted. No-one speaking stated their name so the
identification of people is by the recognition of the Recording Secretary at
the time of transcribing the tape.
Chairman Kline opened the meeting
to public comment on the water issue.
He introduced Steve Adams from the Laberge Group, which is the
engineering group in charge of the plant.
Steve Adams gave an overview of
the change in pressure to the system.
He explained the breaks to date have been service line breaks. 13 total, 8 of which are from old galvanized
service pipe lines which are notable for breaking. 5 of which are from plastic pipes that were substandard pipes,
they did not meet village requirements.
There’s been no main breaks to date.
The cooper pipes and the plastic pipes (of village requirements) have
been holding up fine. They did
anticipate some breaks, which is too be expected. Mr. Adams explained that these are not health issues, they are
other issues that are a nuisance. He
explained they are trying to rectify the problem, but it takes time and he
asked for everyone’s patience.
Commissioner Decker asked Mr.
Adams to explain the manganese problem.
Mr. Adams stated that manganese is a naturally occurring mineral, its
metallic in nature. This is a nuisance
that shows in group water supply. More
so than in surface water supply, it’s unstable and it stains things.
Mike Montysko from the Department of Health explained that the system we have today is much better than what we had before. They believe the problem is astatically natured. He stated that everyone is doing the right things to solve the problem, this is not uncommon.
Chairman Kline asked Mr. Adams to explain what we are putting in the water to make it safe for the consumers. Mr. Adams explained we are putting in an anti-scallant, which is designed to keep scale down. Sodiumhydrozide is for PH Adjustment, which is NSF approved and used commonly. Lastly, Sodiumhyprocloride (Chlorine) liquid. They are talking about feeding in some chemicals to sequester manganese and a corrosion inhibitor, this will adjust the ph and eliminate potential for corrosion problems. Sequester means it will bind up the manganese so it doesn’t come out and won’t stain things, it still will be in the water but less of a nuisance.
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Joe Drew of Grove Street, Schuylerville: He stated that the iron was high in the victory plant and that’s why Victory went on to Schuylerville’s System, so next year when you put on the Victory plant, he asked if there would be the same problem. Mr. Adams explained that it is possible, but they will use the same process as before if this occurres. He also asked if they are paying for water we can’t use if we will get reimburses and then asked Mr. Adams if he would drink the water. Mr. Adams stated he would drink the water.
Chairman Kline stated that these issues come up with any new water system. This is better water and the issues are being dealt with. He explained that the water board is responsible for the public lines that supply you water not the private lines on your property.
Jim Miers-Broad Street, Schuylerville: Asked if these problems are because of his pipes. He asked how he can explain to his customers to wash there face with a dirty towel. Mr. Miers showed a towel that had been stained by the water. He stated that he thought we were trying to keep phosphates out of our water and now we are putting them in.
Mike Montysko stated that the levels are so low, 1 part per million. This is not a health concern. Mr. Miers stated that this should have been anticipated. Mr. Montysko explained that we did, but possibly not to this level.
Unanimous lady stated that we should have gotten the right engineer to do the job and we should have investigated the engineer better.
Joe Drew asked if we went with the slow sand system would we have the same quality of water. Mr. Montysko stated he could not say, when the slow sand plans were approved they were approved on condition that there would be a second source to supply water.
Mayor Sullivan stated that the Victory Plant was supposed to remove manganese and iron, the equipment was not used, that’s why water was brown, years ago. He also stated that back in 1980 when there was a mud slid at the east reservoir the victory plant was put on line and it was under DOH supervision and that water was fine. The plant was not run properly before and it can do the job.
There was a discussion on water bans and the supply of water.
It was asked if the water right now is safe to drink.
Steve Adams stated that it was safe to drink and Mike Montysko from Dept. of Health will back that up, it is safer than no filtration on service water, which is what we had before.
It was asked if we were going to have fluoride our water.
Mr. Adams stated we have no plans for fluoride in the water.
It was asked how to clean the stains out of a tub.
Mike Montysko stated that CLR can clean the tub.
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Joe Drew asked if the residents of Schuylerville get a choice of getting Victory Water or not. He stated that they are paying 75%.
Mayor Sullivan stated that it is in the Intermunicipal Agreements that both plants need to be done. Mayor Sullivan also stated that 75% of the money has been spent at the Fort Hardy water plant, so that is not a true statement.
It was asked if Schuylerville is paying for the Victory Plant. Mayor Sullivan stated NO the cost is being shared, this is a common water system.
Chairman Kline stated that this is a source, it is not who pays more.
There was a statement from a senior citizen who lives in a trailer and is an outside water user, she feels she is paying too much for being a senior citizen.
Diane Grolley Burgoyne Street, Schuylerville: Asked what a unit is.
Chairman Kline stated that it is a measure for billing purposes, we have no metering system. The board is looking into this, but they have to justify the cost. It is very expensive and the water plant needs to be up and running first.
Ms. Grolley stated her and her husband showers once a week and she does only 2 loads of laundry a week. She does not see it to be fair that her neighbors have 8 people and 8 showers a day and a lot more laundry and they pay the same amount of money. She asked what we are doing to solve this unit system problem.
Commissioner Decker stated we just put in a 5 million dollar plant, meters need to be put in for a metering system and it is very expensive. Rate went up because of this plant and to do that again right now would raise rates again. He stated we will look into some grant money and see where things go.
Ms. Grolley stated that if the grant applications were put in on time maybe we could get more grant money.
Commissioner Decker stated that we got 2.8 million dollars of grant money for this plant. Always if anyone would like to help with grant writing they are more than welcome.
Ms. Grolley stated she would love to help.
Ms. Grolley stated she had other questions. First how was the Engineer chosen and who chose them.
Chairman Kline stated they put in a proposal and the water board before he was on the board made a decision based on qualifications to hire Laberge, and the design was agreed upon with the DOH.
Ms. Grolley asked if they did the design and the construction.
Chairman Kline stated that they did the design and they had construction observation, Steven Miller did the actual construction.
Ms. Grolley asked why the Village of Schuylerville doesn’t have their own engineer overseeing the water plant being built and who is overseeing it now.
Chairman Kline stated that it currently is being overseen by the Engineering firm and outside labs, as far a Schuylerville and an Engineer you need to take that up with the Village of Schuylerville.
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Joe Drew stated he understood that meters would be first than the new plant.
Mayor Sullivan stated that was never the plan, he explained that the water plant was first and under consent.
Mr. Drew asked why there are meters in some homes and not all being used.
Mayor Sullivan stated that all new construction is required to have meters in for the preparation of the metering system.
At this time there was a break in the tape.
Commissioner Paul Shaver was announcing that the town web site will be a place for people to go to get updated information on water related issues.
Chairman Kline stated that they have been doing a lot of hydrant flushing and they are on a regular basis, not always at the same ones each time.
It was asked why they don’t tell people they are flushing hydrants
Chairman Kline stated we do not have the manpower to go door to door.
There was a question that was not able to be heard and there was no response.
There was a woman that stated the water board did not notify people when they went on line and possibly they could have done a better job on public relations and getting people notification on what’s happening.
Gail Blake Pearl St. Schuylerville: stated she thought this meeting had a great turnout and would like to encourage these people to come to more meetings, they are very informative meetings and you can ask questions and get answers.
Leona Colvin Green St. Schuylerville: also stated that she knows the board is agonizing over what is happening and they should be commended, they have done a tremendous amount of work on a volunteer basis and they should be commended. She went on to say she is sure no one is doing this on purpose and that they are all doing everything in their power to correct this issue. She stated she did wish people were better notified the system went on line, but feels the water board is doing a good job.
Chairman Kline closed the public comment at this time to conduct the regular business.
Announcements:
The next water board meeting is Tuesday September 12th 6:30pm in Victory and meeting #2 for September will be the 19th at 7pm in Schuylerville.
Treasurers Report:
There was a resolution #2006-17 presented to transfer
$30,000.00 to apply to the outstanding voucher, payroll and for those
miscellaneous expenses this month and prior to the next meeting for the water
department. This is to authorize a
transfer from the water savings account to the water checking account. Chairman
Kline made a motion to approve and sign this resolution #2006-17 to transfer
$30,000 from Savings to Checking, and it was seconded by Commissioner Shaver,
all ayes, motion passed.
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Chairman Kline stated that there would be a five minutes break before the continuation of the meeting.
The tape recorder was turned off and there was no motions to adjourn or
for any other business on the tape.
Respectfully Submitted
Brenda S. Buchanan,
Recording Secretary