April 16, 1998

Present: Mayor Scott Fleetwood
Alderman Herman Davis
Alderman Delmar Guthery
Alderman Don Davidson
Alderman Leon Harris
Marilyn Alms, City Clerk

News Media:None

Guests: John Forrester, Greg Whitlock, Dave Cavendar of Scott Consulting Engineers

CITY BUILDING INSPECTIONS: Fire Station, Street & Water, Electric sheds were inspected. Letter to be written to Fire Chief for all firemen to remove all personal property/belongings from the fire station. Two vehicles to be moved from downtown station to N. Jefferson station. Downtown building to be renovated for City records storage.

RESOLUTION 98.6: A Resolution By The Board Of Aldermen Of The City Of Ava, Missouri, Authorizing The Mayor To Sign Loan Agreement With First Home Savings Bank In The Amount Of $50,850 To Purchase Computer Equipment.
Resolution read by City Clerk. Motion made by Herman Davis to adopt & approve Resolution #98.6. Second to motion by Leon Harris. Motion approved. All in favor.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Karen Mendel, Executive Director of the Ava Area Chamber of Commerce, has asked City for an advance on monthly lease agreement to provide funds for her to attend Economic Development School.
Motion made by Delmar Guthery to approve one month's advance to Ava Chamber of Commerce. Second to motion by Herman Davis. Motion approved. All in favor.

INDUSTRIAL PARK: Site visit: Alderman Davidson; Harris; Guthery; Mayor Fleetwood; representatives of Scott Consulting Engineers, John Forrester, Greg Whitlock, Dave Cavendar, all adjourned to site of industrial park where water storage tank and access road will be built for project consultation.

Second part of meeting: Joined by Water/Sewer Superintendent, Jerry Loveland. Aldermen Harris and Davidson had to leave - Alderman Davis and Guthery stayed.

UTILITY RATE STRUCTURE:Mayor Fleetwood talked with engineers about the feasibility of rate structure study. Dave Cavendar had done some preliminary research concerning this study. Alderman Guthery said it's been so long since we've up-dated our distribution system lines - they are deteriorated. He suggested laying out a plat to work from and replace water and sewer lines at the same time.
John Forrester suggested applying to DNR for CDBG. DNR has done a system evaluation of water system tht would substantiate the need for line replacement.
After some discussion, Aldermen said we need to be replacing lines as we go, with larger size mainlines.
Dave Cavendar suggested doing a 10 to 20 year plan.
City needs to determine actual cost of providing the utility services - can do this from good financial records from yearly audits. After figuring cost to provide services, then figure the rate structure to support it.
Cost wire - minimum of $15,000 to do study of water-sewer-electric all together. To do a comptrehensive study would be $65,000 - including City CPA and attorney.
Mayor says we know our problem, but don't know how to handle it.
John Forrester suggested a simple evaluation right now to get rates up, then next year do a more detailed study for longer-range plan.
Dave Cavendar suggested visiting with larger industries about their usages - look at how the rate charge is structured - make sure the structure is distributed fairly.
Mr. Cavendar remembered when we started water system evaluation - some larger users had dead meters and were being charged flat rate.
Mr. Forrester said an old water meter always registers slow when it starts going bad.
Mr. Forrester said reading water and electric meters on City-owned buildings is important to do, because we need to account for this water & electricity used, but not accound for by billing.
The City utility rate chart was reviewed.
Scott had a letter previously submitted by SCE on infiltration & inflow - flow monitoring meters, etc.
Mr. Cavendar said two years ago, they started sewer facility plan study. We are already getting close to capacity at the Waste Water Treatment Plant - wet weather creates flow problem. Study got put on hold when Emerson Electric closed. Flow monitoring can be handled differently: City can buy equipment and City crew do the work; or, hire a contracting firm to do the work, and rent the equipment.
Safety equipment is part of necessary equipment that can be purchased separately.
Drains & curb inlet hooked to sanitary sewer does not seem to be a large problem in this town - there are a couple of area.
Smoke testing was discussed.
Loveland asked what can City do when smoke testing shows on customer's service side of line? Is it cheaper to deal with it at Waste Water Treatment Plant, or cheaper to keep it from reaching the plant? In isolated instances, you might find extra large flow into sewer - would be cheaper to fix lines where seepage is getting into lines, rather than pipe it all the way to WWTP.
City can pass an ordinance that says if, during smoke testing, breaks are found on customer's side - customer would be required to repair. Usually, it is a losing battle to try to get customer to repair on their side.
Mr. Forrester reviewed our water rate and said it is extremely low - he was surprised. He said service connection and tapping fees need to be adjusted to not lose money - $350 to $400 is not an unusual charge for connection fee - need to consider backhoe and labor costs, for different types of development - $400 residential impact fee in addition to connection fee. he suggests having customer pay for his impact on treatment plant - Branson, Nixa, Ozark, Republic.
We don't want to price ourselves out of market, but we need to survive.
$15,000 to look at 10-20 year plan for water, sewer, electric services - what rate is, harge to fund. information on operating expenses to be provided by City. The question was asked about how long to do study. mr. Cavendar said 60 days after City provides information.
Rate study - incorporate cost of rate study into rate structure.
Greg Whitlock, who is working on storage tank CDBG project, gave a status report. he spoke of moving site of tank location at design phase - has set design phase back - will start hydraulic study on design now.
City probably needs to send letter to SCOCOG, as Administrator of funds, to say that design has been delayed, but now progressing. Need to give explanation of why grant money is being carried over to next project year.
Legal description for deeding purpose - AIDC needs to deed property to City. Add about $350 to pin the legal description - cost about $300.
Forrester recommended a storm water detention policy. We have already experienced problems from Hagale Construction at Industrial Park because we don't have a policy in place. Scott Consulting Engineers will send some copies that other towns have for storm water detention policy - Nixa has good policy to review.
Meeting adjourned.