MANAGER'S REPORT
12/08/2021
Budget Position Report
County reports did not arrive in time to prepare a reconciled financial report. So the financial report is the unreconciled report.
Operational income for November was $76,815.13. This is a solid number as it is actually October’s cash receipts deposited with the County Treasurer in November. Though a small amount of interest income will be added to that.
Operational expenses were $70,360.34. That number is not complete. There will be about $2,000 in payroll taxes to be added to that. There were also $4,322.20 in capital expenses, which represents money we spent to move capital projects along. Mostly engineering.
We transferred the following money to reserves:
USDA Loan Reserve $4,200.00
Capital Replacement: $4,771.00
All of which puts us in the red by $6,702.57.
A major contributor to that deficit is the payment to WSRMP for our general liability insurance, $22,018.00.
I am not concerned as we are in a good position when considering the entire year.
Treasurer’s Report:
No county reports.
IT Assistance
We now have a maintenance agreement with SeattleTechs.
The issues with access to SCADA by Radixiot (the new owners of the Mango software) have been resolved. At this writing we do not yet have the daily report issue fixed. But it is being worked on.
Next we need to tackle the office computers and network. There will be start on that project the day of the meeting.
Chlorine
The supply has been working out OK. Still nothing from the engineer on the feasibility of on site generation. I don’t want this to get neglected until the next time there is a glitch in the chlorine supply line.
Capital Asset Management
The new copier is in place. We are very pleased with it. That is the only item scheduled for replacement in 2021.
There are no Capital Assets in the program scheduled for replacement in 2022. However, we will be replacing the Reynvaan Pumphouse in 2022.
I am thinking this would be a good time to replace the controls. Currently they are superannuated (old) contactors mounted in a box on a power pole. Pressure switches and bladder tanks are in a pump house at the top of the hill. I am proposing we replace those controls with VFD controls all mounted in the booster station pump house at the reservoir site. This will replace the contactors (I am pleasantly surprised that they have not yet failed), upgrade the controls to modern technology (improving the life span of the pumps), get the controls into a more weather tight location, and eliminate the maintenance chores associated with the bladder tank/pressure switch arrangement. We could remove the “bag house” and vacate the easement. Thus eliminating another maintenance item as well as a power connection.
The prospect of much higher rates of inflation in the months ahead are a concern for the planning involved in capital asset management. The question arises if the projected replacement costs are sufficient.
Request for Public Information
Our process needs updating. I will be looking at this after dealing with the Risk & Resilience Certification.
No action in November.
Small Parts Shed
The shelving/bin system has arrived and I have gone through the inventory and assigned bins. At this writing I have not yet assembled the shelves. Getting the inventory under control, labeling the bins, and getting the parts into the bins will be a significant task.
Did I mention how pleased I am with this “shed”. It is extremely well constructed.
Sunset Road Water Main
I have gotten the parcel numbers to Scott, but not until the end of November. So he probably has not had time to act on the information.
The purpose of passing the information to Scott is to see if he can craft an agreement whereby the existing service lateral is repaired.
Payroll Report
No big surprises.
Pandemic
The new mandates are in place. For the District, if we are closed to the public, inside staff that are vaccinated may work without masks. Un-vaccinated are required to wear masks.
We are not inquiring into staff's vaccine status.
The office is still closed to the public.
Isolation Valves
No action in November.
Past Due Accounts
Past Due Accounts for which we have sent a letter.
Some of the past due accounts are caught up. There have been three that have contacted the Coastal Community Action Council. There will be some “leftovers” from those contacts. Some of the accounts will not qualify, and some accounts exceed the 13 months the program will cover.
I have included a copy of the tracking list in your packets.
We need to make a decision on the one seriously past due account ($25,000+). I have excluded that account from the past due calculations.
Total Past Due Accounts
As time goes along, situations change. So I have included information on total past due accounts.
Section 1 has a total of 170 past due accounts as follows:
1 Billing Cycle $19,804.01
Average $116.49
2 Billing Cycles $ 6,861.66
Average $ 40.36
3+ Billing Cycles $21,677.59
Average $127.52
Total $48,343.26
Average $284.37
Section 2 has a total of 65 past due accounts as follows:
1 Billing Cycle $ 8,284.04
Average $127.45
2 Billing Cycles $ 4,032.93
Average $ 62.05
3+ Billing Cycles $22,370.06
Average $932.08
Total $34,687.03
Average $533.65
I subtracted the $25,507.17 from Section 2.
So there is a total of 235 past due accounts. There are 1,273 accounts. So 18.5% of our accounts are past due. The totals break down as follows:
1 Billing Cycle $28,088.05
2 Billing Cycles $10,894.59
3+ Billing Cycles $44,047.65
Total Past Due $83,030.29
The accounts for which we sent letters current total $32,317.80. So clearly, some accounts have flipped over into the 2+ Billing Cycle category. We need to review the past due reports, update the list, and send out some more letters. We should probably remind the folks who received the first letter that January 1st is coming.
Unless some more accounts past due by two or more billing cycles step up, there are going to be quite a few shut-offs in January.
Projects
Project | Status | Next | Estimated | Estimated |
|
| Step | Completion | Cost |
Small Parts Shed | Shed Delivered | Assemble Shelves | 12/31/21 | $7,000 |
Well #5 Source Meter | Awaiting Parts | Installation | 10/31/21 | $8,904 |
Dollar General | County Pre-App Completed | Application for Water | 09/01/21 | $0 |
GHC Transit | County Pre-App Completed | Developer Extension Agreement | 12/31/25 | $0 |
Indefinite Delivery | 2022 Awarded to Brumfield | Signed Contract | 12/31/21 | $50,000 |
On Site Chlorine Generation | Feasibility Study Underway | Awaiting Engineer’s Report | 09/30/21 | $3,000 |
North Bank Re-Coat | Specification Complete | Prepare Bid Documents | 06/30/22 | TBD |
Reynvaan Extension | In Engineering | Prepare Specification | 07/30/22 | $75,000 |
Sunset Road Water Main | Possible new approach | Input from Attorney | 12/31/21 | $60,000 |
Pape Retail Center | County Pre-App Completed | Developer Extension Agreement | 12/31/22 | $0 |
Shop Fence | On Hold | Discuss with Fire Chief | TBD | TBD |
Clemons Reservoirs Access | In Engineering | Prepare Specification | 09/30/22 | TBD |
North Bank Access | In Engineering | Prepare Specification | 09/30/22 | TBD |
Reynvaan Booster Pumphouse | Revisions suggested by engineer | Determine final arrangement | 07/30/22 | TBD |
Damaged Fire Hydrant
Note has been received, as well as first payment.
Highway 12 Meters
We are hand reading.
Well #5 Source Meter
The meter is on back order.
Ashley & Kayla
No Action in November
Hydrant Maintenance
See discussion on Maintenance Activity
Rate Study
I am struggling with making the time to update the study. The uncertainty surrounding inflation going forward is contributing to the difficulty of providing a meaningful study.
New Regulations
Nothing new besides the PFAS’s.
Personnel
No News
Maintenance Activity:
The workload continues to increase. There several contributing factors.
Age of the system
Discovery of neglected areas
Customer expectations
When we converted the laborer position from seasonal to full time it gave us the opportunity to catch up on a lot of work. But the work has caught up with us and we are, again, crunched.
In looking at the above list, the customer expectations is a big one. I haven’t looked at the 2020 Census data yet, but it is quite obvious that the demographics within the community have changed. There seems to be a lot more younger families in the community that have higher customer service expectations than the long time (older) residents. The field techs are spending a lot more time on customer service issues than in the past. None of the events individually represent a great deal of time, but, in the aggregate, there is a major impact on the time spent addressing customer issues.
The age of the system is probably the second largest factor. We continue to find and repair leaking service laterals. I haven’t tracked how many we do each week (that’s correct...each week) so I can’t quantify the pace we are on as compared to previous years. But there is a steady supply of failing service laterals.
One of the big maintenance items that has fallen by the wayside is painting fire hydrants. Landscape maintenance is second on that list. Neither one of these are particularly critical to water system operations, except keeping the hydrant caps color coded, which is important to the fire district. But these two items are critical to the community’s perception of the degree of care exercised by the district.
The combination of responsiveness to customer issues and maintaining the visible aspects of the water system contribute to customer confidence that they and the water system are being cared for.
I am requesting that we re-institute the program of hiring seasonal labor during the Summer months. The primary goal would be to provide the labor for fire hydrant painting and landscape maintenance.
The “Discovery of Neglected Areas” include such oddments as flushing stations that have been become covered by out of control vegetation. Some of those stations need extensive repairs. We quite frequently stumble on things that require our attention that were not previously on our radar. Some of those have not been acted on due to staff limitations. An example is periodic maintenance of vacuum/air release valves.
Contractor Repairs/Assistance
New Install on Ridge Road
Leak on Alder Glen
Leak on Aberdeen Lake Road
Shop Organization
See the discussion on the Small Parts Shed.
Training/Certifications
We all have our CEU’s for the period. The next three-year period starts in January. Mick is bearing down on getting his operator certification test done.
Safety
We have a mini safety meeting every morning. Mick is still on light duty. That should end pretty soon.
Vehicles
Service Truck: Due for an oil change.
Cooling fan is making noise
Starting difficulties
Getting a “clunk” in the drive line
Pickup Truck 1: No Issues
Pickup Truck 2: No issues
Backhoe: No issues.
Web Site
The November Manager's Report is posted, along with a link to the financial statement.
New Connections
None in November.
Spoils Site
No longer an immediate problem. It will come up again sometime in the future.
Disaster Management Planning
No action in November.
Long Distance Service Laterals
See Sunset Road discussion.
My Health
Getting better all the time. The nerve pain is greatly reduced, though I still need pain management at night. I am here full time most days now.
My doctor tells me the pain may go away tomorrow, or it may never go away.
Remote Work Capability
The only thing I have not worked out is access to SCADA. I am working on that.
Respectfully Submitted:
Reg Hearn
General Manager
ADDENDUM TO MANAGER’S REPORT
12/08/2021
Having received the County reports I was able to prepare reconciled financial documents. There was quite a bit of activity in November, so some aspects of the Financial Statements will need some explanations.
November Revenues
Operational revenues for November were $72,878.88. Not included in that number:
$1,165.23 that represents a stop payment on a lost vendor check.
$3,936.25 transferred in from Major Repair Reserve to cover survey work for the Reynvaan Extension.
$25,197.00 that is a part of the interfund transfers to track the USDA Loan Payment.
To keep all the Funds in balance, We transfer the USDA funds out of the reserve fund into the regular maintenance fund for our records. Then we transfer the funds back into the reserve fund to track with the county records. The actual payment is made from the reserve fund in order to stay on track with the county reports.
Operational expenses for November were $71,959.19. So operationally we spent $919.69 less than revenues. Effectively, operationally, we broke even. However, there was a payment of $22,093.00 to the Water & Sewer Risk Management Pool for next year’s liability insurance.
We spent $4,322.20 on Capital Projects and made the USDA loan payment of $25,197. Most of the Capital Projects expenditures were paid out of reserves. All of the USDA Loan payment was made from reserves.
Once all the true expenses (money actually out the door) and various funds transfers are accounted for, we were in the red by $7,121.10. I am not concerned about this because we are in good shape for the year. Even with contributing substantial funds to reserves we are ahead, in terms of the budget by $17,248.96.
Treasurer’s Report
This report is still out of balance by $0.26. I hope I will be able to spend some time tracking this down after the first of the year.
Regular Maintenance Fund: $ 81,231.31
Capital Replacement Fund: $109,732.25
Major Repair Reserve: $392,689.92
General Facilities Fund: $156,392.59
Total Available Funds/Reserves: $740,046.07
Claims Request
There are some aspects of note to the Claims Request.
For some reason we have been having a spate of invoices that have not arrived. This results in some higher payments to some vendors.
There is a substantial payment to Springbrook (Bias) of $13,005.93 for next year’s support of our financial management software.
It looks like I have not transferred the money for the new copier from the Capital Replacement Reserve into the General Maintenance Fund. I will do that for the December financial reports.
Respectfully submitted
Reg Hearn
General Manager