Sanitary Sewer Board - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the city of Charlestown sanitary sewer board. Today is November 6th, 2025. It's 9:00 a.m. We'll begin our meeting with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Let the record show all board members are present as well as deputy clerk treasurer Heather Shrimp and our attorney Bill Zeller is with us as well. We have an agenda that's been provided. You know motion to approve. Y uh Mr. Cravens is here. He was wanting to He's on the agenda.

Oh, okay. I didn't know if it was on or not. Y Okay. Just want to make sure. You're good. We have [snorts] a motion to approve that motion. Second by Michael Grayson. Second by Nathan Grimes. Any other edits? All in favor say I. I. I. Unanimous. We have our standing business which includes the minutes from October 16th current claims and our payroll allowance docket from October 13th to November 1st. Need a motion to approve. Motion to approve as presented. Motion by Nathan Grimes as presented. I'll second. Second by Michael Grayson. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose. No public comments. No, old business, straight into new business. First up, Seth has our operator's report.

Good morning. Good morning. Um, I really don't have a whole lot for you all today, so we'll make this short and sweet. Um, I just want to give a quick update on the uh new plant, the construction's been going pretty well. They got the building for the dewatering up and ready to go. They just need to put the uh electrical inserts in it now. Uh, so that's good to go. Um, other than that, we're still on schedule for shut up December, uh, mid December. That's really all I got for you all. When you say that the dewatering is up, does that mean the belt filter presses are in? Um, they are set. Okay. Um, they have not been piped in just yet. They just got the shell together. Nice. I mean, I know a trip. Yep. All right. Any questions for Seth?

Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. This time, uh, Mr. Josh Craraven is here. is working on some homes and has a special request for the board. It's crazy people come forward. Morning. Morning. Relax. We don't bite. I know. Last last time I sat up here, it never turned out good. Deep breath. It's all good.

Yeah. I told myself I'd never come back up here, but it's all right. It's a new regime. It's okay. Um my name's Josh Gman. I purchased um two homes in Pleasant Ridge, the Pleasant Ridge subdivision. And in case you guys didn't understand, like when I I spent 10 years rehabing those homes, like fighting to keep our homes in the neighborhood. And I was like a huge proponent for keeping the old homes. And so I stepped down from the neighborhood association. I created the neighborhood association 10 years ago. I stepped down last year back around the summer. And then I was approached to purchase two of the homes that the neighborhood association owned. Now, they was going to sell them to wholesalers for a lot substantially cheaper than what I was going to purchase them for. I purchased them for basically double what the wholesalers would give them. And the reason why I did that was because I wanted to continue to let the neighborhood association continue on and give them more money to do more things. And reason why I'm up here is because when I purchased them, that was in October of 24. Now, what I was under the understanding when I came down here a few weeks ago is that now they've passed the ordinance or something to where if they set empty longer than 6 months, there's a recap fee to the sewer. And I was not under the understanding of that. So, what I'm asking is is since I purchased these homes and I'm not tearing them down. I'm not being rebuilding them. I'm trying to rehab them. If you guys could wave the tap fee because I mean I'm already on the city sewer and everything. I'm not redoing the city. I'm not redoing any of that stuff. I just did not know that they had to be tapped into water the entire time. One home can't have the water on because it's just clearly needs to be completely

rehabbed. the other home on 335 Clark that I have, I can have that up and going in like a month and a half because that's my plan is to clear out the rest of my schedule on my business and then around Christmas time the month of December, finish it up and then put it on the market. But I mean, a $3,100 cap fee, one's a duplex. I mean, so that's I $9,000 is going to hurt my business. It's going that's a lot of money. If id have known this, I maybe would have come down here and just kind of figured out a way to turn the water on and pay the minimum every month. I didn't know this until Tony had never told me I come down here to get a building permit.

What are the addresses? Uh, one's 335 Clark and one's 114 116 Riley. The Riley is a duplex. So, it's three tabs basically. Yeah. The one at the one at Riley is a two10, but it's only going to be a one. I'm going to turn it into a single. Okay. But right now, it's a duplex. So, I don't know how that I don't even know how that system works. Two guys. Okay.

All right. Um, so Tim Crawford and I Tim came to me with with this and we talked about this issue. So the issue is that the ordinance um requires if a property it it comes down to chasing. Seth you can Phil explain this if I get it wrong. So the issue is keeping track of how much capacity. Um we've been doing an audit on these. Tubby's got a list of several that we're having [clears throat] to investigate whether they haven't been paying for sewer. We're trying to figure that out versus whether the water's been completely turned off. And when it comes down to chasing how much capacity we have in current use versus what's available, that's why the fee exists because if somebody removes one from capacity, then that's now capacity that is available. We don't know if that house is being demolished or you know what's going on. So that's why the ordinance exists. Um I for me personally, I would like to find some way potentially to work with individual builders. We don't want to set a precedent where we're waving a whole bunch of taffies because we need those. However, we've got a situation here where um a person is investing in properties to avoid blight and I think that is overall a good thing for the city and the community especially rehabbing of existing homes not just ter

and I find that beneficial to the community. Um my proposal to the board here would be kind of meet in the middle where we don't wave fees. We haven't done that for anybody where we could work out a payment schedule instead if that would be amenable um with a legal agreement on a case- by case basis where perhaps a developer who's in this situation could pay a portion up front to get the building permits and then have the rest of that fee due at a later date triggered by some logical trigger either six months or before they get their certificate of occupancy or before the property is sold. any of those, whichever of those comes first to try to help ease that burden, let them get through. He said he's got one property that he could have sold, you know, moving on. Then that generates some revenue to do the other properties. And it sounds like he's going to need to transition that one property that has two into just one. That's what I'm hearing.

What? So you're talking two tap fees basically. Yeah, it'll just be two. But what I'm confused is is like when did this ordinance pass? Um Tony or this ordinance has been on the books for or what that resolution that I believe it was 2020 whenever that was originally implemented. Okay. May of 2020. Yes. Um so I didn't even know anything. I I've never I mean it's Yeah. Um it's May of 2020 and they've been and we have we have held other builders to be correct to this. So, it's not that it's um something that we haven't enforced in the past. We have been enforcing it and now we're doing a deep dive audit because we have so many properties that are

starting to fall under this because of the rehabs where they sat vacant for a while. Um I've had several pay Yeah. contractors pay that fee re Yeah. And I mean I and I understand like the that I don't know how to say it's like if if I would have known that there was a $3,100 tap fee, I hate to say this, I probably would have just turned the water on and just paid the minimum every month, right? And that's that's the goal. Shut it and just tapped it off in line in in the house and just paid the what is the minimum? I don't know what the minimum is. Uh it's like I think 2100. Yeah. But I mean, what's the minimum cost? I mean, I don't know what the sewer minimum cost is.

I I don't know. It's based off of the I mean, I would hypothetically say it's $30 a month. I've own my houses for 12 months. That's only $360 a year, right? I pay $360 a year for a house to sit there. I can't pay $3,100. When did the house on Riley go vacant? In October of last when I purchased in there was completely empty in October. And then I purchased October of last year. Of last year. Okay. So, so I mean I have I would have no issue paying but the water was turned completely off at that time. Yes. The last year. Okay. So, it's had no water flowing through for a year. It's no water going through either one of them um since October of last year when I posted. Yeah. That's that's going to be the issue. So, it's sorry or say six months.

Six months. So what I would kind of say is if you wanted to do just a waiver reduction of this fee or a payment even potentially a payment plan council given it's a council ordinance if we're going to diverge from that ordinance I think council needs to sign off on it too. So you all can make a recommendation to the council in this situation and then in the interim maybe we figure out a better process potentially even amend the ordinance if you all would like to provide some more uh clearcut guidance but I think the council ought to stop off just because it's changing the rates and charges um and how they're paid the dayoped

I'm open to helping the amount amending things that we need to to do whatever because I mean I would do the right thing and we want to help. Yeah. Because I mean I'd be willing I mean and I don't know maybe this is some maybe this is a suggestion. I don't know but I'd be willing to I mean I could write a check today for the minimum on both houses for the whole 12 months which is hypothetically $600 700. And then I could just in the next month get the water turned on and just pay the minimum moving forward until that gets to that point. Is there a We do tap inspections, correct? From these situations, correct? Correct.

So, what what's the fee for a tap inspection? Uh $30. $30 fee for tap inspection. Yes. Probably wise to do that. Oh, yeah. If it's been turned off that long, I would absolutely at minimum that ting. What we've also requiring is when one's been vacant that long that you camera the line out to the tap on this the main have the plumber camera it to make sure there's no breaks or we've run we've ran into that this the what the sewer line or the water line sewer line. Okay. A water lateral line coming out from the house. Yeah. So from the from the house to the main to the main.

Okay. that way because we've had ran into several issues with brakes at the main and they thought they had a good line. Yeah. Now, I know the one on uh we require that on pretty much all of them anymore. We're asking them to do it. Now, I do know the one on Riley was the the water the sewer line was replaced. I want to say like six years ago because if you look it's got a new it's got a new clean had that but what's happened is some have put in new cleanouts and stopped at the clay and went on down and then the clay went on down. Yeah. I think that's what they did. I mean I know they didn't go all the way out to the road.

That's what we're trying basically if you saw a house Yeah. and six months their sewer backs all the way up but due to an obstruction. We had several that didn't show up for a month, two months, one was six months due to the capacity of the line. So I would need to get So I would need to get a sewer guy to come out there and inspect the line and then I would need to pay the $30 per whatever it is the fee. Uh that that is part of it. Yes. Um, other than that, I will have to defer to the board for Yeah, but I'm saying that's that's another added on to that portion of it is a $30 connection fee.

The capacity fee if you pay the capacity fees today, that would include us checking it, but you still have to have it camera for the one reason is of obstructions in Okay. Yeah, I still have to get But I still have to get a plumber come out there and Okay, that's understandable. I don't have no issue with that. I mean, I wouldn't get a plumber anyways to do the the water line, so I just have them do that anyways. And what that's going to protect and do that.

Yeah. I mean, it's a selling point, too. I just tell it's already been cleaned out or whatever. It's already been looked at. So, I'm just doing some quick math here. Um, the the minimum flow is about 45 a month, but that includes sanitation, which is about 21. So, yeah, I I have a dumpster anyway, so I don't even need the sanitation.

You're looking at about $24 a month on minimum flow. um for power. I think what we're going to have to do is is if the board is amendable to working out some kind of agreement, my only concern is protecting the interest of the city as well because if we start diverting too far from an ordinance, then it creates opportunities for others to come and sewer department is in trouble because of that. Right. I I mean I understand. So we have to we have to protect we have to protect that. Um yeah I mean I understand that you guys have ordinance and

right and if you do it for me somebody else may come down here someone else builders may essentially come in and say hey well you waved it for him right? And I understand that but and we're we're not in the habit of waving tap fees completely. We haven't we don't wave we have not waved fees at all. So I'm not saying that you don't have to to pay the fee. I'm just trying to figure out how we get that happening in a way that eases your burden off the front end. It gives you time to make that money to to do that, invest in that. Are you Do you have a plan to sell the homes? You rent them? Yeah, I'm I'm not renting them. I'm selling them. Okay.

But it's I mean I bought them to rehab them to sell them so that a developer wouldn't get them, tear them down, and build the new homes. Good. I mean, it's it's a historic neighborhood. trying to keep the historic homes, right? And I didn't I did not know of this fee. So, we're really looking at what's the fee? 31 313 3130 3130.

You only have two, not three, right? Two, not three. Um because you're going to combine that we could go away with the third one. Um, would you be amenable to paying the the half like half down? I mean, if you're only pay half now, get the building permit, and then pay half. Well, I'm not even working on the rally one. Okay. So, then you can hold on it. You just have to pay half of the first one right now to get your building permit. So, half of the 3130. Um, and then you get your building permit, you get moving, and then we would set a agreement. You have a legal agreement whereby my recommendation would be either 6 months think you'd have it up in six months. You think you'll have it done in six months?

Yeah, I mean I do, but I mean even then that's still I hate to say but even then that's still $6,000 that you know with a smaller I mean for what I purchased the homes for. It's not like I'm coming in here as a wholesaler to buy a home for hypothetically 40 grand, flipping it for 180. That's not what I did here. I There's only a $20,000 profit here, and now we're not Would you would you I mean, could you tack this fee onto the the sale of your house? I mean, I mean, it's going to be either way. They're not going to be able to get water hooked up, basically.

Right. It ends up being about 3,000 extra on the price of the house as you're trying to sell it, basically is what I'm saying. But if you get somebody to buy that, you know, I mean, I understand. I want to work with you, but I've got I understand. I understand. Yeah. Um I mean, I'm open to other suggestions from the board, but we have, you know, this we're it's a challenge to make sure that we are protecting the interest of the ordinance and everything else. And whatever we recommend is going to have to go to council, it sounds like anyway. Um so I don't need to come down here and speak with that. I'm okay with I mean we can you can come in person. I always recommend coming in person, but we would also have a formal whatever we recommend be a formal recommendation with letter from the from

I come if you can get whatever I mean I come in the council meeting and file that no issue with that but or we can just say that the board is amendable to to the council working out an agreement with you and in the meantime you me Tim Crawford can sit and have a conversation with both our legal and see what that looks like and make a recommendation to the council from that that this board doesn't have since it's a council decision, this board doesn't have to make a specific recommendation. We can just say that we are amenable to and recommend that they work with builders in your situation and then we can come in with a better game plan and that kind of straightens that up to the council if you wish. I'm okay with that too. I mean, I make a motion in that regard

whatever that was. Make a motion to whatever that was. So, I'm hearing a motion that the board is amendable to recommending to the council that we find a way to look at that ordinance and make um potential concessions for rehab properties. Okay. You'll just set a meeting up with me and we'll get you. You have a number. Thank you. Thank you, sir. We got a motion from Nathan and a second from Michael to that regard. All in favor say I. I.

I. That's unanimous. So, we'll we'll work on some details with that and encourage the council to take a look at that ordinance for these rehab properties and see what we can come up with. All right. Um, [snorts] the final item under new business was an SRF dispersement. I'm assuming that look copy because it has to be signed anyway. Heather to the real MVP. Um, so this one's in the amount of $54,450 and it's for Jacobe Tunes Land Seth. It's been reviewed. Yes, good. All right, we see a motion to approve. Motion. Motion by Michael Grayson. Second.

Second by Nathan Grimes. Any questions on that? All in favor say I. I. I. That's unanimous. Um, I think that's all. We just need a unless there's anything from both that you just need a motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Michael Grac. Second by Nathan Grimes. All in favor say I. I. Make sure you sign everything for Heather before you leave. Thanks everyone.