Board of Mayor and Aldermen - Regular Meeting

while I'm here.

Yeah. Who were the other? I see two other

two weeks. That guy done, man. Good to see you. Do we have anyone that did not sign up that [clears throat] fish always fun? I know it.

I used to get a chance to sit over there. Hold on.

Hey, bring me your phone. [clears throat] does she [laughter]

welcome. That's up to the DA [clears throat] at least.

I guess nobody's been just

[clears throat] They hurt.

Okay. So, it's uh it is at least six o'clock. Um,

I mean 5:00. I'm already thinking that I'm an hour ahead. Sorry about that. Um, first of all, I'd like to welcome everybody here who's here tonight. Um, and I'd like to introduce everybody that we uh have on the panel that was able to show up tonight to answer any questions or uh talk about the system. Of course, we have Alderman Parsley, uh, Vice Mayor Messik, Director Foley, uh, myself, Joey Hobbs, Mayor, uh, city attorney Craig Johnson, uh, Alderman James Thre, Alderman Thomas Crosland, Engineer, uh, Adam Saint, I mean Adam Carter from St. John Engineering. About messed that up, didn't I?

You got it right. Adam Saint

there. There we go. And we've got Zach, I cannot get his last name pronounced. I apologize. He is a new member to the uh water and sewer uh commission. He has uh environmental and engineering and wastewater uh over 30 years of experience. also have uh Stuart Tilly with Duke's Root Control who's a partner of ours uh that's been working I guess a little over a year and a half with us here in town and and worked with us previously. Of course we have uh director Anthony Burroughs and chairman of water and sewer Mr. Hunts with us as well. So at this time um I think we have one in the audience who is running for an alderman. If you'd like to stand up and say hi, we would be glad to do that.

Hello. Hi. My name is Holly McLaren and I am I am running for alderman. So hopefully I'll be up there working with you guys in the fall. Yep. Well, thank you for attending. Right. We just wanted to recognize that you were here. Um sir, yeah. And we have a future coffee county commissioner uh for district 1, Miss Amanda Lavo. uh who there weren't enough opponents. So, she'll be a definite county commissioner. Well, welcome aboard and you'll represent the city well, I believe.

So, okay. So, um what we've done is is we put together a real quick presentation for everybody. Uh we don't want to take up a whole lot of time. We do have a few things that we ask, right? Um you know, we're going to give you a couple minutes to ask questions. Uh we don't really want everybody to talk over everybody. Uh and at the end of the day, you know, our goal is to answer your questions more than it is to hear us speak, but we do want to give you some facts uh about the system itself. Um, [sighs and gasps] as you can tell, right, we wanted to hold this meeting today so residents can hear directly from the people responsible for managing and improving the system and have an opportunity to ask questions. Our goal tonight is to answer questions honestly and explain what we know, what we are doing, and what comes next. We understand why residents are concerned. Sewer overflows, rate increases are serious issues and that exactly why we're here tonight to talk about them. [snorts] There has been a lot of information circulating, right? If you read the forum, if you hear the experts who didn't seem to make it tonight, um maybe we can put some of that to bed. Okay? I mean, this was a perfect opportunity for people to come out, uh, voice what they had on their mind and and ask us honest questions versus just lobbing it out there, uh, for everybody to debate, uh, with uh, with not to correct people cuz most of us up here are not going to engage in bantering on the forum, okay? We we'd rather do it in person, face to face at meetings. Um the important thing is that we are addressing the problem.

Projects are underway and additional improvements are planned. Infrastructure improvements take time because they require engineering funding and construction, but work is moving forward. [clears throat] So we have some simple facts for you. Okay. Manchester Water and Sewer operates 247, maintains over 130 miles of water and sewer pipeline, maintains 1,169 fire hydrants for fire protection, serves nearly 8700 total water meters across the city and uh we have approximately 1,800 or so in the county. We have a small team that manages a very large system. We have 37 uh employees. We have 89 uh,222 miles of water lines, 41,95 miles of gravity sewer, 5,512 miles of force main, 2,191 manholes. Uh, again, I told you about the fire hydrants. We have 26 lift stations and we also talked about the customers. Um, and at this time, Director Foley, I'm going to ask you a couple questions for myself for a little bit of clarity so that uh, anybody who's not in water sewer on it understands a couple things when we talk about gravity sewer. Could you give us just a real quick uh, you know, what we're what we're discussing there? And if you would speak into the mic so everybody at home uh will hear you please.

Okay. [clears throat] Gravity sewers are are uh mains that do not need pump stations. They run on gravity basically from the highest point. They gravity down to the pump stations and then they get to a pump station and they get pumped up and moved to another spot that takes them to the sewer plant ultimately. Okay. And then force mains. Force mains are the the opposite. They are you they are moved by pumps. We have uh 26 pump stations that move sewer from low spots up to higher spots and then pump them to our sewer main plant over at the building.

Okay. And then I think you touched on lift stations. Um, but I I I think you said that they will pump the gravity fed up to the next highest point and then it's gravity fed to the next point. Is that correct? Is kind of up and down. Up and down.

Yep. So, [sighs] okay. Um, here's you just a visual, right, of water lines by miles, uh, gravity fed and then force mains. So, water distribution. Okay. Water is purchased from Duck River Utility Commission. Um, you know, we distribute about 3 million gallons daily. We have six elevated storage tanks, five booster pump stations, and we have capacity of 3,375,000 gallons of storage capacity. Manchester does not have a water treatment plant. Okay. So, what we're trying to say there is is we buy supplied water contrary to some comments. We do not treat it oursel and send it back to you. Okay. Um, this is just a quick kind of graphic, right? How drinking water reaches you. We purchase it from Duck River uh utility commission. six elevated storage tanks as we talked about and then from those tanks it's fed to the customer in the collection system. Right. The sewer system is a network of underground pipes that uh carries waste water from homes and businesses to the treatment plant. Once it reaches the treatment facility, the water is cleaned and safely released according to state environmental standards. Most rarely we think about uh the sewer system as it operates under the ground and it's out of sight. Okay. Many sewer systems across the country including ours were built decades ago. Some pipes are 40, 50, [clears throat] and even 60 years old like railroads and

bridges. Infrastructure eventually wears out and requires repair and replacement. And that's kind of, you know, uh, the biggest part of what we're going through today is you get into the inner circles of the city, it is the oldest infrastructure. Uh, as you go out in the outer rings, um, those are the newest because of growth and expansion. When infrastructure reaches a certain age, city must begin replacing pipes, pumps, and other equipment. These upgrades help ensure the system continues to operate safely and reliably reliable reliable reliable.

There we go. For the community. Thank you. Um, as we said, this is just a little more more of an overview, right? Um, talks about the lift stations, the manholes, um, the miles, force mans. Uh the other part that uh is important there is your wastewater plant treats about 1.8 to 2.2 million gallons a day. Okay. The capacity after it was remodeled um you have a capacity today of 4.3 million gallons. So on days it does not rain. Okay, we run at about 50% capacity. So I think that's very important for people to understand where we get ourselves into overflows and into trouble is on rain event. Okay. And in Manchester we approximately have 114 to 120 rain days a year. So twothirds of the time your system works extremely well. The other third of the time we have some things that we'll talk about on on up here as to why it causes us problems. uh how waste water is treated, right? Homes or businesses send it to lift stations and then it goes to the treatment plant. As far as the treatment plant goes, since director Foley has been in charge, he has built a staff of five individuals. As you can tell, uh these are licensed individual. They hold different types of license. Um we have two newer uh employees that have come on board that have lab experience and we will be sending them to get some more certific certifications where your water and sewer bill goes. Right. Water we purchase water from Duck

River utility. So part of your bill we have to buy the water. Okay. Infrastructure and maintenance, pipes, valves, hydrants, water treatment operations, pump stations, lift stations, equipment, vehicles, materials, staffing, and a 247 operation. And I'm I'm going to back up just so that we also understand none of your property tax, none of the sales tax, any of those taxes that are collected go toward water and sewer. Water and sewer is considered its own entity and its own business and it has to substain itself. Okay? If not, the state will come in and they'll take it over. they'll set the rates for you uh because they will make the business viable. So that's part of why you see uh things that are rate increases. Um [clears throat] um so Alderman Anderson just showed up so welcome. Um, but part of that, uh, like I said, is is why that you notice from time to time there has to be a rate increase. Okay? It's not like that we can take out of the city's general fund from taxes and give them money. Uh, older pipes can crack and shift over time. When that happens, groundwater or rainwater can leak into the system. Engineers call this ini. You hear that term quite a bit. It's for inflow and

infiltration. Uh that extra water uh takes up space inside the pipes designed to carry waste water from homes, businesses during rain. Uh it can overwhelm the system. So when we have you know different size rain events um we see as much as 8 million gallons come to the plant during that time. I told you our capacity is 4.3 under normal operations but under rain events we have a capacity of 12 million gallons. So we're still not overdoing the system but it is the pipes and things in the ground that can't handle the water and that's what causes the overflows. uh when you go from a larger pipe to a smaller pipe, it creates a problem and that water must go somewhere. Um so that's part of what INI is causing during that 120 days a year uh before storm water drains. So, you know, it's been probably uh Adam, how long we've been doing storm water drains and things now? 10, 12, 14 years. I mean, before that system started actually being implemented and put into the system, everybody thought that your storm water from your roofs and and your gutters and everything should go into the sewer system. Um, downtown is a bigger issue as it's older section. We still have rooftops that catch quite a bit of water here and put that into the sewer system and that overwhelms it. There's been parking lots that drained instead into the storm water system that was draining into the sewer system. Those things were are part of what we've been trying to handle. And thanks to Stuart and his team, right, when they do smoke testing, what that does is it shows us where the water is coming from that shouldn't be connected to our

system. Okay. [clears throat] Um, chronic manholes as of March 1st of 2026. So what is classified as a chronic manhole is if you have five overflows in the same manhole within a 12-month period that is considered chronic. Okay, as you can see we have six uh we give you the name of them as well as the street uh where they're located. That doesn't mean that we do not have more overflows throughout the system, but to be considered chronic, there has to be five in a 12-month period. Now, once you go in and you fix a chronic manhole, it takes you 12 months of no overflows for that to come off of the system. Okay. Okay. sewer moratorum, right? That's been the big topic here lately. Um, we have been on a TK moratorum for since 2012 2012 12 or 14. We came off of that moratorum on March of 2024 and we went on to what they call a self-imposed moratorum. Um now what that says is is when you're under a T- deck moratorum you cannot add flow above a chronic manhole unless you proved that you have done work to remove INI out of the system um so that there's less flow so you can add some flow back that's what the moratorum

uh you know high level right I'm not going to get into the weeds here so we did such a good job until March of 2024. We came off the state moratorum. We went on to a self-imposed moratorum. So, a self-imposed moratorum is basically the same thing except we govern ourselves, right? The mayor, uh, the water and sewer director, [clears throat] uh, we calculate things with engineering that, hey, we've removed 10,000 gallons out of the system that's above a chronic manhole. We can add back some houses. Each house according to TD deck is 300 gallons per day. So if you remove 10,000 gallons, you can add several homes back and you actually didn't add anything to the system. Okay. Um so during this time uh from March of 24 through March of 26, you can see that we had 101 overflows. And in 2025, we had 108 overflows. That along with a EPA audit that was done on the procedures and things in place at the water and sewer plant. We went under an EPA order for a year. Okay. We have certain things that we have to get accomplished during that year by date. Um, we are ahead of schedule on that order. We intend fully to be off that order within a year. The new one that we just went on to March of 2026. Um, like I said, it's familiar to us. We've done it before. Um, but, uh, the fine, right, it was published that our fine is $146,000.

Okay. I guess that's partly true. Um, not reality true, but on paper true. Our fine that we just went ahead and paid is $29,200. Now, on the moratorum itself, what happens is is our first date is March of this month. We have certain data that is required to turn in. If we turn the data in and it's accepted, that $20,000 fine, we do not pay. There's another date in April. There's another date on out through the year. We have full intentions of complying with every one of those dates and the fine should only be $29,200. But if we said, "Hey, you know what? We're not going to do anything." Okay? Then yes, we have to pay $146,000. That is definitely not our intentions. And I would like to also say that this all happened before director Foley's tenure. Okay? This is not on his watch. This is what he is coming into and is doing a fine job to make sure that we're meeting those dates. So, future needs and growth, infrastructure replacement and uh rehabilitation, system expansion to spec to support community growth, lift station upgrades and li reliable reliability improvements, advanced assessment, management and technology, continue investment in water and wastewater infrastructure, workforce [clears throat] development and equipment modernization. So, if you haven't noticed, um, the water and sewer department has bought

some very nice used vehicles. We're not driving late 90 model and early 2000 vehicles. Now, we are driving early 2020 model vehicles. So, we've been very thrifty with that spend uh to make sure that we can give our people the right equipment to do their job, okay? And not worry about, uh whether it's going to be reliable or not. So, at this time, [clears throat] uh we're ready for questions. I went over three minutes, but I think I started late, too. Go on up to the podium, sir. Tell us your name. Hold on. So, my name is Steven Scarro. I am a resident here in the city of Manchester. I did send my question in via email earlier today. Um, I've been in Manchester since July of 2022. Bought my very first house. I'm proud to be a resident here. One of my best friends lives down here and he helped influence my move. Um, so,

well, first, welcome. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. A lot better than Nashville and Memphis. We hope so. Right. Right. Give us a good plug there.

So, um, few things. uh regarding the one or the TDEC fine assessed in February, which specific permit violations remain unresolved today and what concrete guarantees can the city provide that residents won't be footing the bill for further avoidable penalties in the future? Specifically, what is the status of the state required corrective action plan and will you commit to making monthly progress reports available to the public on the city's website? Furthermore, regarding the proposed 35% hike, how was that specific figure determined? Can the city provide a line item breakdown showing exactly how much of this new revenue is earmarked for crit critical infrastructure repair versus how much is being diverted to pay off existing regulatory fines or administrative costs. We need to know that this investment is actually fixing the pipes and not just covering the penalties. Thank you.

So hang on in case you have a followup. Okay. Um the the first part of your question, right, is about the fine. As I said, the fine is $29,200. And yes, sir, we are going to have to spend the money out of that bucket to pay that fine. Okay. We do give monthly updates at our water and sewer commission meeting, which is every Thursday uh first Thursday after Bulma meets uh at 6:00. you can either join us or [clears throat] we can uh we do live stream it as well. Okay. Um but [clears throat] as I said earlier, we have no intentions of paying no more fines. There is very specific dates. Um and we will update every bit of that work at those meetings. So hopefully that takes care of that one for you. Right. the rate uh hike and increase as you as you said. Um the specific way that was determined um and and I have u uh Chairman Hunts here. He served during that time and and now Alderman Anderson is here as well. Um, and and either one of you are more than welcome to talk about that or or I can. And and what his question is is how did you determine um how how how much to raise the rates and then uh we can talk about exactly uh what we did with the money. Okay. I I do have that part of the equation for them. So would would would either one want to

and just to add on to that, how much of that rate increase will be used to improve the infrastructure and even I'm sure many will agree the quality of the water that reaches our taps.

So okay, the quality of the water that reaches your tap as I told you before we buy that water, right? It comes from Duck River Utility Corporation. Uh they're out of they're actually owned by Manchester and they work independently and they do really have good water, believe it or not. Okay. Um so, but part of that increase will continue to upgrade the infrastructure in the supply lines. So, I'm going to answer a couple of them for you and then I'm going to turn the other over to to somebody else. So, you know, part of your question was is how do you know uh that we're spending that money? Uh in the previous budget there was zero dollars allocated to a capital outlay. Okay, which is infrastructure and uh pipe replacement and some of those things we've been working off some grant money. But after or in the budget for this year, okay, we put $3.7 $3.75 million in capital outlay for projects. The rate increase is supposed to have brought in $2.4 million. Okay. Um but since it didn't get passed until September, we didn't get it implement implemented until January. Uh we will only see $1.2 million projected uh because it's a 6 months. We go from July to June. Okay. So you just so you know of the increase 1.2 2 million this year will be in a $3.7 million capital projects. So, we're taking some other money that we receive off of rates and things and we're going to spend another $2 million on top of that rate increase. Okay. So, that's what we're doing with the money to assure you that we are

doing projects to make things better. Now to your original question. Um, mayor. Yes,

you you hit you hit on it. If you'll look at our budget from um [laughter] if you if you'll want to do some analysis, look at prior year's budgets and and and the city audits. Those are those are online with the controllers's office and and you can compare the line items what what got spent on infrastructure this year versus [snorts] last year versus the previous other years. So I mean that's that's where the money goes and you can tell but but it take a little bit of analysis to you know to decide where that's at. And I give you a highlevel numbers here just so that you understood that we're putting two times as much as the increase provided into capital projects for this year. Okay. Um as far as how the uh rate increase was decided um I do go ahead

speak to that. Alderman Anderson, would you like to come up here? I can [clears throat]

I'm Alderman Anderson. I served on the water and sewer commission from September of 24 until September of last year. So, this came up while I was serving on it and I did sponsor it because whatever member of the board serves on the commission would sponsor the resolutions that come out of it. But the reason that I supported it is because under our previous director Perry, he brought us a budget that he had developed with the finance director and he had assessed the system, what the needs were, what capital improvements and projects he thought that we needed and he brought us these figures and he said, "I know that this is going to hurt. this is not going to be a popular thing, but you all haven't really been proactive with your rate increases. And so, you know, this is what I need to do to get you moving in the right direction. And I don't want to see, like the mayor, I don't want to see any more fines from the EPA. I don't want us sued again by Tennessee Riverkeepers. You know, I had full faith in those numbers that were being brought to us. It passed um unanimously in the Water and Sewer Commission. It also went before the finance committee. I believe it passed there 2:1. Um, and then it went to us as a board and it passed four to two. And I'm very sensitive to the fact that this is a hard thing for many people, the increase. You know, a lot of people are struggling and on fixed incomes and it seems like everything is going up all at once. But, um, something I learned when I was doing my 12 hours of education in order to serve on this commission is that the consultants come around and they talk to you guys about rate increases. They talk to us. I guess we hadn't had one, you know, in our ear in time to save us from this very unpopular, you know, decision that we had to make. But they say if you don't raise two to 3% or even 4% a year incrementally, then what happens is you're running your system as cheaply as possible, which in the short term is a popular thing, right? But then when it comes time to make these big investments like we're trying to make and to make these big repairs, then we're forced to do these double-digit rate increases.

We're not the only municipality that's been having to do this and I understand why people are upset about it. I mean, it's not it's not a popular thing, but when you tour the facilities and you see the need, you know, and you look at the numbers and you see how much more expensive it is to do any project now than it was 3 to 5 years ago or even two years ago, you know, we were kind of left feeling like we had no choice. If that makes sense. Yeah. we do okay? Yes, sir. And hopefully that helped answer others questions as well, especially with the 35% being a big talking point on the forum.

Yeah. I mean, and and and like I said, I think uh [clears throat and cough] uh former director Perry even went on record and said it should have been 70%. Right. So, um you know, in his opinion, we're still lagging quite a bit behind. Um but uh but [clears throat] you know uh compared to other areas I I think we're we're probably pretty close but seems we have a few more problems than most. Thank you for your time. Absolutely. Any more questions?

Yes. Come on up, sir. Tell us [clears throat] your name and and uh my name is uh Robert Han. Um I got a decade experience in the water uh field. My question is what is our water loss here at Manchester? So last month we had a loss of 10%. And for 2025 we were at 14.9. So, what are we doing to be proactive to keep these leaks to a minimum as well as making sure all the valves are flowing the correct way and so forth to keep future increases from happening cuz that's the big one of the biggest expenses is the water loss.

Absolutely. And and to be honest with you, right, I mean a lot of systems that have age as ours, they see as high as 20 to 30%, right? We have a very aging system. Um and also in water loss. So if if you know when we say 14 and a half% water loss, understand that also includes firefighting, that includes flushing things. I mean, so we're we're probably in the single digits. Not that we can't get better. We're not we're not saying that, but but we did see a decrease. Uh and it was reported at the last water and sewer commission meeting that we were at 10%.

Okay. And then the other question I have is with that whole water scare, you know, a month ago, [clears throat] are we exploring options of getting water from other places besides Duck River? For example, Consolidated Utility District, they've have interconnects with Smyrna, Murphy'sboro, Marshall County, and it's all valved off for an emergencies. They could sell water back and forth. That's something I think we might need to look at. So if that ever happens at the plant for Duck River, well, we got a backup option cuz if that system crashes, you know, it's a Flint, Michigan all over again. Yeah. So is that something that's on the radar for Manchester?

Really, to be honest, the the answer is no, just because of the amount of piping and things it would take to get it from somewhere else. About four miles of piping. Yeah. What it would take? I I mean, and then it would have to go in through the city to our supply tanks. Most of our supply or all of our supply comes into the Westwood tank and then it's distributed through the town that way. And you know in 39 years I think Mr. Breaker uh who runs that facility said that was the first time they had had that type of problem.

I know but it's always good to have farther you know more backup plan. So I know other people have expressed that too. Why are we just limited to one source? It should be maybe something to forecast for, you know, 5 10 15 year plan with the rate increases and all that too. But I think it would be cheaper, which is what we're exploring today is adding more tanks for more capacity. Yes, we we currently have a plan uh that just passed Bulma to put a new tower out at the Manchester Industrial Park, which adds another 750,000 gallons to our storage capacity. and and we're looking at some of those versus actually going out and finding

there's other options because it could have been, you know, real bad. That's all I had. Appreciate it. Hey, thank you, sir. Could you spell your last name? Hey, H.

Oh, great question. Yeah, come come on. Yeah. Just to add on to uh what you just said about adding a new tower, is that also going to be able to keep up with the increased demand of the farm that's going to be getting put in? Yes. And that's part of how we got the tower because that uh facilities coming in. we were able to see to receive grant money of the tune of $3.1 million is 3.5 and the city only has to put in 370 or $325,000. So because the industry came right um I think they're going to ask for 140,000 gallons of a new 750,000galon tank. So yeah, we we got lucky and somebody's going to pay for it for us.

There we go.

Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, I do want to touch on a couple of things from from Mr. Han's questions. Um, water loss, uh, what that is is the difference between what we purchase and what we bill for. So, I want to make sure that that's clear to everybody. If we buy a million gallons of uh, water, but we bill for 900,000, we've had 10% water loss. Um, the latest data I could find from the controllers's office was from 2023. The state average across all water systems in the state of Tennessee was over 30%. So, a 10% water loss uh last month or a 14 12 15% water loss last year uh is better than most of our counterparts in the state.

Yeah. and and and and as we discussed, right? I mean, we're always looking to do better. Um, you know, uh, but at the at the same time, I think part of it um, to solve some problems is adding some capacity through tanks and and we're, like I said, we have the one we're exploring another tank to go out toward 41, which will also help county residents with lower pressure out in that area. So, so that is something that the commission uh is is working on with the director and then hopefully we can bring some of that to Bulma uh in the coming months. Any other questions? Come on. Come on down.

Hello. Thank you for having me. Um so right now there's six chronic manholes. You said yes ma'am. And that means five overflows a year. Uh so my question is do we know how many manholes we have that have had like four that are right on that verge? Um I don't have that. I mean Donnie do you know? Okay. Yeah we have a list. We keep a running list. Okay. Wastewater plants. So we'll know which ones are about to become chronic and which ones can be rewarded. Okay. Is that like a looming thing that we should be thinking about? Are they about to go into their fifth overflow? And then in some cases,

okay, some we might be adding to that 40 of them. No. Cool. Um, and it takes a year for them to fall off the list after work's been done. Yes. So, as of right now, those six this time next year. Are any of those six off the list? Have we worked on those? So, we we continually work on all of them. Right.

Okay. But to give you uh an example in January uh I don't know how much rain we had two or three inches it seems in a short period of time I can't remember the numbers uh we had 14 overflows. Okay. So um you know like I showed you earlier uh we actually got worse in 2025 than we did in 2024. Um, and that can be from a variety of things, but Lonnie has put certain things into place now to where we run cameras down them. We try to find out is there blockage in the line, is there grease buildup, is there trash? Um, so, so we have a different procedure than we did in the previous administration, right? Instead of just accepting them and increasing, we're trying to figure out exactly what's going on. And there again, I mean, these are all great questions, by the way. I mean, I I want to commend everybody for asking them and and if you would tune in once a month or come and see us at the water and sewer. I mean, John, you're there. Uh we always ask for assistance questions and John never gives us any, but we really don't have anybody come usually. So, but I mean the, you know, the main thing everybody needs to take away from here tonight is we're not just sitting back saying, "Okay, this is great. We're happy." Right. Right. I mean, we did over $13 million worth of grant work. We put in over 4,700 new 24 in or 18in pipes throughout the city. I mean, trust me, this is something that uh that this team works on all the time.

It you'd have to, right? It's a hot topic issue. Well, and and the other thing that I think would be good to understand is is this is going to be something you do from now until there is no more Manchester because by the time we get the inner city fixed, the exterior part of the city will become old, right? It's more about having plans of how you do things in the future. Um, since Lonnie and uh Adam and and we got into the TEDex stuff, right, we've turned in threeyear plans, we're starting to work on fiveyear plans. that gives us a way to ensure that we're doing the best we can with with your money and with the grant money that's available to us.

Okay, cool. And that leads perfectly into the last thing I want to bug you with. So, um, our fine is not as bad as it may be seemed at first with that 146,000. Um, but there's benchmarks that we have to hit. Did you say the next one is April? No, we have one in March. One in March. Okay. What kind what can you tell me more about that like what is that?

Yeah. So what we have to do is we have to go back 2 years and give TAC a list of all taps we have given which it's been reported between 7 and 10 depends on who's reporting at this time that we give out in my first year and then we'll go back the next year and pull all those and what they'll do is they'll look at how many was above chronic manholes what we can prove we reduced to make them to where we could give them out and then uh that's the first benchmark and then from there they can do an assessment and then we'll get to the next benchmark. Okay. And we'll see you from there. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. Absolutely.

Mr. Howard, I see you out there. You got anything good for us today? Well, come on up. No, I don't have anything good. Huh? I'll ask a question. Okay. uh you know, of course I'm in the development business and most people want it don't want growth and I've sitting in this town for uh 40 years and we beg for growth many many many times and we say why don't we have anything in Manchester? Well, really in reality, it takes rooftops to make growth.

And of course, we've been shut down in Manchester for any growth or any uh um any new subdivisions. Pretty much been shut down. And uh right now we're having to go to the county or we go to develop. We don't uh the growth. We're doing one probably in the future. We're going to do one on Old T Highway which will be in the county on perk system and uh we would just like I guess as a group of people a bunch of people in this town would like to know what the future growth of Manchester is. Okay. So, uh, as you said, right, even though we annex your property, right, we have been doing that with you for a couple years, you have not been able to put a shovel in the ground. Correct.

That's correct. I mean, so a lot of this conversation that we're annexing all this property and everything's getting started and we shouldn't be doing that. We want to thank you first of all for annexing your property and giving us a little more tax dollars. So, thank you for that. Well, let's hope we don't have to deanex it in the next few years. Okay.

I hope not as well. But, uh, to to answer your question, right, by us slowing down the [clears throat] progress of only giving out 7 to 10 taps for a year, it give us an opportunity to do work behind the scenes so that we can get oursel to a point that we can honestly say, "Hey, we're ready to start developing some more subdivisions." Um right now currently today there's probably a little over 300 lots that have already been approved that are buildable. Right. So that will sustain some growth. Not uh all of it. Have has a shovel been putting ground on all of them?

No. I mean but but you but but they've already are on the list because we brought them in. Every time we develop a subdivision, right, we have to take those calculations and put them against our capacity. So, yes, they technically have been uh approved to build on. Um, but you know, we're hoping, right, as as we said before, we've put together a three-year plan that over the next 12 months or so, a lot of this will ease. A lot of the chronic manholes and overflows will go away. Um, but you know, there is no crystal ball to give you a date, but all I can tell you is is I think everybody in here is committed uh to keeping our town going. Now, part of what's happened to us, if we're just going to be honest about some growth, right, is is for 3 years we averaged 65 houses a year. Okay? Because of what happened in the county, right? They kind of shut down growth altogether. We peaked again this year with around 95 uh permits. So we gained an extra 35 residents uh based off of statistics from from 3 years previous. So it's getting forced into the cities because of the way the county wants to do their business, which is their business to do, right? and we're doing it as fast as we can uh to keep you happy and the rest of the folks that want to develop here. It's important.

I'm h I'm happier than never been in life. So, you know, this is that's good, Joey. Thank you. No, I I'm I'm uh extremely happy that you're happy. [laughter] Thank you. Yes, sir. Anybody else? Yes, ma'am.

Yes. Um, my name is Amanda Levie and you may have stated it, but I just want to be clear. You've um slated $3.75 million for capital expenditures. You're able to um apply 1.2 million from the increases in the rates, but where was the other 2 million coming from? So, I did catch that that is just realignments inside of the budget from last year.

Um, capital expenditures or or lots of things. Um, but uh Anthony, do you you have a kind of a a top level thought on where some of that uh was allocated from? Some of it, as I said, we had been acrewing because we knew we had grant matches. So we we did a lot of grant work last year and that was going to have to be uh put into the budget. Um so some of it was probably acred over a year or so. Um because we did have a couple big projects that were probably a million dollar matches or or something very similar to that.

Okay. So that would go into those slots and then use that money that was already applied. Okay. I just wanted to know where it was coming from. Yeah. [laughter] If if they'll give us $9 million and only ask us for a million, we usually take those deals and then we try to acrew for it over a couple years so that when the project's done, uh it's not just all one lump sum to us. Well, please uh thank those grant writers. Okay.

We do uh Dave Capka uh is our grant writer here in the city of Manchester and he does a really good job along with Lorie Fiser and and a couple others that we work with. Uh the rest of the panel, you guys, your microphones all work. Um you know, I'll be glad to quit answering questions at any time.

So, I have another question. Uh you may have said this already. I know with the tap fees and sewer tap fees and all that. Do we have for this growth that's coming, which I'm part of it, I moved here two years ago, an impact fee that could go back to the infrastructure, the schools and so forth where we could put like a, you know, a certain fee to that the builders on these houses so we could put it back into our our system to help improve and maybe not future more rate increases. We're going to call on Vice Mayor Messi for that one. Okay. Yes, sir. We worked hard and long to pass an impact fee. We've had it in effect a little over six months, I believe. Year and a half. Year and a half. Yes.

We're I don't know what we've got in it. Six. This year we put 6 point or 690,000 something like that in it. Okay. Y So we're we're probably a little over a million dollars total. Oh, good. Good. 80% of that is is is legislated to go toward new schools or school maintenance. 20% goes to other infrastructure and right now that 20% is dedicated to bridges. Okay? Because a lot of people complain about the growth that's coming in all these new neighborhoods, but the work to get out that we're getting money back from it, I think that'll help, too. Every time every time you build a house, we get $2 a foot. Okay. So, good deal. Well, I appreciate it.

And and to be honest, we're we're also starting to look now at developer fees, right? So, that Mr. Howard and the rest of them can help us pay as well. Um, you know, like I said, uh, it it's not a bad thing. We're all in it together, right? Uh, most builders, uh, pass that on to the customer, but, uh, but we did in July of 2024 or June, and it went into effect July of 24, we passed a $2 per square foot. It's not living area. It's the whole covered area. Uh and and as Vice Mayor Messi said, we probably captured a little over a million dollars uh in about 18 months.

Yes, sir. Uh you just mentioned something about developer fees. I want you to know I want the mayor to know that I'm not opposed to that. If you've got competition out here, one competition does what the other one does. whatever it takes to make this town right, which we haven't done for ever. Yep. And we've got to have those fees coming whether it be from this impact fee or whether we got to have developer fees, whatever we got to have. But, you know, everyone is going to competition takes over and they're all the same price level.

Yep. And and listen, you're not alone, right? The other developers that we've talked to about that, I mean, everybody has been very receptive, right? They understand our struggles and they understand that it uh it's going to take us all doing it together. So, it'll take us all. That's right. And so, thank you very much for that comment. Yes, sir.

Go on back. Um, so one common denominator I have been seeing a lot uh posted about on the forums are questions about all these car washes that are coming into town and with the capacity or the amount of water that they're using and or putting into wastewater. what is being done to ensure that their water usage is kept at a minimum and not impacting the residents of Manchester.

So, Adam, you can probably help me a little with this, right? I think the the ones who've been coming into town actually recycle their water. Um it's not like some of the others. I don't know if you uh have any of that. I'm not I don't have any of that data.

Okay. Um but but I can tell you that they recycle water. Um their usage is actually probably less than the ones who hand wash. Not giving anybody a hard time for that. I'm just telling you that in [clears throat] newer ones, you know, and and here's you another little fact, right? Actually, new houses, okay, use less water than older houses. the appliances, the valves, the faucets, toilets, all those things are way more energy efficient and use less water than you would in a house that was built in the 70s, 80s, and probably even into the '9s. So, as we talk about growth in those things, you know, uh you have to take that into account that they're probably going to use less than some of the older neighborhoods that we have today. And well, who I'm actually glad that you said that. U speaking of older neighborhoods, my house was built in 1958. [clears throat]

Okay. When I moved in, I did have the city come out and test the flow to my home or and the fire pressure. The pressure was good. The flow was a little off. So thought, hey, maybe it's my line going from the meter to the house, which I know was galvanized steel. Fast forward to later last year. Well, come to find out, my water meter had never been replaced. And that's a 1958.

And on top of that, the pipe from the meter to the main had also not been replaced. So, with those kind of infrastructure problems, is anything being done to identify them? And if they cause um issues like busted pipes to residents homes between the meter and the home, are y'all going to do anything to help those customers with the impact of the increased flow? So Lonnie, do you want to take this or do you want me to start and you finish? You can start.

Okay. [laughter] So the the the easy answer to the question is is you own from the other side of the meter to the house. Okay. Um and with 8,000 meters, right? Um we do not have a specific plan in place today to replace the older meters. We are looking at technology. Um we are having meetings about putting in meters to catch up with like our neighbors in Toma [clears throat] to where we would start with older meters and we wouldn't have to necessarily read them. they would come to our digital screens and we would, you know, we wouldn't have to come out to every meter and and and look at the thing. So, yes, that is on our minds. Um, but honestly, right, it it it's down the list a little compared to us trying to collect the sewer water and and making sure that the INI part of it is fixed first, but but we do have it on our minds and it is being discussed.

Thank you, sir. Okay. Do okay.

[snorts] My name's Arcana Bernard and I live in the city. Okay. And you briefly brought up Tennessee Riverkeepers Association and we wanted to stay on their good side. Back in 2020, there was an issue. Has that been completely resolved? I think that was Miss Anderson brought that up. I did actually. I was going to ask our attorney Johnson what the status of that is if we with everything

we did. Uh, and we were we were taken off the active list of being monitored and it's not completely dismissed yet because we're under a an agreed order that lasts a few years, but haven't heard anything from at [cough and clears throat] all in two years. Are there any penalties that we know of that exist?

No, ma'am. Not not from River. They're they're not a government agency as you may know. know they're a nonprofit organization uh that [clears throat] that does good work and they and they have good intentions, but they do they do look at Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation and EPA see who gets put under different orders and permit violations and don't want to use the word prey, but they then will will sue whatever municipality or county or or utility uh that has been uh punished, let's say, or or at least I wouldn't say punished. I would say deemed deemed not in compliance with the best standards,

right? And right now it's it's basically we're at the point where we're we're being watched. Uh so I don't envision anything else from river keepers as our INI changes and more water runs from downtown straight into the Duck River. we have any indication what Tennessee River keepers are going to say about this is not being processed and and it's just flowing straight into the duck is well I'm not I'm not sure what what you're talking about here one of the chronic overflows you said was in downtown Mhm. and you said that you were going to work to possibly get some of the the rooftop drain to not go into the sewer system. Well, if it doesn't go into the sewer system, it's going to head to the Duck River, right? And so that's just rain water, storm water, not waste water. Okay.

Yeah. So there should be no issues at all as we do ini changes and move it straight with Tennessee River keepers or any of our environmental and I would say as long as we keep making progress, I I think we'll be fine with the type of organizations that riverkeeper are. As long as we keep doing what we said what was told to us to do with feedback. Of course, we not can't guarantee what river keepers are going to do, but I think as long as we're making progress, I I think we're looking good. Okay.

And I just want to clear up one thing, right? When I'm talking about uh drains and and all those things, right, that is actual just rainwater. It it it's not sewer water. Okay? But it is going into the sewer pipes today which is causing the overflows.

Okay. The second thing is as we remove rainwater from the system, does it cost more to treat water that's not diluted by rainwater than it does to treat rainwater diluted? I mean, you know, you have a gallon of rain water, you know, if it goes through the system, it's going to go out fairly faster. It's going to dilute something else fast. Is there a difference in what it costs to treat it as it becomes more concentrated sewage versus rainwater and sewage?

I don't have that answer right off the top of my head. I would imagine it wouldn't because there's no clear water that would get to the treatment plant. It once it enters into the sanitary system, it's dirty. It's dirty. [clears throat] So it doesn't it it costs the same to treat it regardless of how dirty it is. Correct. It's just the amount that we're getting. It costs more to treat more. Okay. So the less we get, the less we spend on treating. And Lonnie, you can correct me if I'm wrong. Right. We don't chemically treat the water, right? We we we use other things that uh is that

correct. Yeah. We don't we don't add chemicals or anything like that. bacteria. It It's It's a bacteria that's actually in our our ditches that uh clean the water. Bugs. Bugs. Good [laughter] bugs. I mean, yeah, that that's that's 100% good bugs. And and the last question, we own rental property off of Skinner Flat Road. And [clears throat] unless I'm mistaken, Skinner Flat Road wasn't up there as one of those six key areas. Has Skinner Flat Road been fixed or is it one of those number four spots? No. Skinner Flat Road is where we did the upgrade in this piping that I was telling you was part of the 4700 ft and we haven't had an overflow there. Okay. Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am.

Come. Yeah. I That's the thing we're not seeing is as issues come off and I know Skinner flat road we've had tenants that have complained and I haven't kept a breast of it. My husband's been keeping a breast of it. How many other areas have we fixed that you think Over the years, there's been several areas that have been fixed. Most recent, that is the most recent one that was fixed just last year, though. Okay. Thank you. And also, you might be interested to know that we're applying for some grants through FEMA. Uh we've started with Esther Lane um to raise those roads so that when it floods, you'll be able to get out without uh crossing through water.

I think our tenants will be very happy with [laughter] that. Skinner flat is next on the list, but Esther Lane is first. Yes, sir. Come on in. She made a good point. I think we need to as a part of our transparency come up with some type of system to let people know when these repairs have been completed and these projects are done because most of the complaints that come to me are always about what's broken. and we never take the time to point out, hey, we've made, you know, $15 million worth of repairs and and highlight those areas. We just continue to harp on what's broken. Yeah.

I I I think that uh you know, it'd be good to uh update the water and sewer commission, put that on their list, and and start running a tally, and then at the end of the year, let's publish something in the paper maybe or something. It talks about what we've been able to accomplish. Hi, I'm Kevin Burns. Uh I'm fairly new here. Okay. Um, welcome. What's the average water pressure uh in the houses here? It it varies. It depends on where you live, what side of town you're on. Royal Oaks. I'm new to Manchester, too, so I have no idea what that is. [laughter] All right. Um, Adam, do you do you kind of uh my previous house uh

uh it was uh at around 60 PSI and uh they had new development up the hill, so they raised it up to 120 and we had pipes starting to burst uh down in the old section. So if you're I hear you're doing a lot of work. If you're going to boost the water pressure, I'd like to know so I know to put a reducer on the on the house. So here around in in Midtown up on top of the hill here is generally somewhere in the 60s. If you go right down here to the bottom of the hill, it can get up in the 70s. If you go out further into the away from the central part of the system, it it starts to drop from there. So it can get down in the in the 40s. All right. Well, that that helps. Thank you. Okay. Absolutely.

I'm literally right around the corner and I'm at like 65 pounds. Okay. Right over I guess on the hill. [clears throat] All right, mayor. Yes, we're we're working one of the problem spots as far as water pressure is out exit 105 that way north of town and and we're working to get either an extension on the north coffee to make that tank larger or build another tank to try to help that side of town.

Yes. I mean, uh, as we're developing our plan forward, we do intend to put another tank not quite that far out, um, to boost everybody's pressure. It'll help your fire hydrants and and everything. And then the other thing that's going on immediately here is is the old um, is it uh, pumping plant right here across from the ballpark. Um, we we are cutting in some valves down there now. currently. We just signed off on those um based on older drawings and uh some other things. We're not 100% sure uh what shuts what off. So, we're putting in new valves so that we can understand what shuts what off. Also, there was a uh water line that went under the bridge uh on 55 that T deck just or T do DOT just finished. Um so we have a water line to put back across underneath there. Um that that should help some some some flows as well. So anybody Yes. Swan, [clears throat]

I apologize. I did not sign the sheet. Okay, we know who you are. We'll sign you up. So, Cheryl Swan, I do have property in the city limits, but that's my question. It's not really a question. I'm just asking for you to talk about the I24 industrial park and how you're working with the state on that. Um, maybe to help prevent some social media talk. um this will get the word out to exactly what is happening. Okay. Thank you.

Yes. So the I24 is was referred to as the mega site. It's 2,000 acres that is out in New Union and then it goes from 53 to 55. Um the state of Tennessee owns that. That's where the new TCAT uh facility has been built. Um we were recently and we added it uh at the last commission meeting. We were awarded $6 million uh to do engineering um from the site for sewer and water. Um part of the engineering is is going to establish um you know we we can't partner um with the state on automotive type of plants um that use too much water and sewer. Okay. So they are looking for suitors for those places that are more geared toward aerospace which would help Taloma and Huntsville. Um good paying jobs for the area but it's more restrooms and and those type of things. You know as I said we we run about 50% capacity unless it rains. We cannot give that away to one site. Um, we do have an opportunity to uh increase our permit to 6 something million gallons by changing where we discharge into the Little Duck River. Uh, but but Adam, do you you kind of want to talk a little bit about what our goals and objectives are uh with that with that project?

Yeah. So with the the engineering that's going to be done, we'll look at the city system and see how it can serve the mega side out there and there'll be a lot of connections that happen throughout the city to to get infrastructure that way that'll also improve other parts of the city. Uh so for instance, if you run a water man all the way out there, there'll be other connections. So the the water pressure that was talked about and whatnot should most likely whenever the improvements are completed improve in the city and uh depending on what they do with the with the sewer which the state would have some input as well uh could also help our sewer system and and also please note that the state fully understands right that not only uh is it about that site it's about our city right they know that if they start building facilities out there, uh growth will come and different things will happen within the city. So part of this is for them to understand, you know, how to partner with us to give us more grants and resources so that we can continue to adapt to whatever uh they do intend to do out there long term. Now, I can assure you that uh for the next couple years uh there's not going to be anything happen there. Okay. And it's just because it's going to take us that long to get the engineering and everything else done so that we even understand what it looks like and what we would need to ask of them. It could be a plant upgrade to help us get to 6 something million gallons. It could be making our interceptor lines uh from 48 in that go another,000 feet out. Right. So, so this is just the start. so that both the city and the state understand

the engineering and what it's going to take. Uh and we'll have a lot of say in those things. Okay. Uh so far, uh ECD has been a great partner to the city of Manchester and and I don't see that changing. Um yeah, come on. That's what we're here for. No, no. Um, this kind of touched base on um, the Arnold Air Force Base and the new AI center that's in the talks about going there. Is that going to impact any of Manchester's water supply and or discharge?

So, the the answer I have right is is an and Adam or There we go. I forgot Zach here. [laughter] I forgot about him. Right. So I think they have their own treatment facilities. They have their own water uh facilities. So it it will not impact Manchester. Okay. That's that's the easy answer, the highle answer that the uh the government [clears throat] has its own abilities to collect sewer, treat sewer, turn it back into water. I can just add that ADC where I work the woods reservoir was built for cooling water for the base and the base this is a few years old information but it's published it withdraws enough water the base does from reservoir to replenish 100% of the lake that you see once a year that entire water goes through the base so I would think I'm not speaking for ADC obviously that uh any requirements for cooling water would very likely be from which reservoir that was built just for that reason cooling water for the base of what I would imagine

so the early answer is no nothing from us and and we are referring to the AI center correct that's where it would be built on their property from what I've been told yes sir

thank All right. Anybody else? We got about 15 more minutes. No, so I do have a couple questions uh that were sent in to me today. Uh so [clears throat] I I would uh I would like to uh do a couple of those while we have a little bit of time. Um Sarah Bradley uh she lives in the county. She is in the UGB. Uh her question is what counts as a connection to the sewer system under the new enforcement order. For example, if a owner of a property that has been vacant for years, decades, wants to build, does that connection, does that count as a connection? What if a property had one occupied home, but the new owner wants to put apartments or a fast food restaurant on it? Do the additional units flow count as new connections? So the answer uh that was provided is under the enforcement order, a connection generally refers to any new physical tie-in to the municipal sewer collection system that results in additional wastewater flow entering the system. The purpose of the restriction is to prevent additional loading on portions of the sewer system that are already experiencing capacity and infiltration and inflow issues under corrective actions are complete. Um before I read an examples um just so you know we have two main

interceptors that go to the plant. Okay. One of those interceptors controls twothirds of the flow of our sewer capacity to the plant and the other one is just a third uh of our capacity to the plant. So we do give uh Miss Bradley a few examples to help clarify this vacant property connecting for the first time. If a property has never been connected to the sewer system and a new building is constructed, that would typically be considered a new connection. Existing home replacement with higher density development. If a single family home connected to the system is replaced with an apartment, a commercial development, or another use that significantly increases water flow, the additional units or increased flow would generally be treated as new connection or capacity increase under the enforcement order. Existing structures already connected. If a property already has an active sewer connection and the change did not significantly increase the discharge value volume, it may not be considered a new connection, but it would still be evaluated on a case-bycase basis. Ultimately, these determinations are made in coordination with Tekk and uh to ensure compliance with the enforcement order to protect the integrity of the sewer system. Anybody else have a question? If not, I'll go on to number two for Miss Bradley.

I do have a question. Sure. Absolutely. Question. I spoke to a gentleman today who lives in the White Oaks subdivision where we did a project last year and he said when he went to mow for the first time this year, he found a lot of material that had been left behind by the company doing the project. So, is that okay? Are they supposed to take everything with them and restore the area to what it looked like before? And who does he need to talk to about that? Do you know who did the project? It was probably during your time excavating area up there. Okay. Yeah. So,

but yes, they should they should clean up anything that they had done. [clears throat] And if not, if you'll let us know, we can contact them. I'm sure they'll be okay. Now, there there was some like check dams and things that was left over there, but it was at the property owner's request to stop erosion on on their own property, but that's the only thing that I'm That doesn't sound like that same person. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. But absolutely, anything that we come on your property, we are to put it back uh to your happiness. Well, we got about 10 more minutes. Number two, [clears throat] when will smoke testing of the rest of the sewer system begin?

We'll let Dukes have that one.

Okay. We've actually completed that process. There are a few areas that were added um to the GIS to the mapping that we didn't didn't hit. we can get that information to everybody. But the majority, I would say 98% of the system has already been smoke tested completely. So, we uh we had some we had some surplus some money left over because we're under budget last contract. So, we decided to roll that in and go ahead and get it done with those extra funds. So, um the savings was on the CCTV work things that they had put together to uh to uh try to have some savings for the city. That process is complete. And if everybody know what smoke testing is, it's basically most of these pipes that are here made of concrete. Most of it's made of clay. And so the clay um has places where water can get in, rain water, ground water to get in. Exactly what we're talking about and eye. So one of the best ways to find what where it's tied in is to force smoke, non-toxic smoke. We make sure we notify everyone that we're It's perfectly perfectly safe for for animals and and the uh people and animals and things like that. So this this uh smoke is pumped into the system and anything that can get in the smoke will get out. So it's indicator as you walk the street you can see where you might have areas where rain water does get into the the system. So it reverses that process a lot of times. Um those are gutter tieins we talked about storm water tieins a great deal of clean water into the sewer system and this that's a good indicator on how to do that. There's we give them a notification. There's um we put out

flyers. We knock on businesses and and as many doors as we can just about every door actually. and uh and let everybody know that this this process is happening. The police are are called, fire departments called, things like that. So, it's one of those it's one of those um that's every once in a while you'll have an issue with smoke getting in somewhere, somebody didn't know it, but you'll get a phone call, things like that. It's just the nature of it. There's so many so many residents and businesses sometimes that that smoke gets through somewhere. Hang on just a second, Stuart. We're getting a couple texts that nobody can hear you, buddy. I'm sorry. That's okay. [laughter]

Not usually not the case. Um yeah, so every once in a while um not everybody looks nobody answers the door. Not not everybody sees a fly or something like that. Um and so sometimes we we'll have some issues uh where it is scary. It's smoke coming through a a toilet or or somewhere in, you know, in the house. So, it's extremely nerve-wracking for the resident that uh that has to deal with that. But, uh but all in all, the the for doing a whole entire town, we I mean, we had we had a couple of them that we addressed, of course, immediately, but uh but I think we only had three, but the whole entire town. So,

are the results available to view? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, we we um the second part is still under review. What we we do a little we do something a little different. We we kind of we we categorize Hold Hold on. I'm not saying. Yeah. Grab grab that over there and be like a singer for us.

All right. So, um we do something a little different once we gather all the data. We put together and we make a criticality report for the city to say, "Okay, these are the ones that are extreme." And and then we kind of just rate them from there on out. So, they know these are the ones they need to go to first to to mitigate mitigate the issue. So that takes a little bit longer. The first the first go around is is complete. So that is available and and we can get it uh yeah, you know, we can get the we can get that be on a spreadsheet basically um to uh to let everybody know where those problems were

and and reach out to director Foley um he he'll be glad to share that stuff with you guys. He's working on quite a bit of uh different things to where you can go on websites and you can actually pull up maps. Uh there there's lots of new technology. I mean, nobody's going to accuse the city of Manchester of being techsavvy, right? We're trying to catch up at a pretty good pace and and Lonnie has brought a lot of that to us. Um but but if you'll give us just a little time, we'll we'll get every bit of that to where you can view it from home. And if there's any questions or anything like that, please don't don't hesitate to reach out to us, right? I mean u as I said in the beginning our goal is to share this information because we want you to hear it from us right um we don't want to hear it from uh

Facebook let's say others

for a nicer way of being nice tonight I'm going to do one more question and uh unless somebody here has another question uh let Let me find a good one here. I asked her was there a certain order uh and I didn't get a response. So, I'm going to pick one that that I like. How does the city determine which overflows to report? Lonnie, we just filled out some stuff to send to the state. I think this should be fresh and easy right here.

We we um we are mandated to report all overflows. Um we don't pick and choose which ones. However, if we are not aware of an overflow, I can't report something that I don't know about. And that kind of goes back to Alman Anderson when she was saying like who do we report to? I I I personally don't like y'all calling the mayor or Ted or anybody else without giving us the chance to resolve the problem first. For example, if you see a overflowing manhole and my staff doesn't, call the water department so we can get out there and address it as opposed to calling TK and everybody else. I mean, you'll do what you want to do. This is free country. But I'm saying all it does is go up to come right back down. And and now the pressure is on. He [clears throat] can't make me do it any faster than what I'm already going to be able to do it. And I know that kind of got off topic, but yeah, we report all all all the SSOs when they happen. I even have the pre-treatment coordinator now. Uh we keeping a tab of private SSOs when we go out and we find a a clean out maybe that was overflowing. That's your problem. That's not the city's problem. We're keeping track of those as well. and we're building a good relationship with TEAT to be accountable and transparent. You know, we're not hiding nothing from them. Um, and we're not going to hide anything from them. If we get in trouble for it, we'll learn how to do it better the next time. But we report every single SSO that's brought before Manchester Water staff.

Yeah, it brings up uh, you know, there again, right? I mean, we're doing these type of things like tonight. I mean, we we want you involved. It's your city, right? If if we miss it, it's not because we're hiding it, right? Uh we're human. We miss it. We would like the opportunity to fix it. Uh that's all we can ask, right? I mean, and and at the end of the day, we just put in a new phone system. If nobody's aware, I'm going to go on a little tangent here. Right now, you ain't got to call 10 numbers to find somebody. It's one number. gives you a menu. You can go to that department. That department will give you another menu and you can talk to exactly who you want to within two or three little clicks. Right? I used to get frustrated as a citizen when I wanted to talk to the water warehouse, but I ended up at water billing, right? I mean, it it wasn't very good. Um, we have an excellent IT department now. As you can tell, we live stream everything. We try to be as transparent about the decisions and things that the leadership is making. Uh and we're always open to more suggestions, right? I mean, just give us a shot, right? I mean, Facebook is a great thing, right? I keep up with where I travel, how many vacations I take, and it lets everybody else follow me there, too, right? I think those are good things. I mean, but at the end of the day, let's not use it for bad ways to do business, okay? I mean, uh, we're all human. We're going to make some mistakes. Uh, I'm not scared to tell you when I mess up whatsoever. All right? And I don't think anybody else up here is either. Uh, so, you know, the the more we can work together, the faster we resolve these things and we we make our city what we want it to be. So, I mean, everybody who asked questions tonight and everybody who attended, you know, thank you very much. I mean, uh, according to Facebook, I would have

thought that I'd have needed to bring in some more chairs tonight and, uh, you know, serve refreshments or something, but I do thank everybody who came here tonight. And like I said, uh, Lonnie's phone works, my phone works, we all have email. Um, we have committees. We do a lot of good work in committees. Um, and and please come get involved. Right. We do have a couple openings now for uh some committees. Come fill out a form, spend more time with us. We would enjoy it. So, anybody else? Yes.

Can you touch on that? I had said something to you on Facebook. People are asking about the chemicals versus how they used to be and now you're putting them onto a dump. Yeah, that is uh that was question number something on the list for Miss Bradley and I just didn't get to it. Um so, okay, so that is chemicals that is in the industrial park pre-treatment program. Okay. So, previous to last year, we had a deal with a local farmer and we took our sludge that came out of the plant and we spread that on agricultural property as a savings to the city. Okay? For whatever reason, we made that nice gentleman mad at us who had let us do it for 30 years and we wrecked a great relationship. and I'm very sorry for that. And if he's listening tonight, I can't apologize to you enough. So, what that forced us to do now is that material we take to the landfill in Murphy'sboro. So the requirements of the material to go to a landfill enabled us through TEC to up the limits of the discharge into the system. Okay. All of the sudden the industrial customers didn't go woohoo. I'm going to add more to it. Okay. We just had a very tight limit because of what it was being used for. So yes, we took an opportunity. We opened it up a little because it goes to a landfill now. That's really the crux of it.

So the chemicals are added differently now. There the chemicals are pretty much the same. We do testing with them all the time. It's just they have a higher limit that can be in the waste water, right? Not your drinking water. Okay, as I stated before, we do not treat water [clears throat] that is sent to you. We buy it. Okay, this is sewer water. And if you're drinking sewer water, we probably need to have different conversations. All right, somebody else had one. Who? Yes, sorry about that.

Um, I just had a question. On the website, there's a spot for bid openings, but I see that doesn't really get used much. Would it be in the interest of transparency to post the bids on the website? What type of bids? We use that for everything. All procurement bids. So, where those have been disappearing off of there.

Yeah. So, we are in the middle of rebuilding our website. Okay. Um, not only do we put it there, we run it in the newspaper, right? And once we get the new site up, we will have all of that back up and going. But just bear with us while we're we're trying to make it more user friendly. So if if if it's not there, um most everything that we bid out has to go to the paper. It's in the Manchester Times. John's folks do a great job. The paper the paper is like the minimum legal requirement. But I'm just saying for everybody else that's maybe not getting the paper where you can just there's already a spot on the website where it's supposed to be. Yep. But it's just not getting put on there.

We put it on like on a Monday. We go back and check it the next day and it's done. And so and there again, it's because it's under construction. Okay. If you'll give us just a little bit. Uh we we've had that with meetings and some different things. Uh and that's why we have started using social media for our meetings. We'll probably even do bids on there until we can get it corrected, but we do do the minimum as you said, but it's not because we're trying not to get everybody a shot. I promise you, right? And I I think that could also lead to more competition, obviously, better deals for the city.

Absolutely. We have a new uh purchasing agent. Anony's done a fine job and uh you know, you'll see a lot of changes in that whole area right there because uh she's wonderful. She's uh she's doing a great job for us. But absolutely, that's our intent. Thank you. Yep.

Okay. Anybody else? I did learn tonight that I have a gentleman here who's willing to give me free advice. So, I want to thank him for that, too. Right. He builds sewer plants. Uh, and I met him tonight and I told him that we are always willing to take free advice. So, thank you. All right, no other questions or anything. We're going to call it a night. Everybody go home and have dinner. Thank y'all.