Water Utilities Community Facilities District - Regular Meeting

I have a quorum, your honor.

Thank you. Approval of minutes for September, sixteen two thousand, '25. Do I have a motion for approval of minutes?

Mister chair?

Yes. I move the minutes of the meeting of 09/16/2025 be approved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Vice chairperson Schroeder?

Yes.

Board member Nesser? Yes. Board member Heck?

Yes.

Board member Soller?

Yes.

Board member Johnson?

Yes.

Board member Cross? Yes. Chairperson Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimous.

Thank you. Presentation, discussion, consideration of professional service agreement with Wilson Engineering. Mike.

Chairman Wilson and members of the board, a quick presentation tonight. As you guys are aware, we have a large development going on to the south. We completed our first phase of our expansion of our surface water treatment plant recently. It's going from 2,000,000 gallons a day to 4,000,000 gallons a day. This next step is going from that 4,000,000 gallons a day to 10,000,000 gallons a day.

So our ultimate build out of this site, we need to hire a consultant to do the construction administration inspection services. Did them on the last phase, but we're looking to hire Wilson engineers to do it on this phase. This will be a pass through cost for us that the developer is paying because he's paying for the production of that plant to upsize it to do the expansion for us. So we're recommending to utilize Wilson engineers under the Scottsdale engineering service contract. It's a cooperative agreement, and we're requesting approval for $2,735,000 roughly to move forward with them doing these inspection services.

This project in total is roughly about we don't have the total GMP yet or guaranteed maximum price, but it's about a $60,000,000 project to do this final expansion. So in the scheme of things, this number is not a huge number, but it is a big number for us to move forward with the consulting services.

Any discussion?

Do I have a motion?

Okay. Yes. I move that the professional service agreement for phase three final build out of superstition area water plant, Construction Administration and Inspection Services between Water Utilities Community Facility Districts and Wilson Engineers LLC using the City of Scottsdale's engineering services contract number 2022Dash03ADashCOS in the amount of $2,735,475 be approved.

Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Board member Cross?

Yes.

Board member Heck?

Yes.

Board member Johnson?

Yes.

Vice chairperson Schroeder?

Yes.

Board member Nesser? Yes. Board member Saller? Yes. Chairperson Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank you. District manager's report. No report, your honor.

District director's report. Chairman Wilson, just a couple updates. Again, this is our final build out here. Those that haven't been down at the plant recently, we did construct this raw water impound. This is roughly probably one acre of lake that we have on-site.

So if we have some bad quality water that can pass by, we can still produce water at the plant and continue servicing our customers. Initial phase, we installed a new treatment train in here. With this build out phase, we'll be expanding the building and adding three treatment trains along with that. So there'll be five total in that building, which comes with additional sludge management area in the back where we have a EQ basin. And then we also have additional clear well space that we'll need since we're producing more water so we can get it out to different locations.

And then we're also adding granular activated carbon, which is a TTHM, so a constituent that we're worried about. We added corn dioxide a few years ago. We are adding that as part of this treatment process. It also takes out some of the organics in the water that helps taste and odor issues. So that'll be part of this phase also. As you can see, we'll be adding some additional area to drive around. We'll be at the block wall and then resurfacing ironwood to get into the plant to finish off our site here. So this will be our final build out of this site. And then once we get more development and other things come in, obviously, we'll need another site at that point in time or additional property located to the north here that we'd have to purchase or do some other things with.

Yes. My quick question. So that what we're seeing here in this Phase three, that's the $60,000,000 that whole project will be $60,000,000 Yes.

So in total, the total build out, I think

our

original build was about $15,000,000 This last one, the second phase of that that we just finished up, I think, was roughly around 40,000,000 to 50,000,000, and this is going to be another 60,000,000 on top of this at this location. So a lot of infrastructure going in as part of the development to the south. Okay.

Mike? Yes. The you said carbon Carbonated. Is that going to be sufficient to address the Verde water issues if those come into play? So on

the Verde, they it also brings some organics with them. If we get some of that water quality, it'll help with that. The biggest thing is probably arsenic on the Verde, but our plant already treats for that as portion of the coagulation filtration process that we already currently have. So we could probably treat the water, but it'll definitely benefit that if we do get a lot more organics that come in since it's a little dirtier than the Colorado River water.

Okay. Anyone else? No.

Okay. Okay. I still hang on here. I still have additional more updates for you guys. As you guys are aware here is our superstition business. It's that first four square miles. Just kinda wanna get you guys updated where we're at with certain services down here. I don't know how often you guys get development services in here, but we're kind of ahead of all the homes that go in because they want all their water meters as they build. So currently, this left side is Radiance. And they have already developed, as you guys have probably been down here.

This is Radiance across the top here along this curvy road. And most of these homes have already been built in the south of that area. They're moving north here and building additional homes currently. They just released power from SRP back in June, July, so they have all the way up to Warner now to continue to build out. This triangle here is ALA that's coming in. They're planning on opening in June, July year. But if you've been out there, there's already four buildings there. Jim is already up, and they're they're starting to develop out there. We also have this we call it the Beak parcel that is part of the Blossom Rock development, which is on the other side. The Lennar Homes has already done the dirt work.

Waterline's already in. So currently, we roughly have, in this location, about 1,500 meters already set for either existing customers or ones that will be here in the near future in the next six months as they move forward building homes in there. On the Blossom Rock side, phase one was this area here. They're building homes in there right now. That was roughly 600 homes to start with.

They're getting through that inventory already. And recently, we have new builders that have came in with phase two, and we're setting meters in this area. There's roughly another 600 homes in that location. They've also started in phase three, which is right here just south of Warner, doing the dirt work and installing sewer and water mains throughout this subdivision. So in total, between the two developments, we currently have about 2,500 meters set already, so roughly about a quarter way through the project in three years.

So we started out slow. We got moving there. We're starting to gain momentum again down there as we can keep power and water and sewer all going. This development is going continue to grow, and the economy stays well for everybody. But just to give you guys a heads up of we're going with this, again, we were 4,500 service connections three years ago.

We're almost up to seven thousand seven thousand five hundred service connections today, so almost doubled in the last three years. So a lot of things happening in this area. And that's what all these expansions are about. We're also starting the expansion on the Water Campus here. They built the first half, which is another $30,000,000 project plus, and now they're building the second half of it, going from 3,200,000 gallons of storage to 6,400,000 gallons of storage for that location to service all these new homes in that area and also provide the fire protection with booster pumps on top of those and everything. So first phase was done. We've wrapped that up. We're pouring concrete here in the next couple days in the next tank, and in the next eighteen months, we'll have that site also finished as a portion of this project.

Your honor, couple questions for Mike. Mike, what can you share about the lake in Radiance? How far along is that, and what kind of lake is impacting the water district? And then what can you share about water service to the fire station, assuming they're able to get going on that and and show us in the community where that fire station will be?

Sure. So here, we built our first lake roughly about a year ago, I would say now. We've been filling it with raw CAP water. It's part of the construction water that we provide to the development down here to the south. We're getting power from SRP at the end of the week. We already have transmission lines that come all way from the sewer plant to that location. So here in the next couple weeks, we'll be delivering effluent to that lake. It's been a big success down there. From that lake, we pump out and water all of the green areas in Blossom Rock today. So great that we're not using our potable water to deliver here, and we're not treating it.

We're using raw water or effluent water to service these grass areas that are for the public in the future. We are also have water lines that we've already installed along Warner Road here. This little purple parcel here is the future fire station that they're they're proposing that they're starting their design on here, I believe, in the next year to hopefully move forward with that. But we'll have water service there, sewer service. We also also have our ITS, our our fiber optic lines going in front of that, so we can tie the fire district in as we've done throughout the rest of the city with the city departments and everything else we have going on here so they can get our GIS system, so as part of that portion.

So that that is moving forward at that location. We also have South City Campus that you guys have, I believe, talked about in some of your city council meetings already located just north of our Water Campus here that we're starting with architects and civil engineers to start developing this property and coming up with a master plan for that. That will be served by us, and then it'll also be served by our effluent water that comes through here. There'll be a lake on that site also to water some of those turf areas that they have that are for the public again.

And then the Radiance Lake, the one that's just I'm sorry, the Radiance. Yes. That one.

Sure. So Radiance has started their lake. We have not filled that yet. It should be done by the end of this year. So there's another lake right across from their commercial

Their or community center.

Community center there in their their pool. That one will also be filled with effluent and then service their grass areas that are larger than two and a half acres throughout their development. So a lot of grass are here, some come in here, and as you can see, there are some other green areas throughout the master plan community that will have that as portion of it. We do have transmission lines that go all the way through both of these developments so that we can service water that's different than potable water for these facilities that they have out there. And as we move forward, there'll be a couple more lakes in Blossom Rock, and it'll be all served by effluent water at that point in time rather than potable water so we can keep these grass areas watered and not use potable stuff.

Any questions on some of that on the developments down there? The great news is even with these customers that come in down there, we estimate the demands. These are even though they're same sized houses up here without some of the grass areas that we allow them to do in their front yards or pools in their backyards, most of do not have because they have these nice community centers. We're seeing our water demands are actually lower for some of these houses even though they have higher number of people actually living in them. So good news for us that it takes our CAP water, our well water, makes that go a little bit further for future development and our existing customers.

Yeah. That we're starting to see that it's the per capita number. We've always bragged about. We always were like Oro Valley, Cape Creek, and many Arizona cities. The per household number per gallon per day has always been in the top percentage of our state. What Mike's saying here is it's even getting better. So it's it's better news than what we were thought in terms of the utilization of the the surface water that you guys have available.

Mike, are they allowed to have, like, irrigation on their properties? Just not grass.

They're they're allowed to have desert landscaping on the front. You know? They can provide that. They can have grass in their backyards Oh, that's as we can

That's right.

Patrol that. It's private kind behind their own fences. We're not going get behind there, but in their front yards, they're not allowed to plant natural grass. They can put artificial turf or different things out there to make it look green, but they just can't plant grass and use potable water for those locations.

But they can install their own irrigation system for Correct. Chairman?

Yes. I just want to say thanks for keeping us ahead of the game. I just saw a news story on Gilbert, and they are really in trouble down there. People are not happy with the spikes in water service. So you're doing a good job of just keeping us right where we need to be so we don't get those humongous spikes.

But that's a direct impact of the board here. Gilbert did not raise their water rates for twenty plus years. They lived on development, just like we're seeing here. And eventually, has filled out in Gilbert. Right? So now they gained twenty hundred million dollars worth of infrastructure down there, and now you need to maintain that infrastructure. Now how do you do that? Now they have to raise their rates to actually maintain that infrastructure as it starts to fail, or they get leaks or maintain some of their meters and stuff like that. So now they have to raise their rates. Instead of doing it slowly, like the board has made a decision of 2% to 5%, every year, they're just making jumps to 12%, 25%, not only on water and sewer at the same time.

They also changed their billing system like we did, which had some snafus in it also, but they're dealing with a lot more customers at the same time. So they're working through their process, but that is looking ahead to just slowly build our rates up rather than trying to make those big jumps where there's going to be a lot of people coming in here and complaining about 25% rather than a 2% or a dollar raise continuously year over year so that we can keep up with that maintenance and store away that savings so that when we do have that maintenance issues and in the future, we're already ahead of it and they don't see those big jumps. So thank you for supporting us on our on our rate cases and working through that. It's a huge help so that we don't have complaints like Gilbert's going through and Mesa's going through and some other cities that are working through that process.

But right now, though, we're we're not using any effluent in homes. It's only used for a lake and watering Correct. Landscaping.

For non potable use currently.

Yes. Non potable. Right. Yeah.

And that's really all I have tonight. Any other questions?

I think you still got a ten

year Todd.

We're gonna have to get a new one for one of the trucks here, I think.

I think I just pulled a citation book out and write you.

Five years.

Is that Frank's

old license or what? I think so.

It is.

Got stuck in there many years ago. Thank you.

Thank you, Mike. Do we have a Thank you. Okay.

District treasurer's report.

No report.

Thank you. Since there's no further discussion, I will now adjourn our meeting.

Mister mayor, we're still waiting on special district council, Zach Saikis, to arrive. He got stuck in some traffic again, so he'll be here shortly. So if you wanna take a short