Committees - Regular Meeting

I think nobody else is here yet.

Do we need to second that?

I'll second it.

And then we're going to go through the minutes of our June 5th.

No, of our, I think it was March meeting.

Has everybody had a chance? March? March, June. What is it now? It's September. It's June, right? It's the June 5th meeting. Got it.

Okay.

Yeah. So, if you all had a chance to look through that. That was the one that you were, you looked through, but Dan had comment. Yeah.

Yeah.

What was Dan's comment?

It was, there should be an L and a filter.

That's a reasonable comment.

That's a fair comment. That was about it.

I mean, there were a couple other things, but anyway, they've been corrected. Okay, good. So, give me a second, and then we'll move on.

I read that stuff. I mean, that stuff was on the last thing you said. This we've had before, right? Is there a new 1?

This isn't this is this is 25. They always, we always get an invoice for the prior years. From June 25 to. No, you didn't get this. Not this 1.

Okay, so I'm going to.

Can we approve of the minutes? i shall move very good all right we're moving on to the um suffolk county water authority part of the meeting and joe picorni is on board so good afternoon joe hi joel hello everybody how are you happy labor day weekend almost can't even believe it yes so what do you got for us today joe

Well, I guess a couple of things. The thing that we were talking about last meeting had to do with delinquent accounts and how we would handle those going forward. I have been in contact with Tom Crouch. I believe that I think from what it sounds like from his response that you folks in the town board had a get together of some kind to discuss it. And he came back to me and it sounds to me like the way forward and correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not sure I totally understood his response. But it sounds like if there's a delinquent account and it exceeds our, you know, gets to the point where we would be shutting water off, we would turn it over to you guys. Or would you want us to turn, you know, I'm not sure if you want us to go forward with the turnoff or whether you want us to just turn it over to you. But in any event, if the person was essentially delinquent and didn't pay their bill, we would deduct that from the remittance that we made to you folks. And then you would deal with the delinquent account. Am I correct? Yeah.

I have to say that I have been confused on this, and I did ask Tom for clarification.

Yeah, so do I.

So I don't think that anything has been definitively set. Because there were two options. One that I thought and hoped for was that Suffolk County Water Authority would be the agency to shut water off.

That's fine. We can do that.

Then there was also discussion about taking that delinquent account and attaching it to the tax bill and collecting it that way.

Right. We talked about that last meeting. I suggested to you folks that you could – that's the way our other managed water districts do handle it. Right. Not necessarily meaning that you have to handle it that way. I mean, we can – you know, it could be, again – How you get the money is up to you. But the point of the matter is that we don't want to be the collection agency for the town. The town is our customer. The district is our customer. And we would like to be compensated for the water that the customers of the district consume. And if there's a person that doesn't pay their bill... You know, we'll follow our normal procedures, but our normal procedures would then go to lien. The bill would go to lien if they didn't pay their bill. And I don't know that you guys want us to do that. You know, you could let us do that if you want, but I have a feeling that you'd rather handle it yourselves.

I think at that point was where we decided to adhere to the tax bill. That's what I thought.

Do you want to weigh in? Yeah. I mean, it's basically a lien. You just put it on the tax bill yourselves. But the point is, is that we would deduct that payment. We would deduct that delinquent bill from the money that we remit to you at the end of the year. So we'd have to cover it. Right.

You would have to cover it.

Right. But eventually it would be paid if you did put it on the tax bill. That money would come back to the district.

Amber, is that some kind of process that we have to really think through?

Yeah, I feel like that just complicates things a little bit. So how do you handle it with other districts? So if someone doesn't pay, they do lien the property, but then what happens? Are you deducting it from?

No, Amber, in other districts, in other managed districts, we simply deduct it from what we remit to the district.

Okay. All right. As long as it's a similar process.

Well, it's our fault, Amber, when we crafted the agreement. I forget whether it was an and or a may that was not indicated properly in the agreement. And so that's why I'm asking for you folks to make this agreement like it is with our other managed water districts. That's where I would like to get to.

And then what happens if, I guess we just, if someone, they finally pay up before, you know, like, okay, they don't wait until the property's sold. Then we just keep the money here.

Right. Right. Yeah. If they pay up after we've deducted it, then that money is yours. Okay. And if they pay up before that, then we turn them back on. They're back in business and they're a customer and that money then becomes part of your remittance with a portion of it.

that's attributable to the district becomes part of your roommates so can you add a line to the tax bill that says delinquent water or something I don't know the mechanics of how that happens but I think what we need to do is let Thomas then finish working with your legal department to go ahead and craft the necessary language so we can do an amendment to the contract

which I thought we had kind of done. And I went, I got back to Tom, I responded to Thomas and I haven't heard from him. And that was about a month ago. So I think we need to really follow up on that and press forward.

I need to bump it on my list.

So Jo, just going back to the process that this still is the request to shut water off is still being made to Suffolk County Water Authority. Correct. So we're following all the processes up to that point. You shut the water off. We then, the town decides how to collect the money. But I think it's that process that we were not clear about. And it seemed like you didn't want to be involved with shutting the water off.

We don't have a problem with doing that. We can do that. Again, a lot of times when we shut the water off, then people pay their bills. Of course. And so I would suggest that we let's continue that process and let the water authority do that. If the people pay their bills, then it's no longer a delinquent account. Then it's all settled and nothing has to be done.

I think the point might be you shut the water off on Tuesday. They want to pay the bill on Wednesday. They are under the impression that they are going to pay Suffolk County Water the bill. So then you will take that money and send it back to West Neck Water, or you would take that money and that would be included in our end of the year invoice. Yes, it would be money coming to us.

Yeah, theoretically, this is happening before the invoice goes out for the year. But, you know, if it was after that, it'd be for the next year. But yes, if it's before the end of the year, then that money would be included in the total revenues that we generated for the year. We would deduct our management fee out of that and we would remit to the town or to the district the balance.

So the question would be when would it be posted on the tax bill? Would it be stay pending on Suffolk County Water Authority until a certain date and then it's on the tax bill? Right. Because if they do pay a week later, then... Right.

Yeah, we'll have to have, you know, the mechanics have to meet.

Yeah, it's not an instantaneous process. In other words, you know, they become a delinquent account. We tell you about it. Then you've got to go, you know, when your taxes are due, you have to put it on their bill. And again, you know, in my experience, most people, when we shut the water off, they pay the bill. But there are some folks that,

just shut the water off and i don't know if they leave town or what but well they have to have their water yeah well if they're there if they get the money somehow is there is there a charge for turning it back on yes so that has to be stipulated so yeah disconnect as well sorry john

at each end just like that i don't know um is there a charge to shut the water off i think so no no no the the charge is to turn the water back on all right so then as it stands now can we verbally say that we are expecting suffolk county water authority to take it to the shutoff point And then we're going to work out the mechanics of payment. Can we can we leave it at that and say that that that is where we are? That's fine with me.

Really, it's just that it's a minor change to the way we're operating now. And basically what it is, is that now we're going to deduct the money out of your annual payment. And before we were we were trying to collect the money. Right. We were holding the money on. We were holding the past due amount on our account. And, you know, again, my finance department pointed this out to me. We went back and looked at the agreement and we said, well, that's not the way we want to operate. The way we operate should be the way we do it with all of our managed districts. And if it works for you guys, I would appreciate it if we could make that change. And what I'll do is I'll work with Tom if it's okay. You know, if you guys can get back to me and let me know if it's okay. But if it is, then I'll work with Tom to change the language in the agreement. It'll require a small amendment. of the agreement language to codify this?

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay.

Go for it.

And then we have to work together. We have to sit down and figure out.

Yes.

Okay, and there's something, too, that is really important. I think we mentioned it before, and that is we need to have a regular, a scheduled, not invoicing, but we have to be told regularly when an account is delinquent.

Yes, that's part of it. So if we have a delinquent account, we need to notify you.

Yes, and sooner rather than later.

Absolutely.

So that may be something to work out with Stephanie. Yep. Hannah?

There must be a similar process for other districts. Yeah, what is it? So if it's like a month later or, you know, probably not a week later, but whatever that is, it makes sense to be consistent across the board for them.

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Because then some letter would have to go out to the homeowner that you are delinquent. Therefore, this will be posted on your tax bill, et cetera.

Right. Well, they send the letters with regards to delinquency on their end. I know.

But once it's our problem, we have to then let them know how that's going to play out.

Yeah. Joe, are you still with us? Yeah, but I'm going back and forth. It's blinking on and off. Is that you folks over there? Can you hear me? hear you we can hear you yeah we can't see you but we can hear you for some reason whoa uh for some reason my screen is blinking on and off and i'm not sure what that is well service out here is not the greatest now i'm blurry very blurry very blue yeah who makes the decision to pull a phone well right now

They make the decision based on they're going to do it, which is absolutely logical. Yes. I mean, who says, come ahead and do it. That's we're giving them that permission right now. We are involved in that.

Piece of the process, there must be a standard that they use for all.

Is it automatic with a certain amount of time or amount of money? Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

And it's all laid out on their web page too. Yeah.

Yep.

So we don't touch you. We don't have no.

But the hard part is to come, right? Right. When we go to collect. Yeah.

That'll be on.

All right. I'm sorry about the blurry view here. I'm not sure what's causing it. I can hop on and hop back on if it's important.

No.

We know. It's okay that I'm blurry? Okay.

um anything else um i know that we are still awaiting site plan review confirmation from what i understand it's now with it was approved on monday yeah so what are how are we going forward with that is it are we ready to um to jump ahead with the project yeah so something on water authority would like finish up whatever building permits need to be

obtained. So they'll work with the building department and move forward.

Okay.

Yeah. Are you, are you there with that? Yeah, we'll do that. Well, you know, my chief engineer is he's on top of the process. So I'm not sure if there's a meeting coming up where we have to be involved with doing a presentation to the building department or whether this is just a plan review and approval, whatever it is, we'll, we'll do it.

Yeah, I think you already came to us with the plan. Oh, yeah. And it was approved.

Yeah. It's just a matter of scanning the permit from the building department. Yes. You don't have to do a presentation to the board. That part's all done.

Yeah.

Okay.

And I think there's two trees in the right-of-way that need to come down for access, and I believe Public Works is going to take those two down.

That's correct.

Okay. Yep. Yeah, the neighbor notified us that he's going to put a fence up.

We talked about it yesterday. I talked with the neighbor.

Did you? Okay.

The town engineer and the supervisor of Department of the Road. We sat down and we talked to the neighbors. They know what has to be done. And they're in agreement with it. And, um. So, we're, we're moving, we, we have that plan sort of in place and now that we've got the approval, which is Kenny can just go down. Take down the trees and then we can start redirecting. The road, so we'll let, you know, the trees are down now. And is that something Suffolk County Water Authority will do? Is that something that we will do, which is to extend the road beyond where it is right now and fix the right of way? So I think that's in our purview to do.

It's your property. I mean, I'm happy to do minor little improvements, but if this is road work, This is really something I think that you folks should be doing.

Yeah.

Especially due to the sensitive nature of this with the neighbors.

Right now, it's amicable.

Great. I'm glad to hear that.

They know what's going on. They're in agreement. And we're in a good place with the neighbors.

Great.

Some of the concern is that... once the right of way is extended onto the property where those two trees were and will come down, it's a very sharp 45 degree turn onto the property where the pump house is. So knowing what kind of is needed for the trucks to go down, to start the project is an important part of this conversation. How big of an area do those trucks need? Because right now they're just going down and taking the corner off of the neighbor's lot. So right now, if they're going to go straight and make a turn, that detail needs to be laid out.

Yeah. I'll have to check with my engineers to make sure that we think we can get in there. Obviously, we're going to have to bring a concrete truck in there when we pour the foundation and a small excavator to install the foundation. So I'll have to have them take a look at it and make sure. I haven't heard that there's going to be a problem with it. So I'm hoping that we'll be able to navigate it.

Yeah, well, I don't think anybody knows quite what it's going to look like yet until we get the trees down and we actually establish where the road is. But I think it'll become, we think it's going to become apparent. So maybe our DPW supervisor can get in contact with whoever on your end is going to be.

Yeah.

Kill Commons?

Yes, Tim Kill Commons. And I think they've already been in contact with each other.

Okay.

And then as time goes on, you know, just for the maintenance of the filter, there are going to be times when the filter media will have to be changed out. So that will require a larger truck too. So we'll have to confirm that that truck can also make it down the driveway.

Okay. Okay. And is there anything else?

No, I think that's it. I'd just like to move this along.

Right. I know. We would, too. And, you know, I think we're all sorry that it took this long and that it was this complicated. We didn't foresee that.

I don't think anybody did.

No.

Yep. All right. We'll get through it. I just would, you know, I would just like to have you folks having the benefit of filtered water as opposed to not. That's all.

Well, we, that's what we, yeah. And that was part of the explanation to the neighbors is the sooner we get this done, the healthier it is for everybody.

Right.

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

I mean, they're on the system. So, so I think they, they understood that. Yeah. Okay, good. Great.

Are there any questions from anybody here to, for Joe? I don't have any other order of business. I know. Certainly, John, come on up. John Cadwalader is here. I told him this would be a good opportunity to ask questions, even though it's a West Neck Water District meeting.

Yeah. Hi, Joe. Thank you. Hi, John.

How are you?

I'm well. I'm sorry I'm blurry, John. That's fine. I am too. So to follow up, I was ruminating what you said, and for the benefit of the room, it was we are part of the Westmoreland community. I am moving at my sales pace to try to solve our egregious saltwater problem. We haven't gotten into the rest of the stuff yet. So in kicking it all around, I spoke to Joe about the reality of connecting to the West Neck water supply. And to reiterate, your supply is really just coming from the two new wells and based on the calculations of the number of homes that would require to be on board to get to us, which is toward the end of Westmoreland. The system lacks the capacity. Does that sum it up, Joe?

Yes, it does. So John was pretty far down Westmoreland, pretty far down the road. And if we brought a water main down to his home, first of all, we need 40% participation in order to go ahead with a project like that. And there are quite a few homes along the way. And my concern is that 40% of the number of homes along the way, plus people that will wanna come in subsequently, that will exceed the capacity of the system.

So, and then you had said, in order to try to move it forward, it would require the town's involvement. Did I understand that correctly?

Well, what I said was that the system as it stands right now is very limited in capacity and that the answer to increasing capacity would be to obtain another site for water supply and to connect that to this existing well field to expand the system. And I did explain to John that we had identified a potential location for a new well field year or two ago up in the sachem woods property there that's owned by the town and that that to me would be the most likely location for an expansion if one were to occur so i guess my question is what's the reality of that possibility

What is just the ballpark cost of putting in a new well and how many wells additionally would need to be drilled in order to accommodate us? So, because I'm crunching numbers, we, this is one of my neighbors here, there's a group of us who've banded together to talk about the issue. you start adding up everybody doing a cistern through bender, that's a lot of dough. So talking $70,000, $78,000 per, I'm looking at other options as well. But before we commit to shelling out of pocket a fairly large sum of money, I'm wondering how realistic originally when I was talking to Lisa, it had to do with reading the paper and when SCWA took over the bond and maybe more people would help diffuse the overall cost per person. So anyway, that's why I'm here, just to kind of stir it up a little bit more.

Sounds like the real critical issue is getting another well.

Yeah, now, allegedly, I talked to Gregor. He's waiting to come back. He said, oh, for you guys to get another well.

A West Neck system.

Well, somewhere.

Yeah.

For us, it's sticking a straw in and how shallow can we go? We've got that mega house going in on the street. I did a five-nose job. I stopped to talk about riding on top of the mountain. So yeah, we're all connected. We're all in this together. And I haven't gone door to door to see who else is interested. you know, sort of informally in conversation that people found out that I've been pursuing this for about a year and a half or whenever the saltwater intrusion testing through WAC in the school started. I have been doing, I think you may have heard in the last, because I was here for the QI meeting, my numbers are up to, you know, Well, 24-20, I just had Goldman come again. I'm out of pocket just to have my own little database. But it's gotten worse from passable when we first moved in 2017. So I know it's a lot of factors that are adding up to the problem. But I did read somewhere that Suffolk County had a mandate to provide potable water to its citizenry. And does that include us on Shelter Island? And, you know, it gets tricky because I know we're not hooked into the main SCWA system. And I mean, I even see the pushback that you guys are getting, Joe, from trying to get to Southhold with the pipe freight. Yeah. Yeah, so I've been following it all. I'm trying to state a price and situation, but I'm here pleading for some help.

One question I have, and I don't know if anybody can answer this yet, is, is there a possibility of drilling a well closer to Westmoreland? Or is that just going to the spot where it's critical and there's no ability to find a potable water in that particular peninsula? I don't know the answer to that because the Sachem Woods idea is grand, but that's huge hurdles to get over to do that. A lot of area to drive mains and to put mains in. Yeah. However, since the West Neck water main currently goes down to Hilo right now, I mean, I'm just shooting from the hip here. It's not that much stretch to see it progress toward the Westmoreland Peninsula if there was potable water available. I'm just throwing that out there.

Do you remember the home account that you had, Jill? I know I said just yeah, I got around 36 homes and we were doing like something in the thirties.

Yes.

40% of that, you know, 1416 ish. Homes, you know, just to get to us available. I've been looking on the site site at the well, that's sadly a reliable source said. Those numbers about that as well. often are fudged so so i've even talked to oh i'm sorry joe did you by any chance remember the device that you were trying to tell me about reading through pvc to get the salinity We were talking about trying to test where... Yeah. Even where I might start to look for something like that.

It's not a... It's not like a commercially available device. It's a technology. And it's... Boy, oh boy. It's electro something and I... I'll get it for you if you want.

I appreciate it. If you come across it, because I'm a little bit of a nerd that way.

Yeah, we've actually done it.

We've done it in Southhold. Yeah. I'll say that again. I'm sorry. Say that again, Joe.

We've done it in Southhold. We put out some PVC case wells and then read through the PVC casing what the salinity was of the water on the other side of the casing. The only thing, John, and again, you know, after talking to you, I spoke to my hydrogeologist. I just don't see you having an option when it comes to another well. I really don't. You're so shallow now that, you know, to go shallower, the water quality is going to suffer. You know, to have a 25 foot deep well, you know, you're really the potential for contamination. And the filtration system you would need would really be a big lift. I agree, which is why at some point you're going to be desalinating. You know what I mean? You're going to be you're going to be desalinating the water.

as we joke that has problems too right should i pump the effluent back into the creek and raise right what do you do with the effort i don't want to do it i'm trying i'm trying to do the right thing so um so one other question though lisa you told me that there were other wells that were retired from the original west neck district um yeah is there a reason that

they are no longer used and could they be brought back to life or no they they failed um we had three other wells and joe probably could give you a more concise uh evaluation but essentially they are they were shallow they had problems with manganese and iron and so there was discoloration they weren't viable wells which is why they were retired and which is why we opted to do these two newer and much deeper wells on the golf course so there is one well that is still on the old property well number four which goes on

during periods when peak is low it kind of helps offset the two deeper wells yeah but it's essentially wells just go bad sorry go ahead go ahead yeah we've retired the uh the two wells on the golf course that we got when we uh when we took over the system those were pvc cased wells and they weren't grouted They've been abandoned and they were replaced by two public supply wells that are built to current standards.

What's the option?

Opportunities on the golf course for additional wells? I would be surprised. We haven't explored that. I know that Shelter Island Heights has some wells on the golf course on the other side, so we have to be careful that we're not too close to them, but That's not something that we've looked at.

What about creating an entirely new district south?

Where it could, because then what about Shell Beach?

The Shell Beach is having problems. You're having problems. That would be astronomical, but it would be, it's, you know, you could, if you could find a space down that way that was reliable, you could branch out in those directions.

So the problem is as you get south there, though, the water quality is going to deteriorate quickly.

you have to take it somewhere closer to the center and ship it out to them because there's just not enough there it's too shallow and i prefer to support everybody on a major well wow the good quality water is on the high ground

back to what Lisa had asked earlier about, is there another place in our area? Anecdotally, I just learned today because what happens is friends hear me talking and then they talk to other friends. And so a couple of people up, you know, up, The point is, I don't know, like the airfield there, I think there is a, I believe that's a well, I've never gone to look at it, a dug well. Did you ever come in?

In Westmoreland? Yeah. I think there is an old well there. It's not something we would be able to use.

Right, I understand, but I'm just saying that maybe because it's a little higher ground and it's more open, but again, I don't know who controls that. It's still a thin line. Yeah, that's the concern. That's what I want to do now. I want to play with it and actually find the lens so I can look at it in all kinds of ways.

And this is a particularly bad summer for it because of the drought in the beginning and then everybody coming out.

And that's what happens. I think you've maybe heard just for you guys to review, you know, we moved in 2017 and Our water was fine. We were drinking a tinge in August. And then we were going away, typically three months of the year. COVID, we were gone for six months and came back. But it was just progressively getting worse and waiting for a recharge and waiting for the rain that never came. And just that's when I pegged the numbers at the high school.

you know talking with john i mean he kind of enlightened me as to the number of people that actually have cisterns on the island which i really i embarrassingly i was not aware of but uh you know we've spoken we it's always been a point of contention with people in south hold about the large tanker trucks that fill up uh, via the fire hydrants in South hole, then they get on the ferry and they bring water over to shelter Island. This has always been a big, big issue for them. They feel like you're stealing their, you're stealing their water. I won't get into that, but, but from what I understand.

Yeah.

But, uh, but talking to the ferry operator on the South, uh, ferry, uh, He was telling me that dozens of tankers go over every day taking water from the south side.

Long Beach Road, right there, there's a standpipe and that's where they're pumping it out of. It's not a well that's coming from your system.

It's Suffolk County water. We have intentions of looking closely at that to see where he's getting the water from and how much he's taking, because we charge him a hefty fee to connect up in South Hold, but we didn't really know how much water was coming out of South Hampton.

Oh, you didn't know that? Wow. Wow. Yeah, it is. That's a lot.

Yeah.

And then maybe my last question, though there will always be more, the current sister-in-law, can they be used for potable water?

If your cistern is coming from a water truck, a tanker truck, it's not regulated.

I understand that. I'm looking at the roof and I haven't gone down to myself we've gone through in those almost nine years two hot water heaters a pressure tank piping it's just it's yeah you know chlorides will do that I had I had a three-year-old valve pop out from your corrosion look like that look like beavers got to it Thank you very much.

Thank you, John.

All right. Nice meeting you, John.

No, I appreciate your... Because as you say, we're all connected. You know, water doesn't have boundaries. So this is part of a greater conversation. Yep. Understood.

I just have to wonder how much of this conversation takes place when they're building new houses everywhere.

It's hard for me to believe that in a water starved area like this, you could even build another house.

Yeah.

That would be my, at the sizes, especially at these huge sizes.

Yeah, exactly. I mean that people don't think of that. They don't think, you know, they just assume the water is going to magically be there. Cause it was perfect. The city just turned on the faucet.

Okay. Well, there's an, you know, water is so abundant in other parts of the island, you know, you don't have to go far to find plenty of water.

Okay, Joe. Do we have any more questions for Joe?

Lisa, the only other thing was that... I'm sorry. Anybody have questions? Go ahead. I sent you that amortization schedule. I apologize. I was delayed on that. I should have sent that earlier. That's basically it. As far as capital improvements, those are all the capital improvements on the system right now. That's what your surcharge is paying for. Okay.

that is the current state of affairs and i don't think i forwarded that to anybody so i will forward that um yeah it came in and i just forgot about it but i'll make sure we all look at it okay all right i just wanted to make sure All right. Well, I think that the, you know, the next order of business is just to get you down there to put that, put those filtration, get the thing built and get those filters out.

That's our focus.

Get the road done first and figure out. Get the road done and get in there.

Yeah. And also, you know, the Bloom residents, they're being connected. I'm not sure if they've been connected already, but it's in the works. It's almost done, I think.

Yeah, I spoke with Barbara, and I said, please come to the meeting. But she was very happy and pleased with the service that she's gotten from the Water Authority and the way it's been progressing once you get all the bureaucratic DEC stuff. She's very happy to be on board. And I think they're waiting for their plumber.

to connect but and then they'll be they still have the other house where i think the line has to be extended to connect oh yeah i believe so the one on um yeah so yeah she was happy she was good testimonial there okay great all right good to hear

All right, so if that's it, we'll talk to you in a couple months, and hopefully we'll have lots of good moves then.

Okay, and next time we meet, I'll give you a wrap-up on the summer, what pumpage was like, and how it compares to previous years. I mean, so far it's looking like a fairly average to – I would say a fairly average summer.

Yes, well, on our invoice, it gives the total consumption, and it's – 6,114 hundred cubic feet. So I didn't look back to previous years invoice to see how that compared.

Yeah, I keep a spreadsheet. I look at pumpage, you know, I could look at the consumption, but I'm more interested in how much water we're taking out of the ground because that's the one that impacts the resource. So I keep that and I keep that in thousands of gallons, but that's OK. I can show it to you and I can compare it to you over the past five or six years at this point.

Well, I'm not sure if our invoice is CCFs or if it is thousands.

It's CCF. Yeah, we bill in CCF. So that's why the invoice or what you're talking about is CCF.

Okay.

Which is 700. That's customer meter readings and customer accounts.

Which, for reference, is 748 gallons on CCF.

Easy enough to do a calculation.

Okay, thank you very much, Joe, and we'll talk to you in a couple of months.

Okay, have a great Labor Day weekend.

Take care. All right.

Bye-bye.

So the next order of business is finances, and we've got some happy stuff coming. And so our class account is up to $155,807, which is good. It's been steady. and our checking account which is just used to pay small day-to-day administrative costs is a couple thousand dollars. So that's good. So two things. We did get the invoice from Suffolk County Water Authority which I forwarded to you guys to take a look at it to become familiar with how we're charged and looking at each individual person's charge we're going to put that in executive session because we're going to talk about specific properties so we don't want to do that publicly so i'm just going to set that aside and um i don't know amber do you want to talk about the new um happiness yes okay i see the floor to amber she's going to talk do you remember the analysis that we use to raise our rates she's going to talk about that

so i brought that up on screen here and you have two handouts um and the first one was the one prepared on april 22nd before the closing of 2026 and so when you look at that we had made assumptions about what we thought fiscal year 25 would be, or 26 would be, as an average of the last three years, because 24 was low, but then we had found some missing invoicing which got caught up in 2025. So looking at 2026, we anticipated receiving Westside water billings of about 97,000. And then if we subtract it out, what the fee is for Suffolk County Water Authority, their operating amount. We thought we were going to be shy just a little bit and have to pay them. What ended up happening that year or last year was that our billings was not $97,000. It was $106,596. So that ended up with us receiving a check from Suffolk County Water Authority for $72,000. 7,288 dollars. So we ended up putting more money into reserves. So we ended last year with 147,940, you know, basically 148,000 dollars. So when Lisa just said what the new amount was, that's why we had that bump up. So, given that information, I went back and plugged in What it would look like, if we increased our billing rates on this half a percent, which you approve in the last 3 months ago. So it got implemented. So, if we blow those rates out to the end of the. Payback period of the loan basically. We will end up not having to pay sub accounting water authority. I mean, this is all an estimate. But in 2020, no, 2035, 2036 would be the first time we would have to cut down a check. If we keep increasing half a percent a year, if they only increase 3% a year and our staff and office expenses only go up 2.5% a year. So there's some variables in there, but we end up at the end of the term of the loan, of having $210,000 in our reserve account still. So I'm not recommending that we do anything right now. I think in the spring, especially when we hear from Jill next quarter what the summer consumption was, if it was up, if it was down, and we may, you know, we'll talk about the billings, you know, what we want to do with rates for the customers again. My recommendation right now With not a lot of, you know, not knowing what the future holds is just not raise the rates next year. Because even not raising the rates through the end of the loan, we'd still end up with, like, 74,000 dollars. In the account, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to recalculate the spreadsheet until next year. You know, we'll make a decision what you want to do with rates in the spring. See what the 2027 billing is again to see how you go forward. Yeah, but. It was nice seeing that check come in and nice plugging it in to see what it did to the sensitivity analysis.

Yeah.

Well, it's always nice if we can avoid raising rates and a very healthy amount, but we know that we got at least two new

uh services service hookups so that will increase an uptick yeah but just a little bit and we want to keep a reserve we want to make sure our reserves don't dwindle down too much because we always have to make sure that we can pay some kind of water authority yeah the debt repayment but as we get out to you know year 2040 and later then we can start to do a little bit more tweaking to run down that balance if it hasn't already started to run down differently from these assumptions. Of course, it will be a different board. Maybe Meg will still be here.

That's a good question.

Yeah, I guess.

As a potential customer one, what is the likelihood of some seismic price increase in this numbers you know has there been any talk about what could you know what you mean like global warming yeah something something crazy we're all underwater sorry to say something yeah i just wondered so likely except you know i feel pretty confident with the way things are going and

Well, 1 thing, John, when we went under Suffolk County water management agreement, and they, they have elevated our infrastructure to the standards that they require everything they do. And everything they will do from the point of management, which was 2022 to 2048 is all on their watch. That they're paying for everything. So we're going to have the benefit of having the highest technologies, all kinds of testing and infrastructure, but we don't pay any more. We've already paid everything.

So those changes do get diffused through the entire customer.

Absolutely. But the current customer, if the system is extended, does that change anything? If they were to extend it someplace?

Yeah, yes, it would definitely change.

Well, it would take the bonus off of each us. No, no, that wasn't my question. Will they extend it just on their own? They'll pay for an extension?

No. Like, say, for example, West Neck or Westmoreland are requesting. that is going to come out of their pocket and i don't know how that's going i can't say how that's going to work would you have to set up your own water district if you came on to west neck water district would we have to set up a whole new structure i don't know but you're going to have to pay for the mains and all of the lines and everything wouldn't there be amendments and tweaks if something changed yeah so i mean that would be taken care of then

We just kind of diffuse the climb to the end of the world for them, for you. Do you get a piece of the end of the world?

No, you'd end up hanging. Along with the Brooklyn Bridge.

Well, now that you bring that up, John, you don't seem so attractive to us anymore.

Sorry, I just shot myself in the face.

Part of it would be however we determine to handle the districting, right? And so West Neck Water District has a defined boundary. So it would be a question of do we create a new district for the new area that's being serviced, or do we try to expand West Neck Water District to a corporate more area? So it would really depend on how it worked out districting-wise.

So hypothetically, because Suffolk County does have Squad does have a mandate to provide portable water. So if a new district was created, do they have to do that? I mean, they don't do it for free. So you have to pay for it, but they will do it. Is that how that works out? That's where the 40% of the people.

40% of the people in the area have to want it in order for it to be fiscally.

And then does everyone in that area have to pay? Once you have the district, you have to hook on.

Once you're tied in.

They would pay Suffolk County water. No, I'm still at charges.

Are triggers that would require you tying in. Yeah, that was my question. But if you already have potable water in your well, you're not forced to tie in. It's if you're building a new prop, like a new house on a plot that doesn't currently have water, you'd be forced to tie in.

So it would be optional for those who live in that area, but their water is okay. They don't have to sign on.

Right. And then there are certain triggers that might, in the future, force them to tie it. Like, let's say their water quality diminishes, it's no longer potable, the health department will say, well, you have a main right there, you need to tie it up. That's where they would like to drop a new well. Right. That would be specific county department of health would say, you have to tie it. So there's a whole bunch of different ways they can get handled. And so let's say, just hypothetically, it's you know what a southern county water authority did put wells in sachem's woods well then you would have the debate do you start a new district do you tie into an existing district where are the boundaries i mean it becomes a process so um there would be a lot negotiated yeah because when they were looking at that that was really because they're trying to solve the center problem yeah yeah and then it had the benefit of being an emergency backup to west neck water district if possible so you know could serve multiple needs was that the only place uh seriously considered so far yeah yeah and then and then the wastewater treatment that was over by the emergency that was a whole nother yeah and that that's pretty much that okay yeah

So going back to this analysis, do we have anything that, do we want to go with Amber's suggestion that we just sit and wait and see that the pumpage will be for 26?

Maybe we can't predict ahead of time, but if we can avoid an increase and not drive ourselves down, yes, by all means. It's a not-for-profit here. We're not into making money. Yes, yes.

Do you have any questions about this analysis?

No. No? Okay. But it could change. It could turn out that that's not the way things are going and it could go both ways.

Just as we saw from earlier in the year spreadsheet to this year's spreadsheet, to today's spreadsheet, it's like, yeah, we're going to end with $1,500 reserve. Now we're going to end with $215,000.

That's crazy.

Because we have so many years. So I like the idea of just being Kind of consistent, but no, you know, things changes.

I have to say the 1st, couple of years were up and down because they put meters in. We lost water. We lost consumption readings. So it took it took a couple of years to work it out. Now, I think this is a. an optimistic but sort of much better. Not unrealistic. It's not unrealistic. This is the way hopefully it will operate and you know the last two years have been outliers just getting used to the system. So it's good stuff.

But I think the message I'm getting especially with John's comments is that there are areas in this island that are populated that are desperate for quality water and I don't think we could just ignore it I mean, there has to be some solution offered regardless of what people think about squaw or what their prejudices are against a district.

So that's it on the finances before we go into executive session. Do we have anything else you want to bring up? I didn't put rules and regulations down because I just thought we have enough to talk about, but we'll get back to that in our next meeting.

Yeah, we're going to pick you out, John.

Sorry. Count your blessings.

I know it's so unseemly, but what a groovy shoot. And if I may, Wendy, I don't know if you remember, we have met and spoken over the years.

Are you fine? I'm fine.

I'm a big fan. So thank you very much. You're welcome. Yeah, good luck. Are you feeling discouraged?