Town Council - Regular Meeting

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Auto order. Town of Pres Valley study session March 5th, 2026. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Lopez absent. Council member Keel present. Council member Frey. Council member Greer here. Council member Schumacher present. Vice Mayor Zer here. Mayor Paluda here. We have a quorum. Thank you, ma'am. First up, item 2A, water conservation master planning update. Miss Lond, welcome.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Councel. We are here today to talk about the water conservation strategic plan and this will be the first of several public engagement activities that we'll be doing for the throughout the entire planning of uh planning exercise. Um basically what our objective here is to make sure that uh you folks as well as uh the public is is is buys into what what the final pro plan is. Right. So the way we do that is to make sure that we're talking to as many people as we possibly can about what their pet in uh issues um uh ideas are. So um so this is the first attempt at that. Nikki, if you wouldn't mind going to the second slide. Um, just to give you an idea, we're going to be we're going to start at at uh uh uh number one here with with a background, give you an idea of what we're going to be doing here over the course of this planning exercise and um give you a little bit of a lexicon into what we're going to be doing. Um we're going to be talking about the modeling that will be integrated into this whole project. Um we're going to keep it high level though and we're going to talk about potential um conservation measures. We here are doing a number of different things for water conservation but we want to expand out our rubric. Right. So we've got some potential ideas uh of how we can do that and we're going to be seeking feedback. Um like I said, we're going to be engaging a number of times and we'll talk about the next nick point in this whole uh exercise where where that's going to happen. Uh so with that, I will introduce our uh we have uh two uh two ladies that we uh um have contracted with Mad Water Management.

Lisa Mados will be speaking second, but Nikki Powell will be uh discussing some of the uh background and uh demand forecasts. Thank you, ma'am. Welcome. Thank you for having us. Lisa is going to kick it off today.

Yeah, thank you. Well, I'm Lisa Mad as you might notice from the name. Um, I am one of the co-owners and actually we are a second generation company making a difference in the world water. We celebrate 30 years this year. Our main business is doing conservation strategic plans. We work in 14 western states. Um I'm based in Sacramento and Nikki's based in Southern California and uh we work internationally as well. So um this is our our primary role is to help people with demand forecasting and conservation planning, but we also do implementation. Nikki's really good at training and doing commercial water audits, working with commercial customers and do a lot of specialist studies like AMI and water loss and things like that. So, we get um we get deep when people have uh deep questions. So, excited to be with you along this journey to produce your water conservation plan together. And we helped with the city of Flagstaff locally. So, that's kind of how we we got connected to you and your team and your staff. And we often get the call when like this um people see their historical trends. So, this is the city's trends. on the left is your population. Um it's been growing over the last 15 years. Uh you know eating up towards uh just over 55,000 people and that's in the red line. And then in the blue line you can see our acre feet tracked pretty closely with the blue lines. And the red lines are together for a while and then we see things happen. And well what happened? Well, in uh 07, 08, 09 and then we had the recession and then we had some climate variability and you have conservation pricing gets into play and then we had COVID. And so we're kind of really good at unpacking um kind of what's driving water use trends and the city's goal is to continue to ensure that your water use doesn't return to your pre-recession rates. So that's going to be part of our our effort here and our goals for this

conservation planning effort together. Next slide. So we follow a conservation planning process. It is a nationally um there is the American Waterworks Association with tens of thousands of water utilities come together. They produce peer-reviewed manuals. We happen to be the primary authors of the M52 manual which is about water conservation programs. Um my father did the first handbook in 1987. It matured into this manual um that's on the second edition. And there'll be a third edition coming in 2027, but it follows a national process. So, just so you know, there is like a manual for this and we're following a national guidance and we're going to be talking about stringing measures and and developing your plan along those guidelines. Next slide. Uh so the purpose of each basic plan is really to figure out what's attainable for the town and what's your conservation actions both in terms of quantifying savings like how much could we really save what will really cost uh are you aligned with the Arizona department of water resources you know requirements and goals um is it the right I know there's a context for future rate study coming and we have aligned your water demand planning with the housing needs assess investment that you adopted last May. And so we are our overall goal is to help you come up with a conservation program. We're going to present a couple scenarios. We want to collaborate with you to kind of maximize your community benefit including a thriving economy and and having reliable supply. So that's our our goal. Next slide. Uh we have several meals milestones uh planned for this project. Um the first one is that we're looking into your demand assessment. The second is that we're going to be analyzing some conservation measures and that's we're going to be talking about our measure

ideas. But we went through I'm going to show you some a window into our modeling process and how we do that. Uh we come up with the program strategy. Um and then at the end we're going to develop a strategic plan. You will have some key check-in points with us. Um today we are going to go and review the baseline demand forecast because this is a modeling exercise that is quantifiable. We need a really robust uh understanding of your demand forecast and being on the same page there together because if we change that downstream then it changes a lot of our math downstream. So we're really looking for your your eyes and your your questions and like oh this makes sense you know um litmus test kind of that we're on the we're on the same page there. We're gonna ask for your best ideas and conservation measure list input. We've collaborated with your staff using a big library and coming to you asking for feedback today. We are going to come to you then with our model results and preliminary results of some scenarios and ask for your input. Um and in the end we're going to ask you to review plan and adopt it. So plan to see us back like like Tracy was saying. So uh this is our journey together. We have a couple phases. Um we've done data collection and we're in the demand assessment. So that's in our phase one. You see in the orange dots there that we're connecting with you today on uh the demand projection and also conservation measure analysis. We have done an initial screening. So you'll see a list here in a bit. Um we have phase two coming. The other orange dots were the program strategy check-in and then the draft strategic plan. And and again the journey goes all the way to plan adoption. slide. Um, [clears throat] we use something called the lease cost decision support system model. It was first developed in the early 90s. It continues to evolve. We've enhanced it over decades. Uh, it's a collaboration actually between my

father and some Australian peers to start and it is an Excelbased tool that the city gets at the end um of our effort together as we build it out. uh it does project f future water demand with and without conservation in it. Um so that's we evaluate current conservation measures. We identify and quantify new ones. Um and that becomes our big menu with detailed cost and water savings. Um the workbook's extensive but it it is yeah kind of detailed and quantifiable. And then the any the menu of measures become a way for us to put conservation programs together and look at scenarios. And that gives you a picture into what are the benefits, the costs, kind of a a look into staffing, like what does this really mean for a smart investment that makes sense for Prescott Valley to um to decide on. So that's what we're going to come back with and what the tool does. It is a robust modeling process. It goes top down using your water demand. It breaks it in from production to consumption into different types of consumption. So it's very detailed from your billing data is what feeds it. Um it splits in indoor and outdoor. And then we bottom up check different end uses and that's different interventions like if you change and switch to like detailed drip irrigation with a good schedule or smart irrigation control that waters with the weather or toilet rebate or closer rebate or what we have individual. We're saving water out of buckets and there's no double counting the way our math works. So, people trust it. Legal teams trust it. So, um just a little flow of where we're going. Um the customer category billing data is on the left and we kind of align it with your um your customers. And then we take a long-term population growth up there in the left uh and

projection growth. It kind of needs to know how growth. So, it's forwardlooking um based on a base year water use and it um will project forward then and we layer in passive conservation savings which is about codes and standards and things that happen just because people go to Home Depot and buy something or whatever hardware store and buy something new and more efficient put it in. That's naturally happening in the background. So, we account for that along with the activity that you've ever had in conservation programs. And then we're layering in plan new conservation. So that's how we project demand forward and we get it with indoor and outdoor and customer categories. Super detailed breakdown and you'll be getting to see some of those results down the line. Uh we've been through all of our initial data inputs. Um just so you know this modeling range is from 2026 to 55 20 55. So it's a long range outlook. uh it's an annual model um and then it has consumption production your current accounts uh and projected accounts aligning with that. The housing needs study is the growth projection um had a projection for jobs too and it includes also the buildout of vacant lots in the Castle Canyon Mesa and the Prescott Country area. So it's uh and the vacant lots in Diamond Valley. has taken careful assessment of the demand that we envision is coming online and it's continuing the trend in the hydrant use. Um, and it is completely it's aligned with your historical demographics including population, housing. It's just really tailored to to exactly your data. It's custom. Next slide. Uh the then we process and create that base year profile we call it. That's your foundation for your modeling and your demand start starting with demands and accounts and we use an average of

the calendar year from 2022 to 2025. We have non-revenue water which is water loss all systems leak. Um yours is reported out at 8.8% is what we've applied. And then we are layering in the end uses and assumptions for the international plumbing code um that the city aligns with to look at the population forecast. Um this is we had uh documented data and then we are aligning with 2026 the number of accounts and people per household and the housing um starts projected out is on the order of 60,000 and by 2055 assumed to grow up to nearly 80,000 it'll be 79,500 is kind of our projection. Um and again that's larger than just the town area itself where our accounting for the added areas. Um the the housing need study always goes partway out. We did extend the um population assumption for the other buildout areas. Next slide. Um the job forecast is also aligned based on the jobs projection. It is um up through 2040 aligned with the housing needs assessment and then beyond that it extends into similar modeling period and growth rate um from on the order of 14,500 jobs now eventually going up to on the order of 28,000 uh and 300 jobs. So this is uh so that's forward looking and just to give you a quick insight into the years that we used as our baseline years. This is your historical

consumption and production that fed the data inputs for the model. Um you can see you had a uptick there in 2020 of COVID. So not surprising with your community and some seasonal housing and things that uh the the demand was up. Uh it seems to have settled back out. Uh you can see in years 20 22 23 24 25 it's kind of stabilized. So that's where we're using that as our base year both for production in the blue and the orange is consumption and then I was showing you that bucket graph where we break the consumption down into different customer categories. And so that's um all specified in the model and it is specified in this um profile in the start year that 63% is residential demand according to your billing data. Multif family is 9%. So you're on the order of 72% domestic like you know indoor and outdoor home use. So that's you'll see an emphasis on saving water. There's a lot of accounts there to, you know, ask them to reach in and save water. And about 14% is commercial. You have a balance of turf um on the order of 7% when you add the turf under 10 acres um meters along with the turf over 10 acres. That's adds up to 7%. And then you have your wholesale water to um Brad and Diamond Valley. And then your hydrate use also. So just want you to see this profile you know as you grow and things change it it shifts a little bit in the model every year it it kind of adjusts but it's basically um this is a good good understanding because that informs the type of conservation measures that can really help move the needle in terms of where the savings are coming from. And this is a a different view kind of of the projection then. So you were looking kind of at the left side of that

chart with the pie chart and you're just under six million gallons a day now. Um the majority of which is residential. You have layered on top of that commercial use. Um it does grow over time between residential layered on tops of commercial and green is the multifamily. You see the same turf wholesale hydrants. We're tracking everything and it's looked to growing up to about 8 and a half million gallons per day in round numbers. So the baseline water demand forecast is uh the in the blue line on the left is that history you were seeing um in terms of how your water use has been with that 2020 uptick and then kind of the baseline selling off. You can see our demand projection takes off from there. The yellow line is without any conservation. We make we take try and take all the conservation out. If you did nothing, you would end up with the orange line. But there's not nothing happening. The green line happens and that is the passive conservation savings. So that plumbing code, water savings, you know, each year's kind of accumulating because we've looked at the useful life of of different fixtures and things in the housing age and we've made estimates of what we think is going to be saved over time just passively. So that's all you see right now in this. So you do have increasing demand projected um to meet the housing needs um outlook and you also have plumbing code that's planned to come online and the town staff we know is currently working on adopt a code be coming um kind of later in the Aprilish time frame. You will see us back um after we've done our conservation measures and we've had the chance to put some program scenarios. you will we will come back with on like three lines more lines on this chart and they will be under the green line. They will be active conservation program scenarios. So one line will be your current conservation measure you know um

package of things that you're currently running in your program. The second one will be kind of optimize the most cost effective and recommended program. And then we do usually put the third line in and we'll do it for you this time where what if you did everything that you know all the measures that seem applicable and we'll model those. Uh that's usually beyond the aggressive level that people want to staff and fund. But it's good to see like you know if you were more aggressive how how much could you fund? So just um any interest or feedback for whatever we plan to double back on this um when we we are done with our presentation and want to take questions. This is a really good time for you to be on the same page with us with the yellow line, the green line, and then know that conservation measure programs are coming um down the line based on this baseline demand forecast. And with that, I'm going to transfer it to Nikki, and it's her turn to talk about what conservation measures we can put in our menu.

Yes, thank you, Lisa. So, time for the fun stuff now. Okay, we're going to get into some conservation measures. You'll get to see what we've come up with so far for our list and then hopefully you'll have input on what maybe you want to see in the measure list um that we model going forward. So, just to provide a preview of what's upcoming in the model. So, in our next phase, we are going to be adding in our measured design. And so to do that, we work with town staff and we input a lot of different details. You can see them listed. Um, and really try to customize the measures to your town, to your community. And the way that we define a conservation measure is it's a specific strategy or technology or behavioral change that is implemented to reduce water use or to improve efficiency. Um, so we really try to prioritize all different types of measures and have a wellbalanced portfolio and then like Lisa said, we will combine those measures into program scenarios. And so that's where we have different groupings that we will then model and say, okay, if you did this program, what are the savings as well as the costs? And so really we're prioritizing measures that do have a good cost benefit which means that you know the savings you're achieving are you know high you know compared to the costs or compared to other measures. Um so we're going to talk through the process of um what we've done to prepare our measure screening list a little bit and then show you the preliminary measures. Um Lisa already mentioned the process that we are following from the M52 manual. So just a reminder again that

this is really guiding us um and outlining you know how we are going to perform the evaluation. And then a reminder again that all measures even though they come from a large library of about 150 different options um once we pair down our list we do customize everything to your town. All right. So, this is the framework for the internal screening that we've conducted. And we really use this traffic light approach. You can see green, yellow, red light. Um, and so as we were going through that huge menu of 150 measures, we essentially were deciding, okay, who gets the green light, who gets the yellow, and who gets the red. Um, and so the green measures are really what you're running now that you want to continue running as measures for your program as well as measures that we really want to include um, for various reasons and that might be because it's, you know, really applicable to the town. Maybe it's a measure that a lot of your neighbors are running and that makes sense um, for your town as well. So that was already chosen as measures we want to keep for analysis. And then what we're really asking for your input on um today and in the following weeks um are these yellow measures. So I'm going to show you what measures scored yellow and um basically those are on the fence, right? So we're trying to get feedback from you from the public um and decide which of those yellow are going to make it into our green list and which might not. Um and then just to note that the red measures, we're not going to show that. It's not a part of the discussion for today, but if you do want to see the full list of everything we went through and what ended up red, um, you can definitely follow up with Tracy and we'll be able to provide that.

All right. So, here is the first part of our green list measures and this is your current water conservation program. So, um, like with mentioned, you are already doing some conservation efforts, right? you you have a system water loss program which is really important and and really a statewide effort. Um you have targeted AMI outreach, your new AMI meters are in um that's a really great measure that we're going to be excited to model. Um your conservation rates um or tiered rates are in place. Uh you have the hot water on demand requirement for new developments and then of course um your public education program. This is really the backbone of any conservation program and so we are going to definitely include um some analysis for the public outreach and engagement that you already do. All right. So moving on to um these are new measures that we have given the green light. So um there are several different ones and I've grouped them into categories. So you can see residential outdoor measures. Um we are planning to analyze potential rebates um for landscape and irrigation upgrades. That might be things like um sprinkler nozzles or you know turf removal of those kinds of measures. Um as well as weather-based irrigation controller and rain sensor rebates. Um, so these are technologies that we think would be really um, you know, helpful for your residential landscapes. Um, and then some examples for on the indoor side, you see a lot of other fixture rebates, um, like toilets, uh, faucets, um, faucet airators, um, washing machines and dishwashers. So we can really take a

look at what is going to be the impact of providing these types of fixture rebates or giveaways. And seeing as you know your residential use um is a really big part of your portfolio um we definitely want to focus several of our measures in this customer group. So then for the business customers, so we have some non-residential measures that we are planning to analyze. Um so you'll see a little bit of overlap in both outdoor and indoor in that we may uh choose to offer these types of rebates both um to the residential and commercial customers. Um but there are a few nuance measures like doing um targeted outdoor water audits for large irrigation accounts. Um, so that's a really great one so that we can um help some of our larger users uh with their outdoor use. And then also providing commercial audits and custom retrofits for top water users in this category. And the reason why we really think, you know, it's optimal to have a custom rebate for this group is because of the uniqueness and that there may be projects out there that wouldn't be covered under traditional rebates that you would want to incentivize just due to the water savings that could be achieved. Um, so there's a lot of um fun opportunities in this group and we are planning to model these measures. Okay. So, here's our yellow list. Um, and again, this is really what we're looking for your input on. Um, so if there's anything that strikes you that's very interesting that you might have questions about, um, that's really why we're here today. As well as if there's something that's not on this list that you have in mind and you want to propose, we would love to hear it. Um,

so just to give you a teaser of what's in this list, um, you know, think about should we actually require efficient controllers rather than just providing a rebate or incentive for them. Um, maybe we should develop landscape design standards for our town and for our residents. Um, how what do you think about dedicated irrigation meters to help us better analyze indoor versus outdoor use at larger sites? Um, perhaps a rain barrel rebate is of interest. We know that your neighboring city of Prescott has one. Maybe is that something we should consider? Um, and then even down to targeting specific types of customers. For example, a hotel motel retrofit. Is there enough hotels and motel in the town to justify a targeted measure like this? Um, so really these are the questions that you know we are posing and hope that you're asking these um as you read this list and thinking about what you would like um for the town. So, in terms of next steps, um we are happy to take questions and have discussion today. Um but you're also welcome to provide your feedback um anytime over the next few weeks um directly to Tracy and we'll have her email up on the last slide. Um and we're also going to be issuing a survey. So, that will be distributed to the public ahead of the open house which is happening on May 31st. Um, it's really going to help us to get a broader outreach to your public and see, you know, if others have feedback that they might feel strongly about. Um, so Lisa and I are very much looking forward to coming in person on the 31st to host that open house. And after we collect all the feedback through this month, um

by April 15th, we hope to have our final measures list that we will then input into our model to start evaluating um and designing those customized um measures. So that's really where we're headed. Um and in conclusion, just to remind you of where else we're collecting feedback. So right now we're looking for feedback on the demand forecast that Lisa presented on. We're looking for feedback on that preliminary measures list, particularly the yellow measures. Um and then we will be coming back um likely in quarter 3 to talk about the conservation programs um and what we've put together once we've had those measures designed in the model. And then like Lisa said, we're heading towards plan adoption. So you will have the opportunity to review and comment on the draft plan before it goes final. So with that, just um huge thank you. We definitely want to say thank you to Tracy as well as Brian Ferrara. We couldn't have gotten here without them. They have provided so much data and information um and been really on top of of helping us get the model ready and get these measures um you know in our preliminary list. So, we really appreciate all the collaboration with the town. And like I mentioned, if you have any follow-up questions, um you can email Tracy. Um she can forward anything to us and we're also happy to take questions now. So, thanks again.

Thank you, ma'am. Council, we have any questions, comments for these ladies? Councilman? Um I actually have uh several questions. Uh first would be has you know from what I've read from hydraologists and so forth it appears that we're in some of them are saying a 1200year drought uh in the southwest in the in the Colorado River basin. Has our continuing drought which doesn't seem to be letting up been factored into these projections?

Definitely. Um, so the projections like Lisa mentioned, they start from your baseline year. And so what we are taking is the real historical data of what your water demand has been um for the past few years and then using that as our base for our growth. Um, so we don't assume that there's going to be any more water than there is. Um and the trend is really going to follow what you have been seeing. Um overall

well and to to highlight too the data set that has been inserted into this model is actually all during uh the drought because the drought's been in place for 20 25 years now. So, we're just basically propagating things out uh within the the this the domain that we're in, which is in a drought. Um as far as you know, like 1,200 year drought. Um yeah, we it's been uh at least 5 or 600 years since there's been a drought of this magnitude. Um but you know as as humans I'm not sure that that a model of this magnitude can take into account something that's you know 60 70 years of of drought which is I know from the 1300s they were looking at drought periods of at length. Um so we're we're we're doing what we can with the the data set that we've got.

Thank you. I I have another a couple of questions. Um, one of my concerns is that one of the easiest ways to conserve water is to keep raising the rates and that's widely done. And um, we have what I just I just read today that we have 12.5% of our town population are living in poverty already. And I I just feel like our tier system should allow for a real lower-end, you know, survival type allowance where people uh that are on very limited budgets um could have water service without having to subsidize uh the upper, you know, the rest of it. Um your thoughts on that? I'm certain that'll come up during the discussion for the rate study. I'm certain that that's when that would occur. Um I'm not sure that it would be something that would be a part of this discussion except for we are taking into account uh uh oh gosh I've I've I'm missing the term uh social justice basically and thinking about the perspective of the fact that we've got a a a a of of a a a wide um breadth of of incomes that we serve here in in Prescuit Lisa, did you have that handy? The the term that I'm that I'm blanking on at the moment.

Yeah, equity and affordability. Um, we do. Yes, you're correct. The rate study would look at, you know, where they set that first tier and right sizing and the rate modeling is the model that would address like your concern directly. there is a bit of an excess and perhaps you want to consider a low-inccome uh conservation measure like we have low low-inccome leak assistance like um Nikki and I were just modeling for Sacramento a leak grantf funded leak-free program it's called where um they can send out plumbers and do fixes for low-inccome accounts San Antonio where we also work Texas has a program like that but um so there are there are you know equity eligible you low-inccome eligible type conservation measures we could consider if that is a strong um desire or need through the the city and the community. Happy to take that

into consideration.

Mr. or if I just I just wanted to add um when we went through the rate adjustments several years ago, we spent a lot of time specifically talking um about you know fixed income impacts and making sure that um those critical you know life needs are met under that base base rate you know the the first tier. So, when we do our next uh update for our water and wastewater, we'll be doing that same thing, making sure we're very sensitive um to, you know, any anyone that um you know has limited income to make sure they've got the necessary water resources to be able to to live uh and and survive. So, that's that will definitely be at the forefront of uh any planning decisions that we'll make and bring back to council as part of that process. Thank you. That takes care of that one. Um, another thing, it was briefly mentioned, but you know, uh, the city of Prescott of course is is in a very similar situation to we are. It's the mo probably the most similar of any, uh, other municipality in in the state and and they've done quite a bit of work on their water conservation plans and their rebates and so forth. And are we are we rather than reinventing the wheel, are we also looking at all everything that they're doing uh the pros and cons of each one and how effective it's been or not effective?

We have had a lot of conversations with the city of Prescuit on this topic including we had a phone conversation actually it was no I'm sorry it was a teams meeting with their conservation uh guru over there. Um, so we're we're actually talking about teaming up on a number of different initiatives. So, yeah, it's it's uh we're looking at what they're doing and we're engaging them in conversation. Um, because I think on a regional uh front, we can actually align with them on a lot of different things that that [clears throat] clearly work for them and would maybe fit would would definitely fit our profile over here as well. Thank you,

Mr. Mayor. If I could to U, Miss Lint just said something I think that's really important. Um, is we think there's been a lot of discussion about re regional regionalization of our water water system water authority. This is where you know certainly I and and and Miss Lond and our team here we have been strong advocates and proponents of this is good lowhanging fruit items where you know water conservation across the whole region could easily be we could adopt similar types of policies. So, this is something we're going to be advocating for across uh the region, whether it's with Chino uh Prescuit uh and and the county uh to make sure that we have consistent conservation goals and measures that could be put in place. and that that could be a great lowhanging fruit item that creates a win for everyone uh and really d we're all kind of rowing in the same direction uh as to kind of the overall aquifer management and and adherence to the uh fifth manage management plan for the AMA.

Thank you. Yeah, I think it would be great if we could uh for example have some sort of a regional uh uh leaders leader summit uh with the Quad City leadership um on on matters such as this that are common shared problems and goal and and and work out you know idea our best ideas and practices. Um, I've I've been experimenting with um different things like rain bar rain barrels and and so forth and I found that it was amazing how fast they fill up in in a little cloud burst [clears throat]

and actually out you know outstrip my ability to store the water in like 15 minutes and uh I'm I didn't hear any mention of sistns but I've been you know many like even 40 years ago I was in Bermuda and that everybody had sistns. And uh it seems like another uh way that we could uh encourage uh water savings for uh particularly for uh landscaping which is a big part of our water use and even for emergency use for you know showers or or whatever. Um do you have any comments about that?

That's on our our yellow list. The rain barrels is on the yellow list. So yes, and that was because I you and I have had a discussion about this. So I wanted to make sure that that was a part of the list. But I think sistns are the next step because they can hold thousands of gallons. Yeah. Uh I I haven't heard any mention of those.

Well, so yeah, I mean sistns could certainly be uh an important uh thing to look at. Um I don't know if if folks in Granville could actually do that because of the HOAs. That would be the only other thing that to be uh concerned with would be some folks may not be able to do that. Um, but I mean certainly rain barrels, the only issue that I can think of with rain barrels is if you if we have a protracted period of of no rainfall. um you may end up outstripping the capacity of your rain barrel and then suddenly you don't have any water for whatever plantings like you know like I personally enjoy plants a lot and so maybe if I have a rain barrel then I feel the need to plant more plants and then suddenly I'm using portable water during a long period of time where there is no rainfall. Um, so that's those are things to think about, but certainly that's I mean that's it's part of it's part of the list.

Yeah. When I uh started using them, I I I didn't add any plants, but what I did find out is that my my household use went down to 54 gallons per day. Excellent.

That's on the indoor only scale. We do evaluate rainbows readily. They commonly pencil in state, you know, climates like Texas, Florida, Hawaii easily. And the Southwest, they tend to, if you're going to give a rebate uh challenge to make them pencil, but we can certainly run the numbers with you. And we also um are accustomed to looking at larger system properties too. If you think those were applicable, we can look into that um with you. I can there's I like to talk about the three buckets. Should it be education and like do-it-yourself, you know, um goals and you have your citizens academy and we worked with the Hawaii Hollywood Border Water Supply very carefully with that and they that's what the program they run. Um you know there's ones with incentives and in Texas they give them off the back of semi-truckss. you know, it's just um it's really prominent there and it's more of like a giveaway program. And then there's, you know, incentives where you do a rebate program. And then there's also ones like Tucson where they have speced buildings like every home has to be plumbed um for laundry to landscape and they go through the building department and they make sure that everything is smartly built um for that. So a lot of strategies to deal with uh al optimizing alternative supplies that is you know can be a really smart investment. So you know cost effective is just one lens and there's many reasons to you know tooth after water savings or alternative supply. So happy to explore that with you.

Yeah I was able to get 100gallon rain barrels from the company called Vivore vivore.com for $36 a piece delivered. Mhm. Yeah. And then how long have you had them? Uh this is the second year. Yeah. Santa Cruz and some others have invested in them. Uh 5 to 10 years. Watch the glue.

Yeah. So you need uh it's also useful life we factor into some of our analysis too. So that's um I would uh yeah love to hear more and consider it. Thank you. Another uh question I well two I have two more questions. Um one is should existing water customers have to pay not only for the costs of operating our water system but should they have to subsidize the costs to to plan and and develop uh excess capacity for future developments. [sighs]

I was expecting this question. Uh so essentially um what I I I don't think that this is one of those situations where we are going to uh minimize our use so that way we can have more people move here. Uh I think there's [clears throat]

uh I think we're we're not a designated provider. Um, so it's it's essentially going to be a cause-based situation for quite some time. Uh, so that's that's not a mechanism. So I know that that's uh an issue that has come up for the city of Prescuit. Uh, but I don't our situation in that respect I don't think is a onetoone type type scenario. I don't see this as a situation where we are subsidizing more growth. I think this is us pulling a lot less water out of the aquafer because it's the right thing to do.

Thank you. My last question, um, what is our plan for when town went? Well, let me back up. Uh, I understand from Dr. Gary Beverly and Sewag that there's over 500 wells that have gone dry locally. Uh so what is our plan for when town wells uh begin to run dry?

So a little little primer in hydro geology. Many of the wells that we're talking about that have run dry are at the edges of the aquifer where you have less uh aquifer to work with. Our wells are within the heart of the aquifer. Um we uh have several hundred ft of freeboard before we have issues. Um so that's you know that's that's my standard answer for this. Um essentially uh because we have 27 wells and they all have freeboard above where uh we start pulling sand we're in in really quite good shape. um folks that are on exempt wells um they will have to deepen their wells or try to haul water. And that's unfortunately with the way our active management area is and it's been this in this state for 50 60 years now. We've been in an overdraft situation. We are pulling more water into the aqua from the aquifer than it is going in. It's it's been observed that way for as long as I've been alive. So 60 plus years. I'm only 50, but um yeah, it's this is this is not a new issue. This has been going on for years. And a lot of times those exempt wells are competing against each other for water in those sal shallow portions of the aquifer.

Thank you. It just seems to me like it's just a math problem where we don't know all the variables. It's hydro geology. Thank you. Even even in water rich areas that's the case. Miss Lyn, I'd like to ask for council kind of feedback what we'd like to see. What I would like to see is more voluntary rebate options. Not mandatory options, but voluntary rebate options. What that looks like. And you guys are kind of going down that road with with some of the the items you already put in yellow.

But if we can just be creative and just see how many possible options there are for residents to voluntarily accept that program. Uh it'd be difficult to go and uh for government to start telling people how to manage their home, but if we can give them options and give them education, I think that's the way to go. Thank you, Mayor. Councilman, did you have anything?

I I would just say I would like um to look into more of the leak detection for low-income conservation measures. Uh you know, I know that if I've got a choice between putting food on the table or fixing a leak, I'm going with the food. So, you know, I don't know if it's a huge problem in our community if we've got a lot of leaks out in some of the areas. I I get the sense that there's kind of a nexus like uh there are a lot of folks who maybe don't have uh wellinssulated pipes and during the winter perhaps then they have pipes bursting. So there there might be a nexus there that we might be able to look at but yeah I'll I'll certainly uh see what I can do for that. Thank you.

Thank you ma'am. Thank you ladies for joining us. Look forward to the next time you're up here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Next up, Mr. Kieran, aquatics facility final season overview. All right, mayor, vice mayor, council. Uh, today what we're talking about is Mountain Valley Splash, the aquatic facility, giving some updates, and then also making sure we start that conversation with council and the community with steps moving forward. Mountain Valley Splash is located in Mountain Valley Park. It was built in 1995 and it's been a staple of our community ever since. We did expand uh the splash pad in 2008 which is around 2500 square ft which just adds another amenity to the facility. It's 144,000galon zero entry pool. We got the 75 ft spiral side and you can see it looking dynamite there on the left. But we also host the Bradshaw Mountain High School swim team and run a number of different individual programs throughout the summer um and really over the course of the year [clears throat] moving into this upcoming season. So with any facility, you have life cycle replacements and there are costs associated to that. With our facility, uh the the aquatic systems that are really up for replacement this year are the pool plaster. Uh we have some electrical capacity issues. The slide is showing signs of crazing. The splash pad has some infrastructure repairs and turf replacement need. And then uh the uh plumbing piece of the splash pad as well. As we're looking through a few of these items, you can see the price tag there at $218,000. That is a large investment for a 30-year-old facility, especially considering that we are also going down the path of a brand new aquatic facility. Some of these things that I

really do want to highlight though are age plaster really does lead to water clarity issues with etching, scaling, delamination, and staining. um with our power capacity issues, uh installing a variable frequency drive would really help us out extending the life of pumps and also making sure that we get that clean energy to the pump during the entire time it's on. Uh with the slide gel coating only lasts so long. So, we are definitely to that point where we're going to need that. Uh at the splash pad, that synthetic turf has been there since 2008 when it went in and that has a shelf life as well. And then the last piece, our splash pad there is currently inoperable due to a break in the main suction line that comes from the surge tank. That price tag, you know, being just about $20,000, that's that's a big ask. A few of the big pieces that we were just talking about with the facility slide crazing, we wanted to highlight that for you. It is kind of a a misleading diagnosis to something. But with an aliphatic marine coating, just like a slide, you start to see cracking and things like that. This is a safety measure or a safety hazard cuz those cracks are not just something that are superficial. They can turn sharp and it's a bad piece of things in a ride path. So, has to be replaced before we could utilize the slide. For the plaster, we tried to highlight for you here some of the pictures. You can see the staining on the right hand side picture with the crack kind of coming into those lane line tiles. And on the left hand side, you'll see kind of at the base of that vertical wall, a little bit of discoloration. That's [clears throat] the beginning of the delamination process. And we just wanted to highlight a few of those pieces. And then also the beginning of the etching process there in the top left hand side picture

with all of these different factors uh that have been presented to you and then also considering future pieces which is the process uh we're in the infancy stages of the process to build a new aquatic facility that'll really impact our community. Uh we have other budgetary constraints. $218,000 is a a large price tag for the beginning of a season. And then also time restrictions because you do have to do some of these things on a schedule. It has to be the correct ambient temperature outside. And also there's a number of companies that only operate in our region uh specific time periods of the year. Uh with that being considered uh for this upcoming year that slide crazing will not be addressed. So we will be closing the slide at the facility. The electrical capacity, we do have some budgeted upgrades. So, we will be implementing a few of those to make sure that power and safety will always be our our most paramount piece of this facility. Safety is our number one thing. with the plaster degradation. Uh we are going to be open with uh open with our regular season maintenance, which is a huge lift in and of itself, but we will operate with reduced operational hours and the pole the pool may have to be closed if any safety hazards hazards are present. We will never open or allow people into our body of water if it is unsafe in any way, shape, or form. and we will always communicate that to the community as quickly and effectively as possible. And again, going back to the splash pad, it is currently inoperable that I I can't highlight it enough, that surge tank is the main body of water that everything gets pulled to to go to the play pump. So then it can go to the features. We can't even get the water there right now because that underground pipe is broken.

[clears throat]

Now that we've gone through some of the bad, highlighting some of the good things about Mountain Valley, we're also introducing the last Splash. So, 30 years of Mountain Valley. And being at Mountain Valley Splash, you can see 1997 on the left hand side, 2019 on the right hand side. And I think it's very telling of what a a facility like this being a central hub to the community is. Um we take a lot of pictures in parks and recreation and throughout the town. So we're very fortunate to have a sidebyside comparison like this. Um 2026 will be the last year with Mountain Valley Splash and uh as as we prepare for the construction of a new aquatic facility. For the last Splash, I really wanted to highlight additionally just more of what Mountain Valley Splash has meant to this community. It's been a multigenerational gathering space. It was one of our, you know, newest amenities in 1995 and then over the years it has serviced our entire population. If you look between the two, the first slide you just looked at, that's the late 1990s, early 2000, and then you're looking at the mid 2000s or mid 2015 to 2020. But it really just shows you've got families, you've got kids having a good time. They're enjoying a a fantastic amenity at a hot summer and it will continue to carry forward. This may be the last flash. It'll be the last year that we have Mountain Valley Splash open, but we're working towards opening a new facility that will really serve our community in the appropriate way. [snorts] With the last splash, we're also thinking up new and exciting ways to celebrate this last splash. Leaving your mark on Mountain Valley Splash. Every Friday and Saturday during our open

swim, we're going to have a wall marked uh marked out. So then uh patrons will have the opportunity to leave a handprint on a wall. So then you can really just leave your piece on a a gym of Prescuit Valley that we are saying goodbye to. Um, and with that, we're also thinking up other ideas for how to celebrate this facility. We will have different open themed swims. Uh, May 23rd, that's going to be a '9s throwback. June 27th, it'll be a pirates themed swim. And then August 1st, which will be our closing day, it'll be the [snorts] last luau. Um, additionally, we're still coming up and generating additional ideas for how else to really celebrate this facility, but we want to make sure that as the last splash, everybody has a good time safely and then we bring a new facility into the community in the proper ways. One thing I did want to highlight is the facility will still be open till November. So, Bradshaw Mountain High School swim team, they'll still have their home turf to be able to practice on and we'll host their swim meets. And then after they're done with season, that's when the pool will cease to operate and we'll continue down the road of uh the implementation of the new facility. [clears throat] Outside of that, our updated schedule will be posted on April 1st. We will have that additional information out to the community with some of these other fund offerings and those key initiatives that we're really working towards. And [snorts] outside of that, if you have any questions for me, I'd love to answer them at this time. Do any council members have any questions for Mr. Karen? We'll start with you.

Hi, Bobby. Thank you. Uh, I just wanted to I know I had a conversation with Gilbert about this that um I hope that we can continue to plan so that we don't have a closure for 2027 when um when the pool closes in 2026. I'm hoping that we can move forward with um building the new pool so that we don't have, you know, the kids out of luck for a whole summer or not even the kids. I know of a lot of people that like the um uh what do they call it? Aerobics. So, thank you. Thank you, M.

Mr. Vice Mayor and council member and members of the council. Just want to make sure in terms of time frame. So, this will be the last summer with our existing pool. We are going to be uh issuing an RFP to begin that process of selecting an architect and contractor team that will begin to work through the design uh of a brand new aquatics facility at Mountain Valley Park. That's going to take time. So once we start that, you know, you're looking at uh probably less than a year of just all the design stuff and then actual construction. So it'll go well beyond in in into 2027. So, what council member Kill highlighted is something we'll be working on is that 20 the summer of 2027, we're going to have to come up with some creative alternatives where kids and families and adults, seniors can um get wet and and aerobicize and those types of things. So we will be looking at um partnerships whether it with be with an HOA with existing pools. Uh we'll look at you know potentially with uh neighboring jurisdictions the college has a pool. So we're going to look at a whole array of different options where we can have different programming to allow for you know for that activity during during those summer months. So we'll be working on that over the next several months as we start to think about next year. Um and then we'll be you know beginning that process of designing a brand new aquatic center uh to take the place of the existing pool facility. Council

member Frank.

Thank you Bobby. So I have two uh questions. The first one I noticed on the presentation was that uh where where it talks about the plastering and then it says reduced hours. What what is the connection between the plastering and the reduced hours? Uh, mayor and council, uh, that's a fantastic question. So, with that delimination starting, you get, you know, microscopic pieces that are in the water, which will then add, you add in the turbidity of actual bthers being in the water that can really get a haze to the water. So, with it, we're trying to minimize those type of closures. We're anticipating things like that coming up. So then making sure that we're planning for utilizing the different chemicals that will treat those type of things and applying those as needed. Um limiting the bather load and the hours that we have the pool open. What our hope is is we will not have as much downtime or closures, but we definitely still wanted to highlight that is a possibility.

Thank you. That that's sensible. Um, another actually I came up with one more but um you mentioned uh August 1st as being the last date but but August is one of our hottest months. So what's what's that look like mayor and council? So August 1st is the end of our full operational season. The kid kids are all going back to school and then with that we start into a postseason schedule and with that we still have the aquaerobics like council member Keel had talked about. Um, and then we do what we can with the open swim opportunities on the weekends. That all depends on our lifeguard staff. Um, but we always want to provide that to our community. And that postseason schedule is usually posted about 2 weeks prior to that last date of full operations. And then after um after that August 1st date, we will have Bradaw Mountain High School's swim team in there too. So then that limits our operational time frames because they practice from 3 to 6. And uh my final question, I'm not sure the practicality of this, but it seems like uh if we were to charge a nominal fee for each person to come in, whether it be $2 a person or whatever, maybe a low price for children, a little more for adults, but to have the people that are actually using the facility pay more for it than the taxpayers that aren't using it. Um maybe Mr. Davidson has uh some input as well. Uh I just think that that might be a way to help um you know offset the co some of these costs. Thank you.

Thank you.

Um vice mayor, council member, members of the council. So, you know, we the the council made a decision a few years ago where we've made it free. So, it's we've known for some time the pool's at the end of its useful life. Um, we've been in the planning, you know, talking about as a community the need for a new aquatic center. What when we build the new pool and hopefully a a facility that could be used year round, an enclosed uh facility. Um, there will be a charge. There will, you know, be different rate structures that will have to be put into place to cover those costs. Um, I wouldn't recommend this year. I would basically just go out uh you know with a celebration uh not charge people for the last splash. I don't it you know the amount of money that we would collect it actually probably would cost us more money to have someone collect the money. Um and so I would I would just recommend that you have it accessible open to all kids this last summer. But going forward, we will be spending a lot of time with you guys talking about what that rate structure is going to have to look like with the new pool. So there could be, you know, daily use, monthly use, family passes, the whole mix of different things that we're going to have to put into place for people to to, you know, appropriately pay. And exactly to your point where those that aren't, you know, necessarily using it, we're not going to be subsidizing uh those that that that do. So,

and if I may, sir, uh just to uh expand upon Mr. Davidson's response, uh that is for only open swim. That is the only free capacity within there. If you're doing swim lessons or aqua aerobics or any of the other programs within there, those do charge a nominal fee. And as we go through that process, establishing that fee structure and that cost recovery, we'll be working closely with council on that. Any other questions? Seeing none. Thank you, Bobby. Yes, sir. Appreciate it. That we stand [clears throat] adjourned. Thank you. [clears throat]