Water Resources Board - Regular Meeting

public comment? No. So no one signed up for public comment. We will go through the consent or not go through but just talk about the consent agenda. So are there any items on the consent agenda that we want to take off and discuss individually? If not I will entertain a motion on the consent agenda.

I would like the motion to approve the consent agenda. Second.

It has been moved and properly seconded for the consent agenda to be approved. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. And at this time we will consider the minutes of the June 23rd 2026 meeting. Are there any adjustments to the minutes? Motion approved.

Second.

It has been moved and properly seconded for the minutes to be approved for the June 23rd 2026 meeting. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passed. And at this time we will bring up the Murfreesboro water and sewer water resources department and CUD boundary amendment number 12. I think Valerie is going to talk to that.

Yes. So this is just a little snippet of the area to better show you what is going to be transferred to Consolidated Utility District. It is about two and a half acres and then David if you'll go to the next slide. And it is a part of a larger master plan. SEC, on behalf of the developer and owner of this property, which is Brian Berryman, he wants to develop this property, which is several properties there. It is south of Rutherford Boulevard, which is on your left. And then on the right-hand side, kind of top right of the page, is Elam Road. down by Joby Jackson Parkway. So it is a large parcel and this is kind of what he's developed as a master plan right now. There are 12 or 13 lots in here and the pink area is the area that we are proposing to transfer to Consolidated Utility District and the remainder would stay in our water service area. This is kind of a unique situation because right now Consolidated Utility District cannot serve the project and provide fire protection even in their service area. So it will take some off-site improvements, it's my understanding, along Elam Road for him to serve the southern portion. So we're just talking about the portion that you see to the cul-de-sacs that he is going to develop right now. and so consolidated utility district did not want to give up any of the service area because they can serve it it just not this first section and the way the lots are laid out they the three that are kind of in the area of pink are the rear of lots that front the cul-de-sac on the right hand side kind of that extends and this is also on the south side of the page is i-24 I'm sorry, the railroad. It's not I-24, it's CSX Railroad. But you do see a little bit of Interstate 24 there. So we are comfortable with transferring this piece to Consolidated Utility District and then we will work out with them how to for the department to serve these three lots until Consolidated Utility District can. It may be that we set all of this line will be our line for now and then a portion of it will be transferred to Consolidated Utility District and so we've got to figure that out between our customer service departments on how best to do that but we would Consolidated Utility District is also taking this to their board but so I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have any regarding this request to transfer this two acres to Consolidated Utility District.

Other questions?

So basically the lots are split in half essentially between service territories?

Yes. Yes. On that I guess bottom half of the roadway it would cut the lots in half the way that they are laid out.

Are the stars where the houses are? What is that?

The stars? Oh, those are the lot numbers. I'm sorry. It's so small. Those are the lot numbers. It was such a... I was trying to show the full picture and so it was to... It made the... lot numbers so small you couldn't read them.

So from a safety standpoint, we're comfortable that we can split this up.

Yes. Yes. Consolidating utility district. Typically, we wouldn't, you know, propose a swap to the service boundary if consolidating utility district wasn't capable of providing fire protection and domestic water. We don't like to split that. In the past, it's either all, you can provide both, or we swap it in the best interest and financial interest of the developer to try and encourage development. So in this case, they can, it's just not right now. And so for now, it will be Murfreesboro serving it. A couple years down the road.

Yeah. We'll entertain a motion. Yeah, if you support it, then I'll support it. I'll make a motion to approve this boundary change.

And this will be contingent upon legal approval of the boundary amendment agreement.

Yes. Do you want to amend? Do we need to amend that?

It'd probably be good.

Yeah, yeah. I'll second with that amendment.

It has been moved and properly seconded that we accept the boundary amendment number 12. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion to pass. All right. The next item up is full-scale biosolids thermal dryer engineering services task order number three. I think this is John.

Well, John is, I didn't change his name. He's on vacation this week. And so I will be presenting this. I've laid before you a revised memo for the dryer. I did not catch it when John prepared the memo, but in the fiscal impact section, he had the wrong task order amendment amount for, he had the wrong dollar amount in there for the amendment number 30. So this is a corrected memo for you. your records this amendment is like I said number three it's a request for $196,240 from SSR Brent and I have discussed this amendment substantially some of SSR's additional work has been on different groups within SSR. And it's laid out in the memo portion of the task order. Their instrumentation and controls team, their structural team, process team, and electrical team all had services that were kind of outside the original scope of work. For instance, their instrumentation and control team was working with MR Systems who we had a task order with for design of the instrumentation and controls for the project. And so SSR has, like I said, outside of their scope had to do some quality control and some design support with MR to get things right and to keep things moving with the project. Their structural team, there have been some non-conformance items where the contractor and his work didn't conform to the specifications and they had to review those and review design corrections on the structural side as well as the process side. Process side, they've had to answer requests for information from the contractor that weren't anticipated and do some additional design. for Comline-Sanderson design changes. And those design changes, some of those design changes have not been, you know, I guess relayed back to SSR as well as Comline had some electrical design changes as well. So their time, you know, on the non-conforming side, I've asked SSR to kind of keep a tally of those things. that were because of the contractor not, you know, not conforming to the construction specifications kind of keep that separate. We feel like we need to go ahead and and have SSR continue to keep the project moving. We're about 21 million in to a $33 million project. So and all in all, really, their design fee, even the total We're still at a 7% with this amendment, a 7% cost of construction for engineering. So we're still in a good range. So I feel comfortable with the amendment and keeping the project moving forward, knowing that if we need to kind of go back to the contractor or if the board feels it's necessary towards the end of the project to go back to the contractor to recoup some of our costs, then we can, SSR can do that and has that documented.

So am I correct to read this to say that basically we're eliminating sludge that would go to landfill by drying it out more and then we can use it for ag purposes? Correct.

And when is that, apologies we've gone over it a dozen times, when is this from a date standpoint we aim to be in production?

We're looking at second quarter next year. somewhere in that range, barring no, we've got some kind of unforeseen conditions that I'll bring up later in the slides, but barring no big, huge issues, it'll be second quarter of next year, 2027.

All right, well, I'll make a motion to approve this third amendment here. Second.

It's been moved and probably seconded. We're ready for questions. I do have a question. It has more to do with the CLAW Act. I applaud SSR for helping us keep the project going, but there seems to be a lot of things here that we should probably go back to the contractor on. So I would request that they... that we do do that at the end of the project, that we try to get some of this money back.

And we can certainly present that towards the end of the project.

All right. It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passed. Next item is the Worth Wet Weather Upgrades, SSR task order number three. And since John is on vacation, we'll go to Valerie again.

Again, amendment number three, this is our wet weather project. And it is increasing the capacity at the wharf temporarily and, well, not temporarily, on an interim basis until we can do a full expansion. So this is part of the improvements. And again, SSR amendment number three, incidental, they again have had to go through and review structural discrepancies where the contractor did not follow construction specifications. And then one of those is, and it doesn't have to do with the contractor, but it does have to do with our UV structural, we are adding a channel of UV bulbs. And in that design, the initial design, the UV manufacturer did not mention to SSR that the wiring for the old UV chambers or the existing, I won't say old, but existing chambers, that if you coupled the new wiring with the old wiring or the existing wiring, that it could overheat and they shouldn't be placed in the same conduit. And so SSRS kind of had to go back and will redesign a route for the cabling for the new UV channel. We will have a change order coming for contract time for the contractor to revise that installation. We will use contingencies so it won't change the contract amount. It'll just change the time and that will be forthcoming next month. SSR, we have found cracks. We're also doing work to the filters at the plant and we found some cracks in the existing filter walls and they have come up with some rehab methods for those. And then they've also had to really work with staff and the contractor on bypass pumping because this project will require us to bypass the whole process at some point. And SSR has worked with, like I said, contractor and staff on bypassing alternatives and evaluating those. So amendment number three is totaling $110,000. which brings this grant total for SSR's task order of $872,060. This contract, just to kind of let you know where we are, it is a higher, it's a little, I won't say it's more intricate, but it has It affects our process more so than the dryer. It's kind of sitting over to the side and not affecting any processes as much as this one. So the engineering fee on this one with the amendment number three is in the 12% range as far as the construction amount. So we would request approval of amendment number three. And again, SSR is kind of keeping up with these discrepancies and non-conforming items. But as an aside.

At this time we'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second. It's been moved and properly seconded for the wet weather worth upgrades for SSR task order number three. Same comment. uh for only for the items that we clearly see that there's a contract of discrepancy like or they use the wrong materials we go back to the contract all in favor all opposed motion pass all right we have two additional items that are on your desk yes

So before I get to those, I mentioned this about the dryer project that we have a little unknown on the delivery of the dryer. A portion of the dryer was supposed to be delivered in August, mid-August. And in determining the route and getting all the permitting for the dryer, the contractor came back and we found that the Blanton Drive bridge has not been on anyone's radar. Typically, I found out, I learned all about the process. TDOT has a permitting process for all of the bridges and they're inspected yearly. There's a company that inspects all of the city's bridges and does any repairs necessary and kind of TDOT keeps a running database of all of those and issues permits for deliveries that are over the weight limit of their roads. So Blanton Drive Bridge hasn't been on anyone's inspection list since it was built with the plant. We have found construction drawings and we are prepared to issue a letter to the contractor stating that he is responsible for the deliveries and without damage. But to, again, keep the project moving, we are proposing that the department issue and receive another task order from SSR to do an inspection of the bridge and a load rating of the bridge. That will tell the contractor how much the bridge can handle and whether it's capable of handling the drier delivery. The dryer, all in all, the delivery of the truck and trailer is 150 feet long, and it's 232,000 pounds, and that's just one of the dryers. So the bridge, typically, bridges aren't designed to withstand that amount. They may be able to with Knowing what the load rating is, they may be able to design a trailer with axles spread out enough to spread the weight to where they can still cross it. But we do have another alternative if that will not work. We do have easement across the Ford property from Broad Street up to the plant. But moving forward, we need to we feel like the best we will have to build some type of road that would withstand that weight so this is our first route knowing so we're our response to the contractor because they had an rfi asking you know for information on the bridge and we're politely telling them that it's their responsibility but to partner with them and to move this project forward, we are willing to pay for the inspection and load rating of the bridge.

Do you know what the load rating was when the bridge was built? We do not.

SSR found the drawings. There were no design calculations with it. And the drawings were not as-built drawings. So there are no as-built stamped drawings saying that this is how the bridge was built and confirming that it was built to the specifications. There weren't specifications or design calculations that were found.

So we'll get an inspection done and a potential load rating for the bridge. But if it fails, what kind of liability do we have if it fails that?

Well, if it's not rated for what the delivery is, the delivered company will have to decide how to get it across.

And figure out how to spread the point load.

Yes.

Okay. We've got tens of millions of dollars in this thing, too.

Yes. So I kind of wanted to bring that to your attention. We will be moving forward with a task order for that.

Yeah, clearly we need to get the bridge inspected. The only question I would, since this wasn't on the state's radar and now we know it is, is there anything that the state needs to be doing?

Well we've reached out to TDOT and they at first they deemed it as a private bridge and we pointed out to them and had help with Jim Kerr with the city who deals with TDOT quite a bit show them that it is a right of way and it does serve the state Fleming Training Center so it is it doesn't serve just us so we pointed out to them so our hope is that this will get on TDOT's list for inspection like they normally do yearly and we won't have this issue moving forward. I assume you don't need a motion for this?

I'll make the motion to approve.

Do we need a motion for this? If you wish, there's just not a memo or anything to go with it.

Go ahead, Kirby. Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve. Second. It's been moved and properly seconded. Can we get this bridge rated? Yes. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? The ayes have it. Motion passed. Yeah. All right. Are we ready for the next one?

Yeah. So this, we have two, which... other business items before you. One is GE Global Care Software. It's an iFix application. Both the plants uses iFix. The current quote and agreement that we have with them is set to expire in August, early August. It says August 6th. the funding for this will uh and actually we have used this for years um approximately 30 years i believe so we will need legal to approve the invoice and the terms with that so this but it is support and it is SCADA support of all the graphics of our SCADA and and kind of this one The next one, which is the thin manager and one of the consent agenda items kind of go all hand in hand, which was the Rockwell TechConnect SCADA support renewal, which was on the consent agenda. We had that quote in time for the agenda and we just didn't have these together. Doug Swan. who is not here tonight. He's got family having surgery today. So this gate of support is definitely needed. And it is a yearly cost and it is budgeted. But we request approval to continue the service of support for 36,000.

Motion to approve pending label approval. Second. It's been voted and properly seconded. to approve the renewal for the GE Global Support software. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passed. And the last one.

Thin manager support. Again, all of these go hand in hand. This controls and allows all of our computers to talk to each other and work. iPads, iPhones, connected to our SCADA system. This one's for a little less as far as support. It's about $6,500. It's been budgeted for software maintenance from both water and wastewater.

Motion to approve pending legal approval. Second. It's been moved and properly seconded for opinion manager support. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes.

Well, there's not anything new with the dashboard this month other than as far as the CIP and financials. We are still trying to close out the fiscal year, so we will have something to report next month on the financials. And so, but we do have some recognition items that I'd like to do. One is Andy C. Slack. You may have met him and he's our new work plant manager. And he has obtained his professional operator certification. And so I wanted to kind of give a shout out to Andy and recognize him. Those certifications are not easy to come by. It takes a lot of time and effort. And so I wanted to recognize Andy. We have Several other awards and Alan will go through these. Absolutely.

So what a professional conference this year is very good to us. So first we're going to talk about the Operator Meritorious Award as well as Professional Leadership Academy and Top Ops Team. All right, so first is Joe Russell. So each year the Kentucky Tennessee AWA gives an award to one Kentucky, and one Tennessee operator that stands out for technical expertise, their regulatory understanding, and the involvement in the section. And this year, the Tennessee award went to Joe Russell, assistant plant manager. Joe has a good background there, and he and I worked together for a while. He's doing an excellent job as assistant plant manager. And so next one we'll go to is Brandon Goodman. So the Water Professionals Leadership Academy is where members of utilities, contractors, engineers, etc. get a chance to apply for a leadership academy. It goes into team building, leadership, what blank here? leadership opportunities that they get. So they bring people in to talk to them. They get a chance to build team building skills amongst one another. And they have six meetings that they have that are two-day meetings between October and May. And then they have their graduation in July at the Water Professions Conference. So this year's graduate is Brandon Goodman, one of the shift supervisors at the Water And once again, he has plenty of qualifications there. So congratulations, Brandon. And next, I want to add this that I left out just a minute ago. So out of all these applications that can be 50-plus applications, only 16 people get selected. So Brandon was selected for this past year. Well, guess what? We got another one this year, which is Leanna. So she's been selected. So she will start in October for her six meetings and then will graduate next in July. So congratulations. And then finally, once again, we've got something else. You can see Leanna's in this picture here as well, but our Top Ops team. So Top Ops is basically a fast-paced, Jeopardy-type college bowl where they get asked questions. This can be regarding treatment. It can be distribution, lab, and even math skills. And so there's one to three operators that are from either operations, lab, or maintenance. They get these rapid-fire questions. They have to be able to answer those questions. They must be a certified operator in either distribution or treatment. And so this year is the second year in a row that they've won, and our team is called the Aquaholics. So congratulations to our team. They will actually be going to San Diego for ACE next year. And before we move on, we got one more to recognize here. So we brought our newest plant operator here. So Ava, if you would stand up. Ava is a brand new operator. She just started back in January. She went through an orientation with Andy there, because that's when he was starting as well. Ava is currently going to MTSU, working on her bachelor's degree in environmental science. So she's doing that while working a full-time job. The reason she's here today is she has to do a work study because environmental science requires a work study at some point in time through their degree. So she's doing a work study over the summer. So she's getting to learn about maintenance, cross-connection, administration, and then she's working her shift at night as well. So she's also a night shift operator. So she's doing a great job, and she'll be taking her grade three license or exam for her license in December.

Yeah, so I have some news. John is retiring. August the 5th, 33 plus years to the department. And so I wanted to let you all know, we will be sending out an invite for his retirement. We'll have it here in the boardroom. But so yeah, he... He kind of gave me a heads up earlier, somewhere in June, that he was looking at August, September, and Friday he gave me the official notice that it would be August 5th.

What's the date of the celebration here?

It would be August 5th.

It would be August 5th, okay.

Oh, Aaron's phone is trying to connect. That's funny. Thankfully that wasn't in the middle. but um anyway so john uh yeah and i hate that i didn't know beforehand and can recognize him here at the board meeting but uh that's why i wanted to put it up there and let you all know that the invitation will be coming out very soon all right well thank you oh one last thing so uh i had the conference Conference on my mind, I also attended the Water Professionals Conference, and I wanted to bring up that long time ago we used to the board included used to attend the utility management conference i know this one i thought it was in toronto which would have been a little bit closer um i did hear several months ago that i thought it was toronto but it is in vancouver this next year so might be a little far uh for you all to care to go but um you know our utility leaders uh it's where they come together and share experiences talk about different strategies and insights. So I wanted to kind of put this out there. It's in February. It's not the warmest in Vancouver in February. The highs are in the 48-degree range. Flights per person around trip will be about $700. But we can look at going if you all are interested. And if not, if you want to try and find one, After this one, a little closer, we can look at that. But I wanted to encourage you all to go to the conference and maybe start going again. So I wanted to put that out there to give you all plenty of time to kind of plan and to think about it.

do any of the classes at the conference?

It may count towards your continuing education, yes. I'll check into that. It seems like it had in the past. As I said, registration opens in September. I looked and I don't see the technical sessions yet, but when that comes out, if y'all are interested, we can certainly look and see what classes you might be interested in and apply to see if that goes towards your continuing education for the board. And I can send you all that if you want me to.

I'll send it to you. All right. Any other items? I think that is it. All right. We can consider ourselves adjourned.