Board of Public Works - Regular Meeting

Okay, this is Joe Pyatt, president of the Waukesha Water Commission. I'd like to call this meeting to order. It is Thursday, September 17th, 2026. It is 6.01 p.m. I would like to make an announcement before we do roll call of a closed session pursuant to section 19.5 of the Wisconsin statutes to discuss strategy for crime detection and prevention of potential cyber attacks of the water utilities IT infrastructure in light of recent cybersecurity incidents at other water systems. Upon conclusion of the closed session, a motion will be made to reconvene an open session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.85 for possible discussions and or action on matters discussed in closed session. I would also like to announce a second closed session potential. Announcement of a closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.85 , a motion will be made to convene a closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.85 , to consider employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data of the general manager position over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercised responsibility. A motion may thereafter be made to reconvene in open session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.85 , whereupon action may be taken on manners discussed in closed session. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Francourt? Here. Commissioner Fowle?

Here.

Commissioner Curry?

Here.

Commissioner Pyatt?

Here.

Commissioner Matthews?

Here.

Commissioner Bartels?

Here.

Commissioner Hovensleben? Here. We have a quorum.

Excellent, sounds good.

Thank you all for coming.

All right, let's see. I'd like to, is this where I'd like to make a motion? Yeah, I'd like to make a motion. Do I have to ask for a motion? Oh, you have the ability. Oh, shoot, I skipped public comments.

Sorry about that.

All right, public comment. There's no one in the audience here. Any emails or communications that we need to know from public? No. Okay, we're gonna move on then from public comment into number four, closed session. So do I need to get a separate motion from someone to go in or do I just read this off?

I can make the motion for you.

Thank you.

I'll make the motion to go into closed session pursuant to section 19.85, parents one, parents D, of the Wisconsin statutes to discuss strategy for crime detection and prevention of potential cyber attacks of the water utilities IT infrastructure in light of recent cybersecurity incidents and other water systems.

Second.

Oh, I was going to add to that motion. And also go into a second closed session immediately thereafter. No, we can't do it that way?

We're going to do that after. Oh, we're going to do it at the end. Okay.

Then I will leave it and the second is good to go.

Okay, we have a second. Is that correct, Commissioner Curry? All right, we need a roll call vote, please.

Thank you. Commissioner Francor? Aye. Commissioner Fowle? Aye. Commissioner Curry? Aye. Commissioner Pyatt? Aye. Commissioner Matthews? Aye. Commissioner Bartels? Aye. Commissioner Holgensleben? Aye.

I believe we are now in closed session. We're good? Yeah. All right. I'd like to make a motion to reconvene an open session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.8572 for possible discussion and or action on matters discussed in closed session. Second? Second. Second. Commissioner Bartels? And then a roll call vote. Thank you.

Commissioner Francoeur? Aye. Commissioner Fowle?

Aye.

Commissioner Curry? Aye. Commissioner Pyatt?

Aye.

Commissioner Matthews? Aye. Commissioner Bartels? Aye. Commissioner Hultman-Slaven? Aye. We have a quorum.

All right, so we are back in open session. There's no action to be taken from closed session. All right, excellent. So that brings us then to approval of minutes. I'll move. I have a motion. Do we have a second?

I'll second.

I'll second. Alderman Matthews? Okay, any questions, concerns about the minutes?

No.

All right, hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Okay, that moves us to number six, action items. Approved payments from the general fund and the improvement fund. So moved. Motion. Second. Oh, Frank. Join ahead, yeah. Frank Cooter, second. All right. All right, commissioners, questions on the invoices?

Looking at the first page, it's the third item down, Merrill Creek Construction, LLC. It says that it's the St. S. J. Lewis per the release agreement.

So that was the approval, that release agreement that was approved last month at the meeting where... The payment was not made to S.J. Lewis, so an agreement was approved with the Common Council to make that payment, and then any settlement that is done, this will come up.

So did S.J. contract it, or did we?

S.J. subcontracted them as part of the GWA contract.

Yeah, I agree. So we're not the contract holder, though. for the concrete company. That's all I'm saying. I'll leave it at that.

It was a legal thing that went through both our attorney and also the city attorney. Okay, thanks.

Mr. Franco?

Courtney, there's a payment for construction on the new operations center, 1.2 million plus. Where does that put us in terms of the total cost of the center and where we are on that?

So the total cost of the center right now, I am not sure. We are under budget. There's about, I believe, $6 million-ish left on the WIFIA loan. But I believe we have a little more than that to spend on the... Hang on one second. Let me just see if I have an exact amount for you for the operations center. So we have about... I gotta add a few numbers here, sorry. So 15, four, seven. Yep, maybe 16 minus nine, so. So about $7 million, it looks like, maybe left on it to spend yet-ish.

Okay, thank you. On the second page, there's a charge for the IT services to the city. That's the... $85,000. That is the fee that we were just talking about. So the question I have is, just generally speaking, what we're paying the city is... Greater than, less than, about the same as we had to do it when we had outside contractors do it?

So this includes GIS also, and so we always paid the city for GIS. So I would say it's probably very comparable to what we would pay, maybe a little less, actually, because we divide certain costs by many departments in many areas. A shared resource. A shared resource, correct.

Thank you.

Anything else, commissioners?

I just want to note one thing on the regular voucher for the commission. We have a bunch of payments for the bonds. So these are our general obligation debt. This is principal and interest for October that we will be paying. And then next month we'll see the meeting for our revenue bonds and also with the...

All right, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain.

This is unanimously.

All right, so that moves us out of action items into discussion items. Oh, it is that time of year. All right, capital improvement plan. I assume this is Courtney?

Yes.

Okay.

All right. So we are going to take a first look at our capital improvement plan, or our CIP. Tonight is discussion purposes only. We will come back for final approval in November. Next month we will have our first look at the operating budget. And then we will have a vote then in November on our entire budget. If you have any questions tonight, just ask and I will do my best to answer those. So tonight we're going to go over the history, the significant items, our cash, and then also our borrowing. I do have one note. We will not be budgeting anything for a potential settlement or any additional amounts owed to S.J. Lewis for the Great Water Alliance project due to the significant amount in liquidated damages owed for lack of performance. So our first slide tonight is our capital improvements history. This is a graph. So just kind of a different way for us to look at our spending over the last 10 years. Those gigantic green and turquoise and then the light green also, those were related to our Great Water Alliance project. And as you can see, 26, 27, we don't have any of those anymore because the project is complete. So for 2027, we are looking at the lilac-y color that is our general plant or GP. We'll see in the next slide all of our significant items, but basically that's the completion of our operations center and our billing software for next year. The orange color, There in the middle is T&D or transmission and distribution. So this is our water main replacements for next year and also any kind of hydrant or valve replacement, things like that. And then finally, the golden color is SP&T or source pumping and treatment. And that is our other items and we will show any significant items on the next slide. But just another way kind of to look at are spending. So the next slide is our significant items and those significant items are anything that is $100,000 or more that is budgeted for 2027. And so I'm just going to kind of go through these items each and kind of just give a description of each of them and then If you have any questions, just let me know. So our first line item there is our pumping structure remote station Wi-Fi. It's the cell drops for cameras for about $264,000. So this one was pushed from 2026 Currently, we have cameras all throughout our system, but we have to drive to the site if we want to see anything on them. So this Wi-Fi will allow us in real time to be able to see these cameras and what's on them anywhere. So anybody on call can remote in and we'll be able to see what's going on, um, if, if necessary. So it's a very important security upgrade for us. Um, this also plays into our risk and resiliency assessment, um, but which is required by the EPA. Um, so we will list this as an improvement on that assessment. And for those of us, including myself that don't really know what a risk and resiliency is, it's the, um, It helps us assess threats and natural hazards to water and wastewater systems. So basically, again, a security enhancement. Next item we have is access control system upgrade. So this is for just over $100,000. This is our access to all of our buildings, all of our rooms, like the skater room. at all of our facilities. So basically, a FOB in or however we're gonna do that. So this is an upgrade for security purposes again, that we will be doing to all of our facilities, including the new building. Next line item is pump and motor replacements for Stardust and Woodridge, about $100,000 for these two. These are just our pumping stations that we have, and it's just routine replacements that we have budgeted for those. Next line item is our water main replacements. We have about 14,480 feet budgeted for next year at $8.4 million. This is slightly less than our goal of 1%, which is about three and a half miles. But if you'll recall, we tried to do these replacements in conjunction with the city and all of their street replacements and things. And so those are what they have budgeted for next year. So we have... the Waverly, Wood, and New Hall. We have Grand, Debbie to Rivera. We have South Charles, New Hall to College. We have St. Paul and North, Albert to Moreland. And those are all being done in conjunction with the city. Then we also have the Arrowhead Loop, which is that chainset sister. It's one that we're waiting for that easement. We have that Eminent domain, and that's that piece that we're going to loop that small piece, which is good for our water quality and system. And then we also have the Cumberland Glen Bel Air Hein, and those are the water mains that are in the backyards. that we are having the larger amount of breaks and stuff on that we need to get that into the street, into the right of way. So because there are, and we've discussed this, but there's the pools and the sheds and the garages and things that we have to get that moved. So we are in discussion with the city because there is road replacement that needs to be done there. So we're trying to work with them on finding an equal balance on payments for those also. Next line item is our hydro replacements. We have 20 of those budgeted for next year, and that's $241,000. Valve replacements, we have 40 budgeted for $378,000. Our water meter replacements, this includes all of our new meter installs, so any new property or any split, anything like that. and also our change-out program. So we try to change out about 1,000 small meters a year. And then we also have all of the requirements that the PSC requires for all of our larger meters also. So that's about 447,000. This also includes all of our radio units that we use to read all of the meters each month. Operations Center has about $256,000 left, and that's just basically retainage. We're planning to spend everything this year yet, except for that small piece. And then billing software and process improvement. As all of you know, a couple years ago, we... made the attempt to sewage our billing and accounting software, and it just did not go well. And so last year, you guys approved us sticking with CIS, which is the company that we have currently. We get all of our regulatory needs met by all of their reporting. We know they can provide us what we need, and I know they are a little more expensive, but it is... a necessary thing for us to be able to comply with the PSC and accurately bill all of our customers. This is also, if you'll recall, a move to the cloud. And so that is also good for security for IT and things like that. And then we have process improvement, which we've also talked about, and that's hopefully going to kick in then once our new billing software is in place. We're looking to automate some manual tasks we have right now, like meter change-outs and things with GIS and also inventory. We're hoping to look at some of those and see see if we can you know process improve those and and get that more of an automated process rather than manually changing all that now next line item we have is fleet replacement so we have three fleet plans for next year at about a hundred and forty thousand dollars so we have an escape and two um rangers small the smaller trucks um budgeted for next year and then operations center radio tower is next at 121 000 and this is um a skater requirement so this will be at our new operations center and is used for our all of our skater and things like that and they will be decommissioning the one here that we have on the roof here at north street And then finally we have the $3.5 million for plant abandonments. Um, so this will, we've started those as you all know, um, we have well fives, um, reservoir and, uh, done, and we plan to have the structure and pumping equipment for them done by the end of the year. The pumping equipment and structure and reservoir for wells 6 and 13 are budgeted for next year. Well 10's well pump and piping is budgeted for next year and then the balance of that will be in 28. Radium treatment removal at well 3 and 8, 10 will be in 28. We have the lathers well and we have the reservoir at Hillcrest that's budgeted for next year and then also SCADA for wells 10 and Hillcrest will be decommissioned next year. And so when we look at all of these items, that totals about $14.7 million. Our entire capital budget is 15.2. So when we look at these items, you all have reviewed and checked out and taken a look at 97% of our entire budget. And then we also have the $1.6 million down there for the contributed capital, and that's our developer installed projects. So that's the things that Kelly and Matt bring to you when a developer wants to put in a new subdivision or a small piece there. And so those are no cost to the utility. Anything that we pay out, we get back when we invoice them at the end. So that's why that's kind of on its own line item there. Next we have our cash. So not a whole lot to talk about on here. So this is basically our cash. As you'll see later in the meeting, our cash ended in August at $56.5 million. Basically, business as usual through the end of the year, so we estimate that. And then just a couple things to point out. If we look at the grants there, that line item is $0. So we do have that $4 million that we have for some of the water quality treatment and the plant abandonments and things like that. We are going to get some of that in 26, but I thought it would be cleaner to show all of it in 27 just because In cash-wise, it's going to be the same. So I just want, we likely will get a little bit of that money in 26, but you'll see in a future slide that we have that $4 million coming in as money coming in for next year. And then we also have the issuance of long-term debt, the WIFIA, that remaining $6 million there, that is what we have left of our $137.1 million. And we plan on spending that with the rest of that operations center costs that we talked about. We have acquisition of capital assets, that 11.6 there. So basically, that's our remaining water main projects that we have this year that we haven't paid to the city yet, and also our operations center, and then any other costs. But those are the big ones, those two. And then finally, those last two, debt service principle and interest. And you saw part of that coming over on this month's that we'll be paying for October, and then there's the amounts that we have in November yet. Just a note, the tax equivalent, so that's our pilot payment, says zero there, but recall this is September through December. We make all our pilot payments at the beginning of the year, so that's why that shows a zero there. So we plan on ending the year at about $51.5 million. And finally, we have our borrowing spreadsheet. So this spreadsheet is where I told you you'll see that $4 million because we thought it was just cleaner to show in one spot. So we have our $15.1 or $2 million as our total budget. We have that grant that we will receive. And so we need about $11 million next year in cash in order to pay for this capital. Now, don't forget that we have revenue that's not part of this because we have our operating budget next month. This is just showing what we need for expenses for capital. So Um, the city authorizes us, uh, about 50Million dollars, um, NGO debt. And right now, at the end of 2026, we have spent about 35.7 of that. So we do have 14.2 available that we can use for borrowing for the future. And we will be paying back about 3Million dollars. So at the end of 2027. we would have about $17.2, $17.3 million that we can use for future borrowing needs with our geo debt for the city. At this point right now, I don't think we will need to borrow next year until we have all our expenses done. I can't be 100% certain, but I certainly will bring that to you, obviously, with the final one. If we show that we need to have any borrowing, that will be on this spreadsheet for our final approval.

So that means we'll start to wean off of that $53 million figure. So that's going to come down.

And that was the plan. We were building up to bring down, and then we likely would have to borrow. And so it's been a couple years. So borrowing is in our near future again.

No borrowing.

We did have a billion dollars for a whole day.

I texted Dan and our bank is doing an upgrade and there was quite a... What's this about a billion? Our bank account balance said $1 billion. So I texted Dan and I said, I think I need a readout. But that has since been fixed.

And I did ask if we could get a check.

I plead monopoly.

Bank error in your favor is one of those cards. Get a check.

Any questions?

No questions on capital. Thank you. So it's nice at 97%. Yeah. Good to see. All right. All right, let me get back to the agenda here. Okay, questions for Courtney on the overview of the capital improvement. Okay, excellent. And you said next month then is operating budget.

Next month is operating budget. Okay, excellent.

All right, that moves us out of discussion items and information items. New Operations Center update.

Okay. We will start with the photos. You can see the weather today was a little bit dreary from the drone standpoint. But a lot of the curb and gutter is in the picture to the left. And you can see some of the wood paneling. It's not really wood, but it looks like wood up at the top there. Thank you, Courtney. We are also the dark topsoil is being placed. So if you drive by the large operation center pile of dirt is depleting and being placed in its proper locations. This area over here, there'll be another picture of it. They're putting in lots and lots of concrete. All of this will be concrete. When it's done, the drive up drop box will be right here. There'll be a flagpole there. So we are making quite Decent progress on that, and a lot has happened in the last week. Thank you. This is the backside of the building. That's the lean-to that'll get a roof. This is all that concrete that they poured. Matt, how much concrete did they pour?

486 yards was half pour yesterday. Wednesday morning there. That was just the brighter. That's just the newer stuff. The newer looking stuff right there.

Yep. You can see that the garage doors are partially in. They're not complete, but we had yet another break-in. So they stole some feeder line, and good thing it wasn't energized by WeEnergies or there would have been bad things happening. WeEnergies was supposed to bring our permanent power to the site on September 14th. However, there was a little snafu with inspections, so that has been delayed.

So the break-in people got lucky.

Yeah, they got lucky. So now those doors are in and then they'll complete them. You can see these these are the same doors just a different angle. There's a temporary door there. It's plywood because that's the door they go in and out of and we don't want it all banged up. But it does have a lock on it. So that's relatively safe. There's doors on the back that are also plywood, but they're nailed shut at this point.

a question on the picture to the left. So we talked about adding more fencing, security fencing around it. Does that fencing go to the, yeah, to which side of the?

It will go around the pond.

Okay, so around the pond as well, okay.

That'll be the security fencing, so it'll be chain link. The decorative, as approved by plan commission, will be along the front.

Gotcha.

No razor wire.

So we'll enclose that retention pond also.

Yes.

All right.

This is a photo of the inside as of our walkthrough on Wednesday. Those are taped off so no one walks through the glass. I can see some of the doors are in, the carpet is in. Courtney made wonderful choices on the carpet. And they are putting down protective covering over it so you can walk on it now. Yeah, so that's that part. And then... The fencing of the site is going to start on the 28th of September and it's going to take about three weeks. The exterior door installation has started and it will hopefully be all complete by the middle of October. Right now the fiber installation is kind of what we're all waiting for but MC&E who is the preferred provider that the city wants us to work with and they worked with us on past projects just received their bids for our fiber going in their bid was that they received as much lower than what was our what was budgeted so it's about half of what we had budgeted so that's very exciting news right now we are i am meeting with i met with two moving companies today i have one more meeting with another moving company. Today I met with two men in a truck, which I personally used to move an office in Madison several years ago. And we met with Coakley Brothers because they moved City Hall and came with good reviews. And then Capital Movers has been asking us to provide a quote since they heard about our operations center. So I meet with them on the 1st. I will bring their quotes to you at the October meeting for potential approval. And that way we can get them under contract and officially on their schedule. Right now, the managers have... decided that December 2nd is our goal move-in date. I got a little bit snotty with the contractor, but I made him shake that that day would be, shake hands, that that day would be good. So now the fun begins.

What about cameras? How soon will cameras be on this facility?

Castleview, our security provider is under contract. We met with him last Friday on site. He has all of the equipment we walked through so he knew exactly where it needed to be put. But to answer your question, I don't want them up until the doors are in and some of the fencing is up because to me that's prime stuff to just be taken away. They wouldn't do anybody any good until the fiber is in. So I don't anticipate them actually going up until the middle of October.

The cops do have a portable camera up there now because of the few break-ins. And the contractor also had game cameras basically set up around because they stole the camera.

The first time they stole the camera, smashed it, and then took loose wire, and so we took alternate methods. And PD has been wonderful to work with, which is why they set up the temporary camera for us. And they've done investigation.

Any luck?

They found some scrap debris that they apparently dropped on the way toward Fastenal, so they think they're coming in that way around the pond.

Youth or adults?

The camera showed two presumably male based on their size, presumably white based on what you could see through their ski masks. Don't know.

So what moves on December 2nd? Or what starts to move on the 2nd?

I made it very clear that customer service and accounting is number one priority for the movers. And so we are planning on moving all of everyone's office stuff, not the furniture. The furniture will be there. The vault, the penthouse, the records. Those of us with offices in the lower level will be moving. And Matt's parade of parts will start as soon as the site is secured.

Secured, okay. That makes sense, okay. Any plans for this building?

It was discussed, I believe, in closed session at the Common Council, so I'm not at liberty to say. Correct. Updates coming hopefully soon. We do plan on working with Chris Proffel to keep the cameras live here when we're at the other location, just so there's some sense of security for here.

It's getting real.

Getting real fast.

I like when you're just about to slip water. We're coming out three years already, right? Three years, October? We're switching the water.

Mayor, to answer your question earlier, we're thinking December. Awesome. Cool.

What December for?

For our meeting.

For the first meeting of the new building. Oh.

Yeah, that was my first question when I came in. I was like, when are we going to be at the new building?

Courtney wanted it to be a Christmas.

Yeah, my mind's been on other things. How did we get in with the gate? Well, this is awesome. Thank you.

The front parking area. I don't know if you want to go back to that for me, please.

That'll be open.

This will be open. The fence, as you may recall from our last meeting, connects over here. And then this is open so the customers can come through the Dropbox whenever they would like. And then there's... then there's a gate over there, so you'll be able to come and go. The commission room or the general meeting, the main meeting room will be fobbed, but we'll let you in.

The facility is dangerously close to Culver's. It's dangerously close to Starbucks, too. Just thought of that. Okay, all right. Thank you so much, Kelly. Yeah, so pretty exciting stuff. All right, well done.

She's in her first meeting?

That moves us on to the financial report, please.

We have our dates, if that's okay. I'm sorry. We're just going to give our... Oh, I'm sorry.

Utility performance update.

Sorry. The candidate for the general manager position has decided to decline our offer. Um, so we will have more on that, that we will discuss in closed session tonight. Um, we filed a letter with the PSC last week to reinstate our rate case. So Milwaukee is far enough along in theirs now that they can use the wholesale rates to be able to continue on with our rate case. Um, I had mentioned last month that a customer filed a complaint with the PSC over high water usage. Um, and we are still waiting for the next steps from the PSC on that. Billing software kickoff meeting was the end of August, so that is starting to get going. We are working on our expense budgets, as you know, that will come to you next month. On Monday, we surprised Ellie and her partner with a wedding shower, so they are getting married next weekend, so... So ADA compliance for our website is complete. We're finalizing our washing machine rebate form for our conservation. Annette, who is our part-time person, she helps a lot with... pretty much anything we need help here in admin services, but she helps with the mail and things like that on heavy days. She won the Leon A. Smith Award for dedication to the water industry today at AWWA Wisconsin Conference. And Dan here won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the AWWA Conference today.

In my lifetime, yes.

Wow. You're not even 80. My life's over. Yeah. Oh, listen to this.

And then just a quick note that next month, we have a moved date to October 22nd. So we had moved that a week later. And so I know a couple people said that we can't do it on Tuesday. But stay tuned with that because I know there's some things that with the lawsuit potentially, right, Dan? Yes. That we may need to look at moving that again. But we will bring that to you as soon as possible. But right now, October 22nd, if everyone could just make sure, if we haven't already talked, if you have that date available, if you could just let us know.

All right. Well, do you have anything to say about it?

Unless it would be beneficial to do it earlier, could we do it earlier for you guys, and then you could make that?

I leave the 13th, and I'm back in town the 24th.

Okay, so you're not here. How about with the meeting, the earlier meeting, would like 4 or 4.30 be good, and could everybody else make that? I'm not sure. Sure.

I could do...

But maybe let's send an email because... Tuesday before the Common Council meeting? Yeah, maybe Tuesday before the Common Council meeting?

What's that?

Is anybody... You're still gone. What's the date? The 20th? 20th before the Common Council meeting? I could do either that or I could do early on the 20th.

That would be fine with me. On the 22nd, I would just need to be out by 6. Okay.

The 20th...

I can do it earlier on the 22nd, if that works.

Could you do it earlier on the 20th?

Then I'd have to get back to you after I get my other, the bathroom.

Okay. Well, we'll send an email out to everybody, kind of poll everyone if that's okay.

Keep both clear for now.

Yeah.

Sounds good. If it's on the 22nd, I would probably have to call and I'll be in Las Vegas. For a deposition? I'll be out of town. Party, party.

All right, so we'll...

The commission had approved a blanket purchase order when you approved all the other blanket purchase orders early in the year for $207,830 to Energenics. And similar to what we did earlier this year, we are asking you that if we can take that PO and divide it among one, two, three, four, five, six different vendors to get better prices in order to do phase three of the PLC replacements. If we can... buy things from Amazon and Grainger and Batteries Plus and other places in addition to Energenics, we can bring the total down about $8,000. So we didn't ask you for formal approval last time because the number was less than what the budget was, but I wanted you to be aware that that's what I'm hoping to do to save some money. I also wanted to let you know that the fire department helped us with a training exercise on the 9th of September. It was their training, but it helped us. We have water mixers in our Morris Water Tower. That's the one on the south side of the city that looks like a little Q-tip. It's a mixer that's inside, and it rolls on the bottom of the tank in order to keep the water moving to prevent stagnation and stratification. And it died earlier this year, and it's about 75 pounds. So we contacted the fire department to find out if they would be willing to climb up, treat it like an injured person, and bring it down for us. And we were originally going to do it on a day that it rained, but to save our firefighters from being hit by lightning, we moved it until the 9th, and they did a spectacular job. And so they're really happy to help work with us, and now the fire chief wants them to budget more training time for next year. to help us with other things. I'll let you know.

Construction, we're pretty much in our full maintenance mode, changing valves, changing hydrants, working on budget for capital and expense. We had two water main kerfuffles until last night. We now have had four since last meeting. They're possibly still out on one right now, but... We had one last night in Silvernail that went overnight. We lost a few employees for the day today because they didn't sleep last night. Other than that, we're pretty much just in full maintenance mode right now.

Where on Silvernail was that?

So it was between, it was east of University. There's a senior apartment complex over there. It was between that and University. So I guess we had some issues with USIC showing up. It took them a few hours to show up for locates, so that delayed them. And then I guess the fill around the main is not good. So it was some large boulders that were difficult to get out of their way to make the repair, but they got it done, so.

I have a quick update on our lawsuit. We have, Waukesha has one deposition left and S.J. Lewis has three depositions left. I will be deposed again on October 16th as the city's basically corporate representative. So we're providing answers from the city on specific topics. So we're in full preparation mode for that. Um, the also that we're working on the expert reports, they have to be finalized and there's five separate expert reports, um, that we are working on. So we're working on those. The judge set the trial date for February 16th. We asked them to delay that and move it to April 1st, and that was denied, so the trial will be February 16th, apparently. There's still some questions about the motion that he, or the order that he issued, but we'll be asking him about that. And once we're done with the expert reports, we'll have mediation. That's ordered to be done by the end of the year. doing mediation the last week of December. And if no resolution is achieved at that mediation session, then we will be going to trial starting February 16th of 2027. So that's where we stand right now. Oh joy. So let's see what happens.

That's it. Getting a trial date is good, although it's a bad day.

It's a bad day, I understand. We're supposed to leave for Australia on February 18th, but looks like we are canceling that trip. I can go on the trip for you if you want.

The attorney isn't available either, so that makes it a little difficult.

Well, we have to figure something out, because the judge said he's not moving it. Okay. That's it. That's all I have. I'll keep you up to date. Thank you, Dan. All right. That cheery news.

Keep moving forward. Okay. Oh, now it's financial report.

Yes. Okay. So August financials, we have our revenue pretty consistent. As we've seen the last few months, we are... staying over budget a little bit on all of our revenue and consumption. The hot, dry weather, which you wouldn't believe it in the last few days, but it's been dry, has contributed to the increase in consumption. There is that little bit larger decrease there in the commercial which looks a little odd. There was a larger leak from a customer last year, and so when it was budgeted, it was budgeted with that number, and it should have been, so that's what that small decrease is there, but for the year, we are looking good and over budget a little bit. For expenses, sources is a little bit high again, about $16,000 over budget. Again, we're pumping, we're using more water. So the invoice from Milwaukee Water Works is a little bit above budget. Next line item is distribution. That's about $36,000 over budget. And if you'll recall last month, We had that PSC adjustment that we had to make for all of the Milwaukee Water Works assets that were donated from the GWA project. We didn't know they were going to have us do that, so that was not budgeted. It will be next year. But that is why that one is over budgeted. And also, we had that Arrowcrete invoice that we had to pay. And then finally, as we've been all year long, the administrative... department is uh under budget and that is again we have some positions open and so benefits and wages and and things like that and then pto are under budget for for the month and the year that's up to you to be within one percent that's good that's a good job that's that's a really good job to be under one percent on on the plan for the month that's that's really good um cash for August, we started at 55 million, and we ended at that 56 and a half that we saw earlier tonight. Again, nothing really out of the ordinary here, business as usual. As you can see here, issuance of long-term debt, that $1.92 million, or $2 million there, that is a draw from WIFIA, again, for the operations center, so we're eating away at the rest of our WIFIA, for sure. And then finally our transmission and distribution, Arrowhead Trail. That one will now go next year as we're still waiting on that school easement situation. Highway 59 is complete. Davidson Road is also complete. William Street, that was pushed per a city thing for next year. So we have that in the budget for next year. Bidwell and Prospect, that is also done. And then we have a resurfacing project. So Hillside and Harris has been done for a little while. They have now finished the Easy, Norton, Oak Lawn, West End. That section of Water Main is done. And Pebble Valley is complete for...

I'm so sorry.

It's complete for Water Main, and they started services, so that one should be done very shortly. So I think all in all, all is looking good. Fund-wise, you know, this show is under budget, but that's because we don't have all of our invoices from the city yet, so no worries there. It's a typical thing. We nag them enough. They'll get it to us by the end of the year. So anybody have any questions?

job keeping the money moving. Because we're still pushing water right now. Excellent.

And we had a billion dollars for a day.

And we had a billion bucks for a day. It's been a banner month for the utility.

I hope we get interest on that. That'd be something.

Alright. Well, thank you so much. Alright. Well, then I would like to make anything else for the good of the cause before we So we're gonna close session, okay. All right, I'd like to make a motion to convene and close session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 1925 Sub 1 Sub C, consider employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation due to the general manager position over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. Second. Second, Commissioner Francor. Roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Francor? Commissioner Fowle?

Aye.

Commissioner Curry?

Aye.

Commissioner Pyatt?

Aye.

Commissioner Matthews? Aye. Commissioner Bartels? Aye. Commissioner Haldensleben? Aye.

Yes. We're agreeing here?

Yep.

Courtney, you okay? Okay. All right, I'd like to make a motion. Thereafter, to reconvene in open session to pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.85 Sub 2, whereupon action may be taken on matters discussed in closed session.

Second.

The motion is seconded. We need a roll call vote, please.

Okay, roll call. Commissioner Francour. Aye. Commissioner Fowle. Aye. Commissioner Curry.

Aye.

Commissioner Pyatt.

Aye.

Commissioner Matthews.

Aye.

Commissioner Bartels. Aye. Commissioner Holtz and Slavin. Aye. We have a quorum.

All right, excellent, so we now. Motion passes six zero, or seven zero. Which means we are now in open session. Couple of announcements to make. The first is that the commission would like to direct the utility.

Seven zero, sorry.

to repost the general manager position for 30 days. The second thing, I would like to make a motion that the utility appoint Courtney Nagel as senior manager and acting GM in the interim GM's absence. Second. So the motion is second. Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain. Okay, I believe that brings us to the close of our agenda. Courtney, Dan, anything else? Commissioners, anything? Okay, if there is no objection, we are adjourned.