South Toledo Bend Waterworks District

South Toledo Bend Water District

3260 Little Flock Road ● Many, LA. 71449

Malcolm Franks, President ● Michael Pitt, Vice President

Michael Walker, Secretary/Treasurer

Commissioners: Tim Collins ● Donald Owen

Minutes of South Toledo Bend Water Board

August 18, 2022

Board Members Present: Malcolm Franks, Mike Walker, Tim Collins, Donald Owen

Absent: Mike Pitt

Others Present: Rick Leonard, Stephen Steinke, Shane Sloane (via phone)

Meeting was called to order at 5:30 PM by Malcolm Franks. A prayer was said, the roll was called and there was a quorum

to conduct business.

The members welcomed Mr. Donald Owen as a new commissioner on the board.

A motion to adopt the agenda was made by Mike Walker, 2

by Don Owen, motion passed unanimously.

Public comments:

1) Steve Parker addressed the board with his concerns over the quality of the water.

2) Samantha Pitt spoke of her concerns over dirty brown water and the violation notices everyone has been receiving.

3) Caitlyn Akers, along with Kevin Downs (owners of Big Bass Marina) expressed their concerns over the

discoloration of the water and offered to help however they could.

4) Floyd & Melinda Rasmussen spoke of their concerns of not seeing flushing and not receiving alerts.

5) Heather Brooks discussed pressure and odor issues of the water and the violation notices.

NEW BUSINESS:

1. The minutes of the July 14th meeting were brought to the floor for approval. A motion to approve the minutes of July

14th was made by Mike Walker, 2

by Tim Collins, motion passed unanimously.

2. The treasurer’s report for July was presented by Mike Walker. Mike stated that he was happy to inform everyone that

none of the bills are going to be paid late. We will not be paying any late fees or interest. For the month of August, up

to now, I’ve written a total of $32,438.00 worth of checks. There is a list if you want to see what they were written for.

The total amount in the bank accounts is $442,213.00 in #0660, $1,238,750.00 in #1640, $52,221.00 in #7118 and

#9750 is $19,789.05. Malcolm asked Mike if he saw anything that caused him concern or alarmed him and Mike said

no, he did not. A motion to accept the treasurer’s report was made by Tim Collins, 2

by Don Owen, motion passed.

3. A motion authorizing payment of the bills was made by Tim Collins, 2

by Don Owen, motion passed unanimously.

4. Review & approve 2023 budget: Stephen Steinke (Steinke & Assoc.) gave a quick review of the financials as of

6/30/2022. He stated that we have more equity than liability, which is good. He provided the board with a statement of

revenue and expenses and a cash flow statement, for their review. Malcolm stated, for the record, we are still in the

black. We have increased water sales as people have come to live at the lake due to covid and other things.

The 2023 budget draft was presented for review. Stephen asked the board to approve him putting the notice in the

paper that the preliminary budget has been approved for publication. It will go in the paper next week and we will have

15 days from that point where it will be available for public review and then it can be adopted at the next meeting. A

motion to authorize Malcolm to sign the engagement letter with Steinke & Associates and that we go for public review

was made by Don Owen, 2

by Tim Collins, all agreed, motion passed unanimously. Malcolm signed the engagement

letter. The final budget will be approved and adopted at the September 8th meeting. A copy will be available in the

office should anyone from the public wish to see it.

5. Insurance Renewal: Shane Sloane (Stiel Insurance) was present, by phone. There was an increase in the coverage. The

2 most notable increases are the property as well as the equipment coverage. That’s where we had the largest claims in

the last 4-5 years, which came to just under $410,000 that was paid out. A comparison sheet was provided to each

board member for review. There was a decrease in the worker’s comp portion of the premium. This is largely due, to

the fact that you have had no claims to speak of and it appears that your rating has gone down. Lastly, you will notice

that the fees have gone up. Shane stated he shopped this to find out if there was something better out there. Glatfelter is

a specialty company. They specialize in these water districts and public entities as well. This coverage comes in a

package and is highly difficult to beat. We did check with other companies that do not do this as a package and the

coverage was much less, with a higher deductible, and was just about $10,000 more than what you’re paying here. It’s

not losses that are the problem. Companies are just leaving the state. Malcolm said that we would go ahead and move

forward with this as it was due by September 1. He asked Shane to send the forms that needed to be signed. Shane

said there was an additional form that needed to be signed and that it could be an email that simply said that South

Toledo Bend Water wants to go forward with the binding coverage once again this year for the renewal with Glatfelter

and Stiel Insurance, and I will send that to them. You will pay LUBA directly and make the other premium payment to

Stiel Insurance. The office will send you an invoice for the premium amount due. Malcolm told him to send us the

documentation that we need to sign off on and we will get it back to him, asap. A motion was made by Tim Collins to

renew and pay in full the insurance with Glatfelter, 2

by Don Owen, agreed by all, motion passed unanimously.

6. Grant funds update: Malcolm stated that he had spoken with Mark McCarty (Meyers & Assoc.) this morning. They

have submitted all the plans and specs to the State and gotten an approval on those. He doesn’t know why Ms. Pitt

would say that she had spoken with Traci Watts who said we have not done this. Is it possible that one State office is

not talking to the other? Maybe. I will be having a conversation with Mark in the morning about this. I know we’ve

gotten approval for this. She did send the waiver out to us (one for another district) and we copied it, filled it out and

sent it back to her because the State representative told us that if we do that then they are going to move forward on it.

I was on the phone with Mark this morning and I asked him if he had heard anything, and he said nothing. Rick said he

would feel better if someone talked to Mark to let him know what we had heard. Malcolm said he will do that. We

can’t move forward until she says we can. I’m going to go right on into item #7 on the agenda and we are going to tie

them together…….

7. Well project 2

phase, which is the 2

well: To expedite this process in case she comes back and says you can go

ahead and advertise for bids for well #2 and we will accept it under the fund agreement, and we will let you charge

against it. That would be to advertise the bid, the bid time allocation, and then awarding the bid. That would be 90

days. What we’re working on is this: We’ve approached Continental Drilling and said if we do a change order, would

you drill well #2 for us, under the same contract, just as a change order. We’ve had people checking into this for us. As

soon as we hear back that we can do that, we can see about doing that with Continental. We’ve had discussions with

Continental. They have gone back to find out how much the steel has gone up or down and to see if they can do it,

based on what they had in their original bid, and what it would entail. Continental is willing to do that within the

original framework. If you remember, they were contracted to drill 780 ft and we know we only had to go down to less

than 500 ft. We have a well marker now that tells us how deep we can go. We didn’t know that before. Tim said that

on the original bid for the 2

well they had a valve in there. They want to ratio up based on inflation rates for materials

and labor, and they are going to have to drill like 300 ft less, which is a deduction from their bid. If it all falls in line

and equals up to or less than the original bid, then you can do a change order. If it’s greater than that, then you will

have to re-bid. Continental has said they are interested, and they will get back to us. Tim said, good, because that last

300 ft can be expensive. Malcolm said if we can do this and not have to go out for bid, and shave off some time, then

that’s for the good. Ms. Watts is the one administering this program. I’m sure she will get a call from this customer

tomorrow and Mark will get a call from me. Don said that this customer mentioned something about our grant was

only good through October. He didn’t want to interrupt her, but he didn’t quite understand. Rick told him that when

they gave us the grant, they gave us 6-months to get everything we need to get done, plus what the State needed to get

done. We are, right now, at the end of month 4. Now we’re waiting on the State to do the rate study. Malcolm said

that at the meeting the other night, Mr. Ryals with LRWA said that they are working with about 1500 districts. Most of

them haven’t gotten a detailed engineering plan drawn up yet. We are far ahead of that.

8. Communications tower: The $500 check was received as surety that they will put up the tower within a year. They are

going to move forward on this.

9. Excavator: The ad is running in the paper. We will be opening bids at the next meeting. Rick said we have received

one bid, so far. Rick said he will contact the man at Bobcat and see if he is still interested. Malcolm asked Rick if he

can check with Kubota and see if they have a signed agreement with the State.

10. Rick Leonard presented the Superintendent’s report for July 2022 to the Board:

• All monthly State reports and samples sent to LADHH.

• For the month of July, the plant processed 14,514,000 gals of water @ an average of 468,000 gals. per day and

shipped out 14,281,515 gals. of water @ an averaging of 460,694 gals. per day. Used 232,485 gallons for

backwashing.

• Raw water pump…Rick told the board that one of the raw water pump motors burned up this weekend. We

switched over to the other one and it sounded like a bearing was going out in it. That one did manage to make it

through the weekend. We had a VFD down there. Unfortunately, we couldn’t control it. The digital screen wasn’t

working so you couldn’t read it. You had no way to turn it up or down. They replaced the screen on it Monday

and it works just fine. They came out Tuesday and replaced the motor for the one that burned up. They gave me

an estimated price of about $2500. The other motor that has the bad bearing in it is still there. I recommend at the

cost of $2500, that we replace it because the VFD pump will not run automatically. You must be there to turn it up

or down. The one with the bad bearing in it, once it’s replaced, will run automatically. It will turn on and off. Tim

asked if it would turn on and off on level and Rick said, yes. Rick said that does not include the labor cost. It’s just

the cost of the pump. It’s better served if we replace it now. Don asked if both would be automatic and Rick said,

yes. Tim said both motors needed to be replaced and all members agreed. Rick was given the go ahead to purchase

this.

• Hawkins: A representative from Hawkins is going to come back and look at the ammonia feed system, again and

see if we can come up with some additional options. One thing is a possible tracer study. You must have that if

you change where you put your ammonia in at. If you don’t have that, the State won’t even look at it. I have no

idea what the cost will be for the tracer study. And, also, due to the heat, you could wind up with a bigger

problem. If the chlorine is in contact long enough, that we could dump it into the clear well, you do stand a chance

of turning every bit of that water in the clear well brown. Tim said the last tracer study he did cost $9000.

• Violation letters…2 letters will be sent out. One was for disinfection of by-products and the other is for the

chlorine residuals.

Malcolm said he noticed there were no new meter installs. Does nobody want to get on the system? Rick told him that

there was a holdup with the brass. He told Malcolm there are 6 pending installs and we finally got 10 curb stops of what

was ordered, so we can now do those. We had to wait for parts to fix the excavator. We blew the hydraulic cylinder on the

excavator. It’s back together now.

A motion to accept the superintendent’s monthly report was made by Don Owen, 2

by Tim Collins, motion passed.

11. Announcements/Comments: Malcolm, again, welcomed Don to the board. Mike Walker stated that he was married

46 years ago, today. Everyone congratulated him.

12. There was no other business and a motion to adjourn was made by Mike Walker, 2

by Don Owen, motion passed.

NEXT BOARD MEETING: Thursday, September 8, 2022, AT 5:30 PM

South Toledo Bend Water Plant – 3260 Little Flock Road, Many, LA 71449

Prepared by: Betty Maupin – Administrative Assistant

Published Sabine Index – September 14, 2022

“South Toledo Bend is an Equal Opportunity Provider & Employer”

In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices and

employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex,

gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance

program, political beliefs, or reprisal of retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all

programs). Remedies and complaint deadlines vary by program or incident.

Telephone: 318-586-9836 Email: stbwd09@hughes.net FAX: 318-586-3119