Mohawk Valley Water Authority Minutes
April 15, 2019
Chairman DeLia called the meeting to order at 5:00 PM and opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Roll Call:
Present: Dennis Bova, Bruce Brodsky, Dave Corr, Vincent Coyne, Elis DeLia, Luke Lewis, Richard Karam,
Frank Mutolo, Bette Szesny and John Wallace. Absent: Rocco Arcuri and Mark Ford. Also Present: Richard Goodney,
Jim Korfonta and Ken Bobrow, Esq.
Chairman DeLia presided and Suzanne Harmon took the minutes.
Approval of the February 11, 2019 Minutes:
Motion made by Mr. Corr to approve the minutes. Seconded by: Mr. Karam
Vote: (10) Ayes (0) Nays (0) Abstain (2) Absent Motion Carried.
Resolution:Award of Professional Services Contract for Update of the MVWA Forest Lands Management Plan to F & W Forestry Services:
Pursuant to the Forest Land Management Plan (FLMP) and because of recent environmental factors and that the original FLMP is now over 15 years old, Wayne Tripp of F & W Forestry Services, the certified consulting forester, is recommending that the FLMP be updated. The services provided will include conducting a forest inventory of species, diameter, heights and acceptable stocks to determine merchantable Timber quantities, marking approximately 13 miles of property boundaries with the assistance of MVWA staff, preparing an updated FLMP document summarizing the field information including density maps and recommendation for future Timber Harvests and other management activities. F & W will complete the FLMP update at a fixed cost of $16,575.00 and perform the five properties boundary marking for an estimate not to exceed the cost of $7,500. The contract is hereby awarded to F & W Forestry Services.
Motion made by Mr. Brodsky to approve. Seconded by: Mr. Corr
Vote: (10) Ayes (0) Nays (0) Abstain (2) Absent Motion Carried.
Committee Reports:
Mr. Korfonta stated that there are three monthly statements in your binders. For the third month of the year, total revenues are $6 million, which is $230,000 higher than the prior year. Consumption was up slightly for March, but down 3% year to date compared to the previous year. Non-operating revenue is up $108,000 from the prior year. For the third month of 2019, operating cash continued a negative trend because several large payments are made the first month of the new year. Recovery and positive cash flows should begin over the next several months. The MVWA just completed their Audit for the year. There will be an Audit Committee meeting so that the Auditors can go through it with the members. The Auditor’s will them come to the Board and give a brief presentation.
Executive Director’s Report:
- Mr. Becher stated that Ilion is looking at having a transmission line run from the MVWA water system to Ilion and becoming part of the MVWA water system. The Governor’s office has taken a strong interest in this project and has asked RoAnn Destito to become
involved in this process. The Town of Schuyler is looking at potentially hooking up as well. The Town of Herkimer is also showing some interest. On May 1st there will be a meeting with a variety of State officials regarding this project. Mr. Becher contacted the MVWA Bond counsel to start a potential draft amendment to our enabling legislation.
- Mr. Becher stated that the MVWA is looking internally at two issues.The first one is moving from quarterly billing to monthly billing. If there are any changes they would have to be brought to the Board and approved before the Rate Hearing in October. The second issue is assuming responsibility for the service line all the way into the basement of the homeowner and how that would work. This was discussed in a Finance Committee meeting. When we have options, we will bring this back to the Board.
- The IBM recommendations were that the IT Department needed more staff. We now have two new hires who you will meet at the May Board meeting. The positions are Network Administrator and Web Designer. Bruce Brodsky has asked that we cover a topic at the next Board meeting regarding what would happen in the event of a ransomware attack and how we would react to that.
- Livingston County Water and Sewer is interested in some of the MVWA’s software that we developed in-house. They have seen demonstrations and a test site was set-up and seems to be working very well. Ken Bobrow, Esq. and an attorney from Hancock & Estabrook are hoping to have a draft agreement next week to offer them. We will bring that to the Board at the May meeting.
- Mr. Becher stated that he was at an AMWA Conference in Washington, DC last week. It was a regulatory/legislative conference and a variety of administrators from the EPA were there as well. One of the topics was what is going to happen to lead services. The lead and cooper rule is currently being worked on by the EPA. The issue will be will we be told to replace all of our lead services. The draft will be out late summer.
New Business:
Mr. Bova stated that on Pleasant Street there is fencing that is either falling down or about to fall down and that should be fixed. Mr. Goodney stated that there is a Capital Plan to fix it.
Chairman DeLia asked for a motion to go into Executive Session at 5:24 pm to discuss personnel matters.
Motion made by Ms. Szesny. Seconded by: Mr. Mutolo.
Vote: (10) Ayes (0) Nays (0) Abstain (2) Absent Motion Carried.
Went into Executive Session at 5:26 PM.
Came out of Executive Session at 5:35 PM.
Motion made by Mr. Brodsky. Seconded by: Mr. Coyne.
Vote: (9) Ayes (0) Nays (0) Abstain (3) Absent Motion Carried.
Meeting was adjourned at 5:35 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
__________________________
Suzanne M. Harmon, Secretary
Mohawk Valley Water Authority