Good morning, everybody.

Uh this is uh I'm Commissioner Robert Patrick.

This is the Public Works and Infrastructure uh special called committee meeting.

Uh we do have a fairly lengthy agenda.

I want to acknowledge we're starting a little bit late.

A little story.

Uh when the Board of Education collects all the Chromebooks the week before school ends.

Your children then come back and say, Why do I have to go to school?

And so that was part of the argument this morning was was you have to go to school.

I'm on a calendar, I gotta be at a meeting and y'all gotta get it going.

So uh anyway, and then there was some traffic in Atlanta.

Imagine that.

We never have that kind of stuff.

Um dad comes first, yes.

Yes.

Uh with that said, Commissioners, I know as I said, we do have a lengthy agenda.

Um agenda item uh 2026-0932.

This is for all commission districts.

Minutes of the May 5th, 2026 Public Works and Infrastructure Committee meeting.

If y'all are comfortable with the minutes, I'll open the floor for a motion.

Move to approve.

Okay, we got a proper motion.

Commissioner Second.

All right, proper motion, please.

I think this mic is on.

So just apply my switch the microphone.

Do you want to I got you?

Okay.

It's coming in from feedback, so this is a weird thing for all of us.

Uh but uh anyway.

He is in rare form.

It's it's a Friday already.

Um we have a proper motion, a proper second.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Uh, we're gonna get into our discussions first.

We have water and sewer CIP update.

Is uh staff ready to go just yet, Zach?

Yeah.

Sure.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

If our members of Watershed would come up, uh we're going to have a fairly brief presentation today.

Come on, Cassandra, and talk through the uh water and sewer CIP, but we recognize there is a lot on the agenda, so uh this will be more of a kind of an abbreviated version of the presentation, but they will definitely hit the eye points.

Okay.

You know, um we've had many conversations at the BOC level uh about things that take too much time at the BOC level and sort of committee is the time we need to do things.

So if we got to do it right, let's do it right the first time, and then we'll make it work.

And if we have to reschedule things, we'll reschedule things as we need to.

Thank you.

We appreciate that.

Reggie.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you guys.

For the um remaining consistent with what CEO will say.

I just want to state the importance of this.

Um, although it's consistent with CIP, the main difference and importance is this is actually all project management system, which is essential in the fact that we hadn't had one, even though we've had previous CIPs that we've delivered.

The importance of this is it really allows us to quote comprehensively manage with with data, um, be as transparent as possible, as visible as possible, not only currently during the construction, but later when we're looking backwards, two or three years later, reprioritizing, complicating something again.

This is how essential this is.

It's it's the other side of truly being resilient.

Um great stewards of a water and sewer system, and not only those assets themselves, but the information, the data that it takes to continue to maintain uh those systems.

Maybe the I'm sorry.

The the uh backbone of a good management system is a the system that you are about to show us right now.

Absolutely.

You you have to manage with data.

Okay, you have to manage with data.

So with that being said, I'll turn it over to our assistant director of CIP for Watershed.

Okay, Mr.

Sandra Marshall.

All right, thank you, Director Wells.

Yeah, thank you, Director Wells.

Uh good morning, Commissioners.

Good morning.

Um, I am the assistant director for watershed management responsible for executing the CIP.

Um, I will be presenting along with the DWM project manager, Miss Resita Oliver.

She has been working alongside AECOM, our subject matter expert in implementing and training staff on the software.

Um the Acom personnel is Miss Paige Williams.

She will also be presenting with us also.

So a quick agenda.

Uh we will provide an overview of what we've been using to date and the advantages of using Cahua.

Um we will talk a little bit about the improved processes of how we're doing invoices, construction management, risk management, community engagement, milestone management, and dashboard analytics.

So to date, we've pretty much, like Director Wells stated, have not had a formal PMIS system.

We've been utilizing SharePoint, which is primarily just a document storage place.

It's just a bunch of files where we can share amongst each other.

The data, the information is all disconnected.

There's no budget roll-ups, there's no contract roll-ups.

We just have a bunch of documents where we have it stored in one location.

Limited visibility, you definitely with the detachment cannot roll up at a program level, which is basically because of the data silos.

You just got files.

And lastly, the difficult of doing any type of reporting is pretty much a manual base when you all request how much money we spent today.

It pretty much takes us a couple of days to get together and manually put all of that information in the spreadsheet.

So now the CAHOOA system, which is a modern PMIS solution.

It's a fully integrated platform.

It connects all of the project data starting from the initial approved CIP budgets, and you also can amend those to put in the actual contract values, and then it is even starts with the inspectors in the field capturing the data of what the work has been completed, what we're paying the contractor, which ultimately arose up to the program level, where you can see program calls, construction costs, outstanding invoices, outstanding issues, RFIs, any issues and all of that.

There are five key benefits to using this software.

You got one true source, everybody is using the same documents, we're gathering the same information, is real-time reporting.

The dashboards, we'll have a live dashboard that can effectively and quickly tell you a construction cost, how much has been spent to date, how much is outstanding.

Improved accountability, it strengthens the accountability through clear workflows.

Um there's a workflow process for approving pay applications, any change management, which is you know ultimately something that helps with audit trails.

The central document management piece we have where we can put all of our files again in the file structure.

Everybody's saying sharing the same files, revisions, updates, and the team itself, you know, it reduces errors and improve on document control.

Um we have increased efficiencies.

Um this is through the automations, the RFIs, the daily reports, the invoices, all of that stuff is automated now.

It goes through a workflow process where the inspectors are approving quantities, the contractors involved, and the project managers.

Invoicing, um, we will have a better streamlined invoice process.

Um, the image on the right, as you can see, the first three pay applications, you can clearly see invoice one, two, and three, the periods through December, January, February.

Um, the second image kind of shows the amount due, and it also shows the status of payment, paid, paid, and open.

We have not had that in past history.

It's just been a mumble.

Um, even the cohesiveness of the pay application.

There have been instances where we will pay invoice number three, but invoice two hadn't even been paid.

So this makes a better aligned cohesive system, and it's simplifies reviews and approval processes.

Construction management, um, basically anything we're doing starts in the field where the inspectors are reporting on their daily reports, they're capturing real-time activities, real-time work complete by the contractor, their labor, the weather, and the progress, photos of the work completed.

These are all things that when the audit audit projects, they're looking for this cohesiveness to actually show that the work was completed, what we've paid for today.

There's also an integrated workflow process for approval of those daily reports, and if anything is to change within those daily reports, let's just say it's a change of conditions.

There's also an approval process for that too.

All right, next you will hear from Miss Rashida Oliver.

She's the uh project manager for this.

Miss Oliver, before you get started, Commissioners, do you have any questions to to this point?

Nothing right, okay.

Ms.

Oliver, please go ahead.

All right, thank you, Cassandra, and good morning, commissioners.

Good morning.

Today I am going to talk about the risk register.

And as Ms.

Marster just stated, Cahua is made up of a series of apps.

And so similar to what's on your phone.

So these apps make up how we manage now our 4.27 billion dollar CIP program.

So one of the apps is our risk register app.

And so the risk register app is a proactive risk management tool.

So it allows us to clearly identify and document risk within a project.

And so once we identify and document those risks, there's a mitigation plan that we develop as well.

And once that mitigation plan is in place, if this risk occurs, we've already identified it, and we have that mitigation plan in place.

And so it just allows us to be more proactive instead of reactive when we complete our construction projects.

We can just go to the project and pull out that risk register, and we have what we call a risk log.

Those risks are also kind of in different categories.

So we have what we have like a community stakeholder risk category, design, um, construction, um, all located within the risk register.

So it also allows for real-time risk um visibility.

So at any moment we can look at the risk and determine its probability, determine the impact, and then also um determine whether that risk is still open.

So as the project progresses, there are times when okay, we can now close this risk.

It's no longer one within this project.

For example, we just had a community meeting.

We listed that as a risk because we just did not know the outcome of the community meeting, what residents would show up, and if we would have any disruptions, so we needed a plan for that.

And now that that community meeting has taken place, we are able to go and close that risk.

It's no longer going to impact um the project, this community meeting.

And then also just better reporting and insights.

And so at any given given moment, the leadership team can take a look at um the risk, and we can have a risk summary.

They can see where we are within that particular project.

And then lastly, it allows us um accountability and tracking.

So each risk has an owner.

So whether that owner is going to be the contractor, that owner could be the engineer of record, it could also be the counting.

And so we're able to clearly identify who is responsible for tracking this risk and also the mitigation plan behind it.

So that summarizes kind of what the risk register does for us within Cahuwa.

Next, I'll talk about the community engagement app.

So the community engagement app within Cahua is actually a custom built app.

So at the direction of our leadership Director Wells and Maria Hauser, Director of Hauser, we were able to get with CAHOOA and develop a custom app that allows us to track our community engagement.

Um, just realizing how important that is.

So within the community engagement app, it allows us to have improved transparency so that the leadership team can look at a particular project within the communication within the community engagement app and determine the type of engagement that we've had with the community.

If you can, one of the pictures on the screen, we have a project, and so we're able to say when we had a community meeting, do we actually put out a news release?

Do we have next door?

Do we put our next door notifications?

And so they can go in at any moment any moment to make sure that we have checked all of the boxes when it comes to communicating with the with the public.

And then again, like the other apps, it just allows for centralized and standardized communication.

We can go to the app and just again, we don't have things scattered everywhere through emails.

We can actually just go and say, okay, we did put all of the communications out that we were um required to do so.

And then also we have documented outreach feedback.

So this is actually a complaint log that we are now tracking.

So when the complaints come in, we log them in for that particular project, and we're able to track it to make sure that that complaint was addressed, and we go in and after it is addressed, um, we're able to close that particular complaint.

So, really, really good with just kind of tracking where we are with our community engagement.

All right, so that summary Oh yes, if uh Commissioner Terry, go ahead.

Oh, yeah, just one question on that last one.

So this is tracking all of the community um engagement touches.

Okay and I think y'all should add in texting to that it's just a low cost way and you can be very targeted and a lot of people are on cell phones these days so not everyone has next door I think door hangers are probably social media so there are other just different mechanisms that we're using there's a variety of platforms that are out there to Commissioner Terry's point and the more we can cover right the more effective we are right so we're doing the door hangers the social media platforms we'll get we'll get Dean and involved communication perfect okay kind of a question to on this item so with the complaint logs how is it best for us as commissioners when we get a complaint or a question in from a constituent in email how can we communicate that most effectively back to you guys.

So right now I believe the way that it's handled we are being emailed that particular complaint and then we give it to the project manager for that particular project and they will load it into Cahuah so that we're tracking it in that manner.

And then is there a certain person we should be emailing I think I just bombard director wells with when I need to pass something on I just want to make sure we're doing it the most effective way.

Absolutely and you are talking about a CIP project that's the other project yes so usually there's a PIO that's associated with every project.

Okay.

However there is a general email address for CIP of course I wouldn't have it because you asked it so of course but you can get it too absolutely perfect thank you are there any other questions I think that's it for now well actually I do have one question myself so um is there a role for AI do you guys have a way to pull that into this is AI?

Yeah we were just having that discussion.

Okay all right and so in the future we do plan on or we were going to discuss how we were going to implement AI within Cahoa um they're actually rolling it out now so we are going to try to incorporate it into what we have already okay perfect all right no other questions if not let's go ahead and continue on okay thank you I'm going to turn it over to Paige Williams who's with ACOM and she's our technical expert helping to implement Cahoods welcome thank you and I'll cover some more on your AI question when I'm done with the deck.

So milestone scheduling management oops went backwards okay so milestones are basically um key project dates that are captured on a on a project so they're pulled from the schedule added to the milestone app and it it's a way for us to for them to track where the project is in its execution um it's also utilized for planning and forecasting so there's apps that are within Cahua that do capital planning do cash flow forecasting those dates are pulled into those apps to utilize for those those cash flow curves and and information like that it also allows you to look at a um analytics dashboard to find out where you are in the schedule and if you've surpassed if you've completed something early or you're late to it so it's a great way to manage the schedule within the Cahua application.

Analytics and reporting so Kahu has um uh a bunch of analytics dashboards the as of this morning they have published the ones that um the team has requested they've asked for uh configuration changes to those dashboards and so these are just a couple samples of what is available in there it gives you an overall program level view of like cost risk schedule um invoicing contracts and then you can also drill down to like a water wastewater level or you can drill down to a specific project or group of projects so um and then there's also robust reporting within there you can you can do log reports you can do specific record reports um like for a contract if you wanted to look at what the contract values are and what pay requests have been made off those there's a reports that you can run in there um and then the final thing I have which wasn't really on the agenda itself but um so currently with the Cahua implementation we have in place the cost management applications of budget contracts change orders and pay requests we have construction management applications underway with RFI submittals daily reports meetings the risk register the milestone date there's document management which is basically file manage file manager um there's community engagement and then there's the analytics and on the agenda for the future um we're looking at doing the capital planning and the cash flow forecasting we needed data in the system before we could start working those um and then the construction management pieces uh the design review process the punch list or completion list the future

Um there's community engagement, and then there's the analytics.

And on the agenda for the future, um, we're looking at doing the capital planning and the cash flow forecasting.

We needed data in the system before we could start working those.

Um and then the construction management pieces, uh the design review process, the punch list or completion list, the field observations, checklist, and then the warranty work.

So that's what's on for the future.

So um that concludes my portion.

But since go ahead.

Go ahead.

So in that portal, um, will we be able to see if there's any disputes between staff, contractors, vendors managing the contract because you know, sometimes I guess out in the field things are sort of done one way and then they say, well, don't do it this way.

And so how does that portal uh sync with what happens out in the field that might be sort of discussed or negotiated?

Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm sure that that can be captured in the daily reports, and then there's um the ability to take those daily reports and if if it's not settled like on that day, then there's ways to progress it through the system to even to the point of where if if the contractor's not obliging what your requirements are, you can like back charge and put somebody else in place to to do the work, that that sort of thing.

So if you so uh typically disputes and change management starts in an RFI contractor may ask a question, either we agree or disagree, we're going back and forth in that method, and if it pans out it is a true change, it turns into an issue and a change request, and if dollars are associated with it, it's levels of approval.

Um myself, I think I have it at a 25,000 dollars.

Uh larger amounts require the director to sign up on it.

Gotcha.

Okay, great, thank you.

And to your question with AI, um, they are actually um Cahua is is pushing heavy and hard on the AI component.

They have actually um are working on embedding an AI within Cahua, so it's not going to be a third party or a wrapper, it's actually part of Cahua.

Um so they are working on that right now, and as Rashida said, we're working to work with the IT department to find out if it's okay for us to put an AI application or whatever in the system.

Okay.

And and do you have an idea of what functions the AI would do and w how how do you look to see it making you, I guess, your processes more efficient?

Yeah.

So um the it's called NOAA agent um or NOAA assist, I'm sorry.

The NOAA assist would be um kind of like what you see with chatbots in other uh applications, but you'd be able to go in and say um, hey, how do I create an RFI?

And it'll give you step-by-step process of how to create that RFI.

Um if you have questions around what's the difference between a an expense change order and a funding change order, it'll explain that to you.

So it gets into it'll even help you find a project.

So there's over 200 projects in the system right now.

Um and if you're not really sure what the numbering schema is on it or what it's called, you can put some information in there and it can find the project for you.

Okay, so literally if you needed a moment of hand holding getting through something, exactly.

It'll be there to make it a little more efficient.

Exactly.

And you wouldn't have to, you know, bother the PM or somebody else.

Gotcha.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Terry.

Yes, thank you.

Just a quick follow-up on the AI.

So I mean I do support using whatever technology is cutting edge, and we need to be innovating all the time.

Um the National Association of County officials, I think two years ago, um, shared basically uh um this is more for Zach actually, um, an AI uh sort of policy uh templates basically for local governments to uh set those standards of when AI is used, how it's used, and we haven't uh I I think I don't think we've officially adopted that standard either at the Board of Commissioners or just at the governing authority.

So is that and I know the IT department had been looking at it back um I think when Matowski was here.

So is that something you know, I don't want to slow the role of Cahua, and I think that's great that they're integrating you know that technology, but just for this project and other ones that might be right using AI, can we advance that or at least can look at that review of that policy statement?

Actually, on my desk as of I believe Monday or Tuesday is the proposed AI policy.

So we're we're literally one review away from distributing it.

Okay, wonderful.

And we all was you bring it to the commission.

It's not a board adopted policy, but absolutely, I mean we'll share it with with everyone, but it's going to be much like the rest of the IT policies in terms of governing how we access and utilize different information sources.

All right, well, I'd love to see that.

And I do think that we should adopt it because you know, if if and that's great that this administration is doing it, but if the next one says, you know, we're gonna change it, but if we make it a policy at the board, then it's just set.

And then you know, be for us as well as commissioners.

Okay.

So we will be probably you know, any day now.

It's literally been, you know, Scott's been bugging me to hurry up and read it.

So we're we're that close.

Great, thank you.

All right.

Um any no questions?

All right.

Anything else to add uh for the presentation?

Yeah, this completes the presentation.

Um we're just ending with the slide where this presentation can be found on your uh commissioner SharePoint site.

Okay, perfect.

All right, Commissioner, yes, one, and thank you all so much for the presentation.

Um so Zach and I think for uh chief of staff may the um so when we passed the resolution last year for the CIP monitor that would report to the board of commissioners.

Um I think there was expectations there would be like a sort of an RFP or something, and there would be you know some procurement.

So where are we on uh uh releasing because I mean this is like this right here to me is great because once we get the CIP monitor the reports of the VOC, they can use this system, right?

Like this is the tool to help monitor.

Um so thank you for doing all this.

And I think the the last piece is us just having that board approved CIP monitor that can you know right plug in and so I don't want to look at this every day's act.

Right, right.

And I I think where where that ended up, uh Commissioner was a staff position uh that the board would hire.

So we had gone through the process of uh this is months ago.

Uh and so uh where we had uh what you say gathered some resumes and stuff, but uh we will sit with uh the chief of staff uh Mr.

May and just kind of ensure that we revitalize that and do whatever we need to do to support that because I think the resumes are probably stale by now.

Okay, but you know that has been done and recall as well there was a companion piece, which was a um an assessment by Mal ended up being by Malden and Jenkins of DWM.

That was one of the right tenants too.

And that's close to being complete.

That should be done by the end of uh June.

Okay, wonderful.

That's the operational audit.

Correct.

Okay, great.

So we can look at that and then um we can present that in here.

I was gonna say it'd be ideal if if um lights are on.

You're on here yes, true.

Okay.

It would be ideal if that could come back to committee and we have that conversation.

Uh thank you for reminding us about the CIP monitor.

I think that was uh issue of high concern uh uh early last year, and it's something I think we were looking to make sure that the board of commissioners always had uh had that independent observation of what's going on for ourselves.

So um perfect.

Thank you.

All right.

All right, commissioners, we got that taken care of.

Um moving on, we've got uh actually, Marcus.

Do we have any other presentations that we were gonna do?

Did we want to get the all the presentations done first?

Sure.

Absolutely.

Are you gonna do it?

So good morning again.

Yep.

Uh good morning.

Wanted to really emphasize this um because it's hard to make Commissioner Terry ever smile publicly.

Usually because the nuances of watershed, and since I've returned, I think all but one PWI, he's mentioned this particular effort.

So I'm actually um elated to stand here to say that we're able to present it publicly.

Um we've already discussed it, but obviously we want to make sure everyone gets the information, and um I couldn't be happier.

I want to introduce CERN, the members of CERN.

Um as well as the other uh baby partner um that will ultimately be doing the uh presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning and welcome.

Good morning.

Good morning, Commissioners, Commissioner Johnson, Commissioner Patrick, and Commissioner Terry.

This project was done under the CERM Volkert JV.

So we are here to brief you on the feasibility study and master planning of the area surrounding Pole Bridge Creek Advanced Water Wastewater Treatment Plan.

So we have a brief agenda because I know that we are 10 to 15 minute agenda.

No, we're running behind time.

So we'll introduce our team, give you a little bit of project background, go over the project scope, explain the intended feasibility and master planning process, and then brief you on our key findings.

Okay.

So just the team that has the contract with DeCab County.

Terrell Gibbs, who is here, who's our chief operation officer and acted as QAQC on this project, and then the team from CERM Volkert and our specialty subs that were able to handle the sustainability composting aspects.

Marie Jai, who was with me here, who handled all the environmental, uh, Ned Baer, who handled transportation, Chris Zuba, who handled land planning, um, Ali, who handled stormwater, and then David Earth, who handled landscaping and recreational issues.

So just a little bit about the project background.

This project was initiated by your very own commissioner Terry, who really endeavored to find the highest.

He's he's smiling right now, by the way.

Just for the record, this was approved in the resolution that we passed with the water rate, so everyone supports it.

Yeah, he wanted really to find the highest and best use for the 500 acres of vacant land that surrounds the pole bridge plant that is owned by DeCap County.

Um the county spends um a little more than 250K annually to maintain these open areas through lawn mowing and other maintenance activities, and he really thought that we could do some sustainability initiatives that would be a higher and best use and provide commit community benefits, and you can you know add other issues.

So we were the project scope was really to look at a myriad of potential initiatives.

So these were really the highlighted initiatives that we looked at, a recreational trails through the project, a composting facility, um, a solar farm, and sludge application, which I will get to, and then conservation and reforestation of that those areas to help reduce maintenance costs and obviously provide benefits to the community in terms of passive parks, birdwatching, butterfly gardens, and other uh recreational uses.

So we initially scoped the whole project, the whole feasibility study and master planning process.

Um we broke it up into these main four phases.

The first phase was due diligence and existing conditions, where we would basically do all the research to find out what are our what's our starting point and what's our existing conditions doing the research.

Then phase two would go into a preliminary concept plan and report, and then phase three would be the stakeholder outreach and phase four would be the final master plan and report.

But when we had our initial meetings with the Department of Watershed Management and some initial stakeholders, we realized that we really needed to focus on going step by step.

So we initially wanted to kind of just go out, do the whole thing, and we realized we wanted to just take a step back and just focus on phase one.

So this briefing of what we've completed is just phase one, the due diligence.

And so that's what we focused on.

So the phase one due diligence and existing conditions, we broke it up into these steps, which is to initially conduct records research to conduct the site visit to determine the boundary of the acreage that we're talking about, to conduct an environmental review, look at all the utilities, obviously to conduct the research on the potential initiatives.

So the composting facility, solar farm, to look at transportation and land use, and then the reforestation, conduct a stormwater analysis.

I'm not sure.

Oh, I think it's just that one that's blocked.

Um so this was our schedule.

We started last December.

Um we basically had overall a two-month schedule to get the initial due diligence completed, and so um we finished right at the end of February.

And this is just the project location.

So on the left you see the boundary, very uh beautiful site, and on the right, you see the project location within the county.

It's right, um adjacent to the pole bridge plant at the very uh southeast part of the county, which is adjacent to the South River, which is hard to see on the map to the left, but it's uh bordered by the uh South River.

Um so here are just some general pictures of some of our site visit that we conducted when we went out there to identify areas and land where some of these facilities and initiatives could take place.

Um this picture really just shows um where the utilities are coming in.

Um that yellow line is basically the sewage that flows into the plant and all the surrounding communities that uh border.

And here you have a better picture of where you see the South River on the south border in blue, um, you know, very key recreational feature.

So here is the facility data.

Um the pole bridge plant is designed to handle 20 million gallons per day of flow, um, but it's under capacity, so it basically is handling about 12 to 14 million gallons a day, which means it has the potential to grow as other communities come online.

Um it serves Southeast the CAB, and it is located in the city within the city limits of Stone Crest.

Um, and the facility has had a permit um to conduct uh sludge uh land application for years, and fun fact it was opened in 1973.

So the city predates the city of Stonecrest, which we will discuss a little further in uh this presentation.

So this let me not back away.

So as I said, the city of Stone Crest was incorporated in 2017, and the plant had been there already, but now uh one of the one of our key findings, as you'll see, is that the city's land use and zoning are really not compatible with some of the initiatives in that we have uh that we would want for the site.

The city zoning is R100, which is a residential zoning, and this and the land is in the Arabia Mountain Overlay, which their vision for the overlay is really all recreational.

So a lot of our recreational initiatives will would fall under it, but solar farm, composting facility, and even land application is not within the city's zoning and regulations and future land use.

So what we discovered is one of the things that we would need to do is really have that engagement with the city to get some of these areas rezoned so that it would meet the criteria for what we're looking for.

I'm gonna turn it over to Marie, who will talk about our environmental review.

Thank you.

Good morning, commissioners.

Good morning.

I'm the environmental lead for the Southeast at Volkirg, and we did the environmental review, and that involved a combination of use of GIS mapping tools, environmental databases.

We also did a site visit, and we also talked to the plant operator.

And what our findings indicate is the potential presence of wetlands on the property along the stream corridors.

There's also two streams on the uh on the property.

One is South River, which runs along the southern boundary, and then you have Pole Bridge Creek, which is on the eastern side.

And there are also some unnamed tributaries associated with those two main streams.

The project areas located within a FEMA flood zone area, which has minimal uh flood hazard.

Uh we also um did look to see and we identified that there's no essential fish habitat on the property.

However, there is wildlife habitat, and according to discussions with the plant operator, there are three known nesting bald eagle pears on the property.

Um we also looked for uh listing for protected species, you know, threatening endangered species, and about five of those two three are plant species, one's a bat and the other is a butterfly that were listed for the site.

Now, of course, this is all uh desktop screening, and so you we need to field verify the presence of these on the property.

And once we field verify, we can then start to look at avoidance and minimization considerations as well as permitting if needed, depending on what sort of land use is ultimately decided for the property.

Uh thank you.

As part of our due diligence diligence, we also conducted stormwater analysis of all of the sites.

Um, and my drainage engineer was very happy on this project because he loves doing this stuff.

But um, we broke the project up into 11 basins to understand what the current hydrology of the site would look like, and then any initiatives we would have a starting point from the storm from a stormwater um management perspective.

Um this was you know, one of the um things that came up as we were going along is that the Department of Watershed Management is very interested in returning to sludge land application.

So the sludge applications were um ceased in 2014, and it's from what everything that we've gathered, it was basically self-imposed by DeCap County over concerns over nitrate applications.

Um but this is the future uh plan is to use really the entire site to dispose of the current sludge.

So we did a quick um calculation that if we did use the site for sludge application, um, there would be a savings currently overhauling that the material, which is what's happening now, um, to the seminal um landfill.

So we did kind of a pros and cons of land application on the behest of the county.

So advantages of land application is to eliminate truck sludge, um, reduce the cost because trucking the sludge over to the landfill costs about 600,000 annually, and the land application would cost a little, you know, somewhere between 50 to 100 um K annually.

The land application, according to our um landscape architect, doesn't affect the trees and reportedly causes no runoff or creek impacts.

Um it decreases mowing needs and has environmental benefits to improved soil health and carbon sequestration, carbon sequestration, also just reducing the emission of greenhouse gases compared to you know trucking everything over to the seminal landfill.

And then some of the cons of land application are um you know, just having risks to odor uh pollution from the nitrate, which was a big deal, which is why this uh county initially what we're hearing is why they stopped the land application in 2014.

Um there are high uh energy costs for pumping and maintenance of equipment because you're gonna be using the 500 acres for uh distribution of the sludge, but it limits the land for being used for other higher and better purposes.

Um so that's really a con of using the land the land for land application.

Um the county is doing a great job of monitoring the groundwater levels for the nitrate.

Um the picture on the right shows all of the monitoring wells throughout the site.

And so what we did as part of this due diligence is we asked for all of the data so that we could analyze it.

And what we found is that since they have stopped um land application, it has not stopped the nitrate level.

So there's a trend line showing that the nitrate levels are consistent and they're consistent going up, meaning that the land application is not necessarily causing nitrate levels in the ground to go up.

So that's something that really needs to still be um monitored and analyzed further, and could be a tool used to resume land applications if that is the desired outcome for the county.

Another um you know, big uh initiative for us was the conservation and reforestation of the areas.

So I don't know, uh Marie, if you wanted to talk more about it, but basically it as you can see it's it's a beautiful area.

Um so a lot of the um natural wetlands ecosystems and soils are perfectly suited to uh reforest and create other areas for either butterfly gardens or passive parks, trails, and uh uh areas of visual interest that would be in line with what the city of Stone Crest envisions for this for this area.

Did you want to add something?

Yeah, just to say, you know, it's also ideal for passive rec, it's also ideal for passive recreation as um she mentioned uh nature trails, but there's also bird watching opportunities there and uh seasonal hunting, I believe they said that that's something that's also um done there too.

So you've so these are some of the things that uh could be considered, especially in the uh in those wooded areas and one thing I'll one thing I'll just note is um that you go back to the map, the two slides ago.

Yes, of the oh, this one?

Yeah, the one there you go.

The southwestern portion, that is the um the little area is the historic lion's farm.

Right, um, which I know we've all been engaged with uh with Arabia Mountain and Ravana Cosby about trying to sort of re revitalize that historic farm and all the history there, and um, you know, they have their own little like plan as well.

Right.

And so I know that they're gonna be a stakeholder as you know this process moves forward because they're they're really interested in seeing how the lion's farm can kind of be because literally that little number three, I think, is like right next to where the lion's farm property is.

Yep.

Yes, and it had and that's the terminus, I believe, of some of the trails and road there.

So absolutely.

So we want to conclude with our key findings from this exercise, which number one was the re regulatory and zoning considerations with the city of Stonecrest that we mentioned, uh, the value and benefits of the land application versus um you know, higher and best use for the land.

Um the NPDS permit, which currently allows for land application is gonna expire in three years.

So obviously uh making sure that that stays current and active.

Um and we talked about uh continuing to uh monitor the site so that the uh nitrate levels could be presented to EPD if land application uh becomes the preferred method of you utilizing the land um to make the case that you're not adversely impacting the ground um and nitrate levels, and then um the ability to use it for the other uh passive recreational uses such as nature trails, hunting, bird watching, um and um recreational conservative uh uses that you want to see, as well as the composting facility, solar farm, and we even heard maybe even some development um that would benefit uh some revenue generating um items that could benefit the county.

So next steps.

So through this process of really focusing on phase one, what we realized is that we needed to move the stakeholder outreach forward.

So as uh Commissioner Terry mentioned, we instead of going straight into the plan, um, we recommend going into the stakeholder outreach.

So that would bring together City of Stone Crest, Lions, um Decide the Cab has plans for this area as well, and we came across these different um organizations that really are interested in the land as long as as well as the Cap County, and so this next phase of stakeholder outreach is to bring all of these interest groups together so that we could come up with a plan that everyone is really comfortable with, as well as the Department of Watershed Management and the operations of the plant.

And that's that's it.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Terry, any questions?

Yeah, I'll just add a couple of things.

Um so uh I know the watershed department works with uh Georgia birds, um, and so I know they folks go out there and bird bird watch, um, so that's very popular activity.

Um, which you know I've done a couple times, the Christmas bird count is a lot of fun.

Um you just get a binocular, and if you see a bird, you just call it out and then you make a note.

Um but certainly the line of.

No, it is uh on the honor system.

Oh if you see it, you and usually there's like an expert, so I like there's a bird there and they pull out their telescope and then they like confirm it.

So um it is a lot of fun.

Um so it is already kind of used passively in that way, not the whole property, but I think the western portion is sort of the birding area.

Um commissioners, on the land application, one of the reasons why we wanted to look at composting is the um when we visited the Athens Clark County uh composting facility last year, they took they made us aware that they take their biosolids instead of doing land application or taking it to the landfill, they put it in a compost system.

And so that was kind of the idea is if we if if the issue is you know, transportation cost to the landfill, which is the most expensive part of uh the disposing of the sludge, if you don't have to transport it and you can compost it on site in a smaller area, then as you're pointed out in your presentation, the the con of land application is it takes hundreds of acres.

Right.

So if you can diminish the acreage used to deal with the biosolids, now you unleash the all the other possibilities.

Right.

And so it's kind of and that's kind of what I'm most curious about is the cost benefit analysis of would a compost facility that you know could handle the volume of biosolids, would that allow for that footprint to shrink and then all the other options that could be on the table uh become more available?

Absolutely.

Yep.

Okay.

Commissioner Johnson.

Yes, thank you so much for the report, Marie.

It is great to see you again.

It's been a long time.

Old co-workers from many moons ago.

Many, many moons ago.

Um I think you answered the question I was gonna ask about reaching out to stakeholders.

You talked about Stone Crest.

I was wondering if we'd had conversations with them yet.

But it looks like that's in the next phase.

Well, we actually did have a meeting with Stone Crest as part of this, and that's why we know we have to talk to them because they were not in our initial meeting with them, they were just like, no, that is not allowed.

No, that is not allowed.

So we want to bring everybody together so that um, you know, we are now all kind of planning together, and they're giving us um paths to um let it be allowed.

Because there are paths we can have you know, zoning um gosh, why is the word leaving me?

Um rezoning, we can rezone the the area, so they are paths.

So yeah, we did meet with them and we met with um like we went out with decide to cab.

So we've kind of initiated this, but now it's time to really get everybody in the room so that as Commissioner Terry said, we can all say, okay, we know these are the drawbacks, we know these are the benefits.

Let's all decide that we want the best for the area, and so there's gonna have to be some compromises in this.

And then what is the time frame on that phase?

Do we have a so uh we wanted to kind of brief you?

So we are submitting a proposal to uh Commissioner Terry next week.

To Zach.

Oh, I'm sorry.

And um, yeah, we're gonna move forward um uh with outlining that phase, which is really critical phase on this.

And then I did just have a question about the nitrate levels.

It is interesting that they're still increasing, and we haven't been using it for the sludge application since I think you said 2014.

Right.

And if the MPDS permit expires in three years, then we have to show 20 years of data, and we have 10 years of data.

How are we going to accomplish that?

That might not be able to answer that right now, but that kind of stuck out to me is how do we get the data needed to show if that's the way path we go, how do we do that?

Right.

I um so as part of this process, like I said, we took the available data, but I'm not sure what was done prior.

So there's still kind of some investigation that needs to be done or researched to um to kind of figure that out, and then uh we we'll probably have to really recommend to the to uh the Department of Watershed Management because internally I'm sure you have your internal people who are monitoring that and looking at that.

And so that's part of the stakeholder engagement as well, is to reach out to EPD and get that regulatory um advice and engagement with them as well.

So that'll be part of this process so that they can help us um get all the required data that we need to move forward.

Understood.

Thank you.

I yield.

Okay.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Uh very informative.

A question I have, and this may not be uh something that you can answer, but um I hear that fertilizer around the world is becoming more and more expensive, and I wonder if there's a way that we could take our sludge uh and monetize that into um into fertilizer uh for here in the United States or even export around the world.

Um, I know that that is definitely something we're gonna look at in this phase because we were asked to look at some revenue generating ideas, and that's a good one as well as even the possibility of data centers.

I I know that's another hot topic around it is a hot topic.

Yes.

So uh it is so that's up to them.

Did I say the wrong thing?

Well, we want to have conversations with land use just because county owns land.

But uh anyway, okay.

Well, listen, uh thank you very much.

I appreciate uh you coming to us.

Uh Zach, you'll come to us, I guess, at some point with uh introducing the next steps, the next phases.

Absolutely, and um and I definitely appreciate all the hard work that Yasmine and the team have done.

Um so I do see the next step uh is once we have our sustainability chief on, which will be any day now, uh really getting that person integrated into this uh to help lead from the administration's uh standpoint.

Yeah, great.

They've done a lot of great work.

Uh and I just to say it, I think you know the idea of solar cells uh could be very productive again, uh generating energy to pay for uh street lights.

On all that land would be potentially uh very impactful.

So um Commissioner Terry.

Yeah, and just to that point, Commissioner, um so Jacob Ballard did present on the Cherry Street Energy proposal.

And if you remember, it was on one of his slides.

Um they actually um Pole Bridge was estimated to have the highest capacity by like three times six thousand nine hundred and twenty kilowatts.

Wow.

And the next uh was Scott Candler at 2800.

So if you look at like all three hundred acres and just said let's put a solar panel on every single spot, uh Pulperidge becomes um basically a power plant.

Um and so um that's that's kind of why we wanted to look at kind of all the options um because from a revenue generating perspective that really could oh yeah uh be a lot of money for the county.

Okay, and then to your point about the fertilizer, um that that is the goal with the compost facility is um Athens Clark County generates you know food sol uh food waste uh wood waste biosolids, they combine it all together, all their residents get really good compost uh for free, and then uh they sell some of it to third party users, and so their revenues were several hundred thousand a year just from selling it to like farms and gardeners and things like that.

Is that Athens Clark County's best?

Yeah, yes.

Most of the food at the end of the yeah, just having fun.

Right.

I'm gonna I'm not touching that one.

I'm not I'm not going.

Not the fruit you want, right?

Okay.

Um did we have uh Mr.

Marcus Allen, did we have another presentation?

Or we we're good with what we got.

So the remaining presentations will be embedded within the actual agenda.

So if we're ready to move forward, we can begin with the agenda, and there will be a couple of presentations that accompany agenda items.

Okay, yeah.

Perfect.

All right, Commissioners.

Uh we are done with page one.

We're still under watershed management.

We're gonna go to top of page two, agenda item 2026-0232, all commissioned districts.

Low bit invitation number 2025-066 ITB chemicals for order odor control, three-year multi-year contract for use by the Department of Watershed Management to obtain chemicals for order control.

Uh recommend award to the lowest responsive and responsible bidders, uh acuity specialty products incorporated, doing business as ZEP sales and service, uh breakthrough solutions janitorial supply, Ferguson Waterworks, People's Janitorial Supplies Incorporated, and State Industrial Products Corp, total amount not to exceed 494,000 49.15 cents.

Director Wells, good to see you.

Absolutely.

Great to see you guys again.

Oh, I think your microphone might be off.

Good deal.

Thank you guys.

Yep.

This item is um ultimately for us to sanitize um a number of things that we utilize throughout watershed in particular uh the nature owl business, um the substance sometimes generate odor um and depending upon um the location, the application, it may require different type of chemicals or products to actually manage that odor, and that's exactly what this uh contract allows us to do.

Okay.

Commissioners, any questions?

Nope.

Move to approve item ending in 0232.

Second.

Proper motion, proper second.

All those in favor, raise your hand, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All right, moving on.

We have agenda item 2026-0677.

This is for all commission districts.

Change order number one to contract number 1337545 design and engineering services during construction for Snapfinger Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility expansion, uh phase three A.

For use by the Department of Watershed Management, seeks to increase the contract scope of work funds and term through December 31st, 2031, awarded to CDM Smith Incorporated, amount not to exceed 658, 789.35 cents.

Director Wells.

Yes, sir.

This particular item is to add a change to an existing uh contract that we have for a new design for um expanding the capacity of Snapfinger.

The initial scope included um expansion up to 160 MGD.

However, we actually need expansion um excuse me.

The original design capacity was 129, and we need actually expansion up to 160.

This change allow us to actually um incorporate their scope to do just that at the stated calls.

Um that's what this item is for.

Also to allow additional time beyond the um additional contracted date of February 14, 2031 till December 31st 2031.

So additional 10 months per se to incorporate the expanded scope.

Okay.

Commissioners, any questions?

I did see no a typo.

So it is to extend it to December 31st, 2031.

The notes had in the agenda item says 2030.

Correct, correct.

It it should be the um.

If we need that correct, did you get used to that in here?

Substitute.

That's what this is.

It's currently because they originally wants to work there.

Oh, addition to work, increase your performance.

I got you.

So the performance time versus contract end time is two different.

The um original contract performance time end date was February 14, 31st, with the contract term end date of the December 31st, 2030.

So that's the okay.

So that is correct.

Understood.

Thank you.

Um Director Wells, just to add, or Commissioner Terry, did you have any questions?

No, okay.

No.

Director Wells, just to ask, how does this expansion fit in with the conversation we had, I guess a week or two ago uh with the uh about $50 million worth of emergency funding?

It it's actually um part of it.

So um the previous committee, there was uh several parts.

There, I think there was four pieces of legislation in particular for the general contractor for the membranes themselves for the CM services in order to really get to that is the design portion, and because the need to um get initial membranes et cetera necessitate doing that design to ensure all of that is spec's appropriately, can be constructed appropriately.

That's the purpose of this.

Of this right here, perfect.

Okay, yeah, so it it's it's all together, it's one and the same.

Um pieces.

It there are, and again, the benefit I think of you explaining it as you did is is it's letting everybody know how it all comes together absolutely and exactly where the money's going and why.

So again, thank you very much for that.

Commissioners, if you don't have any other questions or concerns, I'll open the floor up for a motion.

Move to approve item ending in six zero six seven seven.

Second.

All right, we got proper motion, proper second.

All those in favor, raise your hand, say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Uh moving on, we have agenda item 2026-0678.

This is for all commission districts.

Change order number one to contract number 2000 331, snap finger vault assessment and cleaning.

This is an emergency for use by the Department of Watershed Management to obtain continued assessment and cleaning of sanitary sewer pipes and contract term extension, seeking to ratify a previously issued contract term increase and obtain increased contract funds and terms through March 31st, 2027, awarded to compliance and viral systems LLC, amount not to exceed 3 million 14,358 dollars.

Um this has not come back from audit yet or has it has it has it has and supported and just all right.

Uh Director Wells, if you just sort of give us the layman's version.

Yes, sir.

So this change order is really just to ensure we still have that cleaning ability um being that this particular um portion of system feeding snap finger due to um the amount of infiltration, quite frankly, during wet weather.

Um river water, storm water, yep, uh entering the system.

There's um a lot of silt, dirt, things of that nature, debris that get in the system, which um diminish the capacity because now it's solids in the pipe as opposed to the flow being able to go in the pipes, right?

So it which requires the continuous uh reassessment and clean cleaning accordingly until we get those um expanded capacities that we um just discussed far as design and then ultimately construct it.

Perfect.

Okay, uh commissioners, any questions?

Uh seeing none, I'll open the floor for a motion.

Uh motion to approve item 0678.

Second.

All right.

Uh proper motion, proper second.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All right, Director Wells.

Next item is 2026-0627.

This is for all commission districts.

Uh, this is a one that has come back to us again.

Emergency Snapfinger Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility, Membrane Bioreactor Emergency for use by the Department of Watershed Management to obtain the membranes to upgrade phase two equipment to reliably treat plant design flow seeking to ratify.

Thank you.

Seeking to ratify an emergency purchase.

A contract will be developed in the form acceptable to the county attorney, awarded to Clovis.

LLC, amount not to exceed $5,360,000.

And we had a substitute handed out to us.

And it looks like the revised dollar amount is actually upwards to be a reduction.

A significant large reduction reduction.

So 550,000?

Yes, sir.

So if I may.

Yeah.

Part of the discussion last committee was the item that you guys so graciously deferred because at the time.

The Delta the reason for the reduction is because we included it in two different legislations.

Because of the long lead time it took to actually get the membranes, we needed to ensure we got those specific membranes ordered being manufactured so we can get it in time.

However, um it's not customary because you need a general contractor to perform that work and you would prefer for it to go through that contract so it can be warranted.

That's more um customary to how it should be done.

Gotcha.

Being that we didn't have the luxury of being able to do that because it was emergency.

We needed to get all the vehicles in place.

And since we were able to do that with the approval of the $32 million item that you mentioned earlier, thus we're able to reduce this because the cost will then be covered on their land on their contract.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

All right.

That makes a lot of sense.

And just for clarity, uh the revised amount is $550,000.

Uh Commissioners, any questions?

That's a large savings, by the way, so thank you very much.

Uh uh Director Wells, that's great.

Commissioner Terry.

So just uh so basically the KSS membrane contract will be assigned to Ruby Collins.

So that's where the remainder of the cost will come from.

Yes, absolutely.

So install it.

So this is the down payment and then correct.

Yeah.

So we'll eventually spend that five million, it's just we're gonna spend it through this other contract.

Correct.

Okay.

Correct.

Um a reallocation of calls, not necessarily a reduction.

Um I'll move to approve item 0627 substitute.

All right.

Second.

You've got a proper motion second on that substitute.

All those in favor say aye.

I'm moving on.

Thank you, Director Wells.

We're gonna move on to public works sanitation and beautification.

Uh, this is the top of page three.

This is agenda item 2026-047 for all commission districts.

Low bid invitation number 2025-123 ITB right-of-way mowing and maintenance services.

Annual contract with two options to renew for use by public works sanitation and beautification to obtain mowing.

Thank you.

And lawn maintenance services at various right-of-way locations.

Seeks to reserve the right to transfer funds between contracts based on the needs of the county.

Recommend award to the lowest responsive and responsible bidders, re-image, general contractors, and Russell Landscaping LLC, amount not to exceed 719,650 dollars.

Uh Director McKinney.

Good morning, committee members.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Chair, Commissioner Johnson, Commissioner Terry.

Yeah, this is a program that will work in conjunction and hybrid with our existing teams.

Um, to make sure that the aesthetics are upheld.

You'll see that there's two contractors here.

Performance is very important to us, and in the past we've had some performance issues.

So um, in the event it will work conjun in conjunction with each other, but in the event that one contractor fails to meet those expectations.

We always have someone available and ready to work along with our teams.

Understood.

Okay.

Umers, any questions?

I was curious what the sub the change was.

Hi, Commissioner.

Um, to give clarity, the substitute is to clean up a few errors and to make it a little clearer what we're doing.

Um under the recommended award section, the Russell group is actually receiving group one, three, and five.

Um the original actually had it as one, three, and four for the categories.

Um and then we also were making it clear about the growth period um in the purpose section.

In the purpose section, it was specifically listing a year, but the growth period is runs April through November.

So we just wanted to make it clear of the growth period in general.

And they do have existing services to take care of the current growth period we're in right now.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Just one comment.

Commissioner Terry, did you have a question?

Yes, just one comment.

Could we um I uh because we I don't think we've added any locations, this is sort of just the the same locations as the last year, I believe, Zach.

Oh, I just I think the all the locations listed on the contract.

I don't I think they haven't changed since last year.

No.

Okay.

Um so Mr.

Chair, is it if it's possible um could we advance this and then just check with all the commission districts to make sure there's not because sometimes you know we get additional requests of can you mow here and this, you know, and just make sure we're not missing any locations.

To your point, uh I guess one of the questions I had put to Mr.

Marcus Allen was if it was possible to get a GIS map that shows the areas that are being covered, and it just makes it a little bit visually easier for commissioners to be able to look at that at a glance and connect.

And we can get that.

We we're working on that as we speak.

Okay.

Uh you can get that to us for I guess in time for Tuesday.

Before Tuesday, sure.

Uh Friday.

Monday is a holiday.

Yep.

Stacey won't mind.

Thank you, Zach.

Stacy's a good guy.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And so is Ariah.

So can we approve this conditionally just with any additional because there might be a I feel like there's might be a couple roads I need to add to this.

Uh I agree, and and uh it would be nice to again to have that uh that visual.

So if we can get that.

Um Commissioner Johnson, any questions for you?

If not, open the floor for a motion.

All right, I'll move to approve the substitute um for uh 047 uh pending the um uh final review of the locations uh by the commission districts.

With the with a GIS map.

With the GIS map.

Okay.

Second stance.

All right.

Uh I've got a proper motion, proper second on the sub with conditions.

All those in favor, raise your hand say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All right.

Uh Director, we got another one here for you.

Agenda item 2026-0655.

This is for all commission district.

Renewal contract numbers 1381670 and 1381672.

Litter removal services, second renewal of two options to renew for use by the Department of Public Works Sanitation and Beautification to obtain year-round litter removal services on various roadways.

Exit ramps and medians, exercising second renewal option through June 30, 2027, and adding Department of Watershed Management to the contract awarded to American Eagle LLC and Russell Landscape.

Total amount not to exceed 1,435,000 uh 487.32 cents.

Yes, sir.

Um again, it's a continuation of an existing contract.

Uh with this company.

From what I'm understanding, that there was some um Warter C8 opportunities that was taken care of in this.

So and that's why that language was put in there.

But again, it's something existing.

Okay.

Um I think I had also asked for a map on this one as well.

Uh Zach able to you guys are okay.

As long as you guys can get that for us.

Commissioner Terry.

Yes, can we treat this the same way?

Just um make sure there's not a road missing.

Um I was looking for looking for East Ponce and North Decatur.

Um we have a lot of um folks who are panhandling there and they just sort of leave their trash on the side of the road.

Um but uh we could just get that GIS map and then ask the commissioners to just double check there's not any roads missing.

Is that okay?

Fine.

That's fine.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Johnson, any questions?

No, sir.

No, okay.

Um Commissioner Terry, if you can make the motion with that condition uh similar to the previous one.

Uh motion to approve item 0655 conditionally with uh the GIS map of the locations in the contract and uh pending uh review by the commission districts.

Second.

All right.

Uh we've got a proper motion, proper second.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say aye.

All right.

Director, thank you very much.

Always a pleasure.

Uh next we have public works roads and drainage.

Uh this is agenda item 2026-0587.

This is the proposed stormwater utility fee increase.

Director Allen, good to see you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Uh uh, of course, this was heard at the last uh PWI committee and we presented yesterday to the full Cal.

So we're back.

Anything new to add?

Nothing new to add.

Okay.

Commissioner Terry, could we get from the law department just the actual ordinance language?

Um I think that's what's missing from the agenda is the actual like um, I don't know if it's a resolution or how we term it.

Um because I'd love just to make sure we're continuing the green infrastructure, you know, allocation.

Um but just to have that language, I think would just so we we would be continuing the green infrastructure and ensuring that it allows for not just the schools, but uh data for green infrastructure in general, if you don't mind.

Other than that, I'm good to go with um with what's been proposed.

Okay.

Uh thank you, Commissioner Terry.

Uh Commissioner Johnson.

So I'm just trying to make sure I understand Commissioner Terry.

So it it references the stormwater master plan, but you want something more specific on just on the green infrastructure.

Yes, the um and Zach, do you uh do y'all have the last rate increase um document?

Because we we included a provision that just set aside 350,000 each year for green infrastructure.

Uh okay.

And so that was just a a line in the um rate ordinance.

Okay.

If you could send that, because I definitely was not here the last time.

Yep.

Uh any other questions, Commissioner Johnson?

No, I'm good with it.

Um so before we get into uh uh a motion.

Um I think there was a desire expressed last time to have a town hall to sort of in the evening flesh this out or present this to the residents at a special standalone meeting.

Uh are we still there as a committee?

Can you remind me exactly the timing for what was the if we if May 30th was was that gonna be the town hall date?

I don't know that I don't know that we set a date for the town hall meeting, but that's something that we need to do.

Right.

Because I think we would be 30th would it be talking about that and sanitation.

And sanitation and whatever was the date to if if there was a way, I guess my preference would be uh stormwater sanitation, and then if CEO is proposing some changes in the uh upcoming budget.

Right.

So the mill yeah, the millage rate is what was uh approved in the I guess the budget.

Right.

So yes, we're we are continuing with that proposal.

And it would be ideal, I guess if if it's possible to have all three conversations at at one time.

Can we add it to the public hearings for the millage rate?

Add which thing I'm sorry.

The discussion, a more public discussion on the stormwater fee.

And the sanit proposed sanitation fee that's coming.

If we don't have a separate town hall.

And if so, then let's have that conversation about these two different rate increases standalone, and if we can get the other uh rate increase that's being considered, throw that in there as well.

But do you all want to still do a town hall is really the question?

Yeah, I would say just for our purposes, uh stormwater and sanitation.

Um if we could do that uh before we give our final approval, um, I think that'd be ideal.

But it's it seems like we have time because you need this by the by mid-June.

I I believe so.

And that was my next question is is when do you need to be able to do that?

Right, so we were probably gonna need just thinking this as I stand here that town hall meeting, not next week, but the following week.

First week in June.

Okay.

That's what I'm thinking.

Um Marcus, if you can coordinate with uh COO's office, uh let's get a uh town hall.

Um I'm assuming the preference would be something in the evenings, perhaps 7 30, 6 30 in the evenings.

So is there a night there's night cow on that Tuesday, June 2nd.

Okay, so maybe we would do the third or fourth.

Yes.

This is just as I stand here, but yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

Marcus, if you can get us a date that works for the commissioners and the uh CO's office, I think that would be ideal.

Yeah, Mr.

Chair, the um if we do have a PWI on June 2nd.

Um but I know we'll have the nighttime cow, so that I don't think that'll be a shorter meeting, but we could do a special call PWI on like June 8th, if uh June 9th would be the next BOC.

If that was the timing.

Let's get our man to get us confirmed on that one.

But I like where you're going with that one.

I think that's the I think that's the idea is something in the evening where we can present this to the residents.

That would allow for a vote from the board June 9th, is that what you're saying?

Commissioner Terry?

Yeah, that would be kind of the flow, I think, because that would give us uh one more committee meeting.

I think that's the one.

I think it's us there.

Okay.

All right.

I just want to ask a quick question for clarification if I may.

You're Commissioner Terry, you're asking for the previous legislation that was used the last time these fees were changed.

Okay.

Just making sure I understood you.

Yep.

Okay.

And back on the town hall, my preference would be the third or the fourth.

And I think if we have it on the eighth, knowing we probably gonna go vote on it within a few hours.

I don't know how the public will receive that, but if if we can't get it, I think the eighth would be.

So you're saying the I see what you're saying.

Yeah.

Um I'll say I'm available.

I will I will be available.

Yep.

Yeah, third or fourth uh looks good for me.

Me as well.

Okay.

Um okay.

Um so uh motion to hold this in committee.

Okay.

Second.

Proper motion, proper second.

All those in favor, raise your hand say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All right, Commissioners.

Let me make a note right here.

All right.

Uh moving on.

Commissioner Terry, would you mind if we uh hopped over your items and moved into the new agenda items and then circled back?

Is that uh is that all right?

Uh yes, and those two items are really related to the 0930, the yep.

Um so uh whatever we can c I can talk about them in context of that if you want.

Okay.

All right, perfect.

Um all right.

So that being said, we're gonna skip down to new agenda items under chief executive office.

We have at the bottom of page three, agenda item 2026-0474.

Uh this is for all commission districts.

Approval of amendment number one to contract number 2001 eight six, operational and performance assessment services, purchasing policy exemption awarded to Malden Jenkins LLC amount not to exceed 116,530.

Uh Zach, what do you have to tell us about this?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

What this item is, it's uh essentially a uh approval um of a purchasing exemption um item, which was the operational assessment of the Department of Watershed Management, which was requested by the board as part of the adoption of the 10 by 10 uh rate uh adjustment for water and sewer.

So, you know, at that time we simply um the board uh requested and we executed.

Uh we used Malden and Jenkins, quite frankly, because they had been conducting uh well, they conducted on 18 other departments and business units.

Uh they were here.

Um they do our um our annual uh um comprehensive plan or comprehensive financial report.

So they were a logical um group.

Um they're well on their way, and I anticipate this work being wrapped up by the end of June.

So uh end of well, I guess August September time frame, you guys will be coming back to us with an update on that report.

We'll schedule something with you, Mr.

Chair, at your convenience.

Okay.

After the, you know, any time after probably July 1st or mid-July.

As I recall, we are sort of taking a break in the middle of July.

So um first part of August and we'll be ready.

That would be ideal.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um any questions for COO?

No.

If not, to open the floor for a motion.

Move to approve item ending in 0474.

Second.

Proper motion, proper second.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say aye.

Aye, aye.

Aye.

All right.

Uh top of page four under public works.

We have agenda item 2026-0930.

This is uh for all commission districts, sanitation department increase in commercial and residential service fees, landfill and transfer station tipping fees.

Uh Zach.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um so uh Mr.

Ryell will will come up along with uh Director McKinney and kind of talk through, but uh as you're well aware, I mean it hasn't been a any secret or if so it's the worst kept secret.

Over the last number of years, our sanitation department has had, just like quite frankly, any other business, increased costs without increased revenues.

Whether we talk about the um you know the great work that the governing authority has done with increasing um you know employee wages, um, whether it's uh buying new equipment such as uh new trucks, um dumpsters, roll carts, all of that stuff.

Um but the fact is in order to say sustain in order to address the ongoing liabilities, uh it's time for another rate increase.

Uh and so what uh uh Robert will kind of walk through is how we got to where we are describe exactly where we are and what the future looks like with and without a rate increase.

Um and then I would anticipate that this conversation, much like the one on stormwater, would be embedded into a town hall meeting on um June 2nd, 3rd, whatever like that.

Some somewhere in that uh that time frame.

So Mr.

Ryle, if you can uh um kind of walk the committee through what we have found, the work that you guys have done, we'd appreciate it.

Yes, absolutely.

And Mr.

Ryle, just before you begin, I'll I will say back in 2021 when Commissioner Terry and I started.

Uh I don't know if you heard this, but there was uh reports of at least one transmission from a sanitation truck falling out in front of someone's driveway and the resident was blocked in there.

Um and then we had the labor shortages uh that were associated with um uh um yard clippings collections, particularly on the north side of the lot uh uh north side of the county.

Um the perception is still though that de cab sanitation is a champ.

Sure.

Uh a fantastic service.

Um but as we had to acknowledge uh just a few years ago that there was a need for a rate increase.

I should also add that uh I guess in 21 we made a loan from the general fund to the enterprise fund for sanitation and and I'm sure your point is going to cover this.

Sure.

But when you have a enterprise fund, the expectation is is that it is self-sustaining.

Absolutely.

Uh it can then carry its own finances, and if it needs to make a loan, it can do that, or if emergencies pop up, uh transmissions fall in someone's yard.

There's money to take care of that issue.

Absolutely.

With that as a background, please uh please go ahead.

It's a great background in exactly some of the things that I'm that I'm going to speak to uh as part of my findings, having reviewed the sanitation fund.

Uh, just for the record, my name is Robert Riley.

I'm with Arcadis.

It's probably been a year or so before since I've presented, but it's good to see all of you again.

Um as uh C COO Williams mentioned, we've completed a what I call a revenue sufficiency study of the sanitation fund, essentially looking at, you know, are the revenues sufficient to cover the obligations of sanitation?

The answer is they're not, and we'll cover that.

Um but then further looking at uh how do those revenues need to change, i.e., how do the fees need to change, how do they need to increase in order for sanitation to be able to meet all of its obligations, to be able to build a reserve to your point, so that there is money when emergencies happen, right?

They're they're going to occur.

Um so that was really the you know the purpose of our study.

And I want to start with some background.

Um I think the background will be will be helpful as we as we approach these decisions.

Um but the purpose of an enterprise fund, right?

As you mentioned, an enterprise fund is established to be a self-supporting governmental fund that operates like a business, right?

It's providing goods and services, and the public pays a fee.

And that fee is generally in proportion to what you're using.

Watershed, it's how much water you use, sanitation, it's how many carts you have.

However, the general fund has had to support the sanitation fund.

The sanitation fees, they do not generate sufficient revenue to support sanitation's operating and capital needs.

And over the long term, this just isn't practical, practical, and it's it's not sustainable.

What I'm showing in this figure, um, beginning on the left is some historic information.

And I call this out in the lower left-hand quadrant of the of this slide, but it's the fund balance for sanitation.

And we can see that for the past five years, sanitation has operated at a deficit, and the general fund has had to support sanitation.

And some years that deficit was significant, over 20 million dollars in 2022.

On the right-hand side of this figure is is our forecast that if the revenues don't change, if there's no fee increase, what will the sanitation operating fund look like?

Um as you see, right, it gets worse, right?

The problem is getting worse and worse.

So in my view, this is really challenge number one is that sanitation is operating at a deficit.

The current revenue stream, the current fees, they don't generate sufficient revenue to cover sanitation's obligations.

I think part of the challenge of of how we got here, um, as again COO Williams mentioned, is the historic fees of sanitation.

What we're showing here in green is DeCab County sanitation fees historically, starting in 2019, compared with the City of Atlanta's fees, which in some years were double what DeCab County was charging.

And and I think that this has led to largely to the deficit that that sanitation is operating at today.

This is issue number two, which has to do with the landfill.

What I'm showing in this figure are the capital needs of the sanitation fund.

It's vehicle replacement.

And at the top of each one of these bars, the light green area, which begins in 2027, is the need for landfill expansion.

And I'm not a landfill expert, but I've had a lot of conversations with sanitation, so I'll present this in the layman's terms that I understand it.

But the current landfill has about three or four years of capacity left.

And then it can't take any more waste unless there is a expansion, a cell expansion.

And that cell expansion, those costs are what I'm presenting in this figure, right?

The light green, the top of these bars.

And that cell expansion takes about three or four years to complete.

So we're really at a at a very unique point in time here where those expansion efforts need to begin.

They currently are not funded, right, without some type of a revenue adjustment.

And just giving the timing of completing that expansion, it really aligns with the amount of capacity that's remaining right now.

Just interrupting to be for clarity.

I thought we had capacity through 2050, something like that.

So several years.

Are you talking about the current cell?

I'm talking about the current cell.

So the landfill itself, right?

It does have a long-term capacity, but that has to be periodically expanded.

You have to add a cell.

So I'm talking about the cell.

So the current sell, three or four years.

Adding a new cell is going to take three or four years, and the funding is not in place to do that.

Gotcha.

Okay.

So what are the proposed fee increases?

I'll present residential first.

So currently, your residential customers, majority of them have a single cart, and they're paying $315 a year for that service.

Our analysis shows that there's a need for about a 25% increase, which would be an increase annually of $78, which is $6.50 per month for a residential customer.

And then we followed this with future rate increases of 10%, and we're able to reduce that in 2030.

But the 10% come from essentially just what we're seeing other enterprise funds doing.

Watershed had a 10 by 10 plan, sanitation has a 10 plan.

So we're trying to be consistent with what other enterprise funds are doing.

We did look at 10% increases in every year, including 2026, which is currently at 25%.

But those numbers just didn't work, right?

Just in order of magnitude, just to fix the operating deficit, we're not talking about expanding the landfill cell, but just to fix the deficit would be about an 18% increase in 2026.

We're proposing 25% because that allows for the landfill of cell expansion, right?

So essentially we're just not able to do a 10% in 2026, but it is something that we explored.

This is a again a summary of the commercial fee increases, same magnitude in terms of percentage increases that are needed.

And then we also have well, just showing you the future obligations.

You can see on the very left-hand side in 2025.

Um, again, what we're showing here are all of the obligations of sanitation, as well as the black line, which is the revenues that we're forecasting with these uh fee adjustments, the red line being revenues without the fee adjustments.

And we can see 2025, right, the current deficit, right?

Both of these lines are below the the needs, the obligations of sanitation.

Um the fee increases, right?

They essentially get us all of these things.

We're able to fund your operations, you're able to fund vehicle replacement, you're able to contribute to a post-closure fund, you're able to fund your debt service, the capital, which would be that cell expansion, make a contribution and establish a fund balance, an emergency fund balance as part of the sanitation fund.

Next, we have some fee comparisons.

The first is uh is residential.

Again, on the left-hand side, currently uh residential customers are charged three dollars and uh three hundred and fifteen dollars per year.

Um the first increase that we're proposing would take that to 393, and it would be 594 in 2030 at the end of this this five-year plan.

Uh we're also showing other service providers in the in the metro area and what they currently charge for service, which is an average now of 417 dollars.

So, what we're proposing for this year uh would actually be less than the average of of other communities.

I'll also mention that City of Atlanta um just initiated a sanitation rate study, right?

Which to me indicates that their sanitation fees will likely be going up.

That's why you would do a rate study.

But for just in terms of comparison, um this is is where the uh the residential fees would uh would land with these proposed adjustments.

Similarly, um again applying increases to the landfill as well as the transfer station stations.

And you can see uh how these fees would be adjusted over the next five years, again, compared with other landfills and transportations transfer stations at their the current uh fees that uh that they are charging commercial fee comparison.

Uh this is for a front load dumpster, which is the most common uh commercial service that sanitation provides.

Again, you can see uh our proposed fees um where they would go this year as well as uh over the course of the next five years compared to other service providers and what they're currently charging.

And then a commercial recycling fee, again, very similar, right?

The five year increases uh compared again with other service providers as well as their average.

Um in conclusion, I think all things that I have mentioned, right?

The sanitation fund has incurred a deficit each year over the past five years without increased revenue, those deficits are expected to increase in the future.

Uh the residential fee increase, right, to uh incorporate that into 2026 would would need to um uh uh be adopted in advance of July 1 in order to be on the tax roll.

The commercial landfill fee increases would be effective in July 1.

Um, and then again that landfill cell expansion and closure activities that I have mentioned, which which need to be initiated in 2027, right, in order to align with the current cell uh remaining capacity.

Um and with that that concludes my presentation.

I don't I believe Director McKinney may have some some close some final thoughts as well.

Um I guess a quick thought that comes to mind.

Um I know City of Shambly also sets their millage, I think, with their sanitation rate.

So has there been a conversation with Shambley, sort of giving them a heads up that this may be coming down?

I know last time we had this conversation, there was a disconnected conversation that was problematic.

I think I think at this point we can certainly reach out to the cities.

I don't think we've had any formal conversation.

Okay.

Um that this is actually our first introduction of this, you know.

But I I think you know, after today's discussion, it's now public, so we can we can definitely reach out.

Okay.

Okay.

Um let you go first, and then I got some questions myself.

Uh, directory or directory.

And some some icing on the key, right?

Who do you want to call it in?

So I've worked with several municipalities, large and small, that was structured as um full-large services, sole provider.

The way the fees and the rates were structured was you know to take care of the residential part, take care of commercial, but future growths of landfills are so important because we're not only are we state regulated, we're federal regulated as well.

So to kind of keep those things in compliance rates are structured in in such a way.

So the things that we're doing now is for is for continue is for us to continue to service where it's been at a quality level and not having gaps in service, and as well as being most important being regulatory compliant.

Okay.

Commissioner Terry, any questions?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I did reach out to uh Decatur Avondale Estates and Shambly, all three of those cities do send um their uh private, you know, their their own contractors uh for yard waste and landfill to either the central uh north central or um similar road.

And uh we did request uh from sanitation, thank you, sort of their tonnage and a can and sort of what they're paying right now.

Um the City of Decatur has not planned for a rate increase this year in their budget, and I don't think Shambley or Avondale estates have either.

So I would like to open up the conversation with them related back to the composting idea.

Um and I do have if there is a some time today, Commission uh Mr.

Chair, um I do have like a couple proposed amendments uh to this um agenda item that I think uh would address some equity issues as well as achieve some of our other uh revenue uh goals that you know we we've outlined and maybe even lower some of the capacity needs um that Mr.

Rowles um presented on.

Um but I'll just quickly lay them out here and I can if we have time I'll I got a PowerPoint, but if not I can share you the slides.

Um so a couple of things that I'll note uh for the that don't think was in the presentation was the the tire fees.

What are the what is the proposed uh fee per tire in this rate structure?

I think it was raised to $13 in the last week.

Yeah.

But I figure if you're doing the across the board 15%, then you're just gonna include that as well.

Yeah, I don't know that we've actually looked at that specifically at the tires, but it's it's it's kind of a small uh dollar amount.

But if so, um since we're raising all the fees by certain percentages, we could do the same there.

But well, in just in in support of what Commissioner Patrick's been working on in the ERPS committee on reducing tire dumping, um, I believe that there is a kind of a Metro Atlanta best standard or best practice, I guess, for setting the tire fee across all the jurisdictions.

And um I think that we should consider adopting that rate so everyone that is disposing of tires either doesn't shop landfills to see what's the cheapest, or what I the research I've done is when we increased the tire fee, uh we saw a reduction in tires coming to the landfill, and we saw a 359% increase in the keep to cab beautiful tire cleanup drop-off.

So uh what the the numbers are suggesting that when the tire fee went up, people dumped them somewhere, and then we ended up picking it up, and then we probably spent more money picking them up.

And so I believe the the standard now is like 350 a tire around that.

So that would be one request is to amend whatever here is actually to lower the per tire fee to that the sort of the metro standard.

Um I think that would help us address some of the tire, not all of it, but it could maybe reincentivize folks to say, hey, just don't dump it, bring it to the landfill so we don't have to end up you know spending millions of dollars cleaning it up.

Um the second thing I'd like to us to consider is related to um the folks who live near the landfill.

Um that's the other resolution, uh, Mr.

Chair.

Um in essence, a a rebate for those who live within a half mile, a mile or two miles of the landfill.

You know, I I guarantee you my constituents that live near the landfill, when they hear landfill expansion, you know, because in their mind, and this is going back years and I wasn't here and none of us were here, um, they thought the landfill would only be there for 20 years.

And so there is the notion in the community that the landfill was going to be a park one day, and that you know, don't worry about it.

But landfill expansion, you know, really I think sets off a lot of people who live directly around it.

So a small discount rebate on their residential um fees to sort of lessen that um that hit as the fees increase, I think would be um uh an equitable approach to just um respecting um their situation.

We did run the numbers and um based on those calculations, we estimate about uh it costs about two million dollars if every single person eligible sought the rebate.

Um so if it's possible we could share that with uh Mr.

Ryles and he can maybe just kind of run those numbers to see how it fits into that um I think I read it right, 500 million dollar deficit if we don't do anything.

Um so hopefully some of those things aren't like breaking the bank, they're just sort of recognizing um you know on the ground situations.

Um the the last time we increased the rates, uh we did approve in the resolution um a commitment to open up a compost facility.

And the main reason there is just is two-fold.

The EPA says that if you can divert food waste from landfills, it reduces the odors.

Simple as that.

That's the biggest complaint we get from residents who live nearby.

Um but then back to what I was saying earlier about poll Pole Bridge is um there is a revenue generating opportunity with compost, and certainly the cut the free compost that we provide to residents for you know, for any county resident is wood mulch compost.

But if we do a food waste yard waste together, then that the value of that free compost is even greater.

And the the farmers, the gardeners, you know, constituents I think would really benefit from what would be an enhanced compost amendment.

Arguably if we think if they can get free compost from the cab and not spend 40 bucks for muracle grow at pikes, you know, that kind of actually um becomes a a cost almost a cost savings for residents who are like big farmers and gardeners.

Um and then the only other thing I might ask for us to just draw the numbers on is looking at, and maybe the tax commissioner can help us with this is looking at the senior homestead exemption uh qualified properties.

Uh we have a provision in our tax code that provides some discounts on property tax assessments for seniors that are low to moderate income.

Um I think they raised it to 29,000 this last uh in the legislature two years ago.

And I believe we know all of the the seniors that um that you know have applied and take advantage of that exemption uh because this is on on the property tax bill, uming that some seniors are especially if you're low to moderate income, fixed income, might be having trouble paying for gas, groceries for all the things that we're aware of.

If we could um lessen the the increase for them simply because we know they're already qualified based on their income.

And you know, and I don't know exactly what that that discount might be and how it would be applied, but um I believe there's maybe 10,000 or so that might qualify, and if we could look at um either a rebate or a different rate structure for them for this first increase and then moving forward um some other calculation I think would be um uh important for us to understand how it fits into your calculations, because I I do support the enterprise fund having the funds to do the operations.

I mean, everything you laid out is exactly what we have to do to make sure that the services are um superb and efficient, um, but just recognizing that some folks are struggling right now, and if we can you know uh lessen that that hit, I think that would be important.

Yeah, so we we would be happy to um run the numbers and provide them to you.

I mean, we were not in a position to you know take a position.

Uh what we've presented is what we have kind of run the math.

Um but but we definitely you know we can work with you know whomever um to run these numbers on the things you listed.

Of those items that you just listed, though, the uh tire uh that's wholly consistent, I think, with where we are moving.

Uh we're working on a pretty robust strategy uh that would likely include um trying to um send tires elsewhere.

Um but we just we're still working on a number of those those details.

But each of the other things, you know, we just have to sit look at the economic impact and would provide that to you, and then we would ultimately come to our determination whether that's something that we would agree with or not agree with, and then ultimately the board makes a decision.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um question on once you know the plan for the these proposed rates are is pretty much for our five-year plan.

Should we be building in escalation beyond that so that in five years we're not coming back with you know, we're stagnant again, and then we'll have to do that.

So quite quite frankly, with everything we have presented or that we will present, um, it would behoove us, just like any other public organization to budget as far out as possible.

Um in year six, things aren't going to be less expensive than they were in year five.

Not at all.

In year nine, they won't be less expensive.

You know what I mean?

So you know, we I say that to say if we were presenting, much like remember we came to the board with a three-year proposal for water, the board came back with the 10-year, and it makes sense.

So I guess that's kind of the point is if we are being more proactive on these increases, then we can do them more incrementally, and it's not a strong 25% in the first year.

Yeah.

If we're doing it smaller, but consistently increasing to match the increased demands, then it it's easier for us as commissioners to digest with the public.

So I just want to bring that in, and then offline.

I'm curious what happened in 2022.

I'm sorry.

What happened in 2022?

Because that deficit dropped drastically to the like 22 million.

It was a huge deficit.

So offline, I just kind of like to get some structural hands.

And one of the things that was mentioned was the um the payment or the loan from the general fund to sanitation.

We also did a 10 million dollar infusion from ARP funds into uh sanitation.

That's right.

We also um took a hiatus on uh fleet um the vehicle replacement.

So every thing that we can think of over the last five years we've done, and actually quite frankly, it goes back twelve years or so when we first introduced rolling forward to one in um under uh Lee May's administration.

And that was an attempt because we went from two days a week to one day a week.

So sanitation.

Four days a week to one day.

Right, right.

Uh right, right, because we we ran multiple routes.

All those things have been done to be as efficient as possible.

And so we we've literally wrung out um, you know, all the strategies we could think of before we got here today.

And then to continue the conversation about the cities, I know I believe the city of Stell Mountain has a contract for the with the county to provide these services.

We just want to make sure that we're not going to be able to do that.

We'll check.

We'll check.

But I do remember uh talking with Chambly, Avondale Estates, and Decatur the last time we raised the rate, and we didn't raise rates on them at that time because of their sequence or something.

Um yes, for the past four years or so, they've had the benefit of not um experiencing a rate increase where the other commercial um item or commercial partners did receive a rate increase.

Thank you.

I yield.

Okay.

Could you go back to the slide with the graph that shows uh the proposed rate increase uh scheduled naive lead out?

Um go forward one, I think.

One more.

Okay.

So I do think a 25 percent rate increase is a big is a big bite right out the door.

Um the residents have been generally with through the through the water and sewer been more comfortable with the 10 by 10.

Um but I also acknowledge that you're saying the math is is what it is.

Um I don't know.

If you could maybe run a couple other scenarios, I don't know, maybe two fifteens and uh and then tens for the rest of the 10-year period just to see what that looks like.

Because that is a very large hit.

Um and at the end of the day, we're still going to be responsible for explaining why in the midst of five dollar gas we're coming back to the residents and asking for more money.

And I you know, as I've said before, I've never had someone yell at me because the services are delivered on time perfectly.

Right.

But this is a big number, and I don't think any of us have been in an environment where um we've had five dollar gas or perhaps perhaps more coming up.

Right.

No, and and we will we can we will revisit the numbers, but the your point is is absolutely well taken.

Um because we too, the business of providing sanitation experiences the increase in gas.

Absolutely.

The increase in employee costs, increase in health care.

Yep.

You know, so running that business, we experience everything that everyone else experiences it.

And the only way to offset it is like businesses do, they have to pass on some of that to consumers.

Understood.

Um and then to follow Commissioner uh Johnson's point, again, uh I appreciate you guys doing the five-year, but I think we should probably look more towards the 10-year horizon just so that uh So I assume you're also not to go back to the other, you're thinking that same thing with stormwater.

Uh yeah, we had a we had talked about the 10 by 10 with the stormwater as well.

Just making sure we're all tracked.

Um other questions.

Uh Commissioner Terry, please on that point about the um just sort of the different scenarios.

Are we considering in this time period the revenue from the methane uh collection uh contract?

Because I know that still hasn't happened, and it was supposed to be like a $26 million revenue share.

So over five years something like that.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

I mean, you know, let's see.

Uh I I don't know that we factor that in.

We actually had a very productive conversation with those uh with Conyers uh in the last couple of days.

But uh you know, but I you know, I I would not necessarily recommend that we factor that in.

Okay.

Well we should factor it in because at some point, because we're just flaring we're flaring it, or we're in essence, we're just burning it.

And you know, 26 million over five years.

No, this chart is a piece of it, but it is we will definitely go back and we will ensure that we have evaluated and captured uh what is appropriate.

But you know, there were a lot of numbers quoted four or five years ago based on a variety of factors that may or may not currently exist.

And so for that reason, you know, whatever numbers we would factor in would be based on where we are today and what we see going forward.

Well, I totally would understand it.

You were more conservative on the revenue projections, but I mean I in the past we've collected revenue from the before it sort of you know the last contract ended.

And I I do think that if I do support the 10-year horizon, I think that would just really give us um a better horizon of what we're trying to accomplish.

Um but I think the the methane collection and selling it to the market is a crucial component of this.

We can certainly ensure that we factor in based on our existing contract, the time we're supposed by contract they were supposed to start producing.

And there's other issues if they don't that we have contractual rights to.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh uh go ahead.

Well, my question was about expansion.

So if you wanted to continue on that, go ahead.

Oh uh well, I I was gonna ask about other revenue sources, and that's where the poll bridge location comes in.

Would other revenue sources somehow be a benefit to this uh pardon me, different funds altogether?

Right.

Never mind, forget that.

Commissioner Johnson, please go ahead.

So briefly touched on needing to expand, like the existing cell, you know, has a couple years left and we'll need to do expansion.

I think it was mentioned that we'll need to start that adding and adding a new stealth, begin construction in 2027.

Okay, that's my question.

So when will we start getting or have we already started to get the contract RFP so that we can start construction next year?

Have we started um shrine?

Well yeah, I'm not sure if we've started the RFP, but if we're in the middle of 2026.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Good morning.

We have not just started the process, but uh the way we have distributed the revenue that uh the smaller CR would be used next year, 2027, then the major side would be used now 2028 and 2029.

That's always distributed the revenue or the capital that needs to be.

Okay.

But the start of the construction or the process would be next year.

Okay.

Got it.

Start of the RF, the whole RMP.

On boarding the firm, I guess.

Yes.

Got it.

Thank you.

I yield.

Okay.

Commissioner.

Just one more thing to note.

Uh it is really the poll bridge, actually, because um the watershed department is paying the tip fees for the biosolids to be dumped at the landfill.

So if there was any diversion from the landfill, then the revenues would low be lower because watershed wouldn't be paying those tip fees.

So it might only be like 600,000 if you like divert it up 50 percent.

But I think that just that's one little piece of all the little pieces in terms of what we're trying to project with this.

That would save so yeah, sanitation would lose money.

Yes, right.

And watershed would save money.

But they're all you know, enterprise funds and you know, so just in the in this chart, you know, if we can splice out the lines a little more, um, I think that would help us have a fuller picture.

And Commissioners, I don't know if how you feel about 15 percent in the first year, 15 percent in the second year, and then tens for the remaining, but that it would be a way to sort of ease out that bump, which I think we're gonna pay attention to.

If you maybe the request would be, you know, us come back with some smoothing to the best of our abilities.

Yeah.

As opposed to picking a number without us that works number.

That works.

Um I guess as far as scheduling, um, I thought it was productive at the cow to have the presentation given at the cow again, so the other commissioners that are not present are knowledgeable.

Uh we've got time, I believe, to work something like that.

Because if we're gonna I think the next cow is the night count.

Yeah, so we wouldn't have time at the night cow if we're doing that.

So maybe we do that just uh a town hall, we do it in the town hall.

Yeah, the town hall I'm I think is stormwater and sanitation.

Okay.

If you could come back to us with some way to ease that edge, because that's a that's a that's a big hit right there that I'm concerned about myself.

So um okay.

All right.

Well, commissioners, I think um, I think the notion is is we'll hold this here for now and then uh we will plan to have a town hall.

Uh Mr.

Allen, if you can make sure you're working with uh Zach's team to get that town hall set up.

And I'm guessing it's for the Thursday the fourth, if that works for everybody.

Yeah, that works.

That way.

Um and we will Thursday evening.

Yep.

And I guess here at Maloof or uh pardon me here at Sam Street if it's uh possible.

Okay.

All right.

Motion to hold item 0930 in committee.

Second.

Second.

All right, commissioners.

Uh we have uh about 16 more items, and I know we have people that uh have other commitments throughout the day.

So um now or can you I was going to try and go to 1230.

You gotta go now.

I think now is uh probably a good thing.

If we can appreciate that, I think we're just gonna hold on these and then um Marcus.

If you can get us a special called uh so that we can get these items taken care of quickly.

Uh that's the same.

So there are there any times because I can stay to 1230 if you need to go if we need to get through a couple.

Um we've already done page two, three, and four.

Um tell you what, Commissioner Tay, are you leaving?

But I I can stay.

If we need to give me two minutes, oh you're I'm running, I'm chair right now.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

So on page four, I'm gonna go to public works fleet management item 2026, that's 0792.

All commissioned district, statewide contract for truck chassis, chassis and truck bodies for use by public works fleet management to be used by the Department of Watershed Management to attain two 2027 international trucks with Warner Service Bodies awarded to Rush Truck Centers of Georgia Inc.

doing business as Rush Truck Center Atlanta amount not to exceed 249,862 dollars.

Good morning, Mr.

Gordon.

Or afternoon.

These are uh oh mics on uh these are just replacement trucks for service trucks to go out and do water repairs for um uh watershed, uh just normal replacement any questions, Commissioner Curry.

No questions I have a motion.

Motion to approve item 0792.

I will second all in favor.

Aye, thank you.

Next we'll go to 2026-0679, also on page four, statewide contract, truck chassis and truck bodies fees by public work suite management to be used by the stormwater department and the department of recreation, parks, and cultural affairs to obtain 20 new 2027 international dump trucks awarded to Rush Truck Centers of Georgia Inc.

doing business as Rush Truck Center Atlanta, amount not to exceed 3,328,370.

Yes, ma'am, these are replacement trucks as well.

Uh there'll be 10 of them that are six-yard trucks going to stormwater, six uh twelve-yard trucks to storm water, three twelve yards to watershed management, and then one to park and rec.

They're all replacements.

And normal replacement cycle.

Was this sent to audit?

It was sent to audit, I believe it's still pending.

Pending in audit.

Okay.

Yeah, I haven't seen the mic model.

Approved ending on audit.

That's fine.

Okay.

Uh motion to approve 0679 pending audit.

Second.

Thank you very much.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

That is unanimous.

And then there was one more on the critical list.

Let me find it.

On page six.

Item 2026-0762, all commissioned districts, cooperative agreement for full service maintenance, electrical, mechanical, and electronic equipment repairs, Cobb County contract number 24-6802 for use by the Department of Watershed Management to obtain services to inspect to inspect services, repair, rebuild, and maintain electrical mechanical and electronic equipment awarded to Coal Technology Inc.

and Tech Well Services LLC.

Total amount not to exceed $1,500,000 yes, it's well thank you.

It's uh very important item to us, as you guys know.

We got a number of facilities that operate 24-7, and we at all times need the ability to be able to maintain electrical and mechanical components, and this is a vehicle to do so.

Page six.

Um the benefit of actually doing a co-op.

You already have the uh the pricing known.

Um you know how competitive it is relative to what you've already been paying.

Um it's executed, it's been bid it publicly, and it's just a benefit um to get it done expeditiously.

Thank you.

I will hand back to the chair.

Okay.

Um do you have any questions?

I do not have any questions.

Okay.

Great.

Um I'm ready for a motion.

Motion to approve item ending in 0762.

I'll second that.

All those in favor, raise your hand say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Um so we went ahead and took you guys took care of uh the two from page four.

Yes.

And then this other one.

Yes.

Uh Zach, are we good with this list right here?

Well, I think there may be a few more, but if we can have gone through all of the things, we've gotten through these right here.

0423.

Which page?

0423.

This one is 0423.

Top of page seven.

L week 2024.

Yep, let me read this one out.

Uh 2026-0423.

This is all commission districts.

Renewal of contract number 2000 two one nine and two zero zero zero two two zero.

Engine and generator maintenance and repair services.

Is that not the right one?

No.

I'm sorry, sir.

Which one did you do?

0423.

L me 0423?

Yeah, 0423 is the one I was just reading out.

34.

And what page is that one?

Sorry.

Top of page five.

Top of page five.

Yeah, they do.

Okay.

Sorry.

No worries.

Yes.

Don't leave, Chris.

Uh 2026-0434.

This is for all commission districts.

Change order number two to contract number 2000 for ITB number 24-101659.

Uh LMIG Road Resurfacing Projects for use by public works roads and drainage to obtain maintenance services for resurfacing to Cab County Roads, seeking increase in contract term through December 31st, 2026.

Awarded to ER Snell, uh Contractor Incorporated, contract term increase only.

Yes.

Commissioner, we just need uh a little more time to complete the contract.

Okay.

Uh we have some pending invoices and work punch list items.

Okay.

Uh 90%.

Yes.

Commissioner Johnson, any questions?

No questions?

No.

Okay.

Um I know this is for yeah, yeah, yeah, good.

Good.

Um, so the the question and concern is this.

I I get that the way the contracts tend to be let, there's flexibility for the for the vendor to be able to get to these items, prioritize them as they choose.

I have residents yelling at me to get stuff done.

And so is there a way moving forward with our contracts that we can y'all are free, but maybe you're not absolutely free-range chickens running around picking what you want.

Like we have some ability to say you're gonna get this section done in this.

We could try.

We've talked with Peggy, some of other county contracts.

We do buy districts or phases.

We have to get into flexibility because of lots of little roads, and it's the weather and coordination with utilities.

But we can look at that the next series of contracts to try to maybe get us a little more quarterly updates as opposed to I mean I I appreciate the fact that we're we we uh we are trying to get the most out of the dollars, but uh the residents at Rose Arbor in particular are just frustrated and and do want to see it's paved and and um uh this contract when it's closed out, we'll take care of Rose Arbor.

Before then, please.

Please, I think.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Johnson, if you have no other questions or comments.

Motion motion to approve 0434.

I'll go ahead and second.

All those in favor, raise your hand say aye.

Aye.

All right, is there another hot one we've got to get taken care of?

Just a hot one.

Um 026, um 0875.

What page is that one?

That would be on page four up towards the top, oh eight seven five.

Oh no, um, I was told we skip that one.

Were you just gonna give us some information on this?

Yeah, we're gonna we're good.

It's just a public hearing.

That's just a public care as well.

Just it just can't be home committee.

Right.

Right.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other hot potatoes since I've got about five or ten minutes with the commissioner?

Otherwise, if not, we'll uh okay.

Um Mr.

Allen, if you will get us uh uh um another special call date that's convenient for the three of us.

Yes, sir, we'll coordinate um uh preferably not next week though.

That's all right.

Um but otherwise, Commissioner.

It's been fun.

It has been fun.

It's always the greatest show on Earth.

It is the greatest show on Earth.

No one no one appreciates us.

They don't.

And the humor's free.

You get what you pay for.

Anyway movie adjourned.

Second, all those in favor, raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Uh enjoy the holiday, everyone.

Once again, I appreciate uh we all appreciate the service of our veterans for Memorial Day, and thank you very much for the sacrifices that were made for us to enjoy the liberties we have.

Thank you.

Thank you.