The Visalia City Council met on Monday, November 17, 2025, in a work session starting at 5:30 PM followed by a regular session at 7:00 PM. The meeting included a presentation from the Wastewater Collections Division, a special recognition, a consent calendar with one item pulled for discussion, a regular item on the Tulare Avenue bike lane configuration, and a public hearing to adopt the 2025 California Fire Code. Mayor Brett Taylor was absent; all votes were 4-0 except where noted.
Welcome to the Visaya City Council work session. Today is Monday, November 17th, and we'll start off with public comments. Citizens are now invited to comment on issues within the jurisdiction of the Visalia City Council and items listed on the closed session agenda. The council asks that you keep your comments concise and positive. Creative criticism presented with appropriate courtesy is welcome. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes, and a timer will notify you when your time is expired. Please begin your comments by stating and spelling your name and providing your city of residence. Do we have any public comments from the audience? Okay, seeing none, we'll go to our first work session item. Presentation by the Wastewater Collections Division. Staff report, please. Well, good evening, Council. Nick Barch, Public Works Director. Uh, we're excited to bring an update tonight from our wastewater collections division. Uh it's kind of a fitting night to do so with uh experiencing the amount of rain that we've had over the last uh week or so. Um I'd like to first introduce Ben Litwack, our public works manager over wastewater, uh including collections and the wastewater treatment plant, and Rick Paredes are wastewater collections superintendent. Recently had a title change, so wanted to make sure I got that correct. So with that, I will turn it over to Ben and uh he can walk us through the update tonight. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council, and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to provide an update on the wastewater collections division. My name's Ben Litwack, and I'm the Wastewater Public Works Manager. Tonight I'll be discussing the systems we maintain, the challenges we experience, the work our staff performs daily to keep Viselius Sanitary Sewer and Stormwater Infrastructure operating safely and reliably. Although much of this work happens quietly behind the scenes, these systems are essential to public health, environmental protection, and maintaining a high quality of life for our residents. There we go. I'd like to begin by recognizing the team responsible for operating and maintaining this extensive infrastructure, many of whom are sitting with us here today, and to my side here. Our wastewater maintenance workers and maintenance service workers, Hector Rodriguez, Mike Weatherly, Frank Cerna, Jeff Riley, and Ismail Meza, and our heavy equipment operator, James Southern. This team handles everything from routine line cleaning and inspections to storm preparation, emergency response, system repairs, and infrastructure rehabilitation. Their expertise and dedication are critical to keeping our systems running smoothly and protecting the community. So here we have a GIS map of our sanitary sewer system. The sanitary sewer system includes 500 miles of pipeline that transport wastewater from every home, business, and industry in Viselia to the water reclamation facility. We also operate and maintain 13 sanitary sewer lift stations. These stations pump wastewater through the system in areas where gravity alone cannot do the job. They require constant monitoring and maintenance to prevent backups, spills, and equipment failures. Alongside our sanitary sewer system, we have our storm sewer system. Now we're responsible for maintaining all of this infrastructure, which is quite extensive as well. It includes 380 miles of storm sewer lines, 43 storm lift stations, 7,031 catch basins, and we did count each one. 46 stormwater basins and 35 miles of open stormwater ditches. This infrastructure plays a critical role during rainfall events like today. And uh preventing roadway flooding and protecting private property. It also supports groundwater recharge and helps manage storm flows across the community. Maintaining both the sanitary, sanitary and stormwater systems comes with several challenges. A large portion of our infrastructure is aging. Population growth adds stress to systems that were installed decades ago, and storm events, especially throughout the winter, place significant demands on both personnel and equipment. We also encounter issues related to improper system use, structural deterioration, and unauthorized discharges. The next few slides will highlight several of these challenges. So for an example of misuse of the system, we have uh basically rags. These wipes, rags, hygiene products, and other debris all contribute to blockages and equipment damage. And sites like this aren't all too uncommon whenever removing major blockages. I think that came from around the hospital. Correct.