All right, welcome everybody.

It is Thursday, April 16th, 2026, 6 p.m.

It is a regularly scheduled City of Waukeshaw Water Utility Commission meeting.

Let's call this to order.

Roll call.

Commissioner Frank?

Here.

Commissioner Fowell?

Here.

Commissioner Curry.

Absent.

Commissioner Pyatt?

Here.

Commissioner Matthews?

Here.

Commissioner Riley.

Absent.

Commissioner Bartels.

Here.

We have a quorum.

All right.

There are no rate payers here for public comment.

Any emails or anything of note?

Come on.

Okay.

All right.

We'll move on from public comment into approval of minutes.

Uh can I get a motion for the March 20th, 2026 minutes?

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

Frank Corn Bartels.

All right.

Any uh questions, Commissioners, comments.

All right, hearing none.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstain.

Is it unanimous approval?

We ready to keep going, Allie?

Okay.

All right.

Excellent.

Okay, that brings us into action items.

Action item A.

Approve uh payments from the general fund and the improvement fund.

So move.

Follow motion.

I'll second it.

Second.

Uh Matthews.

All right.

Uh Commissioners.

Any questions?

I have one to note.

Okay.

Um we are making our bond payments, both principal and interest for Wiffia, as well as our safe drinking water loans.

Those are due um May 1st.

So those are included with the commission pack at this point.

Okay.

Thank you, Courtney.

Are the questions, Commissioners?

Give you a few more seconds to peruse.

Okay.

All right.

Any uh anything, folks?

Okay, hearing none.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstain.

All right.

That passes.

Action item 5B.

Approve the Prairie Avenue Automane replacement to UPI construction LLC in the amount of 199,820 zero cents.

And to Ferguson Waterworks for the purchase of the 20-inch pipe and fittings not to exceed 125,000.

Dale motion.

Motion to approve is written.

All right.

Or uh second.

Second.

Um Peter.

All right.

Any uh any questions or actually no?

Who's got who's got this one?

This must be Matt.

So we brought this to you last month as a discussion item with some access funds in the village of Waukeshaw doing the road or reconstructing the road on Prairie Avenue.

So we did put it off for bid.

Uh there were four bidders, and they were the bids were open on Tuesday, April 7th at 9:30.

UPI was a little bitter.

Um, so we're looking for action or approval from water commission with action from the council to follow next Tuesday if passed.

Um bids came in pretty good from UPI, and so that's the stretch from sunset to Prairie Avenue or to the railroad tracks to the north where the village is gonna be doing their their reconstruct there.

Gotcha.

Um so in the process of getting the bids, we found out that the 20-inch parts are have a significant lead time on them, and with a tighter deadline on the project, we decided to bid just the the labor to install, and then we're supplying the 20-inch parts so we can order after your approval expedite the lead time.

Okay, so we're not waiting for contracts to get signed.

Okay, that makes sense.

So the motion is to approve the Prairie Avenue water main replacement to UPI construction and the amount of 199,820 and to Ferguson Waterworks for the purchase of the 20-inch pipe and fittings not to exceed 125,000.

Okay.

All right.

Questions for Matt.

I do have one quick question.

Can we go back to the financial significant difference?

I mean, you're almost 30%, like 25% less.

Do we have a cap on add-ons or additional charges onto that?

Um just a question.

You know, they're coming in significantly lower than everybody else ballpark, but what happens if they come back to us with $75,000 worth of add-ons.

There's a state statute that does limit the amount of the things that can be added on.

And this is a unit price contract, so we're fairly protected because he's not gonna come up with that much more pipe to put in, especially since we're supplying the pipe.

Okay.

That was my question.

Like what's the cat?

What's our protection to come back and you know say, hey, we got $80,000 worth of add-ons, and now we're they're not the lowest bidder anymore.

Their price per foot was substantially lower for install.

A lot of the other ones were higher than I thought they're gonna be they were closer to supplying the pipe and the install.

So all in you're at 2009,000 plus 125,000 for pipe age.

Yeah, okay.

And this is what the question plus the utility labor is.

Plus there's a little yeah, a little bit utility labor.

The village their contract came in good, so they're they're rater all stark is doing the road reconstruction there.

So it should flow pretty smoothly with everything we'll finish and then the village will take over from there.

The village is gonna do the uh traffic control for us too.

So there's also some savings working with the village all this.

And we save the one percent city administration.

There's all the city administration.

Yeah, this is a big savings.

All right, I'm sorry.

Other questions for Matt.

All right, hearing none all in paper say aye.

Aye, aye opposed, abstain.

Okay, pass.

Thank you, Matt.

Pass this unanimously.

Uh approve.

Okay, uh, action item five C.

Approve the abandonment of wells number five and six unit price contract totaling 175,000 seventy-one dollars fifty cents with Midwest Well Services DBA municipal well and pump.

Move to approve.

All second.

Um Tuesday, the same day we did the bid opening for prairie.

We opened the bids to abandon wells five and six.

These are two of the deep wells that pump two reservoirs, and therefore really wouldn't work in our system, and we don't need the reservoirs from a capacity standpoint.

We also don't need the uh these particular wells as backup emergency supply wells.

So we um received four bids.

This is just to abandon to remove the pump from the well and to remove the well.

I will come back to you in the fall to abandon the structures, and I'll work with Jennifer on declaring them excess property and and whatnot.

But this we're bidding separately because I didn't want the commission to have to or in the utility payers to have to pay an extra 15 to 20 percent to a general contractor to manage a well dealer when this is what three of us at the utility have done in a past life.

Um Midwest Well Services doing businesses, municipal well and pump has done a lot of work on five and six, and um their mobilization fee was considerably lower than all the others, which is why the big bulk price difference is there.

Um I think it's just base knowledge that they have for the wells and they know what to expect.

So I'm asking for your approval since it came in under what I had estimated.

This will also go to the common council on the 22nd, and I won't be able to be there, so Brian Renning's gonna present it.

It is included in the budget, the funds have been appropriate already in the budget.

Yes, actually, this thank you for bringing that up.

This is part of the four million dollar EPA grant.

Okay, we received 25.

And you say these are deep wells.

How how far down are the pumps in these?

These are about 600 feet down, these are two of the deep wells.

There is a potential for the contractor to come back for additional monies because well number five has been dynamited so many times.

We don't know exactly how big the hole is because when you put the camera down it, the light just goes away.

But we do have fixed prices for the um the materials that they would be adding, so they're not gonna come back with a premium price, it's it's a fixed price.

So pull the pump and then fill with bentonite or whatever.

Uh alternating layers of bentonite concrete and pea gravel.

Oh depending on where they are in the formations.

Thank you.

Other questions for Kelly.

All right, all favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Abstain.

All right, thank you.

Okay, this is unanimous.

All right, action item 5D to approve the abandonment of wells number 11, 12, and 13.

Unit price contract totaling 62,320 with Midwest Well Services, DBA municipal well and pump.

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

All right, Kelly again.

Um we also bid the abandonment of oils 11, 12, and 13.

We had three bidders for this one.

Municipal well and pump was the uh low bidder.

It came in under what I had estimated for the cost.

Uh, again, this is to remove just the pumps and then abandon the three wells.

The um well houses or the buildings around 11 and 12 will likely remain as because park and rec has an interest in them when we're done with them.

They're right along the Fox River on the south side of the city.

And well 13.

There has been a party interested in possibly buying that structure.

So we will work with Jennifer on declaring that one excess property, and then go down whichever path is required for that, selling it or abandoning it.

Um, these are the three shallow wells.

You ask why did she bid them separate?

There's different contractors that can do shallow well abandonment versus a deep well abandonment.

You notice that one dropped off between the two um bid lists.

I thought this might bring in smaller firms, but um at a couple hundred feet deep, they might still be too big for the the little guys.

When we talk about parks and rec actually possibly having an interest in 11 and 12, is that for a cost, a donation?

How does that work?

We haven't got that far yet, so I don't know.

I just met with Melissa and gave her a tour.

Well 12 actually has a little park shelter attached to it where there's picnic tables and it's right by the bridge that walks across the river.

Um so I suspect there would be some sort of value to it, but uh we'd have to work with Courtney to find out what the value on the books is.

And I was gonna ask the same thing.

Yeah, I don't sell it to them.

Absolutely, that's what I said too.

I'm on the other side, so when it's comes over vote, I this is not a donation thing.

I don't think the PSC would allow that.

Right.

I guess is what I'm not sure.

And I know in the past too, when we've done the other abandoned well, it was we made it go out for bid, it should go out for bid.

So that would I'm not in favor of giving that away if that's what you understood.

Thank you.

All right, other questions for Kelly.

So you said timing probably fall when the the building stuff or this excess properties comes up.

Yes, the wells have to be abandoned completely by the end of July.

So when they're well on their way to having a um firm schedule, then we'll bid the abandonment of the buildings.

I have all the specs and and bid tab bid stuff ready.

It's just I didn't want to put the cart before the horse.

Yep.

Awesome.

All right, thank you.

All right, anything else for Kelly?

All right, all favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, abstain.

Okay.

Motion passes unanimously.

All right, it brings us to action item uh five Eprove the update of our water system model by Jacobs for 59,530.

It's supposed to be Kelly.

Oh can I get a motion?

So move it.

Second.

Frank Fur and Fo.

All right, Kelly.

Okay, so every 10 years the DNR requires all water systems in uh Wisconsin to prepare a master plan so that you can use it to create your CIPs and plan accordingly moving forward.

Our last one was done in 2012.

Uh we we got an extension because we were a little bit busy transitioning in the 2223 range, and uh DNR was willing to work with us as to why update a plan until it was time when we were ready to do that.

So we put it in the budget for um 2026 and broke it up into two parts.

There's a master plan, which is the report writing and the action of what are you gonna do and why are you gonna do it and how do you run your system and and what if this happens, then what?

And the other part is the water system model.

It's a computerized version of the map on the wall, basically.

It has in the model pumps and towers and people using water.

So it sounds like it would be a fun video game, but it's it's really more of an engineering tool.

And um Jacobs is the keeper of our model, CH to them Hill prior to that was EarthTech.

They all had our model, and now Jacobs has it, and um Tara ran it for us dur before the transition so that we could help create the attack plan and what model or what towers to take out of service based on when the new water would get there, and it was used to um compare against the the blue cloud that was on the internet for where the water was transitioning, and it was quite accurate for that particular time frame.

Well, now it's time to update it based on the new mains that Matt said Matt's put in, the different pressures that we're operating at.

So I uh got a price from Jacobs to do that, and their price for updating the model came in under our budget.

We have two days of field fire flow testing that we will assist them with, and they will use that to calibrate the model.

Uh we will be doing a fire flow in each of our 10 pressure zones that's required by the insurance service organization or ISO, and the fire department needs to have a good ISO rating, so our insurance rates in the city stay reasonable.

So I've uh I spoke with ISO because the fire chief invited me to an event and I was able to talk to him in person.

They had wanted the ISO rating to be done in February.

We politely convinced him to wait till the model was done and do it in October so that they would have more accurate uh data that made everybody, including the fire chief, happy.

Um, so I'm asking for your approval.

Questions for Kelly.

Some of those bottles are pretty cool.

Yeah, very cool.

You see in JEA both have down there, so they're really cool.

When you do something on your own and you're not contracting out, do you have to go in and punch in as a time for the like a certain account?

Yes, my time is tracked and it goes against the budget number.

And if I get too far off, Courtney yells it's just curious.

It's more economical for for us to do it in-house because my charge out rate internally is much less than a consultant.

Sure, no, I get it.

I I was just curious if because it's a budgeted line item if we had to track it somehow.

That was ISO.

We were referring to like the fire code.

Insurance service organization.

Thank you.

It affects the rate.

Okay.

All right.

Um, any other questions for Kelly?

All right, all pairs say aye.

Opposed, staying.

Excellent.

Thank you, Kelly.

All right, we can move on to discussion items.

We do not have any discussion items this evening.

Move on to all right, move on to information then.

Uh operations center update.

So it's outside doesn't look any different, but inside is dramatically different.

They're pouring concrete floors, so all the office concrete is poured.

Um, the picture on the left side here is where future meter storage and meter test bench area is gonna be.

There's a couple more walls that need to go on there yet, but on the right is our workshop um little workbench, there's an overhead crane, just places to work on uh equipment and parts.

Uh the picture on the left side here is one of the two large garage doors that are on the west end of the building where we can pull into the building.

So the one on the left is kind of what we're planning on putting uh racking on both sides that'll store our parts that we use day to day so guys can they pull our truck in, they can grab the parts they need, load them, and they're out the door.

Um there's nothing in the way.

We're not moving trucks to get to everything we need, it's gonna be amazing.

Our picture on the right is the wash bay.

So that'll be um on the right hand side where that black hose is going up the wall, kind of there's gonna be uh uh catwalk, so it's a metal set of stairs of the platform so we can get up on top of our dump trucks, mud dogs, larger vehicles to clean the tops of everything off.

Um there'll be two pressure washer reels that hang from the ceiling that'll spin 360 around so you can get around the whole truck and you're not dragging holes out from a wall and trying to loop it around.

So that's gonna be pretty awesome as well.

Looks like my shower at home.

So they're both playing at once.

So the this is good, the office.

So the office is pretty much all framed out now.

Um I don't know if you can you stop one or the other.

Where's your office court right there?

That is our office right there.

So I was kidding, so here's like so Jeez.

It's kind of amazing right now.

So that's walking in the front door right there, and the one on the left where you're moving.

This is walking down the middle, kind of the middle hallway.

The conference room is gonna be on the left.

Uh I believe that's Courtney's office straight ahead.

And then there's another office there.

The one in the corner is the GM's office with the bathroom.

He moved kind of quick.

And then these are all just other admin offices, and that has the one on the word stopped on the right hand side is our printer copier area.

Is that a joke?

What?

The GM has a bathroom.

Oh, it's next to the GM's bathroom.

Or the bathroom is between the GM's office and the conference room.

So it's right outside the conference room.

Oh, I thought you meant you put a bit of an example.

Wow, yeah.

How did man get?

He didn't he didn't ask for one, I think.

But we ignored it.

Okay.

He's got he's got a sauna instead.

Shower in the locker room.

And then the right video, so he's kind of walking in the same area, but then he turns and goes.

This is the front of the building.

It's really hard to explain.

Like that's technical services storage area.

There's some bathrooms in the middle there.

And then when he looks to the right here, this is the wall of offices that are on the front wall of the building.

So there's six or seven offices, I believe, on that front side there.

I think that was Matt.

We just walked by.

How many how many square feet is the office space?

Oh, there'd be a quiz.

I don't remember.

I don't remember.

I can I can find it out for you though.

Um, and then that's just where he stops kind of looking.

There's an open work area where the guys are gonna be able to meet in the morning, kind of get their uh what they're doing for the day and go from there.

Some bathrooms and the locker rooms are all back there.

It's very cool to see.

It's kind of a maze right now, and looking through studs, it's hard to really see everything, but it is definitely the they framed it up real quick because there was nothing in there a week and a half ago, and all the walls are framed.

They're putting the drywall up above the so they they drywall everything above the ceilings as a fire block.

Um they're running all the mechanicals in the ceiling, uh pulling all the electrical, all the data cables, all that kind of stuff is all getting installed in the office area now.

So that's kind of the big focus is to get all the mechanicals in there, and then they'll start drywalling.

I think they're already they were helding in drywalls.

They're bringing drywall in today already.

So and as far as size, there's only two spare offices, so we really didn't plan for great expansion in the office area.

But the conference room is larger, so we won't be back in here.

Looks a lot different.

Very cool.

They're seem to be on schedule.

They're still shooting for an end of October, bringing in of November completion.

So nice.

And we did give Joe Piper a tour, Alderman Piper tour on Wednesday.

So if you would like to walk through, you just have to let uh I'll be gone next week.

Matt, no, you have to wear hard hat safety gear, but yeah, if you want to see to let me know, we can set up a time.

I can meet you over there.

Okay.

Obviously, when it's done, you'll get to see him.

But if you want to seat in a job, the marble's gonna be coming in three months.

Just to get them going a little bit.

He would have flipped about having him having a little private bathroom.

Well, thank you, Matt.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So now if people did want to go on a tour, is it better to wait a bit for more work to be done?

Or if for me, if you like can't visualize, I would wait for the drywall to be on because then you can go in there and see.

All right, this is an office right now.

It just looks like a bunch of sticks, and it's hard to tell them.

I mean, you can see the rooms, but until it's drywalled, it's kind of hard to really I would have to have a set of plans for me to find my way through there right now.

So we should probably do it.

I was gonna say, yeah, plus it'd be just so you're not running out there.

So maybe sometime when the weather gets a little better.

Or would folks be interested in a tour before the grand opening?

Well, like you said, when the dry walls were in the snow on it.

Once it travels up, I can let you know, and we can just we can meet in there.

Um get hard ads and everything for everybody.

And I'm not so sure about that.

So unless it's so when construction's gonna be.

Okay.

All right.

So operations center.

Um we have signed uh an agreement with all of the furniture.

Uh we had a blanket POM that you guys approved in December for 250,000, and the furniture came in at about 229,000.

So we are under budget for that.

They the manufacturer that we selected does have a 7.5% increase May 1st.

Um, and we did get them to agree to hold the costs.

So that saves us about 17,000 dollars.

Um, so that will be exciting when we get all of that.

Um the revenue requirement for the PSC rate case was received, and we are working on that.

Hopefully, submitting um that back to them by the end of day tomorrow.

Um we had our second annual Easter egg hunt on um the first week of April, and it went well.

Lots of lots of fun, lots of eggs.

I think we had what 120 some eggs hidden around the entire utility that everyone had to find.

So um that was a good time.

I everyone had a fun time with that.

And then we have um our sell leases.

I just wanted to mention this.

Um, we have sell leases on many of the towers where different uh cell vendors have their antennas, and then they pay us uh a fee each year to um have that on there.

Um we are currently uh working with Verizon.

Um they have an expire agreement that expires in fall of this year, and um they do not want to meet our insurance requirements.

So I have been working closely with uh Jerry.

Um, and he is um we are trying to set up a meeting with their people and Jerry and us here um to discuss further, but they do not want to provide umbrella insurance, and Jerry feels it is very important and required that we have that umbrella insurance, it protects us and the um in his words the amount of money that we receive for these cell leases does not compare in any way to what would happen if there was an injury and we didn't have this umbrella policy.

So uh just wanted you guys to be aware that this is happening.

Um I've been working with them for a very long time now.

We also have a T Mobile one that is also um we're working with them.

We're not too as far of a point as we are with Verizon, but um, they're having a little bit of struggle with the um work comp piece, so we're working on that one with them as well.

But I just wanted to let you guys know that while this is nice revenue to have, um, we are having some struggles with this, and and Jerry has kind of advised that um we want to stick to our requirements on insurance, and and um so we'll keep you updated as as we work through those.

Thank you.

Um then I have uh update from Dan.

Um the mayor and Dan went to Washington DC.

Um P Walkies, director of public works and mayor also went, and everything went very well on their trip to DC.

Um with the lawsuit, depositions and expert reports are continuing.

They have a check-in uh with the courts on May 8th and are hoping to find out more about scheduling and future court dates um on that date.

Um expert reports will be completed after the depositions are done, and uh then after all of that is complete, then they can begin prepping for trial.

Um, Dan and Jessica should be in attendance at the next meeting in May to give uh a more formal update for for all of you on where they're at with everything.

That's all I have.

Yep.

I'm sorry, Joan.

Do you want the rate increase?

That's gonna take a lot of heat from me.

Do we know what that is and what's the messaging, how we prep for that?

Um I only got two calls this week or emails about rates and water rates.

So right.

So again, this has been in this has been part of our plan for many years.

It's within the plan, I believe right now they're um looking.

We we went in at about 14, so it's gonna be between about 11 and a half and 14 and a half percent, depending on there is um Milwaukee Water is also looking for a rate increase right now.

And um when Milwaukee water gets an increase, we can automatically go in and request that increase put on our because obviously the purchased water will go up whatever our increase is, and we need to forward that on to be able to maintain, and so we are trying to work with them to coordinate so that we just have one increase that includes Milwaukee Water's increase in that rather than having to go um we're we're asking the PSC rather than having to go get an increase ourselves and then have to give another increase very shortly after when Milwaukee water gets their uh rates increased, so we're trying to coordinate and work together, and again, um we've expressed to the PSC many times over that you know, we prefer one rate, and we also you know are trying to reduce the impact on customers as much as possible, and we would prefer this rate increase to happen very end of the year, beginning of 2027, because we did have sewer and return flow increase this year.

So we are working all together and you know, trying to minimize that impact as much as possible.

So they are fully aware of that.

We hope that they will work with us and um you know do the same.

Is there a schedule that we have for the plan?

I wasn't here year.

Is there a schedule that we can go out on the plan?

Like we're talking 11 to 14 percent this year, and what's the next step and what's the next benchmark that you have forecast?

So we have that sheet, and I I believe we we had that in the fall um that we went over that with that that increase.

And I think um yeah, I think we had discussions then.

I can certainly send you a copy of that if you'd look.

Does that go to council for vote, or is that just no, that's our operations now?

Yeah, and so the public service commission does our rates.

We don't we don't pick our rates, we don't select them.

So whatever they say is what actually goes.

And don't they set the timing of it as well?

That's correct, and that's why we're you know, we're trying our hardest to work with them to you know, and push this off again to minimize the impact to customers as much as possible and keep our plan of you know, this much increase each year.

Um like you said it's best to do one with Milwaukee, otherwise, yes, exactly.

And we we are people won't understand that absolutely but right, like to minimize the pain at this point, correct?

Um remember that you mentioned that you were trying to ask them to not have us put our request in immediately.

So when you said it's due May, did they not correct?

They said no.

They wouldn't agree.

Correct.

That is correct.

They told us to what you said, you were doing that so that it would push it off, so we wouldn't be increasing and increasing.

That is correct.

So we're we are trying to delay because they have rules on when this has to be implemented once this whole re rate case is done.

Not only um are we trying to push that off, but we you know, we have a yearly public service commission report that is due uh May 1st.

We have our financial statements that we're reviewing and and trying to put out um for public and then regular business, and so that's why we also asked for that increase in time.

Um they did give us two weeks, but they didn't give us the additional.

They told us it had to be in by tomorrow at end of day.

So it seems odd to me that if a utility would want to postpone a rate increase, why would they push it if they're there to protect the rate pair?

So uh we've had a conversation with them many times.

Uh Dan did speak um, he left a message.

Hopefully, you know, we can kind of get together and just all work together as as one and get this, like I said, one rate increase with Milwaukee and the timing later in the year.

But in the end, they make the decision.

We have expressed over and over our hopes of when this all so what's the probability that we could add two potentially?

Um I I think um it's possible.

Um I I don't know.

It I it depends on who you speak with there.

So and we can't pause.

It's like you said, it's mandated.

So if the if the commission says we have to institute and then Milwaukee raises the rates, then we have to go back.

Correct.

Yeah, that's all right, which again I don't quite understand that because unless the PSC is afraid somehow we're gonna delay rates and go bankrupt or something like that.

Like I don't understand if the utility part of their thing is they have a schedule and and they're you know that keeping their schedule of who's working on what when but I suppose it's have more than us.

And if somebody else is coming in for an increase, and yes, they're they're managing their workload as well.

Okay.

I excuse me, I think that deal does bring up a point because we we used to talk a lot about the communication plan and uh open houses and all of that, and so it'd be nice to get in front of this.

At least um Dan is gonna be here next month's meeting, easier, maybe in preparation for that.

We can emphasize that we we have a growing concern and that um because we did a very good job of communicating before it's gonna be brutal.

I'm just telling you, it's gonna be it's the communication, it's gonna be absolutely brutal.

Yes, we we the phone calls we field them daily, so that is why we're really hoping that we get the one increase rather than two.

Because the last increase was a year ago.

October of 24.

Okay.

So is that on your to-do list or Courtney's to-do list to get it on the agenda?

Yeah, about or the work started.

Because I don't really remember anymore if we have a um we had a firm that we worked with, right?

I'm not sure that we still have a connection with a firm or even a plan forward.

Correct.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, we have we have that model that we had with all of the years, the future years and those increases that that we had put out, but we don't have until all of this is done, we don't have an actual percent increase finalized until they have this uh revenue requirement complete.

I don't recall doing any particular PR campaign before the October 2024 rate increase.

Well, either.

So I'm not sure like why is why you anticipate this being such a bloodbath because people are already complaining about the water rates now and the message we heard three weeks ago was oh, we're paying for the Taj Mahal that we're building over there at the building.

I'm just telling you the public sentimentality through there, and then we're gonna pass on a another rate increase, which I understand we forecast and scheduled, and then possibly two, it's not gonna be pretty.

So we can I think it's something we something like we can talk with Dan or I can talk with Dan about because we have talked with Dan also about it's like that we'll be having um closed session to talk about the GM search in May, and um uh but also we can make sure that we're ready to talk about a potential PR campaign associated with the rating, just so we remind people about the schedule about how the PSC operates a little bit and then what that might mean.

Yeah, and I I think you know, maybe in a month two we'll know more on what our final percent is and you know have a more solid number.

I think a solid number is important also, just you know, and and again that that 11 to 15 percent is the water only, so that is not the impact on your entire bill.

So the impact on the entire bill would be less than that because sewer and return flow are not anticipated to increase in 2027 based on um you know what we've talked about with the city.

So Courtney, when you actually get the number correct, um would you guesstimate it at June, July, whatever?

Well, it it depends on kind of how all of this falls out with are they going to allow us to you know have a a later date?

Are they gonna be able to put this on hold for a little bit or not?

And so I guess that it's all kind of up in the air right now.

So do you think that this will has high percentage that it's gonna hit sometime this year?

I would I would say uh uh well we're we're hoping for end of year this year, um, but it you know, if this keeps going at the pace it will, it it could be you know September, August at we and which we don't want, so and we will ask for an extension again.

Okay, um, so um but I just don't I just don't know.

Um it is a nice apologize.

I I wish I had no more solid answers, but I I don't I don't unfortunately.

It's what we don't control.

It's right, yeah.

And I mean, I tried to, you know, every time I talk to them, I keep those messages in their ear.

So that's all we can do.

Right.

Yeah, I mean our discussions with POC seem to be a recurring theme.

So yeah, I think um we can definitely have a part either a separate agenda item about um information related to the rate case, just so that we can either come out and story, Freeman, or just or just more information.

So all right.

Um other good news, Courtney Sunshine.

It's not raining.

Does that do it for the administrative and the um Germany?

Kelly.

Um not a ton going on with us.

We have the Lily Rose uh metal brooks here living that we passed a few months ago that uh construction started.

So we got good chunk of water main install.

Still a lot to go, but they did serpent and waterman out there.

Um last week.

I did go with Dan and attorneys on a walkthrough for the punch list for SJ Lewis.

So we were able to go through the punch list kind of um agree on some things that are complete and what's not complete, and we're working with SJ Lewis to get the remaining punch list items completed.

Um we're systematically taking our water towers out of service to do their five-year drain down inspections.

That will help us determine when we need to budget for repainting of the towers.

That should all be done by uh Memorial Day.

We have to take them out one week at a time because by the time you drain them, inspect them, drain them, clean them, inspect them, refill them, back to them to make sure they're safe.

It takes about a week's time.

Uh UW Tower is the one that is currently down.

And uh, we just communicate with the fire department in advance and run the pumps in pressure mode so the customers normally don't see any kind of difference.

Um we notify fire department in case there's a big event, they can if they get time, call us when dispatch goes out, and then we can watch the system closely.

Um our lead and copper sampling at our uh sites that are approved will happen in um it has to happen between June 1st and September 1st.

So in advance of my being gone for a little while, I reached out to all of all 31 of our past participants requesting that they uh agree to help us again.

I've heard back from about half of them, so we'll uh we'll continue to hopefully line the rest of them up.

We are required to submit 30 samples, so we don't have a lot of extra people that are willing to do it, and your house has to fit certain criteria in order to be eligible.

And lastly, I met with um Charlie and Doug from planning today.

We are starting the process to get um 445 new hall off the historic register.

It uh used to house well four.

It's uh located at the near the intersection of West and New Hall, right in the parking lot where KDB label used to be.

We are currently using a small portion of the structure for storage, but it won't be necessary once we're in the operations center with all of our uh tools and inventory close at hand.

It was built in the late 40s, it's uh got a little bit of an arc deco thing going on with it, but there's asbestos in the walls, asbestos in the tile in the roof, and the reservoir, which is the largest part of the building is starting to develop holes at the intersections of the roof and the walls.

And um so uh we hired Gail from UW Milwaukee, who has a blanket contract with the city to do all of the historic stuff for all their water main and or all the street projects to put together a um report on acknowledging that it's part of the historic registry, but it's not truly a landmark, and that well three, which we're keeping, is of the same style and is already on the register, so we're not losing the last you know, water utility art deco building.

And uh, so that needs to go to the landmarks committee on May 6th.

Charlie's gonna present it just to let them know that this is what we're doing, but that it's not truly a landmark site.

So I'm not asking for any action, I'm just letting you know it's um it should be abandoned, and anything that comes out.

I will keep you updated, and when it comes time to tear it down or do some mitigation because we want to tear it down.

I'll bring it before you for action.

Thank you.

Uh anything else, Fredman?

That's everybody.

Okay.

All right, let's move on to the uh financial report, please.

Okay, we'll start with revenue for March.

Uh revenue is looking good.

Um we had one and a half percent um above budget for the month for I'm sorry, two percent for the month about we're about one and a half percent for the year above budget for revenue.

Um commercial and industrial continues to uh be higher than the previous year, which is good news.

Um for the year for consumption, we are about 1.6 percent um above our estimated budget.

Expenses for the month of March.

Um, everything uh is uh pretty good this month.

We we didn't have any uh really high variances.

Um so uh source for uh March is about sixty five hundred dollars over budget, uh that is for the Milwaukee Waterworks invoice.

Our pumpage was higher.

There was uh a couple more days on the on that invoice.

Uh distribution is about sixty six hundred dollars under budget, and uh that we did not receive an invoice from the city for um our street openings, and our administrative category is about seventy-five hundred dollars above budget.

Um we had some uh vehicle maintenance expenses on our muddog in March.

Um, and then we had labor that we had previously uh booked to a capital job that was um in error, and so we had to move that to an expense in in March, so that increased that our um interest income continues to be good.

Um it's going down a little bit, but still above what we have budgeted, as you know we budget that very conservatively, but that's still looking good.

So we're looking good for March for cash.

We started the month at 52.8 million dollars.

Uh we have our um issuance of long-term debt there, that 1.2 million dollars right here.

That is our Wi-Fi uh reimbursement for our operations center that we received.

And then we also have the other one to note here is our 774,000.

That is our pilot payment that we sent to the city.

And so that was a disbursement um in March, and so we ended the month about uh 54 and a half million dollars.

And finally, we have our transmission transmission and distribution spreadsheet, and that is all of our active uh waterman replacement projects for the year.

Only um the only one that is currently underway is the bidwell in prospect.

Uh they are wrapping up services next week, and so that one should be close to done uh water wise, and then the resurfacing project, which is the large project that's gonna happen this year.

They are hoping to start next week.

And obviously, we haven't received a whole lot of invoices yet because it's early in the year.

So does anyone have any questions?

When do we start looking at 2027?

Just curious, I don't remember.

Um, this will stay all year, so you'll keep this one all year.

A budget um budget will have 2027 stuff in it.

Okay, but you so you're already yep.

They're they're already talking about they know what they're planning on doing.

That was like a fall, yeah, or if that's constant stops.

Yeah, couldn't remember.

Okay.

But yeah, we usually start talking about capital operating budgets and what is it for August or September?

September.

September was September's capital, yeah.

That's what I was wondering if September and then October and yeah.

Okay.

Um something that popped into my head I was gonna ask.

Anyway, um, any other questions or or uh comments for the team here?

All right.

How do we say that if there's no objection, we're adjourned.

Yes, all right, thank you, everybody.