VIRGIN VALLEY WATER DISTRICT REGULAR BOARD MEETING
VIRGIN VALLEY WATER DISTRICT OFFICE
AUGUST 3, 2010

Minutes of a Regular Board Meeting of the Virgin Valley Water District Board held on August 3, 2010, at the Virgin Valley Water District Office at 3:00 p.m. Attending were President John Paul, Vice-President Karl Gustaveson, and Board Member Ted Miller. Secretary-Treasurer Kenyon Leavitt and Board Member Mark McEwen were not present. Also present were Ken Rock District General Manager, Michael “Boomer” Johnson Chief Hydrologist, Bo Bingham District Legal Counsel and Mary Johnson taking minutes and other interested parties of agenda items.

President John Paul called the meeting to order at 3:03 p.m.
Karl Gustaveson offered a Prayer and Ted Miller led the pledge.
Public Comment – There was no public comment at this time.

Discussion: Board Comments - None
President of Board Comments – John Paul stated that he would just like to comment that he was thrilled with the work from the General Manager, Ken Rock, even though it has only been a week. He further stated that staff seems to be taking him in stride and Ken seems to have won their confidence and respect and hopefully this will continue.

CONSENT AGENDA:

Karl Gustaveson made a motion and stated that his motion would contain amendment to the minutes, item #5, as amended by counsel.

John Paul stated that item #6 also needed to be pulled from the agenda.

Karl also added that item #6 be pulled from the agenda for further discussion and heard at a later time giving the general manager an opportunity to have more time to understand and study this issue before a final decision is made. Ted Miller seconded the motion.

John Paul asked for questions before a vote and Sandra Raymaker requested that item #4 be pulled from the consent agenda.

Karl amended his motion to also pull item #4 from the consent agenda and move to the position of item #6. Ted Miller seconded the amended motion.

Bo stated that Karl had specifically only mentioned item #5 to be amended in his motion, but that item #7 was also amended.

Karl Gustaveson began to amend his motion and stated that he was starting over. Karl made a motion to approve the consent agenda as listed below with item #6 being pulled from the agenda and heard at a later date; that item #2, minutes, be amended in respects to items #5 and #7 as amended by legal counsel and that item #4 be pulled from the consent agenda and be heard in item #6 spot. Ted Miller seconded this motion and it was unanimously carried. 3-0

1. Discussion & Action - Approve Agenda – Item #6 pulled from agenda and item #4 pulled from the consent agenda and to be heard in item #6 spot.

2. Discussion & Action – Approve Minutes from 7/20/10 Regular Board Meeting – Items #5 and #7 amended as per legal counsel

3. Discussion & Action – Approve Bills Paid - $398,821.58

** End of Consent Agenda**

5. Discussion & Possible Action – Consideration to Appoint the General Manager, Kenneth Rock, as “member” to the Sewage and Wastewater Advisory Committee (SWAC) and District Hydrologist, Michael Johnson as “Alternate Member” to SWAC

Karl stated that this was a technical advisory committee made up of most all the cities in Clark County, including Mesquite; that Mesquite’s Public Works Director Bill Tanner also served on this committee; and that it would be beneficial for Ken to also represent the VVWD on this committee. Ken commented that he was dual certified in water and wastewater; and with the cooperative nature that we want to establish with the City’s resources, it could be valuable to be involved with this as well and with Boomer’s suggestion that he take the lead, would be good as well. Boomer also stated that this was required by NRS to have a representative from the VVWD serve on this committee.

Ted Miller made a motion to appoint General Manager Kenneth Rock as “member” to the Sewage and Wastewater Advisory Committee (SWAC) and District Hydrologist Michael Johnson as “alternate member” to SWAC. Karl Gustaveson seconded this motion and it was unanimously carried. 3-0

4. Discussion & Action – Approve to Write Off Delinquent Accounts

Sandra Raymaker asked how much we were writing off and how long we had been working on this. Sandra was informed that the amount was $80.46 and that the account was terminated May 28, 2009.

Ted Miller made a motion to approve to write off delinquent account 2730.7 for $80.46. Karl Gustaveson seconded the motion and it was carried unanimously. 3-0

7. Discussion & Possible Action – Consideration to authorize and schedule auction of remaining 88 Mesquite irrigation shares and 2 Bunkerville irrigation shares

Karl questioned Boomer and asked if we needed the Bunkerville shares for the secondary system, and Boomer stated that we have full title to another permit that can be moved to the secondary system and these two shares were available to lease. Ken stated that the District held an auction and only one person attended and only bid to lease 80 Mesquite shares for Black Gaming, LLC and 20 Mesquite shares to Oasis Golf Course, both at $300 per share. Ken further stated that later that afternoon we were contacted and asked if the remaining shares could be leased and this item was put on the agenda to advertise and lease out the remaining 88 Mesquite shares and the 2 Bunkerville shares. There was further discussion as to how long to advertise and when to hold the auction to lease the remaining shares.

Karl Gustaveson made a motion to advertise for a two week period starting with an ad this Friday for the District to hold an auction to lease 88 Mesquite irrigation shares and an additional 2 Bunkerville irrigation shares from the District on August 17, 2010 at the District offices at 10:00 a.m. Ted Miller seconded this motion and it was unanimously carried. 3-0

8. Hydrologist’s Report

Boomer had included a written report and also stated that he has been working on finalizing the Virgin River Habitat Conservation & Recovery Program (VRHCRP) with comments due to US Fish & Wildlife by August 6, 2010 in preparation of printing documents for formal Notice of Intent and public comment.

Boomer further stated that he was defining parcels with water rights held by VVWD as right of ways with the BLM within the Gold Butte ACEC and future parcel areas for water resources critical to future operation to VVWD for proposed formation of the Gold Butte NCA and that he has been working with The Furman Group and Robcyn, LLC to finalize these parcels.

Boomer had also included in the board packets under “correspondence” a letter received from the Division of Water Resources (DWR) stating that our applications previously held by SNWA that are1989 in priority and later that were protested, will require re-notification. The VVWD does not initiate that process; the State Engineer’s office will initiate that, but the VVWD is responsible for these fees.

Boomer further commented on water quality and that the annual compliance sampling had been conducted and that we were winding down on arsenic compliance sampling.

Boomer also received a draft agreement from the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to revise grant agreement authorized by U.S. Congress in the amount of $1,376,000 for installation of a prototype horizontal collector well for diversion of VVWD surface water rights as a pre-treatment method to use Virgin River water as a future potable water supply.

9. General Manager’s Report

Ken had included a written report with projects and tasks that have been accomplished or that he is working on. Ken further stated that an employee had suggested that we set up a food bank receiving bin in the lobby if that was acceptable to the board. Ken also mentioned that he would be meeting with Mayor Holecheck on Friday. Ken also stated that he would be updating a report for the City of Mesquite and meeting with Aaron Baker and that he would have a new GM Statement on the website.

10. Discussion & Possible Action – Discuss prioritization of projects before the VVWD as proposed by the General Manager

Ken began by stating that it became apparent that there was lots of work to do here and plenty of interesting projects and lots to undertake and so within the course of the first few days, with help from staff, he drafted a list of projects and prioritized it to projects that would save the most money and have the biggest impacts at the top of this list; and then past that, things that would be good to have or help us long term. Ken stated that specifically, we have 10.8 million dollars in bond funds that we are currently paying interest on that we haven’t found any use for and it appears that there is no immediate use for those funds. The cost of those bond funds is a net $469,000 per year. Ken stated that these bond funds were to be used for certain capital projects, but feels that the board along with the manager and staff should consider whether to hold on to that much money and pay that much interest for the option of using it for something that we haven’t even determined yet. Other options to be decided is whether to move ahead with well #34 or perhaps rehab other wells that would cost less money and be fiscally more responsible at this time.

John Paul questioned if we would lose anything, as grant money, if we neglected to drill well #34 at this time. Ken stated that the casing had already been purchased, but that it was durable and could be covered and stored until needed. Ken stated that we didn’t require the capacity now and there were other ways that could be more efficient to run the system. There continued to be a lengthy discussion regarding well #34 and costs already spent, and future costs to drill and develop, grants, etc. There was further discussion regarding the ACOE grant and drilling well #34 but leaving it undeveloped.

Karl stated that he would like to see item #1 regarding the 2008 bond funds back for the next board meeting and make some decisions on that. Karl further stated that he wanted us to move forward with the rate study.
Ken stated that he also thought drilling under the freeway and looping the system would be more beneficial and to bring water from the lower zones and add booster pump station(s) and move the water up to higher reservoirs.
Boomer stated that we needed to look at the aquifer recharge project that was not included on the list.

Karl further stated that he thought Bowen & Collins should come to the next meeting and inform the board where we were at with the rate study. John Gleave stated that Bowen & Collins were waiting on CIP numbers.

11. Public Comment

Morris Workman with Mesquite Local News questioned the amount that the 80 and 20 shares leased for and was informed that all went for $300 each.

12. Adjournment

President John Paul adjourned the meeting at 4:08 p.m.

NOTE): The minutes of this meeting have been tape-recorded and will remain on file in the District office for a one-year period for public examination.

•  Board Meeting Minutes: 2010-08-03 (.pdf 21.K)