June 17, 2024 — Water Resources Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:13] Alright, so we'll call to order the June 17, th 2024, Rab meeting, and I'll turn it over to Joanna to talk about the virtual roles. Right. That sounds great. Let me just make sure. Let me give one moment to make everybody a Co. Host. If that works sometimes there's a little bit of a delay getting folks in there, and I just want to make sure everybody has functionality. All right. I think I think we're one step closer. Thanks for waiting. So Hello! My name is Joanna Bloom. and I'm serving as the technical host for this meeting. We'll start with sharing a few slides of the virtual meeting rules that we follow.

[1:05] These rules are in place to find a balance between transparency with community members and security that minimizes disruptions. We do need a full name associated with each person's participation in open or public comment, and we cannot unmute you without it. If your full name is not currently displayed. Please change it, or you can send me a text, and I'm happy to change it for you. There is no chat feature for this meeting, the Q&A function is enabled and can be used to address zoom connectivity questions only. And again, my text, my phone number for a text is 3 0, 3, 8, 1, 7, 1, 7, 4, 2 members of the public may be unable to control the audio or video features. Video is limited to city officials, employees, and invited speakers only. I will unmute you when you are recogn. and I'll call your name when it's your turn to speak and announce the name of the next speaker on deck. After I've unmuted you please say your 1st and last name and a 3 min timer will be displayed, and we'll start once you begin your comments.

[2:11] Thank you for your participation back to you. Thanks, Joanna. We'll move to approval of the May meeting minutes. You know, folks, I can't read it. That's cool. Says good things. I didn't get actually any comments or edits on the main meeting minutes. You there a motion to approve them in meeting minutes motion to approve the main minutes. Second, second all those in favor. Right?

[3:01] Many meetings are approved and we'll move to public comment. Do we have anyone waiting to speak. I do not see anybody. But let me just double check the list. There are no community members wishing to speak tonight. Okay. and we can move to our information item. And I don't know, Joe, if you're gonna kick it off or alright. good evening, board members. I'm Joe Tedi. I'm the director of utilities for the City of Boulder, and tonight we have the second of 3 meetings that we do in May, June, July, on the capital improvement program, and as we normally do in June, we clear the whole agenda so that we can do a deeper dive into that item. And our presentation tonight, I would say, has

[4:03] 2 areas of emphasis. The 1st one pretty routine go through the 2025 capital improvement program kind of showing you the next 6 year window as well as proposed rates. The next step would be to bring that back in July for board action. And then, as I mentioned, last month, part of that presentation, and we have it embedded within is a long term view at the stormwater and flood capital improvement program much beyond 6 years. And so that'll give the board and the and the public who might be here to see what's coming down the road, and the scale and and cost of all of the Major Flood projects that are in our backlog. And so our, as I said, it's it's a deep dive that we do here in in June, hoping to get your board feedback

[5:06] and and spend some time on the subject tonight, and then our hope would be to bring back probably a fairly brief presentation in July. Open to have addressed any feedback that you have asking for Council recommendation. as always, especially I always feel bad for the newest board member, because there is so much that comes up right away, Cip. But really, for all of you. Especially here between June and July, we need to respect the open meetings roles. But if if any of you want to reach out to staff one on one. If you have any questions that you don't think of tonight, we're happy to follow up with you. just like May, leading our presentation tonight will be Chris Douglas. He manages our utilities engineering

[6:01] work group and has been hard at work with his team for several months here getting ready for the cip. as well as Steph Klangerman, who is our principal financial analyst. And I think, just before I turn it over to to Chris and Steph. I thought the way we did it in May, where we kind of went through section by section and stopped and asked you for questions kind of as we went worked fairly well. So if it's if it works for the board, I think that's what we plan. The night and the the focus will be on the there's. There's a little bit of background on that condition indices and things like that of the of the infrastructure. But we'll be focusing on projects and and the rates and the financials

[7:00] and not to steal the team's thunder. But talking about rates, we based on what we projected last year that we thought we would be bringing forward in 2025. You may have noticed in your packet, and we'll be talking about it tonight that they're actually a little bit lower than what we were projecting last year. So think with that, I'll turn it over to Chris Douglas. Pardon. Good evening. Board, as Joe mentioned, was the company's engineering manager, and talking about the the the presentation this evening. certainly. This being the second to 3 meetings, and then I'll be talking about some of the project information and then handing it over to Stepclom, and I'll cut out some other financials.

[8:07] And and really kinda looking at the agenda tonight is a little bit of that capital improvement program overview key projects, financial information and then discussion points. But, as Joe mentioned, feel free to step up and ask questions whenever you'd like to. But I would. I have worked. We have worked in some pauses on. Kind it, I'll call it. Section breaks within within the presentation. So now for the capital improvement program overview. As we we've talked about in the past really, on the capital improvement program utilities, owns a lot of assets and and complex systems. There's a backlog of rehabilitation work. and that reinvestment is is critical in in those infrastructure needs. But then, also within that critical nature is staff, is making a recommendation on a proactive approach, on that funding those those projects to minimize any significant rates breaks rate spikes. As we know program.

[9:15] this 1st section, I really wanted to just touch base on the asset, inventory and management system that the water utility uses. So each of the individual utilities and think about the thousands of pipelines, pumps, and and the entire system has a utility index score, and that is combined into an overall utility. Index score is shown kind of in that table in in the bottom. And and what do we do with that? Score is, it's more or it's less about the actual utility, index number and more about the trend of the number so thinking about, do we have? We don't want a score of a hundred. It's not really practical to have everything brand new all the time. But we also, on the other end of the spectrum, don't want to score of 0 in those in those categories, either. So what we're trying to do right now is, stop the decline of the numbers and flatten out that trend, and then in in the long term is kind of graph, represents. We want to see an increase in that trend. So, for instance, you look at

[10:19] as we looked at the utility index score from last year or 2022 versus 2023. In the water system we went from 45 to 43, and in the source water system we declined from 54 to 52. So what we've actually done is helped reduce the decline of those numbers. One projects will talk about tonight is 63rd water treatment plan, electrical and pumping system improvements, and that actually has been a big increase in the number. So, therefore, that treated water trend is actually is is not as much of a decline as we would have had without that much

[11:00] on the waste water side of things. We don't have a utility index or excuse me, an asset maintenance and analysis program at this point. We're planning to complete that work in in the coming, in the coming years and to prepare for that, we're doing things like improving our data quality and our sewer model correlating some more gis information from that from that program and also creating an asset inventory at the water resource, recovery, facility. But we're also doing things like continuing sanitary sewer lining program. So which is represented by the map on the right. And you can see on that map where we have the green pipes are either the pipes that have been lined or don't need to be lined, and then the red in the pink are those pipelines that are need to be maintained in the coming years? The bigger thing we also done with this is, we've also looked at it in the context of the racial equity analysis that the city has has been going forward. So the

[12:07] the map on behind all of the pipes is that racial that equity index scoring. So where the areas in darker blue are the lower priority of economic stress and need. And where the lighter loop is, the is our higher relative racial equity, racial equity and diversity and or economic stress. So what we're looking at from the sewer landing program is addressing those areas that remain that are in those lighter blue areas. And that's kind of that pink overlay this overlaying some of those lighter blue areas. That's the the type of analysis we're looking at as to which areas we want to address, not only from the system need, but also from that racial equity and analysis need. Can man. So now, kind of talked about the water and the waste water system? And before I go into the things that we're doing within the storm and flooding to it maybe wanted to pause and see if the board had any questions about some of these overviews.

[13:11] So what is undefined lining the yellow, the undefined lining is that's a lot of our larger diameter pipes. And so we we're still in that process of is that something that we want to line? Or is it a movement? Replacement projects, for instance, you can see kind of in the upper middle portion of the graph. There's the yellow line that goes out towards the wastewater treatment plant. And that's actually a section we're working on replacing as part of the main sewer interceptor project. So it's that we we know we need to do work in there. But it's more likely something different than just the traditional line. Okay? Now, I wanna talk about the storm and flood utility because the storm and flood utility doesn't have an asset in inventory maintenance program

[14:04] because the primary goal is not replacing of existing facilities, but it's construction of new facilities that were identified in the 2022 comprehensive master plan. And what we've done is some analysis on that end, and then turn that into this longer term 35 year capital improvement plan. So I don't know if the board remembers. But we did take a look at a version of this graph back about a year ago. and so on. The left is 36 projects that we identified from the comprehensive storm flood master Plan, just arranged geographically, and then on the right. What we've done is taken. 30 of the the 30 projects that are in that longer term range starting after starting at 2030, and we prioritize those projects based on the analysis method that we can come up with in the Strong Blood Master Plan. So there's 6 projects in there that are on that list, and those are actually ones that we are pursuing as a part of the current. 2024, 2029 capital group program. So that's where there's a a disconnect between

[15:16] what came out in the the comprehensive storm flood, master plan where we are today. But we've divided them up by colors, really, into blocks of 10 to help, you understand, when we look at the next slide, because we've taken those individual 30 project reaches and lump them into construction projects. So really wanted to shift onto that and let me let them. The mapping come up is, you can see. On the right is we've taken those 30 projects and divided them up into 14 construction projects. And really, where that comes from is the intent of those construction projects, is group them into groups of approximately 15 million dollars each

[16:02] and trying, and with the intent of trying to complete one project approximately every 3 years. and that allows us to get to that 35 year vision funding as directed by City Council. But you'll also notice from the color coding in particular. Call your attention to that project, too. is there? Are. We're trying to advance the those green colored projects. But it also makes sense, is in that particular case in pro, in, in construction, grouping. 2, we have 2 projects that are a little bit lower on the priority list. But we also wanna construct in that same region. So since we're building downstream, and then the further upstream is, let's go ahead and do that project those projects in the middle? Does it make sense from a construction standpoint and also from community impact that we can get in and work in that region in one spot, and then be out of that particular construction window.

[17:00] So this is the concept that we use to create that longer term cip process that was in the I believe, schedule 7 of your attachments, and so quick overview on what we're doing and how we've come up with those projects, but again wanted to pause to see if there were any questions related to how we're looking at our long term. Pla capital planning stormfly utility. What was the basic process that you went through to set the priorities in the course of the chronology of that time period, and and the course of the in the concept of choosing the priorities of the specific projects or the individual reaches into the groupings. It was the the driver was trying to do the highest priorities projects 1st and then, generally speaking, we want to work from downstream to upstream. to where we can then take advantage of the improvements as we continue projects so in terms of establishing that priority. What were the key variables that you kind of look at in terms of saying this project is probably going to be more critical from our overall city perspective. And this project and and that was based on in the comprehensive Storm Master plan where we we went through a waiting process that included

[18:22] back a slide with that does my notes is, if you remember, we had we evaluated on in order of priority. It was a life safety component for an individual reach. This effectiveness on how we advance a project. Equity, environmental culture and a cultural resources cost the ability to implement and multiple benefits. So each one of those categories had a waiting. And then we went through the process of reviewing each individual of these construction reaches with each of those, and then went through a waiting calculation.

[19:01] So that's that's how we ended up with this list. And then we took, then again taking that list and trying to do really the green or the lower rank, the the higher ranked priority projects first, st but then turning them into construction. Is that helpful on that one, Steve? The on the next slide? The 1st 15 of those are. Let's schedule 7. Is that correct? I'm sorry. The 1st 15 or schedule 7. And the attachments of the message, yeah. So all yeah, all, all 8. Yes, these are the ones that are in Schedule 7. And and you might see in the schedule 7 in the Memo there. There may be a disconnect between some of these prices versus what we're showing in the schedule the other thing that once we rank these projects, we are adding an inflation package. Since we are talking about such a long construction period to where planned construction dollars are more just because of that time of delay.

[20:13] And then now, I'd like to to move on to some of those key projects. that that Joe mentioned so 1st wanted to start out. And this is the general structure. Here's from dividing it up, really by utility, and we'll have a kind of a pause after we talk about each utility section. So the 1st group is the source water utility. and we have some ongoing projects on the the Albion dam and the Barker gravity pipeline that we've spent last several years talking to the Board with, and those projects are progressing and and working through things. And and one of the things just pointing out is, we are working with the design team and the consultant team and looking at doing an additional raise on the Albion Dam project. So we're still in that design component which.

[21:00] may add another construction season, and then on the Barker gravity pipeline. That's that's the one where we're doing small sections of line every year and been working since 2,017 projected to be completed in 2,029, and I just wanted to show the picture on the right shows the tight quarter that we're working in, and we can kind of see the bench on this picture. And that's where the pipelines going. So this lining program really makes sense from a minimizing our impacts. The and and the other big thing that we talked a little bit about in May is we're looking at projects. In the outer years of the cip based on the 2020 Colorado dam regulation safety changes. And so with that, with some changes that the State of Colorado came up with. So we're evaluating our dams related to hydraulic hazard of the dam seismic design requirements and the hydrologic model requirements. So it's so a a different change. And how the regulatory agency is is one to look at additional data. So we're taking that and looking at that right now. And that's then the opportunity for us to help us reprioritize particularly what our

[22:15] 3 big projects that we've got in Cip related to the Barker outlet. Some Barker dam, and then the Silver Lake Outlet spillway. And so what you'll notice in the Cip documents is we have in 2028 and Barker Outlet Works project. But as we're. Yes, Joe talks about moving the mixing board on projects. We may see some projects shifting around a little bit. Based on that dam safety analysis and then moving on to the water treatment with the facility. So 1st one here is represented by the 63rd project and 63rd water treatment plants located on the east side of town, near Boulder Reservoir. So

[23:00] the recent project represented by the 2 upper pictures, we replace most of major pumps in the facility, electrical equipment, and some of the larger diameter pipe. The electrical and pumping changes in the facility increased our operating range for the pumps, so that we could be more efficient with our water rate. So thinking about how we control the pumps is something similar to when you put a dim right previously. The pumps were when you turn your lights when you flip a switch, but if you put a dimmer on your light switch you can control that. But the the amount of light depending on the situation got well with this new pumping system. We could do that with our pumping capabilities to really hit that sweet spot in our water rights portfolio. and then the Picassau project and again the Picasso Water treatment plant is located about 3 miles west of town of Polter Canyon. And so we're in the process of a multi year multi-phased project. So right now we're kicking off phase one where we're doing some rehabilitation which will happen this fall.

[24:08] And then the next phase is, we're looking at upgrades to the kind of corrosion control system, and what that will allow us to do is help control the corrosion. Really, in the 400 mile distribution system that we have within the city? So and really, that's gonna help with our our boulders water quality and our high water quality standard. And then, finally, the the 3rd phase is, we're replacing the tank that's shown in that picture on the bottom with a cloning contact basis which is gonna allow us to improve our efficiency in our and our disinfection system and then moving on from from the treatment plants, we have the transmission system, which is the backbone of the water delivery system, and which we deliver the waters. The smaller pipes eventually to the customers. There's many miles of transition pipeline for replacement in the coming years. The 1st of these projects is the start of a multi phase project along the 63rd Street quarter, which is that pipeline in the dark blue.

[25:10] and this project will replace that the agent pipe and upsize it to increase capacity that is delivered to the system. And this and then then we're looking at the second phase, the orange there, which will follow up in 2026, following that that 1st phase, and then we also, in that later years of the cip, have more pro, more transmission pipelines represented by the the pink lines. and then the the treatment plant, or excuse me storage tank system is the buffer between the treatment plant and and the transmission system. So these tanks manage the changes in our water demand over the course of the day, and the these tank projects will occur later years and cip one who we need to complete the wastewater treatment facility work. But then, also, these are long, longer lead time, and we're acquiring a lot more interdepartmental and customer Co. And and community coordination.

[26:10] So we're looking at beginning preliminary design work on the tank from Chautauqua in the Chicago area in 2025, and then looking at adding a new storage tank in the east boulder area. That preliminary work, starting 2026. And that's the update on projects in the water treatment system. So certainly. Wanna pause. See if the board has any questions related to the the water system projects in the main meeting. You have the green, yellow, red gender those very helpful. Can you speak to kind of the status of 63, rd and Natasha, after these projects will be more green and yellow. We'll we'll definitely on in in the sixty-thirds. And Betasso is definitely more on that green end. And if you remember when we talked in May. That was.

[27:02] for instance, to be, or even in the concept of the utility condition Index score. So the 63 treatment plan right now last year was that that 53 score? And typically there's always a decline every year, just because the agent things well, because of upgrading the pumping and the piping systems, we actually increase that score to a 59. So that's adding that into into that green zone. And that's really what we're anticipating on by hitting those those specific assets is we're definitely going from that red. That is, that lower Uci scored to bringing it up to close to 100 where it's new. Those sections are being completed on the Albion project. I think the notes said that you had decided to raise that a little bit further because of some additional water rights or something, and and and yes, and what we're what we're looking at on that Vlan is we have. If we've done the analysis, we have more storage rights than we in the Albion dam than we than we've been historically taking advantage of. And that was really a combination. Some things we found around the construction project.

[28:16] So that's where we're looking at that raise. Because from that can we take advantage of our water rates? Why, I didn't quite understand why that wasn't the availability of those rights weren't known originally, or what changed. And really, what changed in the middle of the project. So this we did a survey of the storage volume. Once the the reservoir had been drained, and we really realized we didn't have the storage volume that we thought frankly, was from the and the old timers when they put put the the reservoir in it. Initially there was a disconnect between that survey information. It's approximately about 300 acre feet.

[29:01] And so in in. And then in that context of you know, very generally speaking, industry wide, not necessarily worldwide. But that's about 600. The amount of water that 600 homes, you say, given year. That's a fairly significant percentage of what you thought the capacity was, it certainly is. And that's that's where, as we gain new information, it certainly is those aspects of okay, does it make sense? And it was particularly, does it make sense? Because we're here working with the contract to take advantage of that? Hey? Now, under the wastewater system. So a few slides on the wastewater system updating the and the main sewer interceptor phase 2 project. And really, this is the sewer line that's carrying about 85% of the city's waste water. And so this particular project, what we're doing is we're actually installing a new piping there in blue. Where in the previous maps, what with Superlin, John, that you were talking about. That was kind of that yellow green area.

[30:10] and what that project allows us to do is move the water out of the Boulder Creek corridor, which is something we've been looking at for a while. That was really exacerbated during the 2013 floods. But we're actively under construction there, and we've replaced about a mile and a half of that 2 and a half pipeline and so most of that is the traditional excavation and installation, which is the light blue. But then, in the dark darker blue in the lower left of the map is, we're doing a little over 2,000 feet of a tunnel project, and that's represented by the the picture on the right to. We're in the Valmont and Bute Mill area. You can kind of see the blue lines. We're doing 2 separate tunnels that are going underneath the Valmont road alignment, and that was part of coordinating with Boulder County on keeping the Valmont road or open dark construction.

[31:04] And so we're finishing up. And and really here, by the end of the month we will finish the 1st tunnel, which is the the tunnel leg. That's kind of there in the foreground in that picture. And then we're looking at in 2029 and cip the yellow areas is a phase 3 project. And that's particular one where we're looking to actually do some lining on that pipeline instead of a replacement project. Then at the water. Resource, recovery, facility. We have 2 things I wanted to point out, for the board is one we're continuing with the phosphorus project, which is regulatory, driven to meet incentives for implementation. Regulation 5, which is a nutrient full regulation to improve our our water quality is it's just charged back into Boulder Creek, and that constructions underway. And it's really represented. They're touching several spots within the water resource, recovery, facility in yellow and then in green are in the

[32:10] over the course of the 6 year Cip is, we're rehabilitating existing clarifier basis. So that's something that you'll see in the cip is clarify rehabilitation. And then those are just 2 updates on the waste water system. So again wanted to pause and see if the Board had any questions on on that. I wish it more broadly for the CIP. How much flexibility does Cip have for economies of scale, or when you're in a project, you realize? Oh, this quick fix! If we do it now, while everything's already under construction, we can get it done, even though it's later in the list of priorities, just like once you lock these in and done it very systematically. But how much with Oran is there in the cip to say? Well, in actuality. We could save a lot of time and effort if we do it now, I I think my supervisors are your biggest fan.

[33:07] because that is something that we talk about all the time on that. Oh, okay, can we move forward with something? Can we not move forward with something? And actually, one of the examples is one of the clarifier projects that we're working on right now. There was an economy of scale, and we got pricing to do 2 clarifiers versus one clarifier that we're planning. So we're actively looking at. There is a a give and take. And can we go ahead and take advantage of doing these 2 clarifier projects, but realizing what is that trade off on on the other end, or particularly, then there's also that interaction that we have with with this board on the okay. If we shift like that, how do we make sure we're bringing you along in that shipping conversation? Aspect of this? How much does it add in, you know. Oh, well, this wasn't in the Cip defined this way. And that's actually later, you know, 5 years later, we're gonna address this like, do you have enough flexibility to be able to say

[34:11] there logically, things have changed or we're in here now, and this could be a quick fix now, which is gonna 5 years later, been tearing the stack up to do that fix. And and I think the flexibility really exists. But it is a concept of bringing Rab along with us at city council, with those kind of changes, and some of it depends on. When is that change going to happen already. Or maybe it's in a 2025 change that we're actively looking. So I do believe that flexibility exists. And it's it's more about that communication on how, how we're shifting press. But I'm like, yes. I think Step will cover the financial picture a little bit like Chris is doing with the projects tonight, and it will actually go through the finances of the wastewater fund. And she will talk about reserves and things like that. And and we we manage our

[35:11] our project infrastructure, and our financial portfolio such that we do have some flexibility because things do change there like the The main sewer project, for example, and the tunneling that we're doing. Tunneling often presents a lot of risk and construction and things they're unforeseen conditions underground. So we have to be ready for that. We've got the ability within the 6 year, Cip. Say, to move things around and not an exact science to a project going this year versus that year. So using our re reserves moving things around, we we try to create enough flexibility for ourselves. cause, those things are just a reality.

[36:05] or even any, maybe an example on that where it went the other direction was on main sewer project we were planning on. We wanted to do phase 2 and phase 3 at the same time, but because of some of the recent cost escalations that we had over the years, it was really we needed to do the time when the trenching project that was more expensive. So we've shifted that lining program, that phase 3 out to it's similar sort of general overview question that I thought about when I was looking through all the numbers is. how do you guys do like more of a sensitivity analysis on these projects like we think about from a private investment, perspective and terms of a given project. Looking at, for example, I don't know. Goodbye. This pump. It would last 20 years, and then this other pump is cheaper, but it only may only last 15 years, or

[37:03] we could do this part of the project this year, but it might be more expensive next year. I mean, how much of that kind of sensitivity do you do before you kind of get to the base case that you were showing us. Yeah, I mean, Chris or Chris could answer that really well. But since you're looking at me often these projects have an alternatives analysis, as when they when we start with a conceptual design, and there are many design phases. We would look at alternatives. there may be large scale, very different options of a way to approach something and cost implications. Again pointing to the main sooner Project we could have done an open trench like close down Belmont Road for half a year, or a year, or whatever done an open trench, and installed the pipe that way. And so

[38:00] almost every project that we do, there's quite a bit of variability in terms of the ways that we could do it. And so we look at those things, and the pros and cons, and the and the trade offs and work with our consultants, who are always helping us on these large scale. Things dial in on a recommended alternative. Okay, now, I wanted to shift to the storm, and so you could. So I will talk about some of those projects. And the 1st project don't really wanted to touch base on this South Boulder Creek project. So from a flood perspective, it's pretty straightforward. Project. There's lots gets complicated quickly, but, generally speaking, it includes an earth and dam which you can kind of see in that what I'll call brownish orange, and then there's a concrete spillway wall for overflow, which is running parallel to us. 36.

[39:00] And then we have an outlet works which is kind of the yellow line there that conveys the water from the flood storage to back to eventually back to South Boulder Creek. And so recently we've been through with city council, a a process of disposing some of that project area, and that was under open space mountain marks control and also gone through a headxation project for portions of the project. But we're currently working with the consulting team on that 90% design and obtaining permits and getting this project ready to bid. What I wanted to show on this next slide is a video that we have created of what the the project will look like from when when flooding does happen. So here we're sitting at South Boulder Creek and us 36 kind of on the east side of the project. and as we go through this we can see where the the flooding will occur, and then along 36. There's that flood spillway wall.

[40:01] and then it ends up with the outlet works that eventually go back to South Boulder Creek. and then you can see the dam in the background. And now we'll pivot over to the table, mesa and us. 36 area. And look at the project kind of looking back towards the south and and with the green is that embankment, earth and embankment. There. Chris, if I might add to that just quickly. Sorry to interrupt you in flow, but that's what it'll look like when there's a storm and a flood. It'll be holding back water, but it'll generally be dry and The outlet works that Chris talked about will drain all of that water eventually, and it'll it'll stay dry that goes under the road somewhere, right after the exit for the entry way up there. Yes, Yup, so it's if you see the trees on the left there, that that outlet works is really right there over there on the trees.

[41:04] and then 63 million dollar bond in the I think, in the memo it says, that's for next year in this table is for 2024, and and we did in in in 2,024. If you remember, when we talked to Rob last year, it was looking at that construction time. We did talk about bonding. We were thinking we were going to be bonding late. 2024, going to construction. We are now looking at construction in 2025. So we're trying to time the bonding appropriately. So it's it really is. As we look at the bonding market and and looking forward on that end, just because if we we want to bond in conjunction work on those fogs. It's a it's a big body of work and stuff. So yeah, I'll also just quickly mention if you look at the financials. We actually don't have the principal and interest for that bond hitting until 2,025. So just

[42:09] last time our at our last rep meeting, you brought up the trumpet diagram, the contingency, and the timing. And so that sort of speaks to this question of how are you planning around some of the uncertainty. And when you're looking out at these projects that are going to be constructed in 2028, 2029, you obviously have a lot more contingency, those project numbers as well as escalation to mid time of construction. So you're basing those these calculations on the combination of this. You're also. You're also fitting that into the picture when you're thinking about how much is this gonna cost us at the end of the day trumpet diagram that funnel is in these early completion projects. We do have that large buffer. But then we're taking that information and then escalating it, depending on what we're planning correct.

[43:09] you know like for for this, for the South Boulder Creek Project, we're we're starting to really dial in on the level of precision of the cost estimate. And back to Lauren's question for any of these. When they get that close. We've got a lot of time and energy invested in them to put a lot of pressure on ourselves, to try and get as close as we can on the cost estimates, but sometimes. it, it can be difficult. especially in the current market. So. having that flexibility to adapt like Chris said, we did with the main sewer project where? Okay, we're gonna have to separate these 2 parts of the project into separate phases. But there's still the majority of it that we went forward with like. that's that's the that's the juggling act that we have to do sometimes.

[44:05] So the next project I wanted to talk about is the Gregory Canyon Creek Flood project, and we haven't talked a lot to the board about this, as some of the other projects we've done in future years, so wanted to spend just a little more more time getting you up to speed on where we are. So in in the Gregory Canyon Creek, enters the city limits near Chicago Park, and drains and travels to the confluence with Boulder Creek near the intersection of night, then Arapaho. So we're Rapa. So through the I'll call it the western part of the hill area. and that's a highly developed area. And and we have steep drainage with a very narrow channel in that particular area. And so, as you can see on the map in the blue is the the limits that we surveyed during the 2,013 flow, and we estimated that at a 40 to a 50 year. Storm event. but the other part was

[45:01] with that channel. That's theirs. We have se several bearing narrow road crossing, so a lot of those coverts became blocked. And so we did have that extensive stream flooding. And really, just these photos show some of the damage that happened during the 2,013 flood. and then to mitigate that plan is council, approved a mitigation plan. In 2015 we began preliminary design in 2021, and with that narrow channels you can kind of see. This is the vision of the channel that we're talking about installing, which is in this very tight corridor. So there's not the we're looking at designing for about a 25 year storm to be able to handle that flow. and it's a combination. We've divided the project into 2 phases on the map is phase one which really goes from Pennsylvania Avenue on the lower right to the intersection of 9th in Arapaho on the upper left. and that's a combination of channel improvements, and then also improving and roadway crossings.

[46:06] Then second phase, which is later years of the Cip is really from Chicago Park to Pennsylvania Avenue, and that's primarily road widening and culvert Culver project. So we're currently in the midst of the detailed design of that project which also includes an easement acquisition process which we're looking to begin and start coordinating with the impacted homeowners where this creek travels through. Yeah. Later, this. ask a couple of questions. The, I'm just curious, though, the the Council, who's a plan 2015 and design starting 2021. Just curious about whether that gap is primarily there's there were some staffing staffing changes issues. And and really a big impact was Covid. So. And and but then that is also some of that gap time. This, sometimes we we do have gaps between that mitigation plan. Yeah, that pro approval of conceptual, the way we're going to diving into the details. Design.

[47:12] Okay? So city council on Thursday is discussing the property using acquisition. And I was just curious if you could talk about that, and what impacts that may have on the project. So anytime? We have one of these projects in in utilities. Flood project where we need Eas. There are certain procedures that go around, those go with those and in with transportation projects as one there, there can be circumstances where we might have to condemn a property. maybe maybe something to do with the ownership, or something like that. We really try to negotiate with the property owners and have been successful in avoiding those types of actions.

[48:04] But we it's been the city's practice to go to council before we start into those processes to ask them for that authority in in the unlikely event is needed. It's they've taken that action in advance. So that's what that is. So they could say, No, you don't have that ability, or they haven't in in the history of city city projects. But And and really the the State gives the city as an entity, that authority. It's it's more of a policy thing for Council to say that they're comfortable with that being in the mix while we're talking about the Gregory Creek project. and I'll maybe I'll just skip what I was gonna say under matters. We had it and hit it. Now. We had a community meeting on May 30th that I think I mentioned under matters last month.

[49:00] and some of our newer team members. We talked about. The trans transition led the presentation. Did a really nice job got a nice reception from the public and some quite a few questions that we went through and question and answer and felt like it was a successful community meeting. And and sometimes, you know, we're we have these slides, and we have facts and figures and numbers. And just to put it into perspective, if anyone's been along Older Creek here in the last few weeks. We're we're in the peak, run off season and the the flows have gotten up to. I was just looking today. I think it was 680 cubic per second. which, if you am a cubic foot per second, is like a basketball going by. It's 1 cubic foot per second. So imagine 680 basketballs every every second. And that is a if you've seen it in the last few weeks. Include it's dropped, but it's a lot of water. That's Boulder Creek. That's a large, a large established drainage

[50:09] with a lot of watershed area. Gregory Creek is is a much smaller creek. and that is the that isn't the order of magnitude, of flow that we're designing for this table. And I'm trying to remember off the top of my head. I think it's current capacity is around 150. So everything during the 2013 flood anything in excess of that ends up on the streets and in people's houses. so that that is a significant improvements that make on a relatively small channel. Really a question from my toes. We were biking by Boulder Creek, and it looks super dangerous and scary and about to come over what control? Just the utility. what attorneys have it for the speed, the flag abilities control.

[51:02] It's it's a great question. so if it if people have been up to Netherland but 20 miles up Boulder Canyon we have Barker reservoir. And so it's Middle Boulder Creek that that is the the drainage that starts up there in Netherland. and every year we draw down that reservoir in the wintertime, when there's there's not a lot of precipitation snow. We're drawing down our reservoirs, and they get lower and lower. And then in the spring the snow balance and the runoff starts, and it fills back up. When it gets to a point of hitting the spillway, water will start to spill over, and and so we can control it with valves and things like that. And until that point, but once it hits the spill, whatever's coming in goes over, we. Still we still use the valves and have control, but that the scale changes really quickly from the amount of control we have over what's in the Creek

[52:04] and unfortunate tragedy last year with some tests in in that creek. And it is a topic of discussion. It's it's been there with city council, multiple departments in bold fire department police, our department parks and recreation, because a lot of the city is the park, and just thinking about how to communicate with the public about the risks and but also how to give people access. People that are skilled whitewater rafters like that. This is the time time of year, but making sure that we're carefully messaging all of that. have your water quality folks ever trying to calculate how much we might be losing like if it was a reservoir somewhere over here at the the bottom of the canyon, that we could capture some of that I mean how much

[53:04] we losing on an annual basis. If we got to a point in the future where we're starting to get tight on the rights. we we know what the volume water is that's in Boulder Creek, and what we're taking and what goes downstream. I don't remember what those the scale of those numbers off the top of my head. But we're also constantly perfecting our water rights. Portfolio and have applications in progress, including some to capture water much further downstream and and be able to use it in in different ways. So we do pay attention. How many properties are in the area? Not have that number off the top. You've got that one, Joe. I I believe it's 20 or 22 in in this phase that we're going to need Eas.

[54:04] So there's some that the priority would be to actually hurt, to acquire the properties of purchase right? If there's a willing seller and and and we do have a property pre acquisition, flood pre acquisition program. And actually, you can see the yellow, the 3 yellow dots that are on this map. Those were properties that the city did acquire from willing sellers. So, and that was something that we're looking to incorporate and consulting with community on, and how how we can integrate those into the project. But then, in this particular, on the Easman acquisition, we're not looking at acquiring someone's property. We're looking at acquiring the use of a portion of someone's property to be able to put in the the fled. So a little bit different. Look, because just on with the alignment. So but that that is another program that you'll see in there that you know, we're, generally speaking, from a flood acquisition program requiring right now about one property a year from wielding property sellers

[55:10] 22 is the number 22 is the number? Good? Thank you. So another project I wanted to touch base on is the Upper Goose Creek. Flood and storm water projects. This is a combination of storm flood, channel improvements, but also addressing the Stormwater or the stormwater pipes that we use to collect this from for the smaller storms and collecting that flow. And really from 2 components, here is we have the channel work. And then also, it's that storm pipe work. And so we, I think we even looked at this last year. But this is the picture from the 2013 flooding in the North Boulder Park area. So this project is helping us put in right size pipes in that area to help the drainage. And and this this part of the city. So, but what we need to do is be able to

[56:02] convey that water downstream. So we need the flood project, which is further further to the east than this North Boulder Park area. So does does this include the behind your mitigation through the old hospital site? Right here. there's actually another. So there's another project. So 2 of of the of the project we talked about, and when we did the the reach analysis that we are included in the 2024 to 2029 project is really is. There's a the channel through the old hospital project, which is really kind of running diagonal to your upper left along the screen, and then there's an inlet structure on the water that will be coming into North Boulder Park to get into that channel. So the these are a couple of situations of some projects that we're advancing a little bit earlier because it's in conjunction with the work

[57:00] so related to the Upper Goose Creek Project, but not it's not directly a part of the utilities planned project. And then the last thing I really wanted to touch base on was. this is a list of several of the inner departmental projects that we're working, really, not gonna go through the list, but I just wanted to touch base on one project represented by the picture. There is the 19th Street at 4 Mile Canyon Creek project that's currently underway. So it does flood mitigation. But it it's also includes improvement of travel on 19th Street. and which is an important multimodal connection in north boulder, and so it includes a new bicycle and pedestrian underpass and replacing and widening the 19th Street bridge, which will include new sidewalks and bike loads. So it's a combination. There is this definitely close working

[58:02] on really serving all, both department needs. And that is my last slide on projects so certainly open up for any other, maybe questions. If we want to right now, before I hand it over to Steph to talk about financial matters. I would just say, Chris, and and for the board, I I know that's a lot. We had the May presentation where Chris walked through all the different systems that are part of each utility. And so we're really looking at the condition of of things and and prioritizing and putting the most urgent needs. First, st I I always think it's it's like a giant musical fixing board and just looking at all the factors. And and

[59:01] now we bring this forward. There's a several 1 billion dollars worth of infrastructure as we've previously discussed, that we're responsible for. and so trying to reinvest in that in a in a way that's manageable for us to do the projects and manageable for the community in terms of of rates. But I realize it's a lot for the Board to to. Can't miss. Well. one question. Maybe this will get to your presentation set with the in the memo. There's an anticipated revenue bond section for the 2025.30 cp. And it just has 3 bonds for water and waste water, and then one for South Boulder Creek. But then there's more bonds in the tables. I just curious? Am I reading that correctly, or am I? Is this like a mystery today? No, that's a good catch. I think you're talking about? Maybe the Spring Valley annexation. That's 1 of them for water and wastewater. And there's a 79 million bond, 79 million dollar bond for Barker grabber trunk super placement and the wharf

[60:08] temperature, and then the South Boulder Creek. But there's more bonds in the 2025, 2030 sap. So I was just confused. Why those are. I think we highlighted the 3 bonds that were the most recent bonds that we we completed, or we're planning on doing here in bulk. I'll call it the near term, and then then we are looking at also a future bonding we're planning on doing down the road. So it was. It was almost. We. We spent a little bit of time talking about the most recent bonds, and particularly South Boulder Creek, because we're right on the verge of doing that one, and was almost that. Is it a 24? Is it a 25 bond? But then other bonds are a little bit further out into the cip. I think that's right. And if we wanted to go to the schedules before I jumped in and just quickly walk through them. I think the 2829 bond. So right now we've got a 28 bond for the water, and then the 29 bond for the wastewater. That's just with the projects timing right now. That's envisioned really to be one bond probably happening in 2,028 or 2029. We're just a little

[61:13] far out right now to kind of anticipate when we would be for sure bonding. But it'll be either 28 or 29 for those 2, and then we do not but there is a question 2028 of whether or not we could bond or pay cash for those projects. If I could pick up on that. That was part of the analysis that Steph and the and other staff in Chris's area and consultants looked at for that long term cip for the storm and flood. We will sometimes hear concerns from community members about the projects that we're currently working on. And the price tag seem I. And will we be able to afford projects in in other areas of town. And and so we've that's part of the reason we did that exercise to look at

[62:06] what are the magnitude of the projects. What would rates look like to do these over a series of years and really decades? And would we have to bond? How much would we have to bond? So that was a big part of that analysis. And the and the good news is from from what we're looking at it. it seems like we can do it. Reasonable rate increases and we can. And we can manage. And we have the ability to bond if we need to. But we're not showing a lot of a lot of that need just yet. Thanks. Again, I'm stuck clean them in I'm gonna present a handful of slides on financial matters, starting with our current utilities, funding sources. So 1, st 3 items here on this slide are funding options that we've pursued in the past. Starting with our user fees, our revenues generated from our user fees are reliable and largest funding source. We've also leverage municipal one which you're just talking about. It's a cost effective way to finance some of our long term capital projects.

[63:18] And then also listed. Here is the Colorado State Revolving Fund program. So we did use this program last year to help fund part of our phosphorus upgrade project at the wastewater treatment facility. The benefit with the Srf program really is that it offers a low interest. and then we also received a an immediate month forgiveness of 1.5 million dollars. So it's really really great tool for us to use for for that specific project. These other 2 funding sources are current options that we're pursuing or considering. So the 1st is the Us army for match program, which is actually funded by Congress. There are typically cost sharing requirements

[64:03] between the core and the city, and the projects must also meet federal regulatory requirements which can add complexity and time to project development. We're also considering the Federal Grant program for hydro upgrade projects. And so I'll just mention quickly. You know, these are options to us, but they are both competitive programs, and both are subject to federal priorities and guidelines. So with the capital plan that you'll receive, we are looking at an 8% increase in our water rates. 6% increase in our waste water rates and a 5% increase in our storm flood rates for 5 I'll just mention, you know, last year we did project an 8% increase across all 3 utilities for 2025 the driver. For these lowered rates. Really relate back to project readiness, and then the reprioritization effort that we went through on the cip this year.

[65:01] And so this is showing the single family Residential bill impact. The monthly bill impact between 2024 projected for 2025. It's about an $8 and 61 cent difference. Most of that, I think about 50% of that actually is coming from the the water fund increase. So I just wanted to stop. See if there are any questions with the proposed rates that we have here. This is average across the year, is it in particular season? Yeah, it's a good question. So it's for a single family home. The assumptions are 4,000 gallon winter average and a 90,000 consumption over the course of the year. Okay. so the city works in partnership with Boulder County to distribute information around the various Boulder County assistance programs. These are just some that are listed here. So we've got an emergency rental assistance program, mortgage, payment, assistance program, food pantries and no program options. Boulder county health and human services also provides counseling and financial education to help residents manage their finance effectively.

[66:15] and then in the wintertime we also have the low income energy assistance program which provides financial assistance to low income houses between November and April. So I thought it might be helpful, just because this is included in our attachments just to walk through a fun financial example, just a really high level. So the calculations pretty straightforward. Some of the inputs and assumptions that actually goes into projecting revenues. Is a little bit more complex, but we could just kind of stick with the the simplicity of this exercise. So really start with your beginning fund balance. You add any sources of funds which are essentially your revenues. Most of our revenues come from service charge fees. Then you subtract out your use of funds also known as our expenses, our operating expenses, step service transfers and capital and then we have a total that is our fund balance before reserves.

[67:12] I'll talk a little bit more about reserves in the next slide, but we do make an adjustment for reserves. Just so that we, you know, are managing risk and main, maintaining our financial stability throughout the forecast a year. So I'll just mention really quickly that you'll see that there on that bottom line we have an ending fund balance as 2023 of about 40.8 million dollars. We are projected to draw that down mostly this year with some of our expenses at the wastewater treatment facility related to the main swar interceptor project, and then also the phosphorus upgrade project. So you know, we do get down to about 4.2 million dollars in 2026. But we feel comfortable with that level, and we'll work on building back up those reserves in our ending fund balance at that time

[68:04] so reserves they act as a financial buffer to cover any unexpected expenses. They can also mitigate the impact of revenue fluctuations by smoothing out cash flows. Which allows us to have more levelized rate increases year over year. Reserves could also be earmarked for future capital projects. I'm just highlighting a few of our reserves that we have across all 3 funds here. We have an operating reserve for each utility, which is an unrestricted reserve, used to cover routine expenses like salaries, utility, maintenance. treatment, cost and other administrative expenses. We also have capital reserves across all utilities. Within water. We have the Water Resiliency Reserve. Both of these reserves. The intent is to they're they're supposed to be used to respond in natural disasters and other unexpected emergencies. And then, within the wastewater and storm and flood funds, we have a restricted bond reserve, which is a bond covenant requirement.

[69:05] And then the last couple of slides. They really just cover, a couple of examples of financial metrics that are used to assess the financial health of the utility. So the 1st one is the days cash on hand comparison. It is a financial metric that measures the number of days utility can cover its operating expenses, using its available cash reserve. I would say that this varies by utility, but generally utilities aim to have at least 90 to 120 days cash on hand. I also have in here the S. And P. Strong rating example of 150 days. So you can see that city boulders. These cash on hand compares favorably. We do, you know. at a minimum, hit the S. And P. Strong rating, but we also exceeded more often than not for each of our 3 funds. And then another useful financial metric is the debt service coverage ratio. So this is a financial metric used to assess the ability of the city to cover its debt obligations. A higher Dsc. Indicates a stronger ability to service debt. Here again I have the city minimum requirement of 1.2 5 times compared to a moody, strong rating of 2 times and again the city of Boulder compares favorably to both of those

[70:28] so. and I ran through some of that kind of quick. But are there any questions either on the rates or fund financials, any of these financial metric comparisons? 2. Had Fun's life in this storm green that represents the stormwater. Yeah. And just the explanation for why it's so high in those 3 years. Yeah. So we've been We've been building up our reserves ahead of the South Boulder Creek project. And so you can actually see that it does it decrease quite a bit in 2028, when we after we've bonded for South Boulder Creek, and also after we've had some more capital expenses, it does increase back up in 2030. But I will say, we have a pretty.

[71:19] you know, pretty aggressive capital plan through 2031, 2032 for our storm and flood fund. So it does look relatively high. But you know we are using reserves as they're available to to help pay for some of those capital projects in the Storm blood fund. Yeah. it's also, Steph, I think some guidance from our central finance department of of how we, how we build up for those big projects. And I think we're making a transition of moving when we're when we need to do that, put it in a reserve where we used to show it as a line in the year for the capital project itself.

[72:01] That's tricky for the finance team, because as we're building up, we're we're not actually spending it. And so it. This is probably the better way to do it away. Yeah. internal practices, or even a legal point of view. How how much of those funds view this thing in separate parts. I mean. he ran into a problem on in the wastewater side, and we should take some of the cash from. They have to be kind of managed separately. Yeah, they're all separate enterprise funds. So they're managed separately. They are separate entities. I will say, when we do go out for bonding. We do package the water in the wastewater together. So this most recent bonding effort that we did in 2,024 it was a combined water, waste water, bonding effort, storm flood is

[73:00] distinct and separate from that. and has to be legally. The storm and flood has to be several in in the event of some kind of unforeseen emergency or something. How how long does it take to put together a bond issue in its emergency circumstance that you really needed cash to do some whatever emergency project. How fast could that be done? They they don't happen fast, but I think that is, our our strategy is more with the the reserves of having enough to whether that situation and the the disaster reserve is something that we've set up in the last several years, partly from our own experience of seeing what happened during Covid and across the city. The impact sales tax had on many departments. That's not our revenue stream, but

[74:00] in an extended drought. When when there's water sales are down or things like that, it's just kind of eye opening to see what that experience is like. So creating those reserves, I think, is our 1st strategy, and sometimes a bit more in storm level, because I guess the emergencies about the landscape foot. And you're building up your bank. And with your revenues you're building up the ability to cover that that service when it comes exactly. Yeah, we're keeping a close, close eye on that. And it's it's really healthy and I think it just shows up until the assumptions around proposed rate increases in this. Are there any what do you mean like? How? How would we forecasting our rates? So it really is taking to into account the projected capital plan. What? What do rates need to be in order to meet the needs of the capital plan with, you know, bonding and

[75:03] no constraint bonding in there. But there are also, you know, looks at our revenue projections, too. And so to Joe's point, you know, we had a really wet spring last year, and so our revenues in our water and we're actually down things. So we have 3 buildings reserved to kind of help cover it. But you know there are also other assumptions that kind of are at play when we are projecting our for rate increases. So it's along the lines. I know this is a dumb question, you know, and it's the conversation that you're just having, but, like the city is doing so well of kind of industry. Best practices is there? And you thought it was like, could you bring some us down and reduce the rate increases needed? Have, or is. And I again, I know that's the answer is, no, but I'm just like thinking out loud here that well, I think that's that's what we're doing for for this year. We have brought the rate increases down comfortable with bringing them down for this year, because we still anticipate the projects that Chris presented on, and you know, being able to meet those needs. I mean, I will just kind of point out here, like in 2,029. The waste water utilities. Just kind of right at that. S and P. Strong rating still above the

[76:17] industry. Minimum. But we're kind of right at that bar, so wouldn't really want to go much lower than that, especially if we are needing to bond. But then the wastewater utility, you know 2029, 2030. I think it's really important for us to to pay attention to those targets and to get the most favorable bond ratings that we can, because we get better rates of that that serves. That gives us more flexibility and more buying power. What we're getting to do these projects and operate our system. So it's again, it's back to that. Yeah, giant musical mixing board and all the things, all the factors that were that we're carefully looking at.

[77:02] jumping back just a little bit earlier in the conversation we were talking about the designs and and moving into these later stages of designs and anticipation of the construction. And you brought up the core of engineers program. And I just wonder, you know, with the core of engineers comes the battle of domestic preference. And some of these requirements. Are you trying to incorporate those into some of these very large capital projects, so that you have the flexibility to capitalize on those funding programs. If yeah, that's something that I 2 roles ago, I have personal experience doing that. And we tend to know that when we're when we're moving shina through the design work and getting ready for a project, and and just the timing of the applications for grants. And so if we know that we're we're successful, likely to be successful, we will for sure build those

[78:06] those things into the construction document so that the requirements are there for the materials we purchase, and the and the contractors to use the phone with Federal purchasing requirements. I think some some of those things are are based on really good principles. And we're kind of baked into our general condition. But we will adapt if we're if we know we're gonna be successful. And there are projects where we have more of those requirements. And, for instance, we talked about the boss or subgrade projects where we got some of those up. Sr. Phones. Yes, we're working through those issues. But the other side of it is that's more time and effort. But I keep coordinating with staff is, remember, we got 1.5 million dollars loan forgiveness. So we can do a lot of extra work.

[79:00] They won't even get close to that loan forgiveness. So there is that balance, or, again, a mixing board on the push pull on, taking advantage of those programs. But it it has to be factored in, and it has to be considered because it it has an effect at all. some mostly positive. But some of those things result in higher costs, too. you know. That certainly is part of that coordination, and how we put that project out to bid, and making sure we're accounting for certain things. few cents. any any other questions. Good conversation in for that we had any other. We we've really paused, or anything for questions. And and I I didn't mention earlier, as I also do have the. If we do get into some of the more technical side of things, I do have the utility engineering supervisors into the different utilities. They're actually online just to if we get into questions. But I think we've been able to answer most of the questions here at the Sydney between this, the group that's in the room.

[80:23] Thank you. That was that was really great. May, maybe, before we turn it over to the other things on the agenda, John just realizing in the flow of the meeting here that it on our agenda wasn't our intent. I think it was a of this on our part, we showed the loud public comment happening at 6 20 pm. And and there's kind of a gap that shouldn't have been there. So I'm not sure John, is this chair? If you wanna maybe if there are people following along.

[81:03] if they showed up at 6 20 and expecting to speak, might have wanted to. Let's definitely do that and apologize to anyone who showed up in 6 20, hoping this speaking work wasn't able to. So, Joanne, I don't know if we have anyone ready and interested to speak, but definitely want to provide that space, since it seems like that was a mistake on our end. And just just to mention it would just be open comment. None of what we're discussing tonight is a public hearing. But next month the capital improvement program will actually have a public hearing, so people could come speak specifically to them. So I do see a couple of folks in the attendee box, and I'll just give them a second if they want to virtually raise their hands through zoom through the function. It should be on your screen, and you can virtually raise your hand.

[82:00] You can also text me at 3 0 3, 8, 1, 7, 1, 7, 4, 2 if you are having trouble finding that hand, I'll give it just a minute. I do know, Lynn Siegel was here earlier and hoping to comment. But I know she's also juggling meetings, and so I don't see her on line anymore. I did text her to ask her if she still wanted to comment and haven't heard back. So I might just flag for you if she comes back. Otherwise maybe we'll just give it a quick minute for any other attendees. Echo. Thank you for that. The presentation and all my questions were answered really? Well during the presentation. So just wanna thank staff, for that was very helpful and informative. So. Great. I don't see anybody with hand raises. I will. I'll just indicate to Joe if Lynn does come back.

[83:01] If that's helpful. I'll also message in the QA. She said she'd be watching there, although if she's not online I don't know that she'll be able to sit. But I'll let you know if she comes back. Great thanks. Shawn, again. Apologies. About the the scheduling mishap. So I think that's what we have on that capital improvement program like, I said upfront. I I know it's a lot there, there's so much that we're thinking about the condition of the projects, the affordability of our services. Ha! Having that safety net and the various programs that Steph talked about for people who are having trouble on their bills. That's that's something that we wanna continue to work. work on and have some work plan items, and later in the year to see about enhancing that and upgrading it. but I know it's a lot for the board. And so like, I said, if if if you have questions that come to you as individual board members feel free to reach out between now and July.

[84:11] you'd be coming back. Asking for a recommendation. I don't think so. I guess we can move on to matters from the board and get something out of me. One thing I do have is I know it's Lauren's last meeting with us on on the board. She's moving across the country in a week. Thank you for being here a week before you move, and just wanna thank you for time on Rob as being to get to know you and know you're only here for just over a year, but really appreciate the time and appreciate everything you've done for the board. So I say, good luck in the move, and thank you for your for your time. That was my matters to the board is a huge thank you. And then I would definitely say, it is so helpful to go and see these facilities. And so, if I can leave parting, worst of wisdom is to get new members out there immediately.

[85:09] just puts everything in context and makes it real. So I would say that that would be a priority, I would definitely type in place. But This is fantastic, and and I think for also for education, for the community in some way to know the river that goes behind free and like the reasons that these rates fluctuate to whatever extent they do and and that just true thought that goes into it, and that trade offs between the community and equity and supplying water to the human basic need for water has and so you know, I think we've talked a little bit about how to parlay that messaging. But then say, focus on that also. Probably help with some of these initiatives, but also just for

[86:00] I won't understand anything. That's what comes into the rate increases. But yeah, it's been fantastic and rewarding. And thank you all great group of people. And I've served on many boards. And I just I really think this is well run and gives everyone their time. So get good. Input so it's been an interesting experience, and I'll miss his eyes. Thank you for those parting words. Any other manners from the board. If not, we can move to matters from step. Yeah, thank you for that. And I might just pick up on that same thread from a staff perspective. Lauren really appreciate your your time that you've been working with us here for over a year now, and the time that you've put in I know I know you wrestled with the the decision and really appreciate you staying through a few extra meetings and

[87:03] and asking questions and and staying engaged and really appreciate all the Board members, and the time that you put in that the amount of material that's in the packets we try to keep the Memos concise. But if you start digging into the attachments and once a month dedicating your time here. It's a lot so really appreciate that. And I'm amazed that you're here tonight, or if you're moving. But we we really wish you and your family best, and in the future, and kind of thank you for your willingness to serve on the board. It is our guys. It's amazing. It is amazing. Yeah. And the other thing that I was going to touch on I already covered what I was going to say during the cip presentation. I just wanted to provide an update on Gregory Creek in the community meeting that we have.

[88:04] It went well, but we already covered that. So if you'd like, I could move into the upcoming agenda sounds great. so let me find it on my screen here. should be able to memorize it, though, so the big thing next month will be. probably won't be much of a presentation unless You all bring questions to us. offline, or or one on one with staff between now and July. maybe just a recap of a quick recap in July of what we've gone through, and teeing up a motion for you on the cip for the the Board to take a vote and recommendation to city council and then we have well, as an information item on water quality updates.

[89:00] just updates on the Eurasian milfile at the Boulder reservoir Mason species that we've been monitoring closely. We'll talk about the lead service line inventory kind of a state regulated thing that we're going through and then an update on the backflow program so that should have a good agenda for July, and then we'll take the August month off for not seeing a need to meet them. and we'll probably have a brief business meeting in September. very likely meet at one of our other facilities, and the purpose of the business meeting will just quickly have public comment. Approve the minutes, and then to the Board's feedback at the last retreat. It would be a great opportunity to go out and see the main sewer project as as a tour, so we'll formally close out the meeting and then going past it

[90:03] the touring. and that's what things are looking like for the next 3 3 months. So we've got oh. well, thanks again, Joe and Chris, and stuff for the presentation tonight, and again apologies to the public for the agenda timing, mishap and with that we can adjourn. So is there a movement to join the meeting. I second all in favor. Alright where to join. Thanks, everyone. Thank you.