Questions & Answers, Sewer Update Meeting Apr. 4, 2009
Answers provided by:
MM, PWSD#13 Board President Marilyn Meyer
RH, PWSD#13 Board Secretary Rich Hirsch
TR, Project Engineer Tim Robbs
JWH, LTPOA Board Member Janet Hirsch

Funding
I was wondering about the $72 a month. Does that go towards paying back the loan or maintenance of the system?
•	JWH: Our user fee is set by our lending agency (USDA-RD) to be $72 per month. That is because $72 is 2% of the median household income (MHI) for this area. As a condition for receiving federal and state funds the user fee must be at least 2% of the MHI.  

In 2006 the PWSD#13 commissioned the Midwest Assistance Program to conduct the MHI survey. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get enough people responding to the survey with a household income of less than $39,000. Based on the survey our MHI is $43,000.

Median Household Income				2% /month
	$39,000 (qualify for Fed grants)			$65
	$43,000							$72
	$50,000 (actual Jefferson County MHI)		$83
The required loan payment is $44 per month. The rest of the user fee is for operating, maintenance, and replacement costs.
How long is the loan repayment for?
•	JWH: It is a 35-year loan at 4.125%. [It was incorrectly stated to be a 30-year loan at the meeting.]
Is the board pursuing any other avenues to reduce the cost? What about additional grant money or stimulus money?
•	JWH: Loan and grant monies can only be used for construction costs and cannot be used to reduce the user fee. The district has applied for stimulus money to help pay for taking power for the effluent pump off the electric meter. But stimulus funding can only be used for construction costs. It may be possible to reduce the user fee after the system operates a while, if a cash reserve is built up.

•	TR: Anytime you get grant money, whether it's from the federal government, MO DNR, or a community block grant, the first requirement is that the user fee has to be at least 2% of the median household income. These agencies want to make sure that the community is able to afford the sewer system.

TR: Years ago, agencies gave out grant funds to communities to build expensive sewer systems and then the communities would not raise the user fee high enough to pay for them. The systems would deteriorate, the communities couldn't pay to rebuild them, and they would have to go back to the government and ask for more money. And that's why they set the requirement for user fees to be at least 2% of the median household income.
What about the people who cannot afford $72 a month?
•	MM: If the user fee is not paid, the residence will be disconnected from the system. The Jefferson County Health Department will declare that residence uninhabitable. 

RH: The board has worked hard to keep the cost as low as possible and we will to continue to do so. We believe that ultimately the Lake will have to install sewers to keep the water quality from deteriorating. And since all prices increase with time, if we don't do it now, it will be more expensive in the future. And in the future we are unlikely to get $2 million in grant funds from MO DNR.
How are you establishing a reserve? How will we know when we have enough reserves to lower the user fee?
•	MM: That's a decision that will be made by our funding agency, the USDA-RD.
Suppose the bids come in higher than the loan and grant money?
•	TR: We are going to have them bid on what we actually want the system to be. But we will also have deducts in the bid documents -- that is, we will have options for lower-cost alternatives in the event that the bids are too high. We are going to make this work.

•	JWH: We can always go back and ask for more grant money too, since our construction costs have increased. MO DNR in the past has awarded additional grant money in special situations. 
If the user fees are collected, and we have virtually no maintenance expenses, and the reserve builds up to be very large, can we use that reserve to pay down the loan?
•	MM: That's a decision that has to be made by our funding agency, the USDA-RD.
Could lawsuits between contractors or from individuals cause delay of construction beyond nine months and cause us to lose all of our grant money?
•	TR: If there's a problem with contractors, the district board can deal with it. If there is an individual who refuses to hook up, we can bypass them and come back later after legal action is complete and hook them up. Lawsuits should not interfere with the construction process.

Schedule
When does billing start?
•	MM: As soon as your connection to the system is functional. 
How long will construction take and how long will it take to connect an individual house?
•	TR: We expect construction to take between 12 and 18 months. Your house should be connected within one day. The only exception will be if we were removing your old septic tank and putting the new one in the same place -- that will probably take a little longer.
Will we be notified when you're ready to connect us?
•	TR: Probably not individually, but the contractor can probably tell you "this week" so that you will have some advance notice.

Dam
If construction vehicles will be driving across the top of the dam, are we sure it's safe for them to do that? We just paid a lot of money to repair our dam; we don't want anything to happen to it.
•	TR: We contacted Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the engineers who inspect the dam, and explained to them what our plans are. They do not have a problem with it.

•	RH: When the dam inspector was out here he said there is no difference between a dam that is designed to be driven across and a dam that is not driven across. He said that we will probably have to protect it from erosion and will have to improve the surface of the road.
What happens if the contractor damages the dam?
•	Attorney Bob Sweeney: If the contractor damages the dam, then he's responsible for repairing it. Your contractor will have a performance bond. And that bond will include 1) that they do the job, 2) that they do the job properly, and 3) that they repair any damage they do. The district, the contractors, and engineers all will take every step possible to make sure that damage does not occur. But if it does, our recourse is the performance bond and a law suit.
What about the lots in I-cove that were used back in 1948 when the dam was built? Has anybody looked into using those instead of going across the top of the dam?
•	MM: We can look into that.
•	RH: We would have to go after the person who owns those lots and try to get them back from them. I don't think they would allow us to drive heavy trucks over their property to drive to the back of the dam.
Can you get an easement to build a construction road on those lots in I-block to go down behind the dam?
•	MM: That is a possibility and we will look into it.

Septic Tanks and Lateral Lines
Regarding the existing septic tanks, are you going to take the old ones out or just fill them with sand?
•	TR: The plan is to take the top off the old tank, fill it with sand, and leave it in place. In some cases we may remove the old tank and put the new one in its place to avoid the cost of having to hammer out new rock.
If the old tanks are filled with sand, who will pay for that?
•	TR: The district will pay for that.
Are your plans for running the lateral lines negotiable?
•	TR: Yes. One purpose of this meeting is for you to see what the plans are. If you have a question or a problem or want to suggest a change, fill out a card and let us know.
With the new tanks you are putting in -- it sounds like it's just a glorified septic system. How is this system different?
•	TR: When your existing septic system fails, it fails not because of the tank but because of the drain field. The effluent from your existing septic tank goes out into the clay soil and that clay is not able to absorb it. So it is not the tanks themselves that create problems, it’s the drain fields. And that's what we're going to replace.
I have a new aeration system; can you use that?
•	TR: We can probably use the tank and the electrical line, but the aeration pump we will not use. We will take a look at them on a case-by-case basis. But our intention is to use existing new tanks.

Yard Restoration
If you remove the old tank and you disturb the yard, will you replace it to the condition that it was then when you found it?
•	TR: Yes. It will be up to the contractor to put everything back to its original condition. There are some case-by-case situations which we will look at and figure out how to handle them. I don't see the district getting into the business of tearing up and having to rebuild patios. We will have to come up with another plan to deal with those situations.
Will it be a subcontractor who comes back to do the reseeding of the lawn?
•	TR: Our funding agency (USDA-RD) requires that we have a man on-site at all times. He will be supervising all of the construction and the contractor's work to make sure everything is restored to the condition it was in originally.
If they put the main lines across the front of our driveway will they come back and repair the driveway?
•	TR: If the contractor damages your driveway, it will be repaired. There are some places where there are extensive amounts of landscaping and in those areas we will probably just put the pipes in the road instead of disturbing your property.

Electrical Easement
If I have an existing system with an aerator pump, do I have to sign an electrical easement agreement?
•	TR: It depends on where you want the pump control box. If you don't sign the electrical easement, the control box will be placed on a stick in the yard near the tank. If you do sign the easement, then the control box can be placed on the house in an out-of-the-way place.

If you take the electricity off the meter base and that's on one side of the house, and the septic tank is on the other side of the house, will there be a problem running that wire all the way around the outside of the house?
•	TR: We will trench and bury the wire and take it around the outside of the house.

Treatment Plant
If we get an 8-inch rain will the treatment plant sand filters overflow?
•	TR: We believe there is enough excess capacity in the treatment plant that the sand filters will not overflow even in a heavy rain.
At the construction site where you plan to put the treatment plant, were core samples taken? Did you run into bedrock back there?
•	TR: We hired a geotechnical company to analyze the area and we have their recommendations on how to build out there.
How can we be sure that the treatment plant will not smell bad?
•	TR: The type of plant that we will be installing is a proven technology and there are many in operation. We know from experience that it will not smell bad. Maintenance is the key issue. If it is maintained properly there will be no problem with it. A local community that has this type of system is Holiday Hills near Bismarck, Missouri.

Minimum Buildable Lot Size
What about the 40,000 sq. ft. requirement for buildable lots? Will that go away after the sewer system is in? Will there be a house built on every available lot?
•	JWH: The LTPOA set the minimum buildable lot size at 40,000 sq. ft. This LTPOA board has no intention of changing that. The Lake Tishomingo building regulations are more restrictive than Jefferson County zoning and we plan to enforce the 40,000 sq. ft. minimum.

Attorney Bob Sweeney: Your subdivision property owners association has the legal right to set the building regulation requiring a minimum buildable lot size of 40,000 sq ft.

Who set the 11,000 sq. ft. limit?
•	MM: The Lake Tishomingo Building Zone is set at R-11 by Jefferson County. R-11 requires a minimum buildable lot size of 11,000 sq. ft with public sewers, otherwise the minimum is 2 acres with septic.

•	Jefferson County Commissioner Ed Kemp: You have the possibility of a lawsuit if someone wants to build on the smaller lot size.

Power Outage
What happens if the power goes out in the entire community?
•	TR: You should still have a day’s worth of storage in your septic tank if the power goes out. If the power is out that means electricity to your well is out also. So you're not going to be running any water.
If something happens to the effluent pump and it stops working, how will we know about it?
•	TR: The control box for the effluent pump will have a light and an alarm that will go off in the event of a problem. You will definitely be able to hear that alarm. The alarm will sound only at your house. There is no remote monitoring of the system.
For those of us who have generators connected to our homes, will we be able to power the septic system with the generator? To rephrase the question, if there's a power outage in the community for an extended time, and those with home generators are still able to use the plumbing, will that create a problem in the system?
•	TR: The check valves and the rest of the system do not require power. The only thing that requires power is the effluent pump. If you're able to power your pump with your generator, it will just keep pushing fluid through the system to the treatment plant. That should be no problem.
Would you prohibit homeowners from having generators connected to the system?
•	TR: No.

Tishomingo Forest
What are the plans for sewers in Tishomingo Forest?
•	JWH: Right now we assume that all of the houses in the Forest will be connected. Until we receive the bids we won’t know how much it will cost.

Ownership of the Sewer System
Right now the board controls the sewer system. What happens if sometime in the future the board decides to sell the sewer system to a private company?
•	Attorney Bob Sweeney: That is not possible. The district is a public entity and cannot sell the system to a private organization.
Can the system be transferred to another public entity like the City of Hillsboro?
•	Attorney Bob Sweeney: Yes.