UAB Minutes 04-25-17

MOUNTAIN IRON UTILITY ADVISORY BOARD

MINUTES

TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2017

The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. by Chairperson Renzaglia.  Members present:  Reynold Renzaglia, Harvey Hellyer, Bruce Peterson and Susan Tuomela. Members Absent: Joe Matanich.  Others present:  Tim Satrang, Public Works Director, Joe Prebeg, Council Liaison, and Lisa Stevens, Accounting Technician.

It was moved by Sue and supported by Harvey to approve the minutes of the February 28, 2017 meeting. The motion carried unanimously.

No one was present at the public forum.

The Director of Public Works reported water outages one was a main in South Grove, one in Parkville and the other was near the fire in Mountain Iron near Mesabi Avenue. In Parkville, there is copper pipe where the galvanized area is decaying so it needed repairing. The South Grove one was on Merritt Drive on an empty lot where there was a previous house. A couple electrical outages in Parkville happened as well, one was due to a squirrel and the other happened when a big wind storm that came through knocking debris on the lines.

The Waste Water Treatment plant was discussed in regards to the MPCA plans. They are still working on phosphorus limits and we are thinking of making a trade with them. Our idea is to harvest weeds out of the reservoir at a much lower cost. By doing this, in theory we are removing phosphorus from the lake. The other option is buying a chemical that eliminates phosphorus which is very expensive. No word yet on if we are going to get a mercury limit but it does sound like this most likely will be happening. This would entail putting in a filter system. Again, monies may be available when put on a project priority list with the state.  

Benchmark made a recommendation to have the old part of Mountain Iron’s sewer lines be inspected with cameras to have a better idea where pipes need to be lined for repairs. Specifically in the area where a house was torn down by the IRRRB that lines run under the school garage. The property is owned by the city right now. Renny would like to know the cost on how to analyze this and the cost on what it would be to remedy any problems that may arise.

The large trash pick-up form was revamped but has the same information with the exception that we will now take old microwaves as the dump will take them for free. Renny moved we recommend the pick up to the council for approval and was supported by Harvey. The motion was carried unanimously.

KLM usually is the company that inspects our water tower. They gave us a quote of $2800 for a re-inspection on the corrosion of the water tower. Motion by Harvey and supported by Sue to recommend to the council to approve the contract and the expense. The motion was carried unanimously.

The Parks and Rec meeting minutes were brought up by Renny in regards to the P&R board recommending LED light upgrades for the parks, and Renny questioned if it should have been recommended from the UAB as these expenses would be coming from the electric fund. Joe Prebeg would like a cost as to what it would be for changing all lights over to LED at once versus on a case by case basis. Also, what the savings would be in electrical usage. Renny didn’t have a problem with the parks and rec approving this, he just thought it was a good question to bring up at the UAB meeting. Tim can get numbers on the annual savings it would be to do this update.

Joe brought up the fire that happened downtown Mountain Iron in January if there was anything questioned about the water not being readily available. Tim had not heard anything from anyone and Mike Downs, who was the Director of Public Works at the time, never passed any information in regards to this either. Joe thought about color coding the fire hydrants to help show which ones have bigger pipes and if that would be helpful in the future. He recommended getting with Gerry Knapper, our interim fire chief, to see if this would be beneficial.

Harvey brought up about golf balls being shot into his yard from the South Grove recreation area and he would like a sign to be placed that hitting golf balls is not allowed.

The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, May 23, 2017.

At 5:30 p.m., it was moved by Harvey and supported by Peterson to adjourn the meeting.  The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Lisa Stevens

Accounting Technician