On January 17, 2024, David Childs, Chair of the Public Service Committee, presented the committee’s biannual report to the Board. This report covers the Public Services Committee’s activities from June to December 2023.
During the past six months, the Public Services Committee has experienced a 40% introduction of new Committee members with new and different knowledge, skills, experience, and enthusiasm. In addition, in conjunction with some re-organizations within the POA, the Committee has experienced some increase in the scope of its responsibilities. Today, the Public Services Committee is tasked with advising the POA on matters related to POA Buildings and Fleet maintenance, Common Property, Dams, Forestry, Lakes, Culverts, Sanitation, Streets, Water/Wastewater Plants/Lift Stations/Pipes, and Villager Education regarding these topics.
The Committee’s activities have included, but have not been limited to the following:
1) An ongoing project is to drive Village streets, conducting site analysis of street conditions and prioritizing the need for specific recommended repairs (potholes, crack sealing, etc.) on specific streets.
2) Advising POA Staff regarding Best Practices for street project quality control monitoring (ex., Testing for proper asphalt temperature before pouring, testing post-repair road compaction, etc.)
3) Advising POA Staff regarding the transition of sewage treatment from Mill Creek to the Cedar Creek Processing Plant.
4) Advising regarding education about Residence grinder pumps, their maintenance, and respective responsibilities of residents and the POA (ex., In the event of a grinder pump failure, Sewage Popper Relief Valves prevent sewage from backing up into residences, etc.).
5) In 2017-2018, the Committee conducted an on-site inspection and made recommendations regarding ways to improve safety at the Village’s 61 golf carts street crossings, and many of those recommendations (re-striping crossings, cleaning existing signage, placing new signage, and foliage removal, etc.) were implemented. The Committee has recently conducted a new analysis and may be making a few updated recommendations in the near future.
6) We are in the early stages of conducting a study of maintenance conditions at over 100 POA Facilities and hope to submit a prioritized list of the most needed repairs.
7) We met with Police Chief Kristi Bennett and agreed to partner on two specific issues: First, the Committee will continue to monitor traffic accident reports and will make recommendations for how to make the locations with the most accidents safer, and secondly, we will work together to issue public safety messages to Villagers occasionally. One message has been issued regarding safety tips for walking/hiking along residential streets, and a 2nd message has been prepared regarding safety at golf cart at street crossings.
8) Advising Staff regarding Best Practices to reduce ‘hammering’ damage to water pipes and valves (eg., Provide steady stream flow rather than as needed, cushion pipes with sand to avoid rock damage, reduce the total # of valves originally installed, etc.).
9) We have been and will continue to advise POA staff regarding implementing modifications at the Cortez Lift Station.
10) We conducted a Best Practices study and made recommendations for upgrading POA policies and practices in order to reduce soil erosion challenges, both natural as well as those created by construction.
11) Based upon all these activities and more, the Committee has decided to add a 2nd monthly meeting; our first such 2nd meeting will be in a couple of weeks.
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Contact Information for HSVPOA Public Services Director
Ken Unger
Director Public Services
Hot Springs Village
501-226-9609
Kunger@hsvpoa.org
