Public Services Committee Mtg – Lessons from Weather Challenges

Hot Springs Village POA learns from disasters and inclement weather events

The Hot Springs Village Public Services Committee met for a work session on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The discussion centered on lessons from recent inclement weather events, such as the January microburst, the February ice storm, and the devastating tornado that struck on Thursday, March 14. Weatherwise, it’s been a rough year.

Committee Secretary John Sowers provided baked confections, including chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cookies that his wife, Trudi, baked.

Meeting attendees

The committee members present were David Childs (Chair), Rolland White (Vice-chair), John Sowers (Secretary), Walt Black. Keith Buchanan, Drew Kahle, Jim Patton, and Michael Riley,

The Board Members attending were Bruce Caverly, and newly seated board member, and Committee Liaison Doyle Baker. Because of the committee’s large scope of high-profile responsibilities, the Public Services Committee will now have two Board Liaisons. Due to a scheduling conflict, Board Vice Chair and Committee Liaison Larry Siener could not attend.

The staff present included Matt Broom, Associate Director of Public Services, and Chris Boutzale, Water and Wastewater Superintendent. Public Services Director Ken Unger was in another meeting and unable to attend.

Bob Cunningham, former Board Member and past Public Services Committee Member, was the sole guest.

Board of Directors report

Board Member Caverly said the 2023 POA audit was good.

Caverly reported on the recent two-day Board Retreat, saying, We had excellent presentations by all of the departments.”

March Financials are looking good.

Caverly said Ginger George, Contracts and Development Supervisor, gave an overview of Rental Registration at the April Board Meeting. The deadline to register was March 31. We have 475 registered rentals, but we know some are not registered. “We estimate we have around 700 to 750 rentals. As soon as we find them, they will be fined $150 for not registering and charged $25 a day until they are registered.”

Caverly said, “Kevin Sexton [Director of Business Development, Public Affairs, and Land] gave a good overview of the trade shows he has attended at the April Board Meeting.

The question was asked, “Who is paying for tornado Cleanup?”

“We are.” Caverly said, “Everything is being documented, and a large book was assembled and presented to the State Legislature, Secretary of State, Governor’s Office, and a number of Legislators to let them know what happened here. We are a 17,000-member community. We pay a lot of taxes. We get nothing back from the state and need some help from the State. And we need help from FEMA Federal.” We don’t know the timing of receipt of any possible outside disaster funding.

Caverly explained, “The cleanup is being done in three phases. One is removing the brush so we can see where the timber is. The second part is the timber people take what is salvageable to the mills, and we receive money back from that. The third stage is the final cleanup.”

Broom said we have spent $309,000 so far on tornado recovery efforts.

“We have roughly 90 to 120 days to get marketable timber out of here before the mills won’t take it. The problem with mills not taking over 90 or 120 days is that the timber will dry out,” detailed Caverly. Dried timber is hard on saw blades.

Baker stated that the state is a hurdle in receiving funds. The governor has to declare it a disaster, and then we can apply for funding from the Feds.

Caverly said the POA has been served in the Atkins, Simpson lawsuit.

Baker said, “The important thing is, we’re going to do what we believe is right for the community…That’s who we work for. That is our mission.”

Public Services Committee Chair David Childs report

Childs said the election of committee officers will be at the next Public Services Committee Meeting on May 9. “Board Member Siener will chair the committee elections,” said Childs.

There are three committee vacancies. Clark Sann and David Whitehead recently resigned. Three terms are expiring, and Phil Mattone is not returning. Michael Riley, John Sowers, and Rolland White have filled out a renewal form (or will).

Broom and Boutzale talk about lessons learned from weather challenges

Broom said the tornado helped to point out many areas for improvement.

• Broom said, “We all saw what the ice storm did to our roads. We feel the fog and scrub seal helped save a lot of areas on DeSoto Boulevard.” Fog and scrub seal is the best value for street preservation.
• “We found a lot of problems with generators. Our portable generator was not large enough to adequately run all ancillary water and sewer locations.”
• Boutzale elaborated on generators and said we would shuffle around existing generators for more efficient utilization. If we decommission the Mill Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, a newer, very large generator from Mill Creek could be relocated, to run the water plant.
• The generator intake pumps at the water plant are not sized to run the plant fully in the summer months.
• The pump stations need a large trailer-mounted generator. Most of them pump only once a day. Boutzale said this is the most critical generator needed, and they are currently looking into this.
• Buchanan mentioned purchasing a generator would take a couple of years because the needed size is not on the shelf.
• We also want to continue to pursue the mindset of community water conservation.
• We don’t have a backup water source, which is normal for a municipality. Broom said we can discuss alternate water sources. Boutzale recalls two summers when we could not pump water from the Middle Fork Saline River into Lake Lago.
• We need to discuss additional equipment to help with cleanup efforts. We purchased a street sweeper that attaches to a tractor and a track hoe.
  • A forestry mulcher would help. This would attach to existing skid steers.
  • Knuckleboom loader
  • Larger sand spreaders for ice/snow storms
  • 500-gallon tank to use to pre-spray before ice storms
• If something were to happen on the east end, we would not have a place to set up a command or disaster center.
• The Street Department would like to see additional facilities to store sand. The committee mentioned sand could be covered with tarps and stored in various places.

The only place we supply water out of the Village is to Paron-Owensville Water Authority for emergency purposes. CCI installed the line.

Update on the Crist Engineering projects

Unger and Boutzale met with Brian Wintle of Crist Engineering to discuss the Cortez Lift Station Project, the water plant, and the sewer plant(s). Many decisions were made at this meeting, and Wintle will speak to the committee soon.

• Boutzale said we have received bids for a generator and pumps for the Cortez Lift Station Project.
• Unger and Boutzale are working with Crist Engineer on the planning and decision-making stages for the water plant.
  • The installation of an additional clearwell at the water plant is being considered. This would give us additional water storage and allow for maintenance on the existing clear well. According to Wikipedia, “A clear well (sometimes spelled as “clearwell”) is a component of a municipal drinking water purification system. It refers to the final storage stage in the system, following the filtration and disinfection stages. The filtered water is held in a storage basin to allow the disinfectant to inactivate any remaining pathogens.”
  • Also being considered is the upsizing of lines for fire-flow needs. “You would upsize the lines that need to be replaced, anyway. This would be the most bang for our buck,” stated Boutzale. The priority order in which the lines should be upsized is being determined.
• Boutzale said they also discussed Cedar Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is a very large undertaking. “A lot of study has to go into that to get it right,” said Boutzale. Crist and the POA are working with Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to determine what the permit requirements will most likely be.

Miscellaneous topics

Boutzale discussed the removal of non-existent water lines from the GIS system.

Discussion is underway on converting to some drive-by meters in certain areas to shorten the meter reading cycle. The thought is to go to monthly water billing. Currently, it takes around five or six weeks to manually complete a full cycle of meter readings, which is why we don’t have monthly utility billing.

Staff and the contractor will take HDPE pipe installation training, which takes four days. The contractor will cover the cost of training. The POA plans to use this type of pipe in an upcoming water main project. “High-Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE) is a thermoplastic polymer made from petroleum. As one of the most versatile plastic materials around, HDPE plastic is used in a wide variety of applications, including plastic bottles, milk jugs, shampoo bottles, bleach bottles, cutting boards, and piping.”

“HDPE pipe comes with many benefits: it is resistant to corrosion, flexible, has a long service life, comes with leak-free joints, is highly adaptable, includes trenchless installation, can be used for pipeline rehabilitation, and is eco-friendly.”

The Venturi Meter has been installed at the water plant. This meter will help Boutzale determine how much water loss we have throughout the system.

Broom said hundreds of letters were sent to tornado-affected Property Owners regarding removing salvageable timber from their properties. Broom said around 40 responses were received.

Emergency Warning Siren System – The last time this idea was floated, around 20 or 30 residents didn’t want to listen to it weekly, said Buchannan. So, the idea was abandoned.

White said, “The trend has been to use phone or electronic warnings.”

Childs said, “It gets good television coverage, too.”

Public Services Associate Director Matt Broom said the electric companies take care of street lights.

Superintendent of Water and Wastewater Chris Boutzale explained that the POA does not fix street lights; the Electric Companies do. We install the main powerlines to the houses. First, Electric supplies the conduit, and we dig the ditch and install it. With Entergy, we have to buy the conduit and provide installation.

The next Public Services Committee Meeting is May 9 at 9:30 a.m. at the Coronado Community Center.

By Cheryl Dowden