Micromedia Update

Do you remember Micromedia? They gave us a proposal last December for $10 million to bring our plant in to compliance for the next 10 years.

They have an interesting new process that may be able to revolutionize treatment. It's very promising.

Anyway, they've just been awarded the contract for Adelanto's plant and the City of Barstow is considering cancelling their MBR plant contract with HDR Engineering. You can read the article here. Excerpt...

"...“We offer a simpler process and could save the city $900,000 to $1 million a year and $5 to $10 million up front,” said MicroMedia CEO Sam Luxenburg. The company’s design uses less electricity and fewer workers and would incinerate the sewage sludge produced instead of having to pay to dispose of it, he said. "

It appears that some cities are taking a second look at real turn-key solutions rather than the overpriced, over-engineered, "customized" type of plant that we have contracted for.

Let's cancel that American Water contract - paying the $650,000 escape clause will save us millions. Millions in capital cost and millions in operating and maintenance costs.

Sorry that I had to turn the comment moderation back on. There are one or two people on the blog that have an evil intention. You can see how unbalanced and irrational they are. Maybe they will stay on their own copycat blog.

Have a great 4th of July!!!

Timely delivery

Here are some interesting articles that landed in my inbox this morning. You know I'm interested in oil reserves and how the future costs of energy will be affecting our lives.

Here is an excerpt and the link...

"The American public has no idea how over all that is. The bottom is falling out under not only the housing market (as in houses up for sale) but on the whole apparatus for delivering future houses, and the car-oriented crap associated with it. The production home-builders, such as Toll Brothers, Hovanian, Pulte, et cetera are going down and they will not be coming back. There will be a great deal of wishing that they might come back, but they won't. Likewise, the commercial builders of all the various forms of suburban retail will be waiting to "turn the corner." But they will discover that the wall they have hit has no corner. It's just a wall. For anyone who wonders how much we do not need anymore retail space in America, have a look at this chart showing the comparative amount of retail square-footage allotted for citizens of each nation: "

and this one...

"Energy will be one of the two or three defining issues we’ll face over the next decade. Since post-1999, we’ve essentially been in a crisis mode."...

And this Globe and Mail article on water...(ever since I visited Vancouver I love reading the Canadian papers)

The Dehydrated States of America

"Part of problem is economic. Developers press local councils relentlessly to grant zoning exemptions for new subdivisions and condominiums, and both local and state politicians are instinctively averse to limiting growth for the sake of something as intangible as future water availability. Some developers even get away with what are known as "wildcat subdivisions," built in defiance of local authorities through clever exploitation of legal loopholes."

And finally This in today's Star...

Suppliers setting up water cutbacks

"San Diego County water suppliers said they are preparing for winter water cutbacks to agricultural customers. Southern California's main water supplier, the Metropolitan Water District, told member agencies last week to plan for the cuts. San Diego officials said supply cuts of at least 30 percent could go into effect in January, barring exceptional weather before then.
"This could be the beginning of a long-term shift" in county water resources, Gary Arant, general manager at Valley Center Municipal Water District, a rural area in north San Diego County, said Monday."

What does all this mean to us? I'd say conserving our resources is going to be pretty important. And, we need to pull together as a community.

Bonds away

The bonds for the sewer plant have been sold.


Selling the bonds was one of the escape clauses out of the American Water contract. It's too bad that we continued with the bond financing when we could and should have been using the State Revolving Loan funds for half the interest cost.

This path has needlessly cost the ratepayers millions more than necessary.

Here are some links to documents from the bond financing documents.

• Cost for Water Recycling Plant
• Sewer Rates through 2015
• Debt Service

Road trip...

Here is a report of our trip to the LARWQCB meeting today in Simi Valley.

Mr. Eduardo Gonzalez kindly provided two vans to transport 12 of us to the meeting.

We submitted a letter to the Executive Director and Board asking for solutions to our dilemma. You can read the letter here.

Board Chair Francine Diamond responded graciously saying that they would be very willing to help us. They do not want to see any communities in hardship. She asked the staff to look into the SRF loans, fines and the Time Schedule Order.

I wish we had done this a long time ago. We knew that the LARWQCB was being painted as the scapegoat. Who knows what will come of our trip but it was quite a learning experience.

We didn't stay for the entire meeting but there were a few items of interest in the Executive Director's report. We're not sure what constitutes a "Tier 3" water body. But it has the highest water quality standards. Someone or some organization has requested that Sespe Creek be designated a Tier 3. They will be discussing it sometime this year.

The other item was that LA County residents are being asked to voluntarily cut back water use by 10% due to continuing drought conditions.

Highlight Reel...No Instant Replay

How about a recap of last night's Budget Workshop/City Council/Memorial District meeting?

It was at the Memorial Building so there is no video to be run on TV. I believe that they did have some audio recording equipment though.

This was the first budget workshop I have been to so I did not know what to expect. I think the workshop format works well with the public since there is a little more dialog and two way communication.

This is important as demonstrated last night. Several weeks ago, Mr. Jamey Brooks made comments at open forum about the management salaries. When I say management, I'm not just talking about the City Manager but all of the department head managers. Mr. Brooks had some data on other city's salaries. He thought that for our size city and budget that the salaries were excessive.

City Manager, Tom Ristau, got his opportunity to respond last night, stating that the numbers were somewhat misleading. The numbers that Mr. Brooks discussed included all of the benefits, not just salary. I just did a rough calculation and the benefits appear to be about 34% of the salary.

Anyway, my point is that it's too bad that these issues can't be addressed immediately at City Council meetings. It would probably cut down on rumors and mis-information. Both sides hear things that are incorrect and it is frustrating to know that a misconception is going to be hanging out in the universe for at least a couple of weeks.

I hope to have time to discuss some of the other events from last night's meeting at a later time.

Oh, by the way, I don't have a copy of the entire budget yet so I don't know how much salaries are going up. I think some people may have the impression that there aren't going to be any raises except for a deserving one or two employees. Now, this is a misconception because I believe I heard that "there aren't going to be any raises...except for step raises and cost of living raises". I will have to verify this.