Syringa Heights Water District
Meeting Minutes
4-14-2014
Meeting opened 4:05 PM by President Mike Benjamin
Board members present – Gabel, Drinkard
Visitor – Frank Cafferty
- Mike Benjamin discussed with the board a water user who has had difficulty with the District. He claimed that the District ruined his lawn when it installed a new meter because the original meter was under the house and had nonfunctioning electronic sending unit. To provide for meter reading and the ability to shut the water off in case of an emergency, a meter had to be installed that was operational and functional. Benjamin explained that he and the board’s contractor needed to install a new meter and that they were given permission to enter the property and perform the needed repairs. Now that the repair has been completed, the latter is displeased with the Water Districts actions and wishes to sue the District for trespassing.Benjamin told the board he was ready to approve repairing the lawn and that the district had no choice but to move the meter since Frank Cafferty, who reads the meters remotely, could not read or repair the meter when it was under the owner’s house. Drinkard expressed the opinion that the board should request permission to come near enough to the owner’s property to read the meter or, if he won’t grant the permission, then “shut the water off. It seems common sense.” No action was taken today by the board on this matter.
- Drinkard reported that Syringa Water was very likely to receive a DEQ grant of $17,500. Along with $17,500 in district matching dollars, Syringa will at long last be able to hire an engineer to develop a long-range plan for the water system—in particular a scope of work for upgrades to the water system. The award will be official sometime in May, said Drinkard.
- Benjamin reported that his work as our water system manager had been focused this past month on replying to citizen requests for “water locates.”
- Benjamin also reported that since the District and Dover had discovered and fixed a water leak in the same trench of each entity near Ontario and Lower Syringa streets, the loss of water each month had gone down by over 50%.
- Cafferty reviewed the bills of water district users who were in arrears. One user was behind by $675. It is Benjamin’s responsibility to contact those users and help them develop payback plans.
Meeting was adjourned at 4:56 PM.