The city of Evanston Utilities Commission met Feb. 10 to address electric system outages.
Here are the meeting's minutes, as provided by the commission:
"To protect and promote the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens, businesses and institutions of Evanston, it is necessary to participate in the planning and improvement of electrical, natural gas, telephone, water and sewer services in Evanston to insure reliable and competitive service"
UTILITIES COMMISSION
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2017, 7:15 A.M.
Water Treatment Plant, 555 Lincoln St.
Large Conference Room
Members Present: D. Lanyon, J. Nieuwsma, E. Rosenberg, M. White
Members Absent: C. Bova, D. Everhart, R. Shure
Staff Present: A. Price, D. Stoneback
Presiding Member: D. Lanyon
1. DECLARATION OF QUORUM
A quorum being present, Chair Lanyon called the meeting to order at 7:15 a.m.
2. APPROVAL OF THE JANUARY 13, 2017 MEETING MINUTES
Mr. Nieuwsma moved to approve the minutes with a minor change, seconded by
Mr. Rosenberg.
The minutes were approved unanimously, 4-0.
3. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Work Plan Item 1.1 Building energy efficiency benchmarking initiative –
progress report on ordinance implementation plan
Mr. Stoneback informed the Commission that implementation of the
benchmarking ordinance has been delayed as to when building owners will
have to report due to two things; one being that it will take a while for the EPA
to set up Portfolio Manager specifically for Evanston, and the other is the City
is in the process of changing its website and the information will not be added
to the website until after the change has been completed. A memo will come
out this afternoon in the City Manager’s Friday packet that will provide the full
revised schedule.
4. STAFF REPORTS
A. Recent Electric System Outages, Basement Flooding Concerns, Water
Service Interruptions, and status of 2017 improvement projects
Mr. Stoneback reported the following:
There were three power outages in January, one of which was scheduled to
repair a transformer.
There were a few basement backups in January, nothing outstanding.
There were several water main breaks in January which is a little surprising
since there has not been much frost this year.
There were no Water Service Repair Permits obtained in January but, quite a
few Sewer Repair Permits were obtained.
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Utilities Commission
The Capital Improvement projects are pretty much just in the bidding phase at
the moment. The Reliability project at the water plant will get going in March.
Everything else is moving along well, either in the design phase or out to bid
at this time.
The Street Lighting Study RFP is currently out. A pre-proposal meeting will be
scheduled within the next two weeks, and the proposals will come in after
that. He is proposing having a steering committee and hopes to get two
aldermen that are on the Parking and Transportation Committee to sit on the
committee, as well as a representative from the Utilities Commission, the
Environment Board and the Preservation Commission, and an Evanston
resident who was very vocal during Northwestern’s development of the
parking lot near Ryan Field, and he will try to involve Evanston citizen’s to get
their input as well.
B. Status of negotiations with potential new wholesale water customers
Mr. Stoneback reported that the second reading of the ordinance authorizing
the City Manager to execute the agreement with Morton Grove and Niles will
be done at Monday night’s council meeting. He said that negotiations with
Skokie are tenuous at this point in time, and he will propose a ten month
extension of their current contract before going into actual negotiations for a
new contract.
C. Community-wide Water Conservation Initiative
No action was taken.
5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
A. Further consideration of community aggregation future
No action was taken.
6. NEW BUSINESS
A. Implementation plan for water sale agreement with Morton Grove and
Niles
Mr. Stoneback said that the City now has an agreement in place with Morton
Grove and Niles, and the ordinance will be voted on at Monday night’s council
meeting. Morton and Niles have awarded their route study to an engineer,
which is the preliminary design. As soon as the City has a contract they will
hire an engineer that would then design the connection vault that will be at
McCormick and Emerson. He said that everything will occur in sequence,
Evanston will be allowed to start their preliminary study, final design and then
award their contract 30 days after Morton Grove and Niles have done each
step.
B. Report on February 8 community meeting on James Park area potable
water quality
Mr. Stoneback reported that there was much lower attendance at this meeting
than the meeting in August. He said that the round 4 water sampling for coal
tar byproducts Phenanthrene and Fluoranthene in and around James Park
plus 11 additional sites outside of the James Park area has been completed.
30% of the samples that were collected in and around James Park had
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Utilities Commission
positive confirmation for those compounds and only 2 of the 11 sites outside
of the James Park area had it. The levels of the compounds were at the very
low levels that were observed last time, which are not considered to be a
safety risk. He wants to keep monitoring the area, and will continue testing
the water periodically and posting the results on the City’s website. He said
there is a concern at the schools in the area, and he would like to work with
them to install some kind of carbon filtration systems.
7. ANNOUNCEMENTS / COMMUNICATIONS
A. Forthcoming Public Works Agency activities relative to the Utilities
Commission
Mr. Stoneback announced that National Drinking Water Week will begin May
7 and run through May 13. Information has been posted on the City’s website,
and public tours of the Water Treatment Plant have been scheduled for May
13.
8. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 8:18 a.m.
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