Hondius Water Users Project Committee 12/4/14 Meeting Minutes
Present: Jim Redman, Tim Breiding, Tony & Vi Burroughs, Don Piepgras filling in for Bill Rawsky.
Absent: Beth Coulson, Bill Rawsky, Ernie Dietrich, Thurmond Williamson, Brandy Flanagan.
Previous Meeting Minutes.
Approved by all. Jim will forward for posting onto the website.
Review of Project Committee and Project Timing.
Larimer County will announce the Request For Proposals (RFP) for the project’s Preliminary Engineering Study (PES) in February. Typically, 3-4 weeks are allowed for responses. Based on this time frame the committee to select the engineer (expected to consist of two participants from the county and three from the Hondius water users group committee – a combination of Jim, Tim, Beth and Don, depending on availability) will convene in March to score the RFP’s. The first meeting can probably occur via phone conference and will narrow the pool to 2 or 3 proposals. The second meeting will require the members to meet in Fort Collins to interview the bidders and award the PES.
The following are targeted timeframes after the awarding of the PES:
August 2015 – PES completed
September 2015 – Meeting with Hondius Water Users Group to share results of PES
May-July 2016 – Meeting with County Commissioners to form the LID
November 2016 – Election of the LID Colorado residents regarding the question of whether to incur debt for the project
Hondius Water Users Map Update.
Tim reported he’s had contact with the engineer regarding getting an e-copy of the maps but the engineer has not had the opportunity to organize and deliver it.
Formation of the Local Improvement District (LID).
Jim reported on his discussion with a Larimer county representative regarding how LID’s are formed. Jim brought up his concerns regarding those homeowners within the proposed LID who have their own source of water and might be content with what they have – not wanting to spend money on a project of no “benefit” to them. They would conceivably vote against the formation of the LID. Through conversations with county representatives, the definition of who gets included in the LID is keyed on who would likely benefit from it. Under this definition, homeowners happy with their water source wouldn’t benefit and so could be excluded from the LID. Additionally, a county representative identified the LID does not have to be contiguously geographic.
The Project Committee’s hope is that the project can be defined to include all the current Hondius Users AND anyone else in the Hondius “area” who wants to be on city water (e.g. those along the Hondius lines that currently have their own water source but would like to be included in the project.
Further discussion identified that our understanding is that the full cost of the project will be shared equally among participating homeowners regardless of their home location i.e. Upper High Drive, Lower High Drive etc. Of note, including area homeowners not currently on the Hondius system (that want to be included) would increase the number of participants and in turn reduce the cost per individual.
It will be helpful to have the Hondius map to show us the layout of the water lines and better identify what the LID area might look like.
Closing.
Next Meeting: January 8th, 6:00 PM MST.