Cave Creek Council Advances 405-Acre Open Space Acquisition Amid Public Records Crisis and Utilities Staffing Emergency

produce a record, say that it doesn't exist, or cite a statute that's withholding it. Tonight is day 90. I've received nothing new since last time. Not a record, not a denial, not a not even a courtesy email. The law here is short. ARS 39121 says, "Public records are open to inspection at all times during office hour. Section 39-121-01 says the custodian shall promptly furnish copies.

And if the custodian fails to respond promptly or fails to provide an index of what is withheld, access is deemed denied, not delayed, denied. Promptly has meaning. The clerk told you in June that that office averages 8 days per request. 8 days. My party's request is now at 90 days. These are not routine records. They are a contract.

the procurement file, the town attorney's uh town attorney's correspondence, the shirt slogs for surveillance system that this town bought without a public vote shared uh with more than 60 agencies and then terminated three weeks ago. Public's question is is about that system that that's still live uh public's questions about that system are still uh live now. Records that arrive after the questions fade are not transparency. They are an archive. Some are perishable.

The Flock account is closing. The audit logs of who searched, what agencies searched Cave Creek go with it unless Flock is told in writing to keep them. And I asked for that 2 weeks ago. No confirmation was received on that either. So tonight, please direct the the clerk to do what the statute already requires.

respond in writing by October 6 on every item that I specified in the August 26 email with a record a statement that it doesn't exist or a specific exemption claimed and confirm in writing that Flock has been instructed to preserve the audit logs. On September 1st, I said what my next steps would be if the state passed and I meant it. The Abuzman Citizens Aid exists for exactly this and section 39-121-02 lets a court order protection and award fees.

I have no interest in spending Cave Creek's taxpayer money on lawyers to obtain records that the law already says belongs to to us. Produce the documents and none of that happens. The choice is yours. Mayor, again, in your February email to the town manager, you said we must win the argument on the merits with full transparency. Full transparency is the records, not just a press press release. Thank you. Thank you, Jim Grub. I got the mic. Okay. Okay.

I'm going to say something really nice [clears throat] u about everything that's going on. And uh but I'm so pleased to be here to announce that uh uh in support of Prop 440, Carlos Nikai and his trio of three are coming to Cave Creek for a full concert um on October 3rd. So I'll ask Christine if she would read the invitation that's going out, please. This is to Cave Creek voters, family, and friends. You are invited to a free concert to celebrate open space acquisition. Yes. On Proposition 440.

Join international award-winning musicians and multiple Grammy nominees. R. Carlos Nikai, Native American flute, Eagle Bone Whistle. William Eaton, harp, guitarist, spiral cleft, 26 string guitar lear. Will Clipman, pan global percussionist and poet. Saturday, October 3rd, 2026. Concert is 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and the doors will open for seating at 2:30 p.m. at the Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center.

Yeah, this is just for me personally, that's just really exciting because I used to listen to Nikio quite often in different times because he he really represents the spirit of of the earth and what what we are and our relationship to to leaving land. uh in open space and being able to participate with it. So, it just really really a big moment uh and the price is right. So, if you want to get a ticket, you every Cave Creek voter is is eligible for two free tickets.

And we got our website is live. Christine, would you read the website? So, those who are watching, take down the website. Okay. It's all small letters. We yes o n p r o p which is yes onprop440.com. Let me read it one more time. So those that are watching you want to take write it down. Give them a chance. Okay. We s n p r o p440.com. That's it. Yeah. Um, this concert's going to be sold out and it's going to be full and it's going to be great because I'm so looking forward to it.

So, uh, so if you if you're into going, get your tickets now. I don't know if I can use the word sold out because they're free. So, that's the good news. And the other thing I want to want to acknowledge is uh our mayor elect Katherine Royer and say thank you so much for for participating with us.

Katherine will be speaking there in in support of the proposition and talking about what we're doing on on uh on uh on open space because some people deserve some thanks for being where we are in the process of open space. So, we've come down a road and the proposition really uh really locks it in in terms of funding being available to uh to provide for any loans that are required to be taken out to to make this purchase.

So, anyway, again, thank you very much, Katherine, for uh for uh participating with us. And that's our announcement and we're on a go. We're going. Okay. Thank you. Coming. No. Why? He was talking to me. He referred to me personally. Can I respond? See, you're responding because it's an invitation that shouldn't be doing respond. Um, I do appreciate the invitation by the Grub family.

Uh, but I do have to clarify that I will be presenting information about the town's efforts to preserve 405, not in support or in opposition of your initiative. So if that's a condition of my speaking then I can't participate. So you'll have to let me know. Notice that it's not a condition of my speaking. So I will just be providing information about the town's 405 effort and hopefully you know our collaborations with our community. Thank you. Doer, mayor, vice mayor, mayor elect.

Sounds kind of good. Members of the council, once again, I am going to remind you that it is a very bad idea to sell the water company. Plan to continue doing this until we we all decide it's a very bad idea. A little over 40 years ago, Cave Creek was incorporated as a town. We did this because we wanted to be in control. We did not want to beg a town council in Phoenix or Scottdale to understand that we were different.

Part of that control is controlling our most valuable resource, which is our water. You know, we all know water is life. Up to that point, anything we wanted to do with the privately held water companies, we had to do by begging from the Arizona Corporation Commission. We wanted to be in control. So what we did as a town, and I say as a town because we voted twice on this, was we used the power of im imminent domain to make the water company sell to us.

There's an entire of Arizona law that controls exactly that. It's such a common thing. Guess what? There is no such section like that for towns selling water companies to private companies because it never happens. Now, are we really smarter than every other municipality that we would keep our water company? At the time we bought this, the town was not at all financially healthy. We became the most deeply indebted on a per capita basis of any community in Arizona. We went out on a limb.

We were broke. Now, Walmart changed that. But to get Walmart, what did we have to do? We had to build a sewage treatment plant and go deeper into debt. That was about 20 years ago. In the next two years, we start seeing things uh pay off those notes, those notes, and we're going to be happy because we bought everything at 2006, 2007 prices of today. Now, one thing I want to do is talk about the money. The town is not going broke because of the town has $41 million in the bank.

A couple of years ago, we changed the word from uh deficit. We changed that to subsidy. Well, actually the citizens have a different term. We call it savings. We call it the town is actually charging us less than the actual cost of providing the service. And guess what? We're not unhappy with savings. You know, we're so un so pleased with that. I've been working for the past 15 years to find out how to be a customer of the town so I could be part of that savings.

So the final thing that I want to say is that every single penny that we paid for water has stayed right here in Cave Creek. None of it went into a check for stockholders. Thank you. Thank you. 12 seconds. No additional speakers. Okay. Okay, the next is the consent agenda. On that consent agenda, we have council discussion and possible motion to recommend to the state liquor board approve. Excuse me, mayor. 12, we have a presentation on the Oh, did I miss something? Yes. Oh, I'm sorry.

Luke, [laughter] I thought I was going to make it through my whole term without making a mistake, but I guess it's gone. State Trust Land Update by Luke Coutsman Councelman development services director, and R.J. Carden, former Maricopa County parks director. Luke pick it. Thank you, mayor, members of council. Council member to see your Texas&M polo and good game. Yes. Uh, so I've got u my trusty sidekick here, R.J. Carden, who needs no introduction.

Uh, last we were in front of you was uh March 31st earlier this year uh to get direction from council to proceed with uh various uh options and strategies moving forward to the acquisition of the 405 acres of state zoned creation and open space conservation. Um, I put all of these logos on there just to show council and the public the different uh agencies andations that we're working with through this.

We've gotten, you know, um, correspondents from Arizona Game and Fish, Forest Service, uh, BLM. Obviously, we're working with Arizona State Parks and Trails on the Land and Water Conservation Fund grant, which R.J. will go into later. Uh, Desert Foothills Land Trust is a key partner in all of this. And then uh the 405 acre um group, their logo's there as well. Uh they continue to be involved um at a very high level and productive level.

And I I'll recognize Stacy Daniel and Bill Basur who are here and Carol Perry who was not here that have um been instrumental in a lot of the things that will be in this are going to be coming down the pike. Yes. Right. So where where we are currently with ASLD, our application was submitted within a week of the March 31st meeting. Um they have gone through their internal staff review issued us a letter of here's the next things that you need to provide.

Among those is our biological, cultural, cultural, and environmental studies and reports. We've contracted with Logan Simpson to prepare those. Um at present uh they are in draft form. We've also engaged with a survey firm Ever Allen Group to prepare the Alta survey of the the 12cals including uh land title reports. Those have a much longer window of preparation. There's a lot of records that they have to go through to prepare those ALTA um surveys.

We are anticipating about December when those will be complete. Then um the other thing we're working with on that really just came up in this last week is identifying potential future rights of way. Obviously we're buying 12 distinct individual uh tracks intermixed with a bunch of state land that is zoned for future residential development.

the state land department wants to be assured legal access to those parcels at some point in the future um when they when those go to auction for development. So that's that's the next step that we're working on internally and we'll work with ASLD to start identifying where those rights away may occur. Um and then once all of that is completed and assembled, we upload it to our existing application and they go into review the end of the due diligence phase.

Then we will have another appraisal done. As you see, this is pulled this uh graphic from the ASL presentation that they uh Karen and Ruben gave to council back in March as well. So that kind of gives you a timeline of of how the different dominoes will fall. The other thing um obviously is is uh building our tent trying to get uh additional stakeholders involved in this and I'll kind of turn it over to R.J. here uh for the Maricopa County involvement slide. Thank you Luke.

Thank you mayor and council for having me here. Um, so yes, as Luke mentioned, we want to uh get uh Maricopa County involved from both a potential land acquisition standpoint and a management um standpoint of this property in the future. On September 7th, [clears throat] I think we held a very productive meeting with the county manager, assistant county manager, parks and recck director, and the chairman of the board of supervisors, um, Supervisor McGee.

and several of you were also in that meeting. Uh as was the town manager and Luke and myself. I think the meeting went very well. Um as the slide says, invariably there are a number of variables coming up with elections um that have to be taken into account and things like fiscal budgets. Um but I think we left there feeling good that they are willing to be a partner.

So once we uh can get through some of the elections and some of the other budgeting um looks then I think we'll be at a point to start really having some discussions with them about partnership. And in fact Luke and I have a meeting uh at the end of this month with the parks and recreation director from Maricopa County to start outlining um what an me memorandum of understanding might look like a future intergovernmental agreement uh partnership opportunities.

So, we'll we'll continue on with that. Um, and I think that's that. And then wanted to give you a quick update um on the Land Water Conservation Fund. We submitted a grant application July 31st. I think you're all aware of that for $2 million. Uh, and tonight you will authorize or hopefully authorize a resolution that allows us to proceed with that um grant opportunity. I've had some discussions with Arizona State Parks.

In fact, today um they received over $17 million in requests for the Land and Water Conservation Fund money. Um they only have 9 million available. So, it is going to be very competitive this year. I have um inside baseball that gives me um very good confidence that the town will be awarded um some of the funding. Uh we'll have to wait and see if it's the full 2 million or something somewhat less than that.

Um but I'm I'm very confident that we will be awarded a grant uh for this upcoming grant cycle and that will go to the Arizona State Parks Board in December. Great. Thank you. Now, on the uh fundraising um staff, uh Bo Larson and myself meeting as part of a stakeholder group that consists of Carol Perry, Stacy Daniel, Bilbasaur, and uh Desert Foothills Land Trust staff, uh Raina, Rachel, Sue, and um setting up basically the the the outline what fundraising is going to look like.

uh whether that's developing a quick reference guide for people that might be soliciting uh to um and then here's a screenshot of the uh web page that we are putting together and hoping to go live with uh very soon. So, you know, all of this kind of feeds into trying to obtain funding from as many different possible uh to lighten the load of of what we may have to go for financing for in the long run. And this just is is one more opportunity to leverage support.

If nothing else, this gives um interested parties, even if they're in opening a checkbook, it it allows residents uh to go on and kind of get a status of where things are. there will be periodic updates funneled through this website as well. Um so it's just another way to disseminate information and also hopefully you know rally support either financially or wise. So um you know everybody you know R.J. has contributed a testimonial there.

There have been a bunch of different people that have have contributed overall look and and outline of this website. So, we're we're very proud of it. And I'll let obviously through let everyone know when it's live and you can start clicking and and making a deposit. This is where uh the part of the presentation where it gets a little soupy because there are still so many things.

Um, you know, when we sat here in March, it was, yeah, let's let's get it to an auction as soon as possible and let the gavl swing and and we go. Um, but there are a lot of variables, a lot of different uh timelines. Obviously, R.J. alluded to it from the county perspective. They've got a ballot measure November that would renew or extend their prison tax. That prison tax really supports um uh their general fund.

So really if you think about disposable income being able to um acquire tax revenues for the operations of prisons um they're able to free up a lot of other budgetary uh considerations which would be you know an item that would fall on their discretionary list right so um there's that we're also juggling multiple timelines between multiple organization the land and water conservation fund grant cycle um being a July 31st deadline if we're awarded that um we would not be able to your application potentially and so we've exhausted that.

So there are a bunch of different things that go into it. So there's a lot of uncertainty would a degree because of the timelines but those things by December um or late November when when they come back to you those things should be ironed out. Luke, are applications um are they treated on a first come, first serve basis for the ASL auction or the land and water conservation fund grant? The um grants the grants are Jay wrote the playbook on this.

No, the grants are you submit um there's a deadline of July 31st and everyone that has submitted by deadline gets put in the pool um to be rated and and and that's how that goes. In years past because they haven't um had the kind of participation that they have currently, they did allow some of those grant applications to come in over time. Now that they're getting so so many requests for the money, they they put a hard andfest line on it. Thank you.

So, what we've done on this slide is is kind of out the current track and um based on our recent conversation with ASLD on Friday, uh we could be as early as July, but more likely August for an auction date if we present course. Um and that would hopefully if our grant application is a $2 million potential savings from that land and water conservation fund grant cycle. Then we've identified kind of the pros and cons in uh going in July or August.

It shortens the window for like a Maricopa County to come on board and be involved. Um but it it gets it done and and that was really the direction that we started this process with in March is to get it done. Um, and then there's always alternative considerations and you know that could be proceeding with with the auction for the parcels the the tracks of land that are included in our land and water conservation fund grant and I'll identify those. Those are the the two and the northwest tract.

Then the one adjacent to it that kind of looks like a a bitten up pizza with a bite taken out of it. and then the piece that'sly below spur cross. Um so the way the LWCF works is you have to identify um parcels based on the appraisal that equate to a $4 million and that's what one two and three represent. So that's what our our LWCF grant would fund specifically. It doesn't it doesn't get aggregated out to the entire 12 parcels. In other words, if that makes sense. Um, so that's that's that one.

Luke, do we um let me see what my question is? Do we know what location Copa County are for the other people that are applying or will we find out down the road? We do not currently know what those what those locations are, but we will um in the future. And they're not necessarily uh constricted to just Maricopa County. It's a state. It's a state grant. So, it could be anywhere.

Oh, Luke, before you get off of that, under the cons there, it says it limits the ability to apply for additional grant funds. Um, I I guess that's because we're going for all the whole apple all at once. Um, so we would not be able to funding ranged, borrow the money or or pay it out of cash. We had $41 million in the bank, too. So, uh, if we fund it, that limits us. We can't we can't use it again. So, any additional grants have got to be, uh, they're off the table if we do this.

Mayor, that that's correct. You would have to parcel out um, as Luke said, parcels like one through three and then four through eight, whatever another $2 million would be and have separate auctions in order to to do that. At at the meeting with the county, we talked about the county also going for something. Any update on Have you heard anything back? Have the county had a chance to talk about the mayor?

We have not heard back from them and that's what we hope to have further discussions with them about at the end of this month. Um because certainly that's another option. If the county was willing to put in a land and water conservation fund act um grant for several of these parcels around Cave Creek Regional for example, they have a separate application for land and water conservation fund.

But again, we would then have to segregate whatever parcels those are around Cave Creek Regional Park and have a separate auction for those. So that's that that's the con side um of that. It wouldn't be all at once. We'd have have to do a separate auction and we've discussed that with the state land department as well. And we can always adjust or amend our current application. Our current application is for all 12 of these tracks.

Um and we're not forgetting about the rodeo grounds in our conversations with the county. Absolutely not. Yes, we are. That is front of mind for me as you know. Okay. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, um just a question or comment. Um when the parcels begin to appear in subsets of the total, I would want to publicly put my thumb on the scale or a parcel.

I guess it's number four because those two parcels complete the preservation of spur cross ranch in the upper northwestern part of town where there will be development in commercial zoning and I just would offer a cautionary uh comment that if you couldn't have it all would not one of the primary goals of the town be to protect its 2235 acres at cross and get those two secure big because I'm hearing some comments from those who don't support that number four on the east side there thinking that we never will be able to afford it and so forth.

they may be more vulnerable than we realize. And so I'm just asking a question that I probably shouldn't, but uh it seems like three and four are wed and should not be on separate airplanes. And and really the uh the rationale for the land and water conservation fund grant being applied for one, two, and three is twofold. The first being the state lands preference for us if we were to do separate auctions would be to start at one and and work through.

Um and the second being again those three accumulate together equal about a $4 million price tag in appraised value. So that's those are the two two primary factors on on us looking at the land on grant just being those three. If I can ask another question would suppose is it it's not the number it's the actual physical site of the parcel. Correct. So it's not and they're not in love with one and two as a number. It's the location. Correct. Um if you did three and four, what does that amount to?

Is that anywhere near the four million targets? You have it in your Yeah, it's the one we've we've done the the permutations mathematical gymnastics. That print is so small. While while you're while you're working on that, can I just have some clarification here? We're getting some feedback. Um, and I have happen to think that maybe it's Tom Maguire's phone. He needs to mute his phone. Tom, can you hear me? Can you please mute your phone because we're getting feedback from your phone. What?

Oh, you did. Good. Thank you, mayor. Um, council member, yet three and four combined would be roughly 4.1 million. All right. Why is that funny? Because it's so close, you would think that it's a moving target. when we do another appraisal they tend to go up and down is what our experience is. So we could fall into the 4 million. It just seems a bit concerning that the two pieces that will double and protect the size of spur cross ranch would not be above all other priorities.

The land in the upper northwest is beautiful and significant in terms of preservation but our existing asset at Cross Ranch just seems to be a you can't have it all. which which would you choose to selectively save? So, if if I may, along your same uh thought, uh, council member, um, we're still shooting for all 4,05 acres, and it's conceivable that this grant money can be used just for those two parcels out of the total.

So, it's like a down payment, but for the purposes of the grant, they needed us to identify the parcels. So, if if we can get the um go through the auction process and close on it, we can use that money and technically it's buying those two parcels, but it's part of the total of the 4,05 acres that we're we're going to buy, right? So, is that make sense? So, yes, I didn't want to belver the point. It makes perfect sense.

I just always get nervous when we have a beauty pageant amongst the parcels because we've had this discussion historically and there's valid arguments for some more than others and I wasn't planning to promote spurt cross over others but I get nervous when I hear that alternative considerations is that we peacemeal the acquisition. The the council was very loud and clear. They wanted us to take the whole 4,05 acres down.

So, the staff was just trying to be creative on trying to find ways that we can use some grant money to help offset what the um the the cost of financing it would be. Um the other thing is we're going to be working with legal to find a creative way if the county does end up wanting to partner, we may end up doing some sort of like an IGA as another opportunity where they can reimburse the town for the portion that we buy and then they ultimately pay us back.

So we're we're looking at some creative ways to do it so we don't have to break it up into pieces. So there are ways I think that can be done, but it's the the attorneys are the ones that can come up with the creative ways of of making it happen. And just to dovtail on that, we we had a couple slides on alternative considerations just because there are so many different things as we sit here tonight is so many different directions that that could be taken.

So, what we'll do is keep exploring all of those and and bring those back to council as they come up. You know, if there's a better way to do this, if there's a more cost-effective way to do this, you'll you'll be able to weigh in and and we're in the fortunate situation of having extremely good financial situation. We are in super shape, 41 million bucks in the bank, and we put more money in the bank this year from our last report.

So every year that I had been involved, we have put more in the bank. It used to be 26 I think this uh when I first gone on council. So we we continue and so this is we have a we have the riches to take care of this with or without financing. And then um our last slide is just just a general next steps. And and as I think I've made as clear as mud, there's so many different permutations of what those next steps could be.

We've ironed out, you know, enough uh general ideas here to to be able to present to you. Obviously, you've got an an item on your agenda this evening uh for the council resolution. We need that uh council support through authorization of the resolution to continue with that land and water conservation fund grant. Um I mentioned the planning analysis of the right of way through the ASLD. Um that's something uh you know Hal and uh I and uh R.J.

they are all working on with ASLD to identify those rights of way where they might occur in the future. Um and then obviously we'll continue to analyze options and variables as variables become clear and we'll provide updates to council for direction. Uh we'll further refine our funding uh options and packages and then uh we'll know in December what the finality of that land and water conservation fund grant total is. Um, I'm very optimistic that we are going to get money.

Um, regardless of of the line out the door on that, I I can say confidently that that our application is is a good, strong application. Um, and then we'll continue to check in on Maricopa County in addition to the end of this month. Um, I've asked that we set up a a monthly meeting um with some of the senior leadership at county and myself to continue exploring and working on different ways uh to partner in this.

Um, [clears throat] and then we should have our donation and fundraising efforts uh commencing this month once the website goes live. Then uh as always, there's opportunities in our conversations with the state land department to amend our application um and submit additional applications uh as as we dee necessary.

And we will be back here to follow up with you in uh November after after the election uh happens, we'll have a better understanding of what county uh what their feasibility is to support financially and also with the uh election question that we have here in Cave Creek. Uh just my comment on this uh the jail tax, the county is focused on that jail tax. It is an existing tax that's that you're paying right now to support the jail.

If they lose that, then they're going to have some severe financial issues. And they've got severe financial issues just with the with the sheriff's situation and that case that's been around for 20 years. Y and seems to never end. So, um, our partnership with the county, they provide our law enforcement. Uh, we they run Spur Cross. We pay them to run Spur Cross. They they helped us buy the 30 acre 30 386 36 30.6 acres up there recently. They helped us buy Spur Cross to begin with.

Um, the rodeo grounds were right next to the park there. They cooperate in the rodeo grounds. U, the transfer station now the 4,05 acres. So, our partnership with the county is is incredible. And uh uh I'm not sure I can election up here, but I'm going to vote in favor of that jail's tax jails tax. Um and also, I see the members of the committee, some members in here. I want to thank you for all your hard work. I've seen some real nice graphics up here that no one thought to give the mayor.

I'm not gone yet. They were just hot off the press. I happen to be talking to them. Here's an example of it. It's really cool looking. I had to look over Katherine's shoulder to look at it, but uh but I want to thank you for all your hard work and uh and the upcoming hard work and the donations and the and and selling this thing. And of course staff is it is really impressive to see this amount of activity, the partnerships, the amount of work being done is is incredible. So thank you very much.

Thank you, mayor. Is there any public com Can I do that? It's his birthday. Yes. Oh, it's his birthday. It is his birthday. Yeah. Happy birthday, Bill. Yeah, but I'm getting younger. Yeah, I worked that out that I have legal on it. What I want to say is that the town of Cave Creek has the exclusive ability to call for an auction. So, no developer could call for an auction independently.

And should we do one of the parcels, it immediately fulfills our 160 acre obligation which kicks in our extension. So there are several things that happen here. Also in the ad hoc committee, what we learned was that we, the town of Cave Creek, could partner with the county, even desert foothills land trust in the auction so that we would actually be a participant in all of these things. Now any of that's changed. I'd love to know more about it.

But those are just a couple of salient things that give us some assurance that we have every reason to expect to get the whole 4,000. Thank you. Anything else from you gentlemen? No sir. Thank you very much. Any with council? Anything else? I just want to say um this is so positive. It's unbelievable. Luke and R.J. and uh the ad hoc committee. And I want to mention Mr. Grub over here. Um, it's quite a collaborative effort.

I, uh, I will make comments after the vote, which is when comments are really supposed to be made. But, uh, this this has been impressive. Tom, there's no vote on this. It's just a presentation. Okay. Then my comment is that so much of this is about relationships and the relationships that have been built up by previous councils, by Luke and by R.J. in particular have been absolutely critical to this. It is a unified community effort and I think it helps to define our town.

So, you know, this this is a wonderful thing and uh it's we can all be proud of this. Thank you, Tom. Anybody else from council? Okay, next on the agenda is the consent agenda. this council discussion and possible motion to recommend to the state liquor board approval of a series 12 restaurant liquor license for Cowboy Pizza and brunch 6920 Cave Creek Road, K Creek, Arizona 85331. So moved. Second. Any discussion? No. All those in favor? I oppos. I motion carries 70.

Next is our agenda item council discussion possible approval of resolution 2026-9 approving staff to submit a grant application to the Arizona State Parks and Trails. That's why you're sticking around. Uh for a land and water conservation fund grant for the purposes of acquiring state trust land. Filman. Thank you, mayor, members of council.

Um this resolution uh 2026-9 uh authorizes um or actually pledges uh any dollar for-dollar match that is derived from the land and water conservation fund grant uh up to not to exceed $2 million. Um it's worth noting that our um open space acquisition account in our um budget has the necessary funding there should we be awarded this grant in its full uh capacity of $2 million. So with that, I'll answer any questions that council may have. Questions. Seeing none, uh public comment. I have none.

Okay. So, um, Tom, do you want to make the motion on this? Oh, you're you're muted, Tom. You're muted. Am I there? Am I there? You're on. Okay. And are we on item which item number are we on? Uh, number one. Number one. Very good. Uh, council discussion and possible approval of a resolution 2026-19 approving staff to submit a grant application to the Arizona State Parks and Trails for a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant for the purposes of acquiring state trust land. Okay.

So, seconded by Tom by Joe. Okay. comments. Tom, any comment on this? No, this this is an excellent thing. Once again, this it's a process and it's been going on for through a number of councils for a number of years and there's a cooperative effort among the county, the staff and the citizens. That's uh just extremely beneficial. Wonderful what he said. Any any other comments from council? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 70.

Number two is a council discussion possible approval of resolution 2026-20 amending and extending the intergovernmental agreement IGA between the town of Cave Creek and Maricopa County for the management of Spurcross Ranch Conservation Area. Thank you mayor, members of council. Uh this resolution 2026-20 will extend the IGA between Maricopa County and the town of Cave Creek. Uh with a new expiration date of 2016. Um our original term for the IGA expired in 2021.

Uh we have been working on a handshake u agreement ever. While we've been working on um the necessary paperwork to extend this, uh this is something that uh we've been we've been working a long time to get done. So, I'm very happy to report this again extends our agreement till 2061. It also uh for all the Spurcross fans out there continues the resident free access to Spurcross range through that. So with that, I'll answer any questions. Questions from council?

Are there any significant changes in the intergovernment agreement? No, we uh we went back and forth on a couple of different drafts and ended up with the keep it simple stupid method and just extended it out 2061. You said free. I thought it was a dollar a year.

uh whatever the well we have an administrative cost I guess of a dollar a year at at town halls so cool thank you so just for clarification um will it re will we be paying the same amount to the county for the extension that is correct so I um the agreement and I'm glad RJ stuck around um the agreement does require that county each year tell us what their administrative costs are what their maintenance costs are. It's been steady at 216,000 for quite some time.

There is room in the agreement for that to adjust if if costs to manage um increase. Any other comments from council? Are there questions from council? Seeing none, uh public comment? I have none. Okay, there is none. Uh so we're looking for a a motion. I'd be happy to, Mayor. Okay, Cynthia.

U move to approve resolution 2026-20 amending and extending the ever intergovernmental agreement IGA between the town of Cave Creek and Maricopa County for the management of Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area. Second Joe, you had a second? Yes. Okay. Comment. Uh we were fortunate to be able to celebrate uh the Spur Cross anniversary uh just earlier uh in the season.

So, this is a a timely followup to continue that relationship and keep a close relationship between the residents of Cave Creek uh and and share that responsibility with the county. What Cynthia said, other comments from council? It's about relationships and our relationships have been so good among all the parties. Right. I was just going to say the same thing. We're grateful to the county for their cooperation all these years. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. No. Motion carry 70.

Thank you, mayor. Next on the agenda is county discussion possible approval of resolution 2026-21 granting assignment and assumption by RMGC Hideaway LLC of the amended restated agreement for effluent reuse and water supply for Rancho Manñana Golf Course. Mayor and councel, um the item before you is in reference to the um sale of Rancho Mñana that is um scheduled to be closing at the end of this month.

In the restated and amended agreement that the town has with uh the Rancho Mñana current ownership, there is a provision in there for assignment to the successor of the the ownership of Ranch Mñana. So before you is a resolution which is acknowledging the assignment and assumption um provision that's in the current agreement. Um, if you have any questions about the legal uh aspects of it, our town attorney would be happy to jump in on that.

But for all intents and purposes, this is a formality tonight. Um, and uh I think the one thing I did hear a question was about the ownership group. My understanding is that this is a ownership group that's based out of Texas. So with that, um, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Oh, I'm sorry I didn't see you, Michelle.

Michelle is our uh water legal counsel and between her and our town attorney should be able to answer any questions either about the specifics or about the resolution that's before you. Council questions. No questions. Okay. Uh public comment. I have none. There is none. Okay. I'll make a motion. I move to approve resolution 2026-21. Second. Okay. Um, this is this is a very simple thing. It's just uh uh allowing the current agreement with no changes to be assumed by a new buyer.

Standard thing that's done with uh contracts all over the world and u very simple. Uh we do have challenges uh at ranchermanana with the uh cutbacks and we'll be eager to work with the new owners to find solutions to those uh to those issues. It's in both their best interest and our best interest to have a water efficient golf course. It's a standard business matter and I think we need to move forward. other comments.

Rancho Mñana has been important to the community and we look forward to a continuing positive relationship. Others. Okay. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay. Um let's take a roll call. Council member Oton. I. Council member Driscoll. Yes. Council member Freriedman. Yes. Council member Mcuire. Yes. Council member Rhodess. Abstain. Vice Mayor Royer. Yes. Mayor Morris. Yes. Motion carries uh 5 to two. So, uh with that, um we proceed.

Uh, next is council discussion and possible approval to authorize a second amendment in the professional services agreement between the town of Cave Creek and GHD Incorporated to assist with modifying the operating permit of the town's water treatment plant for an amount not to exceed $69,361 and authorize the town manager and staff to execute the next documents. Good evening, mayor and council. Um, I just going to give you a bit of a history on on what's happening here and why we're doing this.

And it's actually taken a long fairly lengthy amount of time to get to this point. So, but it's actually worked out in our favor. Um, uh, some people might recall back at the end of 2019, we actually uh leased the Paul treatment trailers for the treatment plant. They became fully operational just at the end of that year. And then uh towards the end of 20 uh 2020, we actually purchased the units on an evaluation that was done.

Um that was really being driven by the fact that the the plant permit got modified and we actually had to deal with a water treatment uh issue. Um the permit that we were given was actually uh listed the the uh the Paul units as a temporary membrane integration project and they gave us four years to test them out verify they're going to work and then uh come back to them and modify the permit. So we actually did start that process.

So in uh the permit actually modified or the original permit uh ended in uh October 2024. So before that time frame um we actually came to council and got a contract with GHDs is what kicked it off to allow GHD to reach out to Maropa County and give them the information about how we operate the plant and uh come to an understanding of what was necessary to make it a permanent part of the plan.

We had really good discussions between GHD staff, Maropa County staff and the town staff and then the county staff changed. So uh well we had a plan moving ahead. We had this scope work that GHD had done to make this middle. we sort of got paused out when the county staff changed uh with the next round of county staff that came on board.

Um they wanted to go into a little more detail on what was actually being done at the plant and specifically they didn't like some of the piping modifications which we wanted to clean up a little bit uh and some things like where the chemical storage is on the plant itself. So uh we actually awarded another uh scope of work with GHD to help us get to the uh design report to help satisfy at the time what the regulators were asking us to come up with.

Some of that is actually dealing with things like light safety issues around the plant, some other things that uh um are legacy issues that we really should complete, but we they were sort of forcing it with the the permit modification.

So, that report was submitted to Maricopa County um and now uh we're on our third manager at Maricopa County Environmental Services Department and they've been actually when they came out and visited the site and we had a good conversation with them, they were wondering why we hadn't done this modification sooner.

So, we're about to slap ourselves on the side of the head, say, "Well, uh, we're here now, so let's go do this." Um, so what we have in front of you right now is a scope of work with GHD. Um, uh, there's been a lot of work done already. So, what actually in the second phase of the work, they actually had to go through alternatives.

That was part of the evaluation to to prove that the, uh, the Paul membrane units in their current configuration in the trailers at the back side of the site was the best. Um, so they were able to show that um, and to keep them in those units. There's been a lot of discussions about should those trailers be brought inside the building. They physically don't fit. You'd have to you'd have to take them apart. So, uh the work um required to do that is actually detrimental.

They're actually designed to be in the trailers. So, while it doesn't look pretty, it functionally works. It gets the town very good quality water. Um so, right now, we have a scope of work with GHD. Uh we have a a a scope of work that we've received county approval of what we need to do to the site to modify it. GHD drawings completed and then submitted to them and we need to get an approval of construction by the end of this year.

Uh then we actually have 18 months to complete the construction. I don't think it'll take 18 months, but they were lenient in giving that to us. One thing that did come up is that they did want us to actually make a plant modification. The um uh the water treatment plant um while it has a clear wall on the site and actually where we disinfect add the chlorine disinfection, it actually doesn't have any contact time properly.

So they've asked us to actually put a chlorine analyzer at the Nery site um so that we can take advantage of the reservoir storage at the Ner site. So we actually had to do the calculations and show that that's actually is was required um so that's a modification. Ironically it wasn't required when the plant was built in 2008 but uh now they are requiring us to do that. It's one of the things that has come up.

shouldn't be too much to actually add it to that site, but um it's it's one of the the odd things that has come up, but uh um from everything else that we've been able to accomplish with the county and the current staff, I think we're getting a good outcome. Um there will be a well say plant classification on there. Uh some may recall this all stems from a reclassification of the treatment plant back in 2014 from a direct filtration plant to conventional plant.

That's what drove us to uh do the uh address the water quality issue which drove us to the pal membranes. The county is now actually looking to allow us to classify the plant back to the direct filtration. Um so we'll have the palm membranes uh with the Phoenix interconnect that'll give us the best highest quality of water into the town. But it is a little bit of a kick in the pants that after all this time they're saying you know yeah you can go back to the direct filtration.

Part of that is because we will be removing the Westech 4 uh unit that's in the plant that has not been operational since we brought the PS on board. Um so it it it'll it'll be a nice uh conclusion to this for the town. I think um once THD's done this work and once we engage the contractor the current scope is just to get them through the design process and we'll do one more amendment and I just forewarn you on that.

Um it'll be for because we don't know how long construction will take that um to have GHD in engaged. I didn't want to do a scope of work that was much larger than we needed at this point. We agree with them to actually wait until we actually get a contractor and get a schedule and then they can come up with an estimate.

We'll do a final amendment with them uh to do construction administration because we'll actually have to have GHD to help us close the permit out and help town staff uh witness that project. So with that, we're asking you to do the second amendment uh to this scope work. Um this one is just uh just $9,000. Um the existing work that's been done to date totals $138,000.

Um and then we'll come back uh later with a smaller scope to just do the contract administration phase of the project and we'll be done with this and we can move on. So with that I can answer any questions you council may have. Questions? Well my questions is seems like micromanagement frankly having done billions of dollars in construction projects. I've never had to go to someone else to tell you to where to put your chlorine analyzer or safety issues or stuff like that.

Is is this within the county's perview or are they just being helpful? It seems like a lot of money for it. No, no improved operation. The chlorine analyzer, I actually agree with what they're doing because if you go back to the original calculations back in uh 2007 and 8 when the town modified the permit, there was discussion back then about putting an analog site. Um it didn't happen. why it has and why through all the annual inspections we've been through, they're finally bringing it up now.

But when we do the calculations, it does show you actually need to have that chlorine um in contact with the water in a reservoir long enough to actually be Well, that wasn't the question, Sean. I I I don't want to I don't want to debate the are are is is the amount of oversight and the and the detail is that appropriate to what their charge is or are we being helpful that I I I don't want to get the engineering. Yeah.

I'd say at this point the staff that we're working have been more than helpful for the town. So that I'll leave it at that. All right. Other questions? Yeah. Public comment. I have none. Okay. Uh, anybody on the page want to make the motion? [clears throat] I'll do it. Can you hear me?

So, I'll make a motion to approve and authorize a second amendment to the professional services agreement between the town of Cave Creek and GS GHD Incorporated to assist with modifying the operating permit for town's water treatment plant for an amount not to exceed $69,361 and to authorize the town manager and staff to execute the next necessary documents. Second. Not like we have a choice. [laughter] Other comments from council. Okay. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carry 70.

Item number five is council discussion, possible approval to authorize a second amendment to the professional services agreement between the town of Cape Creek and GHD Incorporated for the design, permitting, and construction administration support required to repair a 10-in sewer line crossing Andor Hills Wash for an amount not to exceed $40,393 and authorize the town manager and staff to execute the next necessary documents. Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Um so the um Endor Hill sewer is a 10-in sewer line. It's on the it's located on the um east side of Cave Creek Road just just just a little bit north of where the bend is at Ranch Mñana. It actually takes all the flow from the two 8 in lines that come through the town core and then brings it across the wash and then conveys it across the road into the the list station for treatment. So it's a project we've known about for a while.

It's a section of ductal iron pipe that was uh put in to cross the wash. And what we've actually also found through the master planning process is that the um the manholes actually have sunk a little bit uh through the wash. They don't have a good solid stable foundation. So there's actually a little bit of a we've lost a little bit capacity because the pump is uh the we've lost a little bit of the the gravity fall across the line.

So this project has started a while ago and why why is it taking so long? Um actually partly because of some of the other issues we've had to deal with including the failure of the branch mana force man a few years ago. the funding that was actually put in the CIP two years ago for this project got consumed by that project. Um so we actually have we're paused by that in order to get that emergency repairs done. So the original contract was issued in 2023 um for $47,600.

We started the work uh in there since the wa the crossing is actually in uh Andor Hills Watch which is FEMA the land wash. looked at it at a higher standard at the time. Again, similar we had with Maroba County, the flood control staff that we were talking with um looked at this as more of an operational improvement and and in kind. Um so they weren't looking at us having to do it to a higher level of detail and doing this review.

We did know pause and go back and once we found out how bad the settlement had occurred, it made sense for to do soil borings, make sure we can properly design the foundations for the manhole. So unlike regular manhals which you just are basically just a bit larger than the diameter these actually will have a spread footing that actually exceeds that.

So by a little bit of a difference they're actually I think a six foot di a 5 foot diameter manhole but they have a six foot base in order provides the additional support that they need so they don't settle again. Um so that was the first amendment that we did is when we got into this that we had to do the soil geotechnical work to get that work done. So uh done that work that was the second amendment.

Um, again, we paused in between that because we actually had to spend all the funds that were set aside for this and complete the emergency repair on the ranch mñana lift station. I've been a little hesitant in and holding on this project because I wanted to also get through the instruction that we just completed this spring on the the um the the three force mains uh for the town. So, that's been done and we actually got good results back on those.

So, uh now I'd like to complete this project with um GHD. Uh we've reached out to the county to re-engage them. Um what they've now come back with is said that you know while since we're in the wash they actually um and we actually do need to replace the manholes. They would like us to do what a scour analysis. We want to prove that um what we're doing is not going to impact and cause more scour damaging uh to this wash.

And then um within the scope of $40,000 is actually about $10,000 to do mitigation if necessary. So that's a scope that GHD would not execute if not nec if not needed, but we built it into the fee schedule. But this uh $40,000 actually allows them to complete the design um doc scour mitigation and to have GHD actually help us with construction phase administration on this project. It shouldn't take too long to actually do.

We may have to do a a full bypass of the line to allow a contractor to get in there because it's a 75 ft section of pipe and the fact that they're rebuilding manhole. So it might be a few weeks of work once we're in the wash. But um you it's just something we'd like to get behind us. Um it is um one of the uh ductal iron uh sections in the town's uh sewer system that we really should get out of the system. So So we I think we have a plan of attack.

Um we actually uh now found a new job order contractor that we're working with to do sewer line repairs. So I'm going to gauge them to actually start getting a cost model together and see if we can do it with this year's funding or get all the permitting done this year knowing that if we have to go back in the CIP and refund it, I can do it this fall and then uh get the money together and actually do it next summer. So uh that would be the goal to get this one behind us.

And with that, we're asking council to authorize the scope of work with GHD to allow us to finish off the um the permitting phases work and also give us the funds to allow them to do the construction administration. Question. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Yeah. Um Sean, what would be an example of scour mitigation work? You may actually have to go in and um uh um there's actually some existing scour mitigation down there. We actually have there's an 8 inch water line and the 10-in gravity sewer there.

And some of the mitigation, it's actually closer to where the water line is. It's towards where the um uh there's going to be gabian baskets, but they actually have a a mat that's actually in the base of the of the wash that got constructed in 1990 when the the culvert was built. So, it's going to come down as they'll do the calculations. They'll they'll see if during a storm event how much the material might be washed away.

So, the scour mitigation might be actually protect the sewer line in case there's so much flow through there that we actually might under undercover and undermine the sewer line. So, that's something we might need to do. We might need to concrete and case it or might have to put some sort of a mat on top of it. So that's that's potential things might have to happen scopes. And I have a question. Uh Tom, you you saying something? Yes. Yes.

Uh will there be any interruption or effect of services uh as a result of this project? No. Our thought would be because it's going to take it's not just like a sewer lining project which we can do with like back trucks for the day. Um this will probably require a bypass pump. Um so there will be some uh uh we'll have to set up a pump and pump around the operation. So upstream and downstream manholes um and have to have to deal with it that way.

So but we will keep sewer service continuously flowing. It's just I think it might take a couple of weeks for the contractors. We just have to get that bypass in place. Um so we'll have to see how that works out whether they need a lane closure to actually put the piping and all that in place. Um but that's something that uh as we move forward with the job to order contractor but yeah we will maintain full services during this operation.

We'll just actually dry up this section of line to allow the contractor to work. Thank you. Other questions? Seeing none, public comment? I have none. Okay. Um I move to second amendment to professional services contract between the town of Cave Creek and GH for amount not to exceed $40,393 and authorize the town manager and staff to execute the necessary documents. Second. Um it needs to be done. So, I'm in favor there. We'd we'd be in deep something if this does not pass.

I think the air light up there in [laughter] Okay. All those in favor say I. I say no. Motion carries 70. The final thing on the uh agenda tonight is a presentation of the utility department quarterly report by the utilities director. Thank you mayor and council and I do want to give a thank you to um Ryan Hill helps me really put these presentations together and gives you all the documentation. Um so we have our performance measures.

I don't spend too much time on this or actually not really anything because actually we have this actually give us uh the information uh based on the measures that have been adopted for the department. One of the key ones here is uh production um or cost of production. And uh this is an interesting one because when we ran the numbers it was kind of telling we're trying to understand what's going on.

So uh this is three full year business looking at what does it cost the town to run the different operations. We look at the cost the top line is the cost of thousand gallons of treating treatment uh treating raw cap water less the cost of the water and getting that water into the near reservoir. Um and then uh next one is the desert hill system. how how much does it cost us to run the Desert Hills uh uh system which is largely comprised of the cost of running the wells.

But since we transfer so much water, the the the transfer cost, bulk water cost uh between the the companies actually gets factored into this. The bottom one is actually the Cave Creek wastewater system. So knowing that I'll I'll go through the top slide. So Cave Creek water um you'll notice it actually has decreased uh year-over-year 25 to 26. Uh we looked into that. Um couple of things have come up. We've actually had staff as we've had the P membranes out there for a while.

We're looking at staff have been really diligent on making sure they can integrate that and get the best quality water for the the lowest cost for the town. And then uh so we thought that was happening last year and then why the drop this year um sadly it's because of the biggest issue we saw when we actually looked at the numbers is uh since December loss of significant staff.

uh you know we lost the deputy director, we lost the plant supervisor, we lost our distribution supervisor, all these staff members were actually uh partially charged to that plant. So because um distribution because of the running of the cap pipeline this includes the cost of running the cap pipeline. So why did we get cheaper? Because we've lost staff. So uh we're we're running it on a skeleton crew right now.

My deputy director is actually um working a shift right now while we're trying to staff back up and uh because we're down to that level. So I while we we're c being cost not in a good manner right now. So I hope we can get past this fairly quickly. Desert Hills the cost has gone up largely because the end of last um um or the beginning of the fiscal year we lost two wells out in Desert Hills which required us to transfer more water.

Uh we lost the uh Joy Ranch and Third Avenue well as well as the um the Galvin well for two months actually almost three months between the two wells. So we had to transfer more water and then this year we were transing a little bit more partly because with the new staff um it's been hard for us to manage the system as efficiently as effectively as we were getting to last year. And then a few months ago we actually lost well three in Desert Hills and I'll talk about that a bit later.

So um we've actually again uh the two wells that were down last year we got back in uh capacity. We've actually lost a little bit capacity. The one that's down now I'll talk about when we're later. I don't know if we can recover that one. uh in Cave Creek wastewater. Um subsequently, we've showed some slides, but Ryan and I spent a little bit of time, specifically Ryan, to look at this, make sure we had a good number of why is it costing us uh make sure it's apples to apples between years.

Um so why is it getting expensive? Well, there's two things. We actually did add a staff member. It was actually end of fiscal year 24 going to fiscal year 25, we added a staff position. We didn't actually get that position filled until the end of 25. Um so now that we're fully staffed um uh we're actually have that extra cost that employee and then u the other thing that's actually happened is we've lost flow. Um typically uh prior years we were treating about 28 210 acre feet a year.

Last year our total on the calendar year was 185. So we actually are some conservation which is good on the water side but on the wastewater side it actually means we're getting less return back to us for treatment. So the cost per thousand went up because our cost went up with the additional staff and then we're treating less flows. So uh when we looked at the numbers that's what it seemed to came come down to. It's all explainable. It's just it's it's what it is.

We're we're we will look at this. We use this as a measure ourselves to to try and be more efficient. Big one for us as we go into conservation is uh average water consumption. In this case we have the two fiscal years. You know, it takes a little time to do this because typically we look at it more on a calendar year basis with regulators. So, uh, we put this into a fiscal year. And again, I give kudos to Ryan for spending all the time on doing this.

And you can see the number of accounts between the fiscal years and Cave Creek Water increased a little bit, but um, the average um, consumption um, per account dropped a little bit. So, um, in FY25 is actually, uh, the end of 20 fiscal year 25 is when we completed the meter upgrade project in in Cave Creek. So, we actually got all the old meters in some cases were under reporting and we cleaned up a lot.

Um, and we do think that because we've got the new meters in there and we've now got the AMI system in Cave Creek Water. It is showing a benefit here that we've actually users have have dropped. We're now catching leaks earlier which means that we're not uh leaving uh to big leaks where people might have four or six weeks worth of a leak before we notify them, which is through a water bill. Now, we're looking at it almost on a weekly basis and finding stuff.

So I think what what I take out of the on the Cave Creek system is between 25 and 26 was the the upgrade to the AMI metering system really proved to be for us. We saw a little bit of a decrease in our um consumption of our non-residential. Um again you can see the uh accounts about only 10% of our customers. That's our commercial customers. Uh we have a few landscape meters and some other uh things in there but there's been a little bit of a drop on that side.

For Desert Hills, a similar story on the residential side where there has been a little bit of a year-over-year drop. We have not updated the Desert Hill system to AMI. There are some customers out there. [gasps] Approximately 10% that are getting picked up by the uh AMI system um overlap um that they're they're able to to to get benefit of that system. Uh but staff are just being more proactive about getting out and dealing with stuff.

We're spending a lot more time trying to to uh uh get on leaks earlier and and work with customers to get leaks addressed sooner. the non-residentidential in Desert Hills jumped up. Why did that happen? Well, because there's so few non-residential customers out there. Again, we went from 20 to 21. That was the O'Reillys, which was a legacy project that is finally wrapped up.

It's actually been in queue for a long time and actually was a legacy project when we adopted the water resource master plan of 21, our water resource policy. Um there was one there was two large water events that happened out there. Um uh council might remember the um the um ecoin center that actually grew their golf uh the polo field. Well, last year, uh, at the beginning of the fiscal year, they actually, um, had their well failed and they converted back over to our our our well.

We since addressed that by actually sending them a letter saying, "You can't do that." But for one, uh, month, their typical water usage was about 20,000 uh, gallons. Uh, for that one month, they used almost 800,000. Um, so they got build for it, but it shows up in this number. So, um, that between that and school, um, the school's been really kind of erratic the last couple years. So, actually, we want to talk to them about what they're doing.

So um so again it's because of the small number of users out there that one big event uh for the one customer for that one month actually uh that skewed the numbers but overall I think we're seeing a trend down um and we're trying to um keep that going. Obviously uh saving water is a huge thing for us as we move forward. It drives us into uh our revenues versus non-revenue accounting of the system.

Uh so you see the stack graphs at the bottom are where the water goes through and this first graph is Cave Creek water. I'll have Desert Hills be the next one. And then we look at the um the uh uh so that's our billing effectively the stacking of all the bills that we can we can appropriately bill to our customers. And the green is actually the the total water uh delivery. There's always a gap on that. Uh we're running around 14.4%. Um and what that is really attributed to is is two main things.

Is that the water extra water that we have to send or send up to to Ranchman including the backwash water from the water treatment plant the way that um America Department of Water Resources accounts for it. We can't account for that as a as a a savings because we don't sell that water. So the lake losses are there and the fact that we've actually we're seeing some more issues with the uh cap flow meter at the cap canal.

Um uh we're deviations and we really need to look to get that meter out and we do have a capital project to do that. So once the interconnect's up and live we can actually look to get a time frame that we can take that uh pipe out. It's going to be using this pipeline and putting into that pipeline to put in the new meter. So it's not a small project but I think it's something we need to uh address. I mean it's something we should have been addressing for a long time.

It's just we didn't have the opportunity to take that system out of service. Sean question. I didn't understand what you said about the waste water that's being it. Are we charging them for the waste water that's going to ranch? If if they use it through the irrigation system. So it goes back to the uh I use the term inefficiency. We send them we send them two streams of water actually potentially three streams of water to the golf course irrigation lakes.

We send the effluent from our wastewater treatment plant. Uh the backwash water from our water treatment plant and then uh if necessary we can send them raw cap water. So the the it's the amount of water that we send to the lakes versus what we can bill for which is what they use for irrigation. Um the highest since I've been here has been 150 acre feet of a loss that we've had in that system. We're down below 100 right now.

Um but we can't account for that under ADWR's accounting rules for that water that 100 acre feet. Since we don't bill them for that, we can't include it in the So it goes back to the losses that's occurring just because of our deliveries to the lakes and their contract says they get charged for what they take out of the lakes. Sean, yes. You mentioned uh the interconnect. Do you have a fir firmer idea as to when that's going to be up and running? I have a slide on that. I'm sorry.

I have a slide on that. So, [laughter] yeah, I'll talk about that. That's a huge project. So, I just definitely will highlight that. So, Desert Hills has always been uh better than Cape Creek because we've had better uh metering out there.

um they've they had the uh the Neptune meters were uh replaced years ago and it's a simpler system in regards to again the water loss issue that we have with Ranchman or the accounting issue with the cap pipeline because we have the three wells have new meters on replace those meter three or four years ago and we have the one interconnect meter so it's very easy to that system if you look at April and June you'll see the little blip um that goes back to a timing gap was what we've determined um uh that we uh um the the time that we read the meters for the production, the well meters didn't correspond with the uh the the billing data set.

So the we it's just we have to work with that with staff on so but overall we're running about 7% and that does account for we actually do charge desert hills and effective loss on the water that gets sent to them from Cave Creek a 5% loss. So that is that that is helpful and that actually why their numbers in the past years have been a little bit lower. We started doing that a few years ago to account for that.

That's that's typical in the industry for a treatment transmission loss because otherwise we were taking it on the cave creek side of the equation. Why why wouldn't we be charging in the 71 7.1% rather than 5%. Well, 71 is the overall number. 5% is just what we send through the interconnection at 24th and Cloud Road. So that well any water that goes through there, they get charged, you know, every acre foot they get charged 1.05 acre feet of water. That's just typical.

That's actually when we start up the city of Phoenix interconnect, Phoenix will charge that too. They'll actually add a 5% treatment and transmission loss to our our our usage that we get from them. But you're losing 7% right overall. And this is going back to again there are some meter inefficiencies out there and it accounts for everything. It's just overall what you know we're we're it's called the non-revenue water and it's what are tries to get this down to.

Well here here here's the bottom line. Are are the uh Cave Creek customers subsidizing the care the the westside water people for that difference that 2.1% difference. you're always going to have in a metering system. You'll never get down to to one% or less than that, you know, and again, for a number of years before we did the uh the treatment of transmission loss at the interconnect site, they were below 5% typically. So, it has gone up.

So, I think it's a fair um you know, again, the adding the 5% is is is just to send that water out to them and then I don't think they're getting benefit from that and it actually does help our our calculations. So, so you think over time that averages out so so it's not significant? Yeah. And as we get to better again better metering on the Cave Creek side, the the cap meter accounts for they say what did you pull out of the cap canal and where did that water go to?

So until we get that meter corrected, we're always going to have an inefficiency on the Cave Creek side. And if we can address the the loss issue that occurs with the Ranch Minñana lakes, then those are the two big things that will will drive the the um non-revenue water numbers down in Cave Creek water. So, so you think is is the CAT meter causing extra water losses for us? Is it reading high?

I guess that'd be Yeah, it's been broke for a number of years and then recently it's been reading high. So, uh the problem is it's an insertion meter. It fits in the top of the pipe. It's actually you to access it, you have to go into 20in pipe and work between your knees to get this thing out and there's no safe way of doing it. So, we really need to pipeline down and actually dig it up and [clears throat] and get it out and replace the meter.

I do believe that was the meter that was replaced in 2017. There used to be an old what's called a mechanical propeller meter. So, it got updated to a um a uh an insertion magnetic meter, but the meter should be pulled out for service, but the way it got inserted, we don't actually have a way of pulling it out because they didn't put the corpse stop in. I don't think there was one that allows you to withdraw it and actually turn it off. Would term that a self-inflicted wound be accurate? Yeah.

So we we want to correct but again it's it's one of those things that if you pull it out you're you're sort of you know you got to deal with it. So uh we're trying to we've interconnect delayed longer than we expected but yeah that is something we need to address. Um yeah but typically it's been working in our favor. It's actually been under reportporting until recently. Now it's over reporting and it's like um we also like to look for losses.

Um you know the slides before that was what revenue water you know where do we build the water to and what water where production water is moved around the system uh but we also are keen on looking at losses the way the system's laid out we do have to do a lot of flushing operations in prior years the red is actually our flushing operations when we actually have to flush the dead ends of the system to stay in compliance and the uh the orange below is actually the leaks in past years the leaks have been most of the graph honestly so that's a tribute to the staff getting on to things like service leaks and mainline B uh leaks more efficiently and effectively.

We've given them tools like vac trailers so they can respond to things and start digging up and not have to wait for a vac truck or a contractor to dig it up. So, it's it's really helped us out. But just the the the long deadend nature of the Cave Creek system means that we have to flush it. But overall, while some people, you know, you look at it, it's less it's just over 1% 1.23% of our total production went into that.

Um, and a little bit of that is is leaks, but most of that is just having to flush the system to keep fresh water in and compliant water. Is there a way to recover the hydrant flushing? It's hard. You know, we've actually done some operations out in Desert Hills where we've tried to bring it into hydrant trucks, but um the our water trucks, sorry, but water trucks are only three to four, the best is 5,000 gallons, and it's a lot of moving a water a lot of water around. So, we've talked about it.

It's just the worst case that we have is actually the 12-in line that runs up the spur of cross. Um, you know, the the town stopped the spur of cross development from occurring, made a conservation area out of it, but the legacy infrastructure that was to support a 600 home development with two golf courses is in the ground and it's still there.

So, we have a big 12-in water line that runs all the way through the town core up Schoolhouse Road, cross flinging springs, up Spur Cross that I don't have enough demand on to keep it fresh. We've actually looked at can we put a sleeve inside? It's costly. So, we have to balance this stuff out. Where's where's the best way to at least pump it back into the ground so that we ground water because it's going to flow [clears throat] right down to where your wells are. Yeah.

If you uh to do that to actually get credits for it, you actually then have to do a recharge facility. You can't just by us putting a drywall and bringing it down. you we the only way we generate credits is is actually go and do a a managed or a unmanaged uh uh recharge facility which means then we're actually getting a permit for it. We actually have to get the state to agree to that and and there's a lot of exercise involved in that.

And actually in the town ironically um the the aquifer that we have is actually fairly high in a lot of cases. The groundwater table's not that deep because we don't have a thick aquifer. And we there's been efforts and it's been looked at of trying to get recharged uh sites before in the town to town corer and up north and it's it's the state regulations prevent uh prevented it. So yeah, be a lot of exercise.

It it it kills me when I see the flushing operations, but uh we just need to it we also have to stay compliant. It's hard. It just seems to me there's something we ought to be able to do. I mean maybe we go get the state to give us a special exemption. Yeah, as staff um we've looked at a couple of things that we might want to try. There's different um flushing operations. Um one's called no dezz where you actually basically connect a pipe along uh to a a trailer and you recirculate the water.

You run it through filters, but we'd actually have enough piping to go between locations. But something we want to look at the technology is not out in the valley that yet right now. I think Scottdale bought a trailer, but my understanding last time I spoke to Scottsdale, they bought the trailer not utilizing it. Um u we talked with the contract to bring them in, but they want like $30,000 just to mobilize to try it out. So it might be worth us trying it out and see how effective it is.

Um so instead of losing the water, we're just recirculating it through and then we're just taking out um any constituents in it. So yeah, there's there's things we need to look at. Yeah, it's it's good, but overall we've got down to a good good pattern. This number used to be a lot higher. So again, largely uh the leaks is a big thing, but the flushing operations is just Yeah, we have the 12 inch lines a big one, but we also have some 8 inch lines, which really should only be six inch lines.

Yeah, but something we we do want to look at and to see if we can do things like more directional flushing rather than the end flushing, but that requires staff resources to do also at that. But something we hear and we we do think about that, too. When you look at Desert Hills, um it's almost the reverse where um again we there's only a couple it's not as as a dead end as Cave Creek system and there's actually more customers on the number for the number of miles of lines.

Desert Hills is about half the number of distribution lines mileage of distribution lines as Cave Creek water. So even though there's um 1900 customers versus 2400 customers, it gets consumed a little bit more regularly. So there's only a few places that we need to actually flush more regularly. And you can see while there's more orange on this graph, which is the leaks, it's because of the less flushing operations that we have to do out there.

So in total, we're less than uh 2% of the water being lost out there in the desert hills. Um one measure that council has to look into is, you know, where are we seeing new septic systems going to the town and then where are we seeing um existing systems uh being rehabilitated. So we've been tracking this for a few years now.

Um and this graphic sort of shows and I think what I got out of that is driving towards where we have the dry sewer areas where we starting to see a pattern of more new more systems fail in those areas and that would sort of drives the decision to actually start activating and spend the dollars to um uh connect the dry sewer areas. Um so you are seeing a little bit of clusters. Uh the um uh the uh red is actually the septic repairs.

That's someone that's existing account and actually to get to do that repair, they have to come to us and we actually have to say that they're in compliance with the town code not connecting to town sewer system and the Maropa County will give them a permit to uh construct repair that system and then the blue are actually new construction and you can see that.

So, while there's a bit of a cluster over on the Black Mountain side, uh, east of Cave Creek Road, uh, there's a little bit down south along, um, Canyon, uh, I think it's Canyon Ridge estates down there. It's just a little bit, and again, it's been consistent in the pattern that we see. So, there is some, it's just we got to weigh that against the cost of of constructing those sewers.

I think the master plan showed to get the from the wastewater treatment plant up to the Cave Creek Road, get those dry sewer areas about a $7.5 million project. It's a lot of money, but do we need to do it in order to get those customers onto the system? Something to consider, but we'll continue to monitor this for now and help drive that decision. So, jumping to the capital program again, uh, uh, City of Phoenix interconnect is getting very close.

Um, so we've run into a few glitches as we've been getting to the end, uh, line here. City of Phoenix uh south of Cave Creek Road ran into two broken waterline valves as as Garnney Construction was completing their um they found uh one was a 16, the other was a 20-in valve. So the 16's been replaced. They actually have to they're replacing the 20 right now.

These are large valves in the distribution system that they wanted to make sure were replaced and then Garnney will and so what's happening is city of Phoenix staff are actually taking uh over those projects getting done with their Hong Kong contracts and then they will release Garnney in two weeks to complete the work to disconnect the lines across carefree uh highway and that will allow Phoenix to take over and replace the six meters and then it'll take over both fire and domestic service all fire and domestic service health and carefree highway.

So, we're about two weeks away is what I've been told, two maybe three weeks. Um, and knowing that, then we're ramping up getting everything wrapped up on the permits for the city, our interconnect site. So, we've been uh rapidly there's five permits that we have to actually close out uh with the county. We've been working on getting that done and getting we still have to go into Creek Road and tie into the 16inch line. Uh last uh week, we actually just uh we're in Carefree right away.

So, uh, the traffic control was up long enough they asked us to do a patch on the project cuz we didn't have the schedule from Phoenix. It was ironically the same day that we were putting the patch, the pavement patch down that Phoenix got the schedule from their contractor when the valve was going to be replaced. So, it's just it can't win for trying sometimes.

Um, and the other issue we're running in the city Phoenix interconnect site is uh there's actually you can see the four six booster pumps there. So, three are going to pressure zone one, which is the town's main pressure zone, and the other three closest are actually in going into pressure zone four. Uh, of those three pumps, two of them actually have issues with the um the variable frequency drive units. We need we're waiting for replacement parts. They won't be shipped until uh midocctober.

So that's why we're working with the county to actually uh separate those pumps out as a separate permit and this allow us to start operating this facility so we don't get delayed anymore. We're hopeful that those parts come in. It's it's not even a warranty at this part because we haven't even accepted it. But um you know they during the startup commissioning testing is when they found that the uh the drive units weren't working. So, but everything is so backlogged, it's hard to get them.

They wouldn't respond. Um, we found this out in May and we finally got notice two weeks ago of of delivery date in October. So, that's how bad the electrical situation still is. But, we're nearing the end. Um, that's the good. So, I'm very excited about this happening. So, it's a huge thing for the town to have this in place. Uh, we have a lot of other projects uh going on. Uh, the uh rehabilitation of the Cave Creek wells.

The picture on the side there is actually the right well which is tucked into the water treatment plant site. So we've got a line underneath there. Black & Beach was working on a report for me which I've supposed to be getting tomorrow which will give us the specifications and now I can go out and get the cost for actually getting the wells. So it's the right well, it's the triangle well and the Linda well or the three wells we're trying to get equipped.

We're going to start with the right well because just the back side of the picture there, that gray panel is actually the motor starter that was put in for that well when the plant was improved in 2008. So, it's the simplest one for us to bring online. Um, and then we're actually going to work uh we're going to transition from uh work with Black & Beach on the project to another firm called NCS um to actually help us get across the finish line.

We actually have to equip this the site and actually do a new source uh approval. So, NCS is more geared towards that. It's a smaller firm. So, uh but we are making progress on that. Um we're doing that. Uh you approve the tree modifications. Um that project again will go to construction. What you approved tonight was the design phase services. We still have about $600,000 in the capital program. A little bit went to the design phase uh to do the construction. We'll get that going.

We have some pressure zone 4 improvements to get done. Uh as we bring in the city of Phoenix, we're reversing the flow into our pressure zone 4. Right now it's got feds from our near site. Now we're actually be able to boost it up from the Phoenix interconnect site. We're realizing there's some interconnects that we need to make between the distribution system uh mainly the 16-inch main line that doesn't really tie together very efficiently to the distribution system.

So, we want to make a couple of connections. And there's actually an area of of the top end of pressure zone one that we actually want to convert to pressure zone 4. There's some customers that have uh low pressure. So, we need to deal with that. We have a couple of booster station upgrade projects we're trying to get out. Um been delayed just because of nothing really. 38 street boosters on our side. And the zone 9 booster is the one that's tied to the development funding.

So we really need to get those just out and bid. So we have the permits in place. It's just and then now that we have Monnique in place, I can get those out here shortly. Get them on the street and get that uh money encumbered and and those projects moving forward. We have a project to do a rehabilitation of the 8 in line across Cave Creek Wash. We've talked to an engineer about helping us get a selection process.

We're looking to do is actually um a lineer project within the within the the pipeline. We've had several breaks on that 8 inch line. We actually only have two lines that cross Cave Creek Wash. So, it's it's critical that this one uh remain in service. Um, and putting an interior liner in there allows us to do it. So, we just need to have someone help us evaluate the different liner technologies that are out there. We have a PRV build.

That's zone six is actually the west side of Ranch Minana Boulevard where it ties into Andor Hills. That's actually where pressure zone 6 starts. That PRV has been out of service for I think as long as we've owned the water system, but it really needs to be brought back in because we actually have a two inch water line that's actually operating way too high of pressure. So, we want to reinstate that PRV site and start replacing the 2-in water line that's there.

Once the city of Phoenix interconnect comes online, um the the nearing booster site right now because all the water has to come out of the water treatment plant goes to Nering and then gets distributed to the higher pressure zone 7 andor to zone 4. So, they're very large booster pumps to meet fireflows. We have three gallon of pumps. They're going to be very inefficient once we get the city of Phoenix online.

So, u we're trying to get um um a scope with a through modeling scope work of each recommend what we should go down to. Um we I'm thinking off top of my head I'll probably have 500 or 750 gallon pump. We have three pumps right now. We might actually just take one out and and downsize it so we can use all the same electrical gear and then buy a second small pump. So, we'll have four pumps, too large and too small at the site.

But we have the money to do that this year to help make the system work more efficiently. We also have money to do work at the CAT booster pump stations. Again, as we've been out, uh we've been talking with CAP, they have a legacy project that they want us to do some repairs down there. We know the flow meter needs to be replaced. It's going to require us digging up the pipe um uh and and cutting that in. We know we have electrical upgrades to do there.

And we also have some issues just with the pipes, the pumps uh as they run right now. There's projects uh um or there's funding in the CIP to do multipleies to the CIP pipeline. As we get into running the city of Phoenix, the goal in the past is get as much water as you can up that pipeline to the water treatment plant.

What we want to do now is think about how we can optimize that pipeline to meet the flows so we can best utilize the pal membranes because the pal membranes are our best treatment. They uh produce a less amount of backwash water we less waste. That's giving me issues with ranch mana deliveries. But it's something we want to work at. So we might be looking at changing out some of the pip at least one run of pipe uh pumps along the pipelines. We'll have to see if we can do that.

We might be able to take them out and rebold them so that they're just lower capacity just so we have a run and we can better optimize with the pulse. But we do have some improvements to make at the cap booster pump stations, let alone replacing them eventually if we keep them. Uh in Desert Hills, uh we do have a project. It's been completed uh to do the out at the um Third Avenue Joy Ranch Reservoir. Um, so that's all ready to bid.

But at the bottom of the page, you'll see the well number three at 10th Street site. So that's uh um it's the third well uh drilled in Desert Hills. There's three wells. Well, one didn't transfer with this with the purchase. Um the well failed uh when we pulled it out and we videoed it. Um I think we pretty much have lost the casing. So um I'm going to bring in Clear Creek under a scope of work to help me evaluate that and see if we can redrill.

If we redrill within 660 feet, it actually we don't have to do a new source. And then there's potentially another site. Our 14th Street reservoir site does not have a well, although it's actually equipped with a well starter. So we're going to see and look it looks like that might be a deeper section of the aquifer out there. So it might make beneficial use if we instead of redrilling here at 10th Street where it's actually fairly shallow.

While the well casing is 800 feet, the bottom 200 or over 200 feet is actually drilled into fractured granite. I think we're actually got a deeper aquaer for 14th Street. So, we'll do that evaluation and we'll come back. Um, you know, we'll have to uh do the cost benefit. Right now, we're transferring more water from Cave Creek, which costs Cave Desert Hills more money to get that transfer, but again, and that was our lowest production well.

Um, it typically only gave us on a good day 35 gallons a minute, but it was 35 gallons a minute. We didn't have to send them from Cape Creek water, but yeah, I think we have lost that season. We also have the replacement project for Desert Hills uh meters. So we actually just have two scopes of work. So uh I'm working with a scope with I get Mon'nique looking at this.

So we have to get some more council authority to continue to purchase Neptune meters um the local vendors firm called Ferguson or they're exclusive. And then uh there's a couple of firms that do u meter installations. So um while last year we actually had to bid that work out because it had to meet federal uh requirements. This year we I think we do a cooperative purchase and still get good pricing, actually better pricing.

We paid a premium last year for the labor because they had to meet Davis Bacon requirements. Um, so we can get that one going fairly quickly. We'll just come to council um and get the authority and then uh just go to town. It's really going to be on the delivery dates. So, but that'll get going here quite quickly, I think. Um the wastewater side, we've been doing manhole repairs. You haven't probably seen them down on um Carefree Highway, but we've had Deacon Construction working.

Um our goal was actually we started last fiscal year to start them working on Cave Creek Road and then working uh uh east west towards the plant. So they have a pause at 48 Street because that's actually the transition rightway. So they have a permit um into Maricopa County to actually get approval to continue. But our goal will be to get those uh all those um on the 12-in sewer that goes into the plant. Well, they're all put in in 2010. Uh we found that they are very deteriorated.

We actually have to get in and get those uh fixed up. And we have been doing collection system repairs. Um we actually have a 12-in sewer line on French Minana Boulevard that we're trying to work on. That's just going to be it's actually a 16 foot section of ductal iron pipe that uh we can probably do a liner on. Um so I'm working with Hunter on a scope and then we'll see um once that's done if we want to hold those funds for the repair on Andor Hills to add to next year's budget.

So we'll well once I get Hunter uh contracting giving pricing on the Endor Hills, we'll have a better understanding of what we want to do with that funds and either carry it forward or refund next. There are some other areas that we still need uh to start uh replacing ductal iron pipe uh in the sewer system and put liners into it. Development activities is keeping us hopping partly because just again short staffing. I've got my big director is working at the water treatment plant right now.

So again uh he can't really help me with the de development permitting and stuff like that. So we're we're trying to learn the systems best we can because we're not in them every day. Things like the smart go permitting system. Uh we have things like Casper Hills moving ahead. They're putting in a sewer line and and a water system that's, you know, as they go up that hill there. We've been working with them. So, we're going out and I was supposed to do an inspection today.

I'll be doing it tomorrow morning um to keep that one going. And then Kahava Springs has come in. So, they they they uh gave us a whole bunch of stuff to look at. So, we actually have uh both off-site boosters and the on-site reservoir booster to look at, as well as the water improvements for phase 2, three, and four. Actually, it's it's water paving. And so, we're so Hal's been also working on his side of it.

And then they've actually reached out to us um about making a connection for construction water. So while everything's under construction, it sounds like they want to start work at the top of the hill. So they're looking at trying to how they can uh put uh inline boosters, temporary inline boosters to boost the pressure all the way up to the top of the hill. But I don't I won't I don't want to be detrimental.

So we've had that conversation with the contractor uh make sure they don't um impact the system. So we've been going back and forth with them on that. Water conservation. Um we actually scope of work. Um you haven't probably heard too much about this. I apologize that Mattis Water Management is a firm that does a lot of water conservation strategic planning. So we uh lucky to actually I think get them on board. We did a scope of work.

Um we were able to do it under the the managers authority and get them to look at uh looking at water conservation. As we move forward into uh um the drought that's that's here. Um we have to look at how we can save water. I think if we can conserve water and we can have customers focus on saving water um that's actually a benefit to us. to help extends our resources. Uh, you know, as I put there, conservation needs become the way of life for all town water customers. So, we started in June.

Um, we're I we're, as I said, digging into my metering information. So, while we only have we don't have all our customers on the information, they're able to to get some really good information. We're looking at um within this scope, we have the ability to do a couple of audits.

uh I think three specific detailed audits and that information got wrapped into a report and they'll come up with recommendations of where we should be focusing on our efforts moving forward to get the best bang for our dollar uh to to save water. Um so we're set to at the end of October to um present to the utility advisory committee and then we're looking to actually wrap it up.

I think we have one meeting with the utility utility advisory committee with maybe one follow-up with them and then we'll present to council the findings of that uh report. Uh it'll give us more of a of a recommendation list. um uh then we'll probably give you guys a draft report and get your input, but obviously using the utility advisory committee who's they're very keen on this. They're really interested in seeing the report and getting their fingerprints onto it.

So, and then water resources uh I think it's the last slide actually um uh the cap cuts we have some numbers what's happening it was 1.25 25 million uh acre feet basin states uh Arizona, Colorado and um California of which uh 760 acre feet per year cut was coming to Arizona for next uh calendar year starting January. Um what that uh related to when you actually look in the the order of priority of waters to Arizona that was going to be a 20% cut to the um municipal and industrial subcontracts.

We have no NIA water next year. Um, CAP staff have notified us. They've been working and through some things uh reactivating or working with some well usage out in uh Yuma and actually taking some water off Lake Pleasant. They believe they can keep the municipal industrial subcontracts only being cut 14% through at least through 2027.

We're also um uh we're very concerned about what happens after 2027 because right now the two-year projections that we have from the Bureau of Reclamation um they have a big asterric on it saying and if things get really bad on the lakes lake mean lake Powell they may revise their projections and ask for deeper cuts.

The one thing that the state has actually already done um in addition to these cuts that are coming uh the three bases to agree to try and um keep and reduce usage overall by another 700,000 over the next two years to to allow that water stay on the river to really help the reservoirs too. So um we are still working on our bridge water projects. Uh while we have the water exchange agreements in place with the city of Poria, there are a number of permits that we're just working our way through.

Um, we actually have to get uh recovery permits for the two wells that we have access to with them and our way through that. So, with Brad Hill's help, we're getting that all done. And right now, City Surprise is just doing their legal review of the exchange agreement with them. So, um, we've offered to have uh Michelle help if if necessary. They said that's just really coming down to their workload.

Um, so I'll I'll probably follow up here in the next couple of weeks and see where they're at with that, but hopefully we can bring that one forward to you. And as part of the drought mitigation plan, we actually uh have it written into town code that every October, I'm supposed to come to you and give you a 2027 uh an annual water supply projection. So, we're going to do that the next meeting.

So, I'll get in a lot more details on where our water resources are at that next uh council meeting and we're supposed to do an announcement effectively where are we at in the drought plan um and what stage we're at.

Part of the work that Madhouse is doing is actually helping us redefine the drought plan because ironically with what we're seeing right now with the two-year cost we're facing right now in the lens of our drought plan, we actually don't look like we're actually at a at a stage one if not a stage zero, you know, because effectively if we're being kept by CAP staff and and our Arizona water banking credits, it doesn't drive us into it.

We we will be looking at changing that definition in town code to make it more reactive to be more forward thinking. Uh looking out more than a couple of years to help us uh drive into that. And with that, I've been talking for way too long, but we there's a lot going on. I'll give a lot of credit to my staff for doing all this and uh keeping everything going. So, um thank you for your support, continued support for utility operations here in the town. Questions? I have a question. Tom. Yeah.

Um, can we do more to let our residential customers know how their water use compares with other water users? It It's too easy for people just not to pay attention to what they're using. Then we do more. Um, with the current software packages, um, the easy answer is no. Um, you know, the Neptune system is not set up to do that. Um, we'd have to see, you know, and there's been discussions about whether we stay with Cassell or something like that.

Um, yeah, you know, um, I know I've heard that before. It's just the current system doesn't allow for that comparison to other customers. So, um, um, easily. So, you know, we've got some requests into them, do some modifications to their software package to see if they can do that. Otherwise, we'd have to get another software package.

So, we already have the two with the Neptune system, which which furniture the my 360, which customers can see their actual usage, and then you got the um the Cassell building system. So um so we we'll keep pushing Neptune to change their software package to allow for that. I think sometimes it is useful. I actually see it on my bill um sort of become numb to it after a while.

So you know I think what we're seeing is the real benefit is with the AMI metering system because we are catching a lot of things. Um and that's one of the things we're trying to see if we can automate and even use some some artificial intelligence to look at that data set. A lot of it's coming back to, you know, Brian spends a couple hours and he looks at the data set and he'll pump come up like he just sent an email out with 15 customers that are actually having leaks right now.

So, the we send that information and the billing staff um accounting staff actually will reach out to those customers and and and be proactive about that. So, that's been a huge benefit for us already. But yeah, anything we can do and that interesting see what Matt's take on that is there's if they because they might be able to quantify that for us too the benefit of that if that does truly help uh change people's patterns by seeing their comparisons others.

John, what portion of our customers are using my 360 residential customers? Uh double 500 right now. So we're still trying to push it out as much as we can. Again, anybody not on the system, even if you don't have the online metering, you'll still see the metering data quicker than the bill will come to you. So, it's still a benefit to you. And as we upgrade the system, it'll just automatically get generate behind the system. So, I'd like to be 100% of our customers on that.

But realistically, we're we're uh just around 500, I think the number right now. Other questions from council? That completes it. Uh I see we have a boy scout before I close the meeting. Would you if you would stay for a minute? I'd like to meet you before we leave tonight. Um if there's no objection, we will adjourn the meeting. Any objections? Okay. Meeting adjourned. Thank you very much. Now objections.