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HSV Public Services Report June 16, 2021

Chair of the Public Services Committee, Philip Matone, presented the quarterly report to the Hot Springs Village Property Owners’ Association Board of Directors at the June 16, 2021 Board Meeting.

The committee consists of 12 members appointed for staggered three-year terms. The committee members are James Patton, John Sowers, Philip Matone, David Childs, Bob Cunningham, Thomas Gale Smith, Drew Kahle, Clark Sann, Rolland White, George Parker, Jason Temple, and Board Director Robert (Bob) McLeod. (Information is taken from Explore the Village website.

“Public Services is a combination of Public Works and Public Utilities. We have eleven members who have backgrounds in a lot of technical areas – chemistry, engineering, construction, and so on. Two members are actually past POA Board Members,” stated Matone.

Committee Looks at Replacing Water Meters

The Committee will be looking at two new different kinds of water meters.

  • The first type of water meter under consideration is the drive-by type, which would automatically download usage data into a receiver in a vehicle such as the sanitation trucks.
  • The second type of water meter being considered is a system that is read by a cell tower.
  • Both systems replace human meter readers.
  • These systems would save costs by eliminating the staff meter reader positions. Right now, staff goes to each meter every two months to determine the water usage for billing purposes.

Sewage Treatment and Collection

The committee has been looking at ways to reduce odor from the lift stations. The committee has been testing small ozonators for this purpose. There is also a large ozonator due to arrive soon that will be going into the lift station at DeSoto and Balboa. This location is one of the worst lift station odors we have.

Buildings and Electric – No Comment at This Time

Fleet

We have is a new Knuckle Boom truck that is used to pick up trees, brush, and special waste pickups. This has been needed for a while.

We also have a new excavator. Staff is replacing some of the problem culverts, digging ditches, and other work. This will eliminate a $2,500 a month rental fee.

The POA has four dump trucks that are over 20 years old. Matone said, “I am surprised we haven’t had a real serious problem with somebody running one of them off the road or having a wreck. I know those are on the list and hopefully, they will be coming shortly.”

Sanitation

“Thank goodness the Board approved the purchase or lease of the new side-arm loading sanitation trucks. We cannot keep [sanitation] staff. It has never been a matter of cost. It is a matter of sustainability. We can’t keep people on the back of the garbage trucks to put the garbage in there. We went through 113 of them {staff} last year. And they are just…we just can’t keep them. We don’t pan up. The work is extremely difficult and draining… Thank goodness those [the new sanitation trucks] will be here,” said Matone.

“The committee is going to strongly recommend that we adhere to the current policy of bagging the waste that goes into the cans and only waste that is in the cans will be picked up. Once we go to those side-loading-arm trucks, there is no way to pick a garbage can up and put it in that truck. It [the truck] is going to be way too high and won’t work and if we don’t have them bag it, we’re going to run the risk of having material blow all over the place during windy conditions and those cans will start to collect garbage in the bottom and if you’ve seen the 96-gallon cans that are in the POA building, you can’t reach the bottom of them. It is going to be difficult to clean them out. We really strongly recommend that we have everything bagged and everything goes in the cans,” stated the Public Service Chair.

Streets

Example of alligator cracking (photo is NOT from HSV and is for illustrative purposes, only)

Matone said, “this happens to be an area where I worked for about 40 years [he is referring to road work].” {Matone showed a photo of Agua Vista Lane.) “If you can see the cracking…, that is called ‘alligator cracking,’ because it kind of looks like an alligator’s back. When we get that situation, it is strongly indicative that the material under the base and the road, called the subgrade, have excess moisture in it and will no longer support the road. We have no choice when we hit this level of deterioration, except to core it out – take all the material out – take it down to where we hit the solid ground (subgrade).”

The crew cored down 20 inches and will fill this in with rock. “If we don’t maintain the roads and get surface on these roads, timely, we’re going to spend four times as much money coring them out, putting two and three feet of rock in until we get something solid and then repaving it rather than putting an inch and a half to two-inch overlay on it in a timely manner,” stated Matone.

“The ruts on Agua Vista Lane were four and five inches deep and the asphalt had shoved up against the concrete driveway to as high as ten to twelve inches. Luckily the homeowner had a circle driveway so he could get out the other entrance,” explained Matone.

The construction and repair of Agua Vista will cost around $120,000. Our total paving budget for the year is only $150,000. Due to this year’s budget limitations, not much more will be done on the roads.

We used to pave 30 miles of roadway every year. “I don’t think we’ve gotten 30 miles of paving done with micro-surfacing, the crack sealing, and the limited paving, I don’t think we’ve come close in the last three years,” explained the Committee Chair.

Last year we had around 20-25 situations like Agua Vista Lane to between 70-80 in 2021. When the roads deteriorate like Agua Vista, moisture seeps into the road causing further deterioration.

Culverts

Culverts were reviewed by staff and we thought we had 3,900. This number has grown to 4,200. The culverts were rated one through five. A number one rating means the culvert is in jeopardy of immediate failure. Number two rating means needing repair or replacement, but not in immediate danger of failure.

There were 190 culverts rated number one, but around 30 have been taken care of. There were 1,100 culverts with a number two rating. An emergency repair was made on Balearic Road. This culvert had been rated as a number two. Another culvert on DeSoto went from one rating to a two.

When the culverts have to be dug out and replaced versus slip-lined, the cost doubles.

By Cheryl Dowden, June 17, 2021

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