DRAFT MINUTES PUBLIC SERVICE COMMITTEE WADSWORTH CITY COUNCIL Administrative Conference Room March 14, :30 P.M.

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1 DRAFT MINUTES PUBLIC SERVICE COMMITTEE WADSWORTH CITY COUNCIL Administrative Conference Room March 14, :30 P.M. COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Bruce Darlington, Chair Ralph Copley and Mr. Sharkey COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT OTHER COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT OFFICIALS PRESENT None None Robert Patrick, Director of Public Service John Madding, WCTV Coordinator PRESS REPRESENTATIVES None VISITORS SPEAKING None Mr. Darlington called the March 14, 2017 meeting of the Public Service Committee to order a t 5 : 3 0 p m. I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Copley made a motion to approve the minutes of February 14, seconded. All were in favor. MINUTES APPROVED. Mr. Darlington II. PUBLIC COMMENT: None Mr. Patrick began with Item 3 under the CityLink System in Electric and Communications Agenda Item V.B.3. All-Digital Conversion Mr. Madding was asked to give an overview of the status of the conversion. He said they had talked about DTAs before digital adapters, but not every TV needed one. Only the older analog TV sets with the large tube out the back or smaller HD TVs with analog tuners needed one. It really depended on where or when it was manufactured. The easy way to tell if a TV only had analog tuner was to go to that TV and find the menu and do a channel scan to rescan all the channels. Once it was done scanning, which could take up to minutes, the customer should tune to 83, then plus up to see if they got 83-3, 83-4 or If they got those channels, that TV set did not need a DTA and they would be able to get all the channels. If it didn t get those, that TV would need a DTA. It would be a good idea to go around the house and check all the TVs. Someone s main TV might already have a CityLink set top box. In that case, it would not need a DTA, either. It would automatically get those digital channels. Mr. Madding and Mr. Kovacs did a program that was running at the top of every hour on Channel 18. It was pretty effective. They were getting a lot of calls. It spurred more questions, which was Page 1 of 10

2 really good. They also had some Q&A on their web page and with the CSRs. The CSRs could answer those questions when people called. Mr. Madding showed the box the DTA would come in. It would have a sticker stating that their CityLink DTA was in the box. On the inside was a guide they had printed. It showed an easy setup for an analog TV or an HD TV without a digital tuner. There was also a troubleshooting questions and answers and a full guide on the remote how to use it and how to repair it, not only with the DTA, but also with their TV. One question that came up was whether the remote for their TV would work. It could be easily paired by using a couple of steps. People were saying they already had a remote and that remote was paired to the DTA. No, Mr. Madding said, they could not do that. They actually had to use the remote with the DTA, and it would run their TV. It would not run an old VCR or DVD player, but it would run the DTA and their television set. Inside the box was the DTA. It was a very small device. It didn t have to have line of sight to the remote. It came with pads to attach it to the back of the TV and came with two kinds of cables an analog cable for older analog TVs with a tube out the back and an HDMI cable to hook to the HD television. It came with a remote and batteries. Something people called about was that when they got the DTA, they tried to use it, but forgot to put in the batteries. That was step number one. It also came with the AC pack. They also did an installation video that would be available on DVD and also airing on Channel 18 as soon as those started to go out. People began ordering them on March 13 online, which Mr. Madding preferred, until it got closer to the end of the thirty days. They would then have them at the CityLink windows. If people ordered two or three, they would be shrink wrapped together. If they ordered four or five, they would actually come in a box. It would have the sticker on the outside of the box so that people knew when it was on their porch or something. Mr. Madding said they d done a lot of awareness. A third full-page ad would appear in The Post on Saturday. There was one on March 4 and March 11. On Saturday, March 18, there would be an ad, along with one on the March 25, as well. There would be another later on. When the simulcast began on April 3, the analog and digital channels would be together. So, anyone who hadn t gotten a DTA yet would still be able to put through the analog channels. Once they received their DTA and had it hooked up, they would only be able to see the digital channels. In about 30 days or a little more, in early May, WCTV would actually stop putting out the analog channels. If customers didn t receive a DTA by a certain date, they would lose service if they were only looking at analog channels. They still had a long way to go yet and a lot of awareness. He heard that a lot of people had called and were asking questions, so he knew they were reading the articles in The Post, along with the signs and banners, etc. He thought a lot of people were aware of it and that it would go pretty smoothly. They were really looking forward to it. They had been doing testing for the last few weeks, so were able to see the digital version of the analog channel. When seen on similar TVs, the digital version was much clearer. The background was sharper, the colors were brighter and it was a much better picture. He thought people were going to be pleased with the outcome once all the channels were digitized. They could tell the DTAs and the set top boxes what channels to pull from their lineup. When people with a set box a DTA tuned in to the Cleveland over-the-air channels like 3, 5 and 8, their device would pull the HD channel in if they had an HD TV set. It wouldn t pull in STO, Big Ten and things like that because that was a paid for tier, but it would pull in the HD version of the Page 2 of 10

3 over-the-air channels if they had an HD TV set. Instead of those people having to turn to another channel, they would be able to get it on their lineup. That was a good feature. The testing was going well and they were a bit ahead of schedule. They would be doing testing on the DTAs next week and if they had an HD TV set it would turn to those channels. Instead of them having to turn to another channel they would be able to get it on their basic lineup and, that was a good feature. They would be doing some testing on the DTAs next week. They were using something called PSIP, an information protocol, so HD TV sets that weren t using a DTA would display Channel 30 as WCTV Channel 30, instead of 87-dot-something. They also had up to 8 characters, like WJWHD or USA, so they could put those in there. They were making certain that every channel was exactly the way they wanted. They were looking forward to the launch date in a little over two weeks. Mr. Sharkey asked if all the channels that were being received analog now would then be received in digital. Mr. Madding explained that on April 3, people who had a DTA or set top would only see the digital channels. People who had an HD TV that had a digital tuner in it would not need a DTA and would actually see two sets of channels. Depending upon the tuner they had, they would see Channel 2 analog and Channel 2 digital; Channel 3 analog and Channel 3 digital, etc. Some tuners would put all the analog first and then all the digitals, so they would get 2-78 in analog and then 2-78 in digital. That was definitely one of the reasons they wanted to end that simulcast as quickly as possible, within 30 days or so, and not go too long because that could get confusing for those people that were not using a DTA or set top. In early May, once they got rid of the analog channels, those people could just auto program their set on that particular day, when they ceased the analog, all their HD TV set would get would be the digital channels. Mr. Copley asked if every channel they currently offered on analog would be converted to digital. They would not going to lose any channels? Mr. Manning said that information actually went out in a notification letter on March 1. By contractual obligation, they had to move Fox Business Network over to Channel 79 on the expanded basic tier from what was once their digital tier. They had to move it over to expanded basic Channel 79. They also added QBO, which was a multi-cast channel from one of the Cleveland stations. It was children s programing on channel 25. The Ohio Channel, which was up in the 300 s, would be moved to Channel 26 and that had to do with the Ohio State House and what was going on in the State government. All the channels would be the same except for those, and QVC was being moved down to Channel 13 from Channel 25. The Committee returned to the regular order of the agenda. III. WATER A. D i s t r i b u t i o n I m p r o v e m e n t S t a t u s Mr. Patrick stated that the project going on currently was a small waterline project at Park Court and Lucas Court. It was approximately 800 of new water main, 17 service reconnections and three hydrants. It was almost completed, with most of the work at Park Court done and tested. Service would begin that week. The Lucas Court installation would be completed that week, followed by testing. The contractor was doing a nice job. The next big waterline project they would undertake in 2017 was the Broad Street waterline project, from Lyman to about Auble. They put out an RFQ a couple of weeks ago, because they estimated Page 3 of 10

4 the engineering costs to be over the $50,000 threshold. They looked forward to being able to award that and get the engineering going. They also talked recently about House Bill 512, concerning lead and copper rules and regulations. There were a number of deadlines since then. They met both of the deadlines. The EPA was very strict about it. Mr. Patrick received phone calls and s from them. The City had to send a spreadsheet in January of all the Tier 1 sampling sites. The next deadline, larger and more difficult to accomplish, was the mapping deadline. They had to identify and map all the areas of the distribution system that were known to contain lead service lines and all the buildings that were found to have lead lines and connections. The City submitted that last week, within their guidelines. They were still waiting for new materials to share, and would keep up and comply. Mr. Darlington read a report on that bill. He wondered if it was finalized, because they were talking about items that required lead testing in ductile iron pipe, and plastic pipe, which made no sense, because there couldn t possibly be any lead. He wondered if those were rules that might change in the future. Mr. Patrick anticipated that it would continually change and they had really just begun the process. It got out some of the high level things and would keep changing. At some point, there might be mandates to change out all those connections. Most regulations started out pretty broad and then, over time, narrowed. When they first came out, there were more questions than answers. The EPA understood that. They needed to go through the process. They had deadlines on their end to get those things out and accomplished, so it was difficult. The City met the deadlines thus far and would continue to do so. At the end of the day, the main thing was to make sure the residents understood that their supply was safe and the distribution system was safe with the treatment the City did. They hadn t had any readings above the detection levels. If anyone had concerns, the best thing to do was to run their water from 30 seconds to two minutes before using. That reduced most chances of risk for lead contamination. Ms. Sharkey asked, because he knew he would be asked by others, why they were sending out the engineering on the waterline. Could they not do it in-house? Mr. Patrick said it was a pretty big job. As it was, their Engineering Department was very busy with a number of projects and things they were doing on the regulation side. Then, with all the capital improvement projects, there was no way they would be able to accomplish that. They were having some staffing concerns, at that point, as well. One of their engineers, unfortunately, just left and they were looking at how that operation should be handled in the future. They might recall a presentation to Public Ways last year about all the projects they did and the savings the Engineering Department was able to provide to the City by having their staff. There were times that it was more efficient to outsource things, especially with the workload. As they knew, there were a lot of capital projects going on. They could just look around the City. It was great, because it continued to move the City forward. They were updating systems where needed. They had talked about aging infrastructure that needed to be replaced. That came with a lot of work. Page 4 of 10

5 IV. WASTEWATER A. Honeywell Improvement Savings Mr. Patrick had some numbers, though they were still awaiting the Honeywell report they helped to prepare at the end of last year. The City s numbers showed about $40,000 of savings last year, compared to 2015 a good number. They put the systems in place in the beginning of Last year was the first year of savings. On the electric side, there were savings of around $30,000 over That was with the blower, which was the big saving. Also, the lighting improvements helped. On the chemical side, they saved about $10,000 so far. There was a pretty nice reduction as far as the amount of sodium eliminated for the phosphorus removal. In 2015, they had 200,000 pounds of that material. About ten tons, Mr. Darlington said. Last year, Mr. Patrick continued, they reduced that to about 120,000. In 2017, the reduction should be more. Last year, also, the price went up by about 50% for that material. They could, hopefully, get a better price for that this year. It equated to about $10,000 of savings. Mr. Darlington asked if they bought the sodium aluminate through a consortium, as they did with salt. No, Mr. Patrick said, they went out to bid. They were actually in that process now. Mr. Darlington asked if there was a state bid on that. Nothing they were involved with, Mr. Patrick said. They d been able to manage those costs and last year, they had an increase there. He was looking at how they took that material in delivery. If they could get a truckload instead of the totes, there could be further savings. Mr. Copley said Mr. Patrick had given them a presentation in 2015, E-3. It showed the electrical consumption at the plant for five months, from October 2013 back to November He asked if Mr. Patrick could carry that out to see the actual kilowatt hours and how much gas they saved. It was from Honeywell. Mr. Copley said it was from Roger King or Chris Easton. That would give them a better understanding of what they were using before and now. The numbers Mr. Patrick gave them were a result of that, he said. He gave them the high level, $30,000 of savings. He could provide more detail if they wished. Mr. Copley said that had already been created. He wanted Mr. Patrick to just carry it out. Mr. Patrick asked him to send an , so that he was sure to do that. Mr. Copley thought Mr. King probably had that spreadsheet. Mr. Patrick asked him to send him the PDF, to be sure. That would show them, month by month, Mr. Copley said. Mr. Sharkey said they needed something to compare, because a lot of graphs were not really an extension and they could not see an exact transfer of what they were saying. Mr. Darlington asked if the Wastewater Treatment Plant report for 2016 was out yet. No, Mr. Patrick said. Mr. Clark was in the process of preparing that. They would have it soon. Mr. Darlington said they talked about having the county sanitary engineer, Amy, come in and talk about plans for the sewer line in the north part of the Wadsworth area. He also saw they were going to put water line in, also, which, he guessed, they had to do if they were going to reduce the sewer flow. He would like to have her come in and talk next time. Mr. Patrick would see if they were ready to go. He spoke with her a little over a month ago and she was still preparing some items and documents. She said she would be willing to give a presentation. They were going to have to do something with the sewer line on the Pulte home area. Page 5 of 10

6 V. ELECTRIC AND COMMUNICATIONS A. Electric System First, Mr. Patrick complimented their crews and supervisors who had done a lot of work in the last two weeks with storm damage. Two weeks ago, a storm came through and last week, a big storm came through, as they knew by the amount of outages and probably saw on the news. There were some up in the Iowa/Utah areas that had almost 100,000 folks out. Some of those outages lasted a couple of days. In Wadsworth, there were a number of outages throughout the day, mostly related to trees coming down over lines or over service lines. Their crews worked tirelessly through the night until the next morning to make sure everything was taken care of and all service restored. He could not say enough about the value their system and their employees had. They could manage those costs and keep their system updated and improved. Something that seemed as simple as the tree trimming program they did was very, very valuable. They were able to go through, every other year, and trim each side of the City. It really helped out with the number of outages. Kudos to these folks who worked tirelessly, as the rest of the City was home resting and staying warm! They were out in really dangerous conditions. They did really well on making sure everyone was safe. The customers appreciated it, also. Mr. Patrick had received some really nice compliments and s. It was always rewarding to hear those. Mr. Sharkey worked up near Cleveland and heard horror stories from a lot of his coworkers about how long they were without power. It was something they almost took for granted in Wadsworth. Outages were not long. Those guys had done a tremendous job. Mr. Patrick said that one of their employees lived just south of town said their power was out for about a day. 1. Home Area Network Status In-home displays decreased by two. IntelliPeaks stayed the same. Thermostats actually increased by two. 2. Home Energy Management Tools There were not many demand response events, which meant that there were not really any extreme temperatures in February. It was pretty mild. March was actually behaving more like February. B. CityLink System 1. Construction Report & Customer Status The number of internet only customers continued to increase, by 20 the past month. Their cable customers decreased by 31. That trend continued. Mr. Patrick expected a change in the next couple of months, as the snowbirds returned. Also, the all-digital conversion, with the advertising, would enable them to provide some increased services. Hopefully, that would start to level off and maybe even reverse. The number of people who visited the CityLink counter last month was 250. Installation backlog was down to two days. 2. Marketing Events, Publications, Campaigns 3. All-Digital Conversion Mr. Madding also covered the above items. Page 6 of 10

7 Electric / Communications continued Mr. Copley asked if they offered a (cable) rate comparison with other providers. Someone might like to have an apples to apples comparison. Mr. Patrick said that if they brought their bill in from a competitor, they could give them a comparison of what that service would cost. Mr. Darlington thought they could do that online, but Mr. Patrick said it was hard to get that apples to apples. Mr. Copley was looking for a brochure and Mr. Patrick said they didn t have that. Mr. Sharkey thought that apples to apples within the community was one thing, but 'apples to apples' to a community that didn t have more than one provider. Mr. Sharkey got the question all time as to why the City had a cable company. His answer was to imagine what the costs would be if it wasn t there. That was more of a comparison to have, also to see what it would be without it. Mr. Copley said that competition was good. He hadn t known how to answer that question, because he hadn t physically ever seen anything that showed how the City compared. Mr. Patrick said that on the electric side, they continually compared with what they saw from PUCO (Public Utilities Commission of Ohio). That was published and the City could see how it stacked up. The last comparison, in December, showed that they were lower for both residential and commercial side. So that was very positive. On the cable side, it was a little more difficult, because of a lot of what they just discussed. He would suggest that person bring their bill to the customer service counter and the folks would be able to tell them, based on all the services they wanted. That was probably the best thing. It would depend on the service package they had, the channels they were getting and the equipment they were using. There was no real clearinghouse out there. It was interesting, because Mr. Patrick was at a conference a year or two earlier and there was someone who was trying to do a startup company. He talked with that person about getting some comparison data, and it was really hard to do. A lot of companies didn t publish that information on their website, and the pricing varied so much, depending on the location and those other factors. If someone was in the City of Wadsworth, the pricing could be different than if they were living in Akron or Stow. If they were in an area where there was no competition, the pricing was different. They offered various specials in different times of the year, also. It was really hard to have that 'apples to apples' comparison. Mr. Copley thought it was probably not something they really wanted published, because that would give the competitors the information. They could come in five or ten dollars under. Mr. Patrick said he was told that when they initially brought their system online in 1997, the prices of the other service in town came down right away. Mr. Copley knew, because he was one of the subscribers. The City s service was even lower than that. It was hard to get a firm number, and they might never be able to do that, but if they took, over time, what their rates used to be, even subscribers of the other cable companies saw their rates go down. The savings to the community were dramatic. That money was staying right in the community. It was going into everyone s pockets. There were a lot of benefits to having the system. He spoke to someone just the other day who lives in Montville and they had only one option for service. When he heard the price they were paying, Mr. Patrick was very surprised and shocked. It was good to have that competition and there was a lot of value in the system. Mr. Darlington said the other thing that was really difficult to compare was the internet speed. Some companies advertised one thing and delivered another. It was so deceptive. He wondered if there were any plans to standardize truth in advertising on internet speeds. He thought that was so Page 7 of 10

8 deceptive. Yes, it was, Mr. Patrick agreed, and he thought that would remain that way for a while. It was tough, because most people didn t fully understand what the speed meant and what they even needed. A lot of times, those higher speeds weren t needed, based on the usage and how people were using it. But folks who were high, heavy users with multiple devices and streaming needed that faster service. The normal folks who were web browsing and maybe doing a few shows here and there really didn t need those high speeds. It was deceptive and they changed throughout the day, depending on the customer load in areas, similar to electric load usage. There were a lot of variables in the services and pricing. If someone wanted to do a fair comparison, they could bring that bill down. Mr. Patrick talked about it a lot, but he felt their customer service really excelled and was above all. Their folks were right downtown and there was always a friendly face to come and talk to. When the folks went out to the homes, they really went that extra mile to make sure the customer received the best care. Mr. Sharkey said he was out shopping for a TV and had a question. The man came out and talked to him and Mr. Sharkey thought he was so knowledgeable. It turned out that he worked for CityLink. Mr. Patrick encouraged them all to take any chance to talk with the folks, to see the knowledge and pride they had. Wadsworth was very fortunate. The employee base they had was very strong and those folks really worked hard to provide the strong services. VI. SANITATION A. MCSWD (Medina County Solid Waste District) Update Mr. Patrick distributed some information. It was similar to what they d seen over the past two years. The top line showed the commercial and industrial, or C&I, customers. They could see the progression and the increase they had last year. It was about 3.5%, which was lower than what they had experienced in the last couple of years. On the residential side, the increase was around 3%. That was also lower than in the past. They were continuing to increase those bases last year, but had some further work to do to continue to increase that base. They would be doing some more targeted marketing soon to further explore that. They were doing a visit to a commercial customer that day and noticed that they didn t have the City s sanitation service, so they were going to send some information on how they could join up. Again, they talked about providing service, and folks appreciated the fact that they were right down the street. They had a good relationship with the folks at the transfer station and the supervisor. They were willing to work with customers a bit more than other companies were able to, because they were there, in town, every day. Mr. Patrick would be willing and happy to do a mid-year report. The committee thought that would be good. Mr. Copley had been trying to bring up the presentations that were done to compare the numbers. He thought there was about a ten percent increase. Mr. Patrick said that was based on historic figures. It was on the low side of what was done historically. He thought C&I was around 9.5 and around 10 on the residential side. They didn t meet that during the last year. The projections were higher than that. What they projected for the next couple of years was based on those historicals. They were trying to determine what the causes were for that. There was more competition on the residential side over the last year for some of those customers outside the City, but they d also gained some customers. They provided some other services, too, that some of those other services didn t, such as yard waste. They had the transfer station where customers could come. That was Page 8 of 10

9 utilized a lot. Folks really liked to be able to come and drop off extra things or different types of materials. On the commercial side, they had the conversion to front loading and they were able to reduce their expenditures on that side. Nonetheless, they would like to increase the revenue side. Mr. Copley said they were getting good at projecting numbers, with that growth of customers. Mr. Patrick said he went out two more years. When they looked at it halfway through the year, they might see where those projections were. Mr. Copley thought they were projecting a six-year return on some of the funding. For the containers and the trucks, Mr. Patrick said. Mr. Copley said that if they didn t get customers, they would be looking at an eight to ten-year return. Mr. Patrick was not sure about that. It might not be that drastic. B. New Sanitation Truck They had budgeted for a side loader residential truck. There were three Mainline trucks a 2015, a 2013 and Their spare was used quite a bit. It was a It was twelve years old and used when needed, which was quite a bit. They were budgeted for a new 2017, so they would have the front line trucks, the 2017, 2015 and 2013, and the 2011 would become the spare. They would remove the 2005 unit from the fleet. They'd had good results in selling those items from the online auctions. They actually did about 30% greater than anticipated when they went through the process of selling those rear load trucks at the end of last year. They anticipated a good amount for that. The legislation was prepared and ready to go. Mr. Darlington said there was not a number for the maximum price, so that needed to be added. Then he thought it would be ready. Mr. Patrick said it was for the body and the chassis. As they knew, those came from different manufacturers. One was under state bid and one was part of a buying consortium. That was why they were not going through the bidding process. Mr. Darlington thought they would get the chassis and send it to the guy who put the bed on it. Mr. Patrick said that when they got the order, he would start to build the body. They worked together with the City s vehicle maintenance manager and sanitation superintendent to make sure everything lined up and that the specs were correct. They would make the chassis and then send it to the body company, and they would install the body. Ultimately, it would be delivered to the City, where it would be detailed and put in service. Lead time was probably fall. Mr. Copley would like to see three readings. Mr. Sharkey asked if the not to exceed would include the cost of installing the body on the chassis. It would, Mr. Patrick said. Motion to forward proposal to Council for replacement of 2005 side loading sanitation truck with a 2017 side loading truck, with a not to exceed price, with three readings: Mr. Copley made the motion. Mr. Darlington seconded. All were in favor. MOTION PASSED. VII. OTHER B. 2016/2017 Goals Mr. Patrick didn t bring the goals due to the presentation. He could either them or put hard copies in their mailboxes. It was agreed that he would them. They could do a thorough review next time. They would also do a midyear review. Page 9 of 10

10 NEXT MEETING The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, April 11, 2017 at 5:30 p.m. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Copley made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Sharkey seconded. Meeting adjourned at approximately 6:17 P.M. Chairperson Date Approved Page 10 of 10