The Combined Lake Delhi Recreational Facility and Water Quality District
Regular Meeting
Thursday, July 20, 2017
6:30 pm
Lake Delhi Trustees Administration Building
Delhi, IA
The regular meeting of the Combined Lake Delhi Recreational Facility and Water Quality District was called to order at 6:30 pm by President Steve Leonard
Trustees present: Leonard, Burger, Kramer, Colgan, Havertape, Gifford (by phone), Herman (by phone)
Trustees absent: None
Visitors: Ed Schmidt, Doug Camp, Lisa Camp, Jason Wenger, Marcheta Cooey-Lux, Bill Lux, Dan Straebell, Larry Aschbrenner, Dan Reyner, Maggie Burger
Recording secretary: Shelley Kallenbach
Leonard read a modified agenda merging action on the proposal and award of a General Obligation Refunding Loan Agreement for the Series 2017 Bonds and removing action on authorizing a sale of Series 2017 General Obligation Refund Bonds, Burger seconded, motion approved.
Burger motioned to open a public hearing on a proposal to enter into a General Obligation Refunding Loan Agreement, Kramer seconded. Public hearing opened. Visitor Maggie Burger from Speer Financial explained that lobbyists were able to get the law rewritten to allow the Board to refinance the existing general obligation refund bonds to take advantage of lower interest rates. No public comment. Burger motioned to close the public hearing, Havertape seconded, motion approved. Public hearing closed.
Burger presented the proposed General Obligation Refunding Loan Agreement. Speer Financial proposed that the Board enter into an agreement with BB&T Governmental Finance of Townson, Maryland in association with Piper Jaffray of Des Moines, Iowa as the placement agent. This agreement proposed that the Board sell its $5,170,000 in General Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series 2017 at a true interest cost of 2.6603%, which would result in a gross savings of $528,798 or 7.074% of the refunded bonds. The agreement would change the repayment schedule to have two principal and interest payments a year, which provided an additional $17,000 in savings. This would allow the bonds to be called on or after June 1, 2023 and would have a projected payoff date of June 1, 2030. Funds would go into an escrow account to facilitate the refinance. Burger strongly reiterated that this would not change the existing tax levy in any way and there is no new money involved.
Motion to approve resolution 7/20/17 to refinance the General Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series 2017 with the proposal as presented by Burger made by Herman, seconded by Kramer, all ayes except for Burger’s abstain, motion approved.
The Board considered possible action on ratifying the Lake Delhi Trustees’ president’s signature on the Private Placement Engagement Letter and Escrow Bidding. Leonard signed paperwork in between meetings necessary for the forward movement of the bond refinance. Motion to ratify said signature made by Havertape, seconded by Colgan, motion approved.
Motion to approve the June 15, 2017 and July 3, 2017 meeting minutes as posted made by Burger, seconded by Colgan, motion approved.
Kramer presented the requests for payment. Payments in the amount of $18,916.26 from the General Fund for electricity, printer/phone service, dam operations, maintenance, easement abstracts, port-a-potties, Lost Beach supplies and cleanup, lobbyists, actuator maintenance, and dam operation supplies were presented. A payment in the amount of $4,145.27 was added to this list for Delaware Co. Transfer for additional work required at Lost Beach due to significant rainfall. This work fell under the not to exceed amount previously approved. Motion to approve the payments as presented made by Colgan, seconded by Burger, motion approved.
Kramer read the financial reports. The General Fund had $2,302.77 in revenues and $55,559.49 in expenditures, ending June at $198,079.10. The Debt Service Fund had $4,266.00 in revenues and no expenditures, ending June at $31,449.94. The Dam/Spillway Project Fund had $1,419.26 in revenues and no expenditures, ending June at $1,592,914.35. A new retainer fund was opened with $10,000 funds to satisfy 28E on 5/17 as discussed in previous meetings. Motion to receive and file the financial reports made by Burger, seconded by Havertape, motion approved
The Board considered possible action on approval to Cedar Cove and Chad Kelly for the retainage basin. This is based on the discussion of a siltation basin in the Turtle Creek Cove, properly named Cedar Cove, area. A partnership was approved between the Board and the cove owners for a siltation basin to be installed with an amount of not to exceed $40,000. This siltation basin appears to be working with a depth in the center of between 8 and 10 feet, a rock base, and currently about an inch and a half of siltation. It is unknown how long it will be before dredging is required. There is a current question of who is on the property easements now as there were originally three owners but it has been stated that one of those owners no longer owns property in the cove. County records still show three owners. Herman motioned to approve the $40,000 contingent on a signed easement, Kramer seconded. Burger expressed concerns about the Board not having had enough time to do due diligence on this payment request. Burger motioned to table discussion until next meeting to allow the Board to view the completed work, Colgan seconded, motion approved. Possible action tabled until next meeting.
The Board heard committee updates.
The Beach Maintenance Committee stated beach maintenance is going well at Lost Beach. The port-a-potties are being kept on North Beach and it is being well mowed voluntarily by Dave Fink. Rich Hughes has been raking Lost Beach and may be modifying his rake to remove rocks.
The Lake Recreational Maintenance Issues Committee stated there have been 3 issues with fencing: an individual drove through some fencing and destroyed it so the Board is waiting on an insurance payment, a section of fencing near Marty Pottabaum’s property was never finished, and some fencing was destroyed in the September 2016 flood event. Colgan recommended that the fencing from the 2016 event not be replaced. The sum of completion of these projects is approximately $3,800. The Board expressed support of going forward with completing these projects. There has been expressed concerns about the logs in the labyrinth spillway. Colgan explained that a lake drawdown would be required to remove them and that they are not impacting dam operations in any way but to be unsightly. He stated that they will be removed at the completion of boating season.
The Dredge Committee suggests a work session for discussions on siltation basins and dredging. It was stated that Randy Pilkington, an expert from UNI, is willing to join these planning session
The Dam Operations Committee gave a presentation of the various awards that the Lake Delhi Dam received for the 2016 award season. These include a national honor award, the top Iowa engineering project of the year, and several top awards from Minnesota due to Stanley Engineering’s location in Minnesota. The dam also received the national top prize in Water Resource Architecture for the year, and state and dam safety officials awarded it the top national prize for refurbishment of an existing dam.
There were no other committee updates.
A trustee election is coming up July 25 and Pat Colgan has chosen not to rerun this year. He will remain as an advisor to the Board. Thanks and appreciation were expressed from the community to Colgan for his extensive efforts on the Board in the rebuilding and support of the Lake Delhi Dam.
The DNR had a write-up about the carp fish kill in the lake. This fish kill should be resolved over the next few weeks and was a natural event.
It is also believed from fishing experts that fishing in the lake will be great next year and only improve over the next ten years. There was a reminder that there will be a fishing contest on August 5th.
The floor was opened to public comment. There was no public comment.
Burger motioned to adjourn the meeting, Colgan seconded, meeting adjourned at 7:32 pm.
