The Combined Lake Delhi Recreational Facility and Water Quality District
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
4:00 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 4:00 pm by President Staebell.
Trustees present: Staebell, Davidson, Gifford, Havertape, Burger and Herman Leonard was present by phone
Absent: None
Visitors: Ed Schmidt, Joe Scherrman, Larry Aschbrenner and Pat Colgan
Staebell asked for a motion to approve the meeting agenda. A motion was made by Davidson, second by Havertape. Motion carried.
Motion to approve the minutes of previous meetings was made by Davidson, seconded by Gifford. Motion carried.
Claims were presented for payment in the amount of $66,126.16 from the General Fund for electricity, internet services, dam operation services, printer maintenance, lobbyist expense, clerical expense, beach clean-up and port-a-potties, dam maintenance, watershed donation, debris removal and dredge removal. Gifford motioned to approve the claims for payment as read. Havertape second the motion. Davidson questioned the additional invoice from Frentress for $8,000. According to the invoice there was additional work done between May 31 and June 3 due to additional items removed from the lake. Staebell noted that an email he received from Jeremy indicated that he was notified by the Delhi Fire Department of several lifts in the Freddie’s Beach area that he removed around May 25th. With no more discussion, Staebell asked for a vote on the motion. All ayes. Motion carried.
June financial reports were presented. The General Fund had revenues of $5,824.81 from Delaware County. Expenditures for June were $33,708.29 ending June at $1,918,029.68. The Debt Service Fund had revenues of $3,453.13 from Delaware County with no expenditures, ending June at $38,029.85. The Dam Improvement Fund had no revenues or expenditures ending June with a $30,000.00 balance. Burger motioned to receive and file the financial reports as read, Gifford seconded. It was noted that at the end of fiscal year 2019, the District overspent the amount received from the recreational tax of $4.00/$1000 by close to $147,000. This was due to several large projects, including the drainage work done on the south side of the dame. It was also noted that this past year monies were received from the Community Fund to Rebuild Lake Delhi to offset the additional expenses. With no other discussion, the motion carried.
Burger presented information to the Board regarding the possibility of increasing the liability overage. We currently have $3,000,000 in liability coverage with ICAP. He also suggested the Board consider increasing their deduction which is currently $500. There was discussion regarding increasing the liability and Burger was asked to bring back costs for various levels of liability coverage. A motion to table until further information is available was made by Herman. Gifford seconded the motion. Motion to table carried.
Committee Updates:
Property, Assets & Dam – Davidson noted that he has talked with Burrington Group to go ahead and order the cable that is going to be replaced on the dam and also the crane needs to be lined up. They are thinking they only needs to be one contractor for the job at this point.
Burger also noted that Mitch Stender had been hired to take care of Lost Beach.
Gifford informed the Board that he has been in touch with Culver Nursery regarding the Wall of Recognition. He stated he had forwarded their contract with the numbers and the drawings to both Davidson and Leonard for review. Because Gifford is not running for re-election he said whether he would continue to work on the project would be up to the Board.
Staebell thanked both Gifford and Havertape for the time they served on the Board.
Public Comment:
Aschbrenner asked if the Board had received a breakdown on the Frentress bill. Staebell noted that there is a breakdown and that he had talked with Jeremy Klima regarding the bill and noted that the Board approved the bill earlier in the meeting. Davidson also noted that in addition to taking out the debris in the lake bed, the District had Frentress cleanup a lot of the trees and debris that had settled on the dam area and spillway.
With no other comments, Havertape made a motion to adjourn, second by Burger.
Motion carried.
Meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
WORK SESSION began at 4:33 p.m.
Staebell presented the Board with a handout of issues he wanted to address.
The first item up for discussion was the Wall of Recognition. Gifford said the contract is ready for review. The drawings will need to be reviewed by an engineering firm because the project has been scaled back from the initial proposal. Gifford noted that the previous drawings had been reviewed by Stanley and given to Jon Garten of the IDNR for his approval. Davidson noted that the engineer should be on site during the process of digging the footings. Because of the change in the drawings, Leonard stated he thought the DNR should review prior to any work being done. Gifford stated that the names of the donors will need to be verified. He suggested that he and Laurie Kramer work on getting the names verified. Gifford stated that the project could be started as early as late August or early September. Leonard stated he would like to take the project to Bill Holman from Stanley for review prior to taking it to Jon Garten. Colgan agreed that any time you have a change in a project you need to go through the review process with Holman and Garten. Leonard noted there will be a fee to have Holman review the project. Staebell asked how the names were going to be placed on the wall and Kramer asked how the names are going to be attached and Gifford stated the names will be inscribed. Sizing of names will be based on the size of the donation. Herman asked if the site included seating or is it just the wall. Gifford stated that the only thing being done was the wall at this point. Leonard stated that he has been contacted by someone who is interested in donating toward some aspect of the project. At some point they would like to come to the Board and talk about it.
The next item for discussion was the trustee budget. Staebell stated he wanted to talk about several things regarding the budget. The first would be the LDRA debt and secondly he would like to discuss the cost of dredging possibly using matching funds and how this would impact the budget. Leonard asked Burger if he could tell him what the payoff amount would be if the District were to pay down the entire debt. He also asked Kramer what our current cash position is. The current cash position is around $1.8 million. He also asked how much is anticipated to be raised from the $4.00/$1000 in the coming fiscal year. That amount is a little over $347,000. Burger stated the payoff would be $1,260,000. Leonard asked Burger if he had any idea on how we could come to an agreement to with the bank to on a cash settlement noting there’s no obligation on the District’s part to pay the LDRA debt. Burger stated there’s a possibility to readjust the interest rates. He stated there would not be an issue approaching the bank regarding a payoff. The question for the Board is to decide whether to pay off the LDRA debt with the monies available knowing that there may be a need for those dollars for dredging projects in the future. Herman noted that if the District paid off the LDRA and needed to borrow it would require a referendum from the residents. Staebell noted that the under the current LDRA debt schedule annual payments will go from $151,000 this past year to $268,476 by 2026. A question was raised about the interested earned on the General Fund monies. Kramer noted that our money is invested by the Delaware Co. Treasurer and it’s very conservative because it’s public funds. Gifford asked it we had any options on investing some of the money and Kramer stated she could ask the county treasurer for that information.
Dredge discussion was next. Staebell noted that Gary Grant presented the Board with information regarding potential funding sources for dredging in the future. It would require the Board to come up with a plan for dredging to present at the next legislative session. A 3-5 year plan could involve maintenance, mitigation, sediment control, etc. He noted that Bill Holman had done a study several years ago. He also stated that he reached out to the Iowa Flood Center at the University of Iowa. He asked if they could give communities guidance on sedimentation, flooding, etc. They get funding to do this type of work and several professors said they could come to the lake and see what the conditions exist at Lake Delhi. Colgan stated that the biggest factor in sedimentation is floods. He suggested coming up with a grand plan and decide what the Board wants to accomplish. After establishing a policy there needs to be action items to make it happen. By studying certain areas over a period of several years the Board could use that data determine what areas need assistance. More discussion was held on how to develop a policy. Burger expressed concern about having a policy that restricts the District and could potentially be a liability. He suggested a broad policy that says the District will promote recreational and safety on Lake Delhi. Gifford said he there’s no need for a policy if you have a strategy. Having a policy is taking ownership of something you don’t own. Leonard suggested getting current data for potential costs in certain areas that have already been identified. More discussion was held on doing studies and gather the information needed and how to go about it. Because more data is needed, Staebell suggested having the professors from the Iowa Flood Center come to the lake. He provided two dates. July 31 or August 6th. Staebell asked how many of the board members would be interested in meeting with the professors. Several expressed an interest on meeting July 31st and holding a possible work session at that time. Leonard asked Burger if he could find out what the District has for bonding capacity based on the latest valuations and what has been paid down. Burger said he would look into it. A question was raised about the dredge site. Colgan stated the site is not operable. At this point there’s no way to get the water back to the river. He noted there are many details that need to be worked out before it could become operational. Maintenance of the site will also be an issue. Colgan said there are a lot of strategies and suggested a comprehensive study of the area.
The last discussion point was dam operations. Staebell, noted Burrington Group is currently contracted for dam operations but there’s still a need for volunteers to do some of the day-to-day maintenance. Davidson said it’s hard to find volunteers for the day-to-day observations. Several names were suggested as individuals might be interested in doing the daily observations and small maintenance. It was also noted that the District doesn’t have enough volunteers to do the daily operations. Staebell asked Colgan if he could get him the names of volunteers that are currently in the Operations Plan to do daily observations. Staebell asked if he could get a synopsis of what the requirements for daily operations. Gifford suggested creating a checklist for the Board so future trustees are aware of those requirements.
A motion to adjourn was made by Herman, second by Burger. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 5:58 p.m.