Jefferson County Rural Water District 13

11/21/2017

Patrons
The Board of Directors has voted to increase the Monthly Minimum rate for each Benefit Unit by one dollar making the new rate $34 per month. The water usage rate has also been adjusted to $5.90 per 1,000 gallons. The previous rate was $5.75 per 1,000 gallons. These rate increases are used to maintain the District’s water treatment plant and distribution system. As you may or may not realize our District is over 40 years old. The buried transmission lines and the plant are showing wear and tear. In addition, growth in various areas requires larger piping to continue serving our community. All of these add together in the cost of operating the District. We are trying to ensure that the District is just as healthy 40 years from now as the day we treated our first gallon of water. Thank you all for your support. We are still looking to hire a new District Manager. Please see our website for details on the job posting.
Thanks for your support!
Gordon

10/25/2017

Jefferson County Kansas RWD #13 is seeking to fill the full-time position of District Manager. The position requires a Kansas Class III Operator’s License within two years of date of hire. The full job description is available on the District website: www.jfrwd13.com. Interested candidates should submit: 1) cover letter/letter of intent, 2) salary requirements, and 3) resume to RWD #13, ATTN: Board of Directors, 1951 Wellman Road, Lawrence, KS 66044 or by email to [email protected]. Incomplete submittals will be considered unresponsive. Deadline for submittals is November 16, 2017.

Jefferson County Rural Water District #13 is located in Jefferson County Kansas and is just north of Lawrence and covers parts of Jefferson, Douglas and Leavenworth Counties

02/20/2017

The Annual Meeting of Water District was held on February 16th at the Sunnyside School. We enjoyed meeting with some of the patrons and some great snacks. We reviewed our financial statement with our Auditor who gave us an 'Unmodified Opinion' of our operations. That is the best result of an audit that any organization can get.

We voted to change our Bylaws to move the annual meeting to March from now on to ensure we get the audit completed without rushing the effort. This will also help avoid bad weather with our meeting.

We said goodbye to Bill Petrie who decided not to run again for a Board position. Bill has been a great team member during his time on the Board. He will be truly missed. In the same breath, we welcome our newest Board member Greg Hazen and look forward to getting to know him.

We discussed our major efforts for the year with the patrons which included our two line additions, the line addition with Primrose Hill Estates and our new truck.

After the Annual Meeting, we held our regular monthly meeting. We discussed the plan going forward with our Auditor on next year's review.

Landplan Engineering out of Lawrence presented the plan for Home Works USA to establish a community on the southeast of our District. The Board voted to provide water and four benefit units to this effort. A letter will be conveyed to Home Works USA so they can have that for their meeting with the County Commissioners. There are still several details to work out on this project.

The Board also discussed starting two distribution system improvement projects. We will start with pipe purchases and installation in farm ground prior to planting. There is a lot of work planned for this upcoming year on the distribution system and that will likely be our main focus area for the year.

11/23/2016

The RWD #13 Board of Directors met on 11/17/2016 to discuss District business. We discussed several important items at the meeting.

The District has completed our two expansion projects next to US Highway 24. Service has been established and we are providing water to some new areas. District Manager Jerry Stewart managed the projects for us which saved the District a considerable sum of money. We are glad to see the work complete and are looking forward to future projects.

We spent a great deal of time discussing this year's budget proposal. Below is a summary of the main items in our proposed budget for 2017. This is not a complete listing but rather a snapshot of particularly noteworthy items. We will finalize the budget at the December meeting.

PROJECTED INCOME
Water Sales 834,400
Other 79,400
Total Income 913,800

MAJOR BUDGETED EXPENSES
Chemicals 36,150
Professional Fees 13,400
Office Expenses 11,800
Payroll 184,750
Distribution System Repairs 352,100
Plant Maintenance 30,000
Utilities 63,700
Bond 126,200

Some items of note in the budget for next year include a possible change to the treatment system using Alum which will provide a clearer water supply. We have also designated a large sum of money to repair the District's distribution system. We have identified our five top priority distribution line areas to work on starting in 2017. The total to fix all of the issues for those five areas is over $700,000 so this will be a longer process than just this year.

Also included in the budget is the rate increases approved earlier in the year for patrons of the District. The 2017 rates which start in January include a minimum monthly charge of $33 and a usage charge of $5.75 per 1,000 gallons.

Finally, the annual meeting is coming up in February and we encourage everyone to attend. Two members of the Board are up for re-election. If you are interested in serving on the Board, please contact the District Office at (785) 842-1502 for more information.

08/21/2016

Our monthly Board of Directors meeting was held at the District office on Wellman Road Thursday. We meet every third Thursday of every month. The public is ALWAYS welcome.

This month we reviewed the progress of our two expansion projects. We hope to be complete with all construction in September.

Our leak rate is 14% and we discovered and fixed two leaks in the District. Our long term goal is to get below a 10% leak rate. This is a pretty tall order.

We reviewed our water rates for next year. There will be a moderate increase in the monthly minimum of $1 and a usage rate increase of $0.20/1,000 gallons used. Our average user of 5,000 gallons per month will see an overall increase of $2.00 per month in their bill beginning January 1, 2017.

11/24/2015

The Board of Directors met on November 19th to discuss the business of the District.

• We had visitors from the City of McLouth to discuss our annual wholesale water use contract. We came to an agreement on water usage and price and hope to have a signed agreement at our next meeting.
• There were no significant issues this month including minimal water losses (HURRAY!).
• The Loring and Stillwell Road Expansion Projects are progressing. We are working on easements, annexation, and contractor bidding. Construction should begin in the spring on the first expansion (Stillwell Road) followed immediately by the Loring Road expansion. This will add 13 new Benefit Unit Holders into the district in 2016.
• We discussed pay raises and bonuses for next year and will have the final budget to vote on next month.
• That brings us to the Annual Meeting on February 18, 2016. Go ahead and put this on your calendar NOW because there won’t be a more important activity for you and your household than this! We hope to see you there.

If you have any questions or concerns, please be sure to contact the District Office by phone, letter or email. Have a great Thanksgiving!!
Gordon

09/22/2015

The Board of Director’s met on September 17th for the regularly scheduled monthly meeting. There were several actions completed. Some of the major items discussed included:
• A discussion of our monthly billing policy with some members.
• The location of three additional leaks this month after having found the big leak last month. Our water losses are down to 18.1% which although still large, is a great improvement.
• Continued discussion on the 24-40 corridor expansion in which we identified the first two phases: five units along Loring Road and eight units by Stillwell Road. The implementation of the first phases will hopefully happen in 2016. This is going to be a long process as the paperwork will be quite time consuming. We intend on doing this work in-house which will lower our costs considerably.
• The annual review of the Rules & Regulations along with the Employee Handbook were completed.
• The water rates for 2016 for patrons and for our two major wholesale units were set.
• Finally we worked on the annual review of the District Manager which will be completed in November.

Remember we meet every third Thursday for our monthly meeting and we would love to have you join us to see what goes on in your water district.

Gordon

06/29/2015

On Tuesday of last week, the District mailed out a letter outlining our interest in expanding the boarders of our district. Here's a copy of the letter. Just wanted the patrons of the District to be able to see the letter.

06/19/2015

The monthly Board meeting was held last night (June 18th) at the District Office on Wellman Road.

We continued our discussion of possible annexation of the area along US24 Highway from K-32 North to Tonganoxie. We are sending out a letter this week to see what interest the potential customers in that area have on joining the district. There is a lot of work left to be done before any decision can be made on this potential expansion.

We are still trying to locate the major water leak in the south part of the district and hope to have that resolved soon.

Discussions continue on District’s Vision Statement and the new Facebook presence. Make sure and LIKE us on Facebook and invite your friends in the District to do the same!

We discussed the new Benefit Unit price and decided to leave the cost at $6,000 for another year.

As always, we invite you to join us every month on the third Thursday of the month for the District’s Board meeting.