Loading...
09.f Minutes 11-17-25 Wastewater Committee November 17, 2025 The Wastewater Community meeting was conducted in person at the Scandia Community Center on the above date. The meeting was called to order at 6:00 by City Administrator Kyle Morell. Committee members Dan Cartier, Jeff Dahlberg, Perry Rynders, Peter Nora, Council member Jerry Cusick, City Administrator Kyle Morell, Public Works Director Charles Fischer, City Treasurer Veronica Korby, Isiah Bubany of Bolton & Menk, and Jacob Humburg of Bolton & Menk, were also present. Agenda A motion was made by Cartier, seconded by Rynders, to approve the agenda. Motion Carried Unanimously. Minutes The minutes of the January 11, 2025, and February 10, 2025, Wastewater Committee meetings were presented. Cartier noted that the minutes of February 10 were incomplete and required clarification. Staff agreed to remove them from the agenda, correct them, and bring them back at a later meeting. A motion was made by Cartier, seconded by Rynders, to approve the minutes of the January 11, 2025, Wastewater Committee meeting. Capital Improvement Plan Schedule Update Engineer Humburg shared the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority Clean Water State Revolving Fund Draft Intended Use Plan (IUP), published on November 13, 2025, and open to public comment. The Bliss project is positioned well to be funded when the final list is announced in December. It is believed that all projects with a PPL score above 40 will be funded. Scandia’s project has been scored at 50 points. The IUP has $1.6 million allocated for the project. Humburg stated they will comment to the MPFA that the project is now estimated to cost $2.03 million. The City will not know how much funding it is allocated until the final list is published in mid-December. The allocated funding is 80% grant, 20% loan. The actual loan amount will not be known until the project is bid and awarded. The cost of repaying the loan will be added to the Bliss budget as a line-item expense, to be paid back through user fees. Staff will ask Council to put the project out for bid in December, with the bid award at the February Council meeting. The Committee agreed that their next meeting should take place after the bids are received. Staff presented the revised Capital Improvement Plan Schedule, which was updated this summer. The Plan outlined all projected expenses for each sewer system from 2025 through 2040. To cover all future project expenses, all funds would have to contribute more than double the current depreciation line-item amounts. This would result in significant user fee increases across all funds. 2026 Budgets Staff presented the draft 2026 budgets. Three options were presented: one covered 100% of the required depreciation expense based on the CIP Schedule, one covered 75% and one covered 50%. The Bliss budget included a $14,400 lobbying expense in case the upgrade project was not funded in 2026. The funds also included tank pumping as a City expense, Wastewater Advisory Committee November 17, 2025 Page 2 not an expense to be billed back to the property owners. The Committee members stated they supported changing septic tank pumping to be billed back to the property owners. They asked that the budgets be revised to reflect this change and presented for review at their next meeting. Item for Future Discussion The Committee will meet again in early to mid-February to review the Bliss project bids. A public meeting with system users will be scheduled after that meeting and before budgets must be approved by Council in March of 2026. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 7 12 p.m. on a motion by Rynders, seconded by Cartier. Motion Carried Unanimously.