By: India Kenner
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
india@thevillagereporter.com
The Bryan Board of Public Affairs met on Tuesday, January 21st at 5 p.m. After the Pledge of Allegiance was a roll call. All board members were present.
Chair Karen Ford, Vice Chair Annette Schreiner, Dick Long, Jim Salsbury, Bob Eyre, Jim Salsbury and Treasurer John Lehner, and Director of Utilities Derek Schultz. Department heads from Communications, Water, and Engineering and a few members from the community were also present.
The first agenda items were to approve the minutes from the January 7th meeting. Motion to approve by Schreiner and seconded by Eyre. Next were the semi-monthly disbursements and the clerk treasurer’s report.
The monthly statements were not available for signatures at the time but will be forthcoming at the next meeting. The motion was approved by Schreiner and seconded by Eyre.
Resolution number 2-2025 authorizing Mayor Carrie Schlade as delegate and Richard Long as alternate to represent the city of Bryan as a member of a board of directors of the Ohio Municipal Electric Association in 2025.
Next on the agenda was the 2024 year in review with presentations from the communications, water and engineering departments. Derek Schultz presented a slideshow with the following information.
A financial overview of each department and department projects for 2024. A financial overview of the 509 funds for the Communications Department. The year began the year at $1.9 million and had budgeted revenues of $84,000.
It ended the year with revenues of $88,000 on the expense side budget expenses of just over a million dollars year-end expenses were $852,000 left a net margin of just over $34,000 with no budget for any transfers to the capital fund.
A year-ending fund balance of 1.8 million or a decrease of $3,000 on the 535 on the capital fund the year was just over $81,000 (no transfer of any funds to the capital funds) and $877 of revenue that was from the sale of some fixed assets on the expense side they had budgeted that just over $25,000 and ended the year over $111,000 in expenses.
The year started at $1.99 million and ended the year at $1.95 million for a decrease of about $45,000. The sales by service and 80% of sales came from the internet service at about $541,000 20% of that the fiber sales about 131,000.
In May of 2022, cable TV was discontinued and then in December of 2024, the internet service was discontinued so that ended the year with a total sales revenue of about $67,400.
The financial plan for 2025 continues to offer a reliable fiber service and provide great customer service to those customers with the 509 to transition into the 501, and it will be important to closely monitor finances revenues versus expenses in 2025.
Also, the final lease payment from the 509 funds to the 501 funds will have to be made and then ready to look towards 2026.
For the communications department, the process began in August to shut down the internet system on December 9th. It was a large project.
Communication was made with customers via mail, social media, and the BMU website. Everything went according to plan and because of that the dept completed a lot of fiber projects last year and all departments worked together to get everything switched over to fiber.
There were a few locations on the city side with parks and the streets and at the pool that needed Wi-Fi for different applications, and they had purchased equipment and then it was installed for them.
For the water department finance overview, the 502m fund started the year with a fund balance of 2.4 million and budgeted revenues were 2.8 million and the year with just over little over 3 million in revenues with the expenses budgeted at $2.5 million and ended the year with 2.1 million in expenses.
A transfer of $150,000 to the capital fund was made in late summer or early fall then ended the year with a fund balance of just over $3 million or an increase of about 570,000.
The 525 Water P fund started the year at 1.6 million and there’s $150,000 transfer. An additional $7,200 is from the sales and fixed assets on the expenses. The year started at 4 million and ended the year at 3.7 million or a decrease of about $306,000.
For water treatment plant operations, it moved into the distribution system and a recap on 2025 projects coming up this year at the water TR plant.
There are three certified state lab analysts in the lab. They are there 365 days a year and in 2024 they analyzed 493 bacteria samples coming from within the system and outside customers as well annually.
There is an annual monitoring report that’s handed down from the Ohio EPA. This may vary from year to year and in 2024 it was monitored for disinfection byproducts lead and copper sampling nitrates.
Requirements were met for all the Ohio EPA requirements which awarded a green license to operate meaning that the water system is maintained and kept up to date with no deviations. For the pumpage report in 2024, the plant pumped over just over 460 million gallons of water.
May was the highest production month due to customers using more water, especially with irrigation systems in the summer and then November was the lowest production month.
May and June are the highest production months while November and December are the lowest.
Some of the bigger projects at the water treatment plant are three gray high service pumps. The responsibility of those is to pump out the treated water at the treatment plant, pump it into the water system and get it up to the customers.
This past year, high service pump 3 was inspected and received a rebuilt motor and a new bow assembly underneath which pumps the water up from the clear well and out through filters and into the system.
All three of those pumps are rated at 200 horsepower a piece and high service pump three now pumps average 2,400 gal lons per minute.
Another big project was wells that had vertical turbine motors it’s an old design and motor for pumping water out of the well, so a Franklin submersible pump was installed like in the past just due to the efficiency of these and the parts available. Various generators were also updated.
Trucking and excavating came into town around the end of April and were here until the end of June.
They installed over 26 feet of 12-inch PVC water line and installed 80 new services and fire hydrants.
The next project was one block of Blakeslee Avenue where the crew installed over 1,200 ft of PVC. Thirteen new services and two fire hydrants were included in that project.
In 2024, there were 134 maintenance calls. These maintenance calls consisted of water service repairs. More water lines were installed in the city last year.
With these efforts, there is an increase in firefighting capabilities and water service reliability for customers. Other projects that took place were the annual tower inspections.
Later in the year, pressure filter rehabilitations discovered that iron levels were rising a little bit which is a clear indication that there is an issue with filtration. Emergency repairs were scheduled.
A fiber upgrade at the water treatment plant also set in place a cyber security assessment and mitigation plan. This is something new from Ohio EPA makes sure what plan is set in place for treatment plant facility.
For the asset management plan, there are over 19,000 assets that need to be placed. For 2025 projects there is a well rehabilitation, and a new pump install and the same goes for high service pump.
The department will conduct a citywide leak detection survey which will consist of about 75 miles of surveying the distribution system to check for leaks.
Next on the agenda was the semi-monthly disbursements and bills. The motion to pay the bills was made by Ford seconded by Salsbury.
Next were comments from BPA and staff. Schultz explained with the extreme cold temperatures that there will be a Peak Alert – on Wednesday, January 22nd from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
The Bryan Board of Public Affairs meeting adjourned at 5:42 pm. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 4th at 5 p.m.
