Link to printable minutes –> WPCA March 2024 Meeting Minutes
OLSBA WPCA BOARD MEETING MINUTES – DRAFT
MARCH 19, 2024 7:00PM VIA ZOOM
ESTABLISH QUORUM & CALL TO ORDER
Al Roy, WPCA Chair, welcomed everyone to our scheduled WPCA meeting and called the meeting to order at 7:01PM. Members of the Board in attendance: John Cunningham, Dede DeRosa, Diane Duhaime (ex-officio), Paul Graml, Bob Palazzo, Al Roy, and Greg Symon. There were ten additional members of the community on the Zoom.
APPROVAL OF JANUARY MEETING MINUTES
A motion was made by Greg Symon to approve the minutes from the 02-20-2024 WPCA Board Meeting. Paul Graml seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
FINANCIAL REPORT
John Cunningham, WPCA Treasurer, provided a report of February’s financial activity including bills paid and expected future expenses for this fiscal year. (Link to full Treasurer’s Report). These future expenses (estimated at approximately $19K) will exceed the available cash of approximately $15K. On the positive side we continue to expect reimbursement from the State of CT for expenses that were previously paid in cash but are eligible for Clean Water Fund grant and/or loan and will be carefully balancing inflows and outflows. (Link to Financial Statements)
John Cunningham also provided an update on his reengineering project to move all loosely managed financial information into Quickbooks Online (QBO) and reconcile all vendor payments since 2012. The goal of the reengineering effort is to provide a sound, consistent, transparent platform for financial reporting to our board, the Association board, the membership, Alliance partners, and the State of Connecticut. John reported that source data from most vendors has been obtained, automated Bank reconciliation has been implemented, and reconciliation with DEEP payments is well underway. The effort is currently focused on the OLS internal infrastructure. Once this is completed, a reconciliation of the shared infrastructure expenses being maintained by Old Colony will be undertaken. (Link to Financial Reengineering Updates)
Finally, John Cunningham made a motion to utilize, at no cost, Intuit’s green.dot bank providing more security and streamlined integration with Quickbooks for auto billing. Bob Palazzo seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
A motion was made by Paul Graml to accept the Treasurer’s Report, Greg Symon seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
WPCA BOARD UPDATES
Sue Mahoney recently submitted her resignation from the Board effective March 15, 2024. Working with the BOG nominating committee, we will seek to fill this vacancy in a timely manner. The nominating committee expects to solicit nominations for various BOG positions and this WPCA position in early April.
ALLIANCE ACTIVITY
New London Inter-municipal Agreement – Two members of the Old Lyme Shared Sewer Project Alliance (“OLSSPA or “Alliance”) met face- to-face with representatives from New London on March 11th, with some encouraging outcomes. A follow-up meeting will be scheduled to discuss and agree on updates to the current Intermunicipal Agreement (IMA).
Cost Sharing Agreement (CSA) – Revisions to the current CSA is still a work in progress and is focused on the cost-sharing model and the pre-operational management process that was discussed in detail at the February WPCA meeting.
Renewed and Increased Focus on Options for Establishing Operational Structure – Al Roy and Diane Duhaime, and more recently the Town of Old Lyme, continue to foster interest and focus on addressing the lack of an operational structure within the CSA/Alliance. A number of current and going forward issues and remedies are being considered for the Shared Infrastructure.
OTHER UPDATES
OLS Internal infrastructure Loan Extension – on target for end-March
Communication Plan – the WPCA is planning a workshop-style meeting for WPCA and the BOG to review, educate and discuss critical issues as part of an overall communication plan for the membership. This will be an opportunity for Association board member and resident attendees to obtain background information on the project, ask questions of and provide feedback to the WPCA. Due to WPCA board travel schedules and availability the workshop will likely occur in the April/May timeframe. To complement this activity, an OLSBA WPCA Reading List (link) has been developed to provide access to available background material for Association Board members and residents.
Correspondence – none
Resident Comments – Diane Duhaime reported that Steve Cinami, new Chair of the Old Lyme WPCA, is looking into the Town taking more of a leadership role in the management of the Shared Infrastructure program. In addition, Diane reported that at a recent meeting with Alliance members and Shipman & Goodwin ( Alliance Bond Counsel), discussion included revisiting each Alliance member’s bond resolutions, including the OLSBA Bond Resolution that established the $9.7M funding cap. Bond Counsel said it is likely that OLSBA and other Alliance members will need a new resolution to increase the cap even though Bond Counsel expects the the net cost after State subsidies to be under the $9.7M for OLSBA. Other input based on resident comments included the WPCA’s need for better estimates on project costs before a new Bond Resolution is brought to residents. There was agreement to make this a priority and review previous financial models that were provided to the State and are being utilized by Old Colony and Miami Beach.
There were no other resident comments.
The Next WPCA Board Meeting will be held Tuesday, April 23rd at 7 pm
Following a motion made by Paul Graml and seconded by Greg Symon, the meeting was adjourned at 8:00pm.