A regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Butte-Meade Sanitary Water District was held at the District Office on November 10th, 2021 at 8:00 a.m., led by the Pledge of Allegiance.  The meeting was called to order by the Vice President of the Board, Penny Oedekoven at 8:10 a.m.

Unless otherwise noted, all Board action was by unanimous decision.

Members Present: Gary Velder, Penny Oedekoven, Richard Harmon, Judy Heisler, Mike Wolff, Dallas Conner.  Bob Lewis was absent.

Motion by Judy Heisler, second Gary Velder to adopt the agenda, motion carried.

The Minutes of the regular October 14th, 2021 meeting were read and approved.  Motion by Gary Velder and second by Richard Harmon.  Motion carried. 

The Treasurer’s Report and bills were approved on a motion by Judy Heisler, second Gary Velder, motion carried.

Old Business:

• SDARWS Training.  Dallas Conner gave a recap on the SDARWS training she attended October 19th & 20th.  Discussion was held on merchant services, billing & accounting software, Form 1099 changes for 2021 & dealing with customers.  Lots of good information was gained.  Next training will be in April.  Planned topics include insurance and retirement.
• Office Updates – Pitney Bowes system has arrived.  It will be setup before the next billing.  Dallas looked into printer savings.  The District could save approximately $500 to $700 per year by leasing a new printer/fax/scanner.  The lease will include toner and maintenance.  Gary moved to approve the lease agreement presented, second by Penny.  Motion carried.  Discussion was held regarding the need for updating the office to a server.  The board agreed, Dallas will get 3 quotes from qualified businesses and present to the board to move forward.

New Business:

• Vacation carry over – With the turnover in the office and the amount of water breaks and improvements this year, there is a lot of vacation remaining for most employees.  Judy Heisler proposed allowing the employees to carry over vacation for the first 3 months of 2022, if it isn’t used by April 1, it will be lost.  Gary seconded the motion.  Motion carried.

Manager Wolff‘s Report: 

• State Water Plan – Mike reported The District was approved to be on the State Water Plan.  Mike will be working with the engineer to find a spot for a new well closer to Belle Fourche.  
• Vale power issues have been resolved.  Black Hills Energy replaced a transformer and Mike changed out a motor saver. 
• Sales are 22 million gallons ahead of last year at this time.
• The operators have been busy fixing breaks the last few weeks.
• The 8,000 feet by Vale is almost completed.
• Reid Well winterization is almost done.
• Bean Well manifold repair will be started after the first of the year.
• Mike is going to look into adding propane heat for the shop.  This will help with the insurance cost.
• Water meters are currently 36 weeks out.

Motion by Gary Velder, second Judy Heisler, the meeting was adjourned at 9:10 am.