Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager
CC:	Cynthia Boecker, Assistant City Manager Dave Wagner, Director of Utilities Philip Ciesielski, Assistant Director of Utilities Mike Lawless, Assistant Director of Utilities
Date:	February 12, 2009
RE:	Request for Study Session Regarding Bowersock Dam and Utility Master Planning Items

Please place the following item on the City Commission agenda for February 17, 2009:

Consider Request for Study Session Regarding Bowersock Dam and Utility Items and Schedule Study Session if appropriate.

Background:

The City of Lawrence and the Bowersock Mills & Power Company entered into an agreement in 1977 that calls for the City of Lawrence to provide maintenance activities at Bowersock Dam. 

City staff is working currently to finalize a maintenance project on Bowersock Dam.  The project has been designed, and staff are within a week of having a contract finalized with the contractor for construction of the currently proposed repairs.  The maintenance project includes work identified as Short Term Repairs in a 2007 study from Black & Veatch.  The maintenance project was identified in the City’s 2008 capital improvement program. 

Current Bowersock Dam Issues:

Very recently, Bowersock Mills & Power Company received a letter from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requesting that dam flashboards be lowered and the mill pond maintained at the level of the dam crest until the maintenance project was completed.  This created an immediate impact on Bowersock Mills & Power Company and a desire to accomplish the pending city maintenance project at the earliest opportunity.  Over the past several weeks, City staff has worked with Bowersock officials, other regulatory officials, Black & Veatch and the maintenance project contractor, L.G. Barcus, to identify ways the maintenance project could proceed as expeditiously as possible, particularly ways that the project could proceed without reliance on low river flows.  Originally, the project was planned to proceed during naturally occurring low flow stages on the river.

This week, Bowersock Mills & Power Company has requested that the City consider the delay of the maintenance project that is nearing construction in favor of a larger project which would include selected scopes of work from those proposed in the Long Term Repairs identified by Black & Veatch’s report.  They would like to see such a project proceed in August of this year. Bowersock Mills & Power Company has requested a study session for the City Commission to contemplate this request.  Bowersock will be sending a letter outlining this request by Friday, February 13. 

Due to the complexity of the issues involved, staff believes that it would be appropriate for the City Commission to hold a study session for the purpose of considering the current issues with Bowersock Dam and provide direction to City staff. 

Utility Master Planning Item:

Another item for discussion for the City Commission is whether to proceed with master planning efforts on the City’s water and wastewater systems.  Staff has prepared a memo that has been on the Commission’s future agenda memo for several weeks.   Staff believes that it is important for the City Commission to discuss proceeding with these long range planning processes.  The Bowersock Dam is one of the items that is appropriate to discuss in the context of other utility needs.

Possible Study Session Agenda Items:

If the City Commission agrees to schedule the study session, it is suggested that the following be the agenda items:

• Bowersock Dam Maintenance Project Status and Request for Larger Project
• Utility Master Planning Items

Additional information would be provided to the City Commission in advance of the study session.  Staff suggests that the study session be held at the earliest possible date, but not prior to February 25 to allow the presence of a key Bowersock Mills and Power Company official at the study session.