Utility Packet 04.29.2026

Andrew Berens. Utility Commission Chair Cassie Lang Village Clerk / Deputy Treasurer 311 Walnut Street | P .O. Box 487 Marathon City, WI 54448 Tel: 715-443-2221 www.marathoncitywi.gov VILLAGE UTILITY COMMISSION OFFICIAL NOTICE & AGENDA Wednesday, April 29, 2026 4:00 pm Marathon Municipal Center PUBLIC VIRTUAL ACCESS Join Teams Meeting: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/join-a-meeting Meeting ID: 261 174 214 35 Passcode: cY2jA33d 1. CALL TO ORDER UTILITY ROLL CALL: A. BERENS, B. BOHR, M. TELFORD, D. SEILER, K. HANDRICK JR. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 3. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS a. Virtual Meeting Guidelines i. This meeting will be recorded and available upon request b. Public Participation at Government Meetings 4. APPROVAL OF MARCH 25, 2026 MEETING MINUTES 5. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF PAYMENT OF BILLS 6. PUBLIC UTILITY OPERATIONS & FACILITIES REPORT 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Update on Well #5 i. Presentation from Strand Associates b. Update on Cure-In-Place-Piping Project c. Update on 4th Street Lift Station d. Update on new WPDES Permit No. WI-0020273-10-0 8. NEW BUSINESS a. Discussion on 4th St Water Main Break 9. SCHEDULED MEETINGS a. Regular Meeting: Wednesday, May 27, 2026 – 4:00 pm b. Special Meetings as Needed 10. ADJOURNMENT VILLAGE UTILITY COMMISSION MINUTES Wednesday, March 25, 2026 1. CALL TO ORDER at 4:00 pm UTILITY ROLL CALL: A. BERENS, B. BOHR, M. TELFORD, D. SEILER, K. HANDRICK JR. all present 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 3. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS a. Virtual Meeting Guidelines i. This meeting will be recorded and available upon request b. Public Participation at Government Meetings Virtual Attendance: Kevin O’Brien – Record Review 4. APPROVAL OF JANUARY 28, 2026 MEETING MINUTES MOTION – Approve Minutes from January 28, 2026 Meeting Motion made by Handrick second by Bohr. Motion passed by voice vote. 5. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF PAYMENT OF BILLS Commission members questioned the following Bill Payments: Check 49340 – Marathon Plumbing – repiping at Meadows of Marathon to fit new meter Check 49342 – Menard, Inc. – incorrect coding Check 49385 – JF Ahren – 24-hour fire alarm monitoring system annual fee Check 49430 – Premium Waters, Inc. – distilled water for labs Check 49455 – Vierbicher Associates – trailer park lift station MOTION – Approve Payment of Bills Motion made by Handrick second by Telford. Motion passed by voice vote. a. Review 1st Quarter Budget Status Administrator Cherek provided a status update for the Water, Wastewater, and overall Utility Budgets for the 1st quarter. A couple key items he pointed out were: - The revenues are on track for the year at 24.3% for the Wastewater and 20.38% for the Water. Water is lower due to little pumphouse revenue for this time of year. - Water meter account is over as Water Operator, Aaron Martin, purchases all meters at the beginning of the year to have inventory in stock for the year. Come 4th quarter Cherek will review Water Budget to see where he can pull from to cover meter account. - Administrator Cherek budgeted an estimate for insurance evenly over all budgets with new insurance provider. After invoice came in it was determined the Utility will take on a larger portion of the insurance expenses than the rest of the Village budgets. - With 2 water main breaks already fixed for the year the maintenance of mains account is at 63.46% of the budgeted amount. 6. PUBLIC UTILITY OPERATIONS & FACILITIES REPORT Ken Bloom, Director of Public Works, presented the Commission with a report of the daily operations and projects for the Utility for February and March. The full report can be found in the Agenda Packet. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Update on Well #5 The Village, with the help of Strand Associates, submitted the DNR well site investigation report. The Safe Drinking Water Loan application will be submitted in April and construction bidding is on track to begin in August. Submission of the loan application is requiring a water rate study by the PSC. Last simplified rate study by the Village was done in 2016. Cherek provided a proposal from Ehlers Financial Advisors for the rate study. Cost to Ehlers is quoted at $17,750 payable by the Safe Drinking Water Loan and included in project budget. Cassie Lang Village Clerk / Deputy Treasurer At the April 29, 2026 meeting, Ehlers will present Phase 1 of the rate study, a long-range cash flow analysis, used to determine if the Commission is better off doing a phased rate increase over multiple years or a full increase right away. b. Update on Cure-In-Place-Piping Project Visu-Sewer began televising and cleaning sanitary sewers the beginning of March. They noted a couple issue spots that will need attention before the cure-in-place piping stage of the project. The current project budget has a contingency of $196,067.25. Sections on 8th St, 4th St, Pine St and 3rd St will be added to the CIPP scope of work. About 2,770 lineal feet will be included using about $108,000 of contingency money. Remainder of contingency will be used to clean and televise approximately 4,530 lineal feet of older mains. The week of April 13th is the anticipated week the CIPP portion of the project is set to begin and notices will start being delivered to residents. They foresee completing about 2 blocks a day and residents will not be left without sewer use overnight. c. Update on 4th Street Lift Station As per the January 28th meeting, Bloom and Cherek reported they tested extra weight on the base plate of the motor and the cavitation issue did not resolve. Smith & Loveless ordered a dual port impell er to match Vierbicher’s recommendation of 100 gallons per minute at 65 feet of total dynamic head, based on several drawdown tests. Propellor from S&L will be no charge to the Utility. William Reid will be on site to install new impeller along with a motor they are refurbishing. d. Discuss Draft WPDES (Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) Permit Bloom shared that both the Village and Marathon Cheese submitted comments in regards to the draft WDPES Permit in hopes it would help reduce testing required per the draft. After the 30-day public comment period, Bloom reported on the updated permit with a few key items: - pH monitoring of water discharged to the river decreased from 7 days a week to 5 days. This would eliminate the need for utility employees to come in for wastewater testing on the weekends. - Ammonia effluent decreased from 5 days of testing in the draft to 3 days. - Sampling frequency increased for both influent and effluent BOD, CBOD and total suspended solids from 2 times to 3 times per week. Bloom intends to ask if they would reconsider dropping the influent BOD sampling to once per month. When CBOD limits are required, influent monitoring must include both CBOD and BOD, both of which the Utility monitors regularly. - Phosphorus sampling frequency remained the same, but limits increased. The Utility is now allowed 1.0 mg/L up from .8 and 1.73 lbs per day up from 1.55 lbs. - PFOS testing will be required once every 2 months. After 2 years of sampling, Bloom will submit reports to determine if the Utility will need to create a PFOS Minimization Plan. e. Update on Engineering Services Contract Renewal with Strand Associates Cherek presented the Commission with a Task Order from Strand Associates to provide engineering services outside of the Well 5 project for an estimated $10,000 from March 30, 2026 thru March 30, 2027. This is a standard contract with Stand Associates. MOTION – Approve Task Order Contract with Strand Associates Motion made by Handrick second by Seiler. Motion passed by voice vote. 8. NEW BUSINESS a. Discussion on Chestnut St Water Main Break Bloom and Cherek informed the Commission that the water main break that they had been searching for since December was found on Chestnut St between 8th and 9th with the help of Wisconsin Rural Water Association. The water main was located directly above a broken clay sanitary sewer main that provided a place for the water to go making it hard to detect. Both the water main and a portion of the sanitary sewer main were repaired on February 11th. 9. SCHEDULED MEETINGS a. Regular Meeting: Wednesday, April 29, 2026 – 4:00 pm b. Special Meetings as Needed 10. ADJOURNMENT at 5:33 pm Motion to adjourn made by Seiler second by Telford. Motion passed by voice vote. Marathon City Utility Operations & Facilities Report For April 2026 Water Treatment Facility Report The water facility is operating well and meeting all the testing requirements. The Wisconsin DNR Sanitary Survey was conducted on March 19th, 2026. Jessica Minich, WDNR Water Supply Engineer, met with Aaron, Steve, and Ken, to evaluate the overall performance and compliance of the Water Department. The sanitary survey is a more in-depth water system inspection, conducted once every three years. Here is a list of records covered during the inspection; 1) Most recent water tower/reservoir inspection reports 2) The private well ordinance and private well permits 3) The cross-connection ordinance and cross connection records 4) The wellhead protection ordinance and wellhead protection plan 5) The hydrant flushing and flow testing records 6) The valve exercising records 7) The water system map 8) The monitoring site plan 9) The water service material inventory and supporting information 10) The most recent PSC report 11) The most recent consumer confidence report (CCR) After reviewing the paperwork, Jessica then toured the water plant, the wells, and all the water storage structures. A sanitary survey report will be sent to the Utility with the results of the inspection. I will share this report at a future Utility Commission Meeting. UPDATE 4/26 – As of Friday, April 24, 2026, we have not yet received the Sanitary Survey Inspection Report from the DNR. The 2025 Consumer Confidence Report has been completed and will be made available to all Utility customers in early April. You will be able to access the report via an online web link included on your April 2026 utility bill, or you’ll be able to view a paper copy of the report, which will be posted at both the Post Office and Village Hall. UPDATE – The 2025 Consumer Confidence Report was submitted to the DNR on 4/15/2026. The DNR has marked the CCR as adequate and received. On Easter Sunday, the Water Utility experienced an unfortunate episode of “pink water” due to an overdosing of potassium permanganate at the Water Treatment Facility. The reason for the overdose of KMnO4 was a siphoning effect of the chemical feed pump. The chemical day tank was unintentionally pumped dry, causing any sediment at the bottom of the tank to be pulled into the pump. A small sliver of plastic was stuck in the discharge side ball valve, which did not allow the valve to “seat” or close properly. This was also the reason for the siphoning effect, since the anti-siphoning valve was removed temporarily, to allow the chemical feed pump to pump chemical into the system. The pump was taken apart on April 13 th, and the issue with the valve was discovered. A new cartridge valve was installed and the pump returned to normal pumping operation, with the anti-siphon valve installed on the discharge line. Water Treatment Facility Report (Continued) The Water Utility is beginning to explore options for a new water meter reading & billing system. Our current meter reading/billing system is out of date and vulnerable to reliability issues. (Explanation by staff at meeting) Spring watermain flushing is tentatively scheduled for May 11th through May 22nd. Wastewater Treatment Facility Report The wastewater treatment plant met all WPDES permit limits for the month of March 2026. This concluded the last month of our previous WPDES Permit No. WI-0020273-09-0. Our new WPDES Permit No. WI-0020273-10-0, became effective on April 1st, 2026. The ethernet cable connecting the main Aeromod Control Panel to the YSI Analyzer (dissolved oxygen, ORP readings) has been replaced by Newton Electric. The conduit will also be modified. The existing ethernet cable shorted out, due to ice formation inside the conduit, pinching off the cable. This is the 2nd time this has happened. The conduit modification should prevent this situation from reoccurring in the future. UPDATE – The ethernet cable was replaced and the conduit was modified to eliminated the issue with ice formation inside the conduit. This should prevent future communication loss between the dissolved oxygen analyzers and the aeration blowers. A new outside temperature thermostat was installed, which replaced an existing thermostat that had failed over the winter. The thermostat controls the heat trace (On/Off) for the Aluminum Sulfate chemical feed lines, to prevent them from freezing up and/or Alum crystallization in temperatures below 40°F. The new thermostat is working properly now, shutting off the heat trace when temperatures are above the setpoint. The Rotork air actuating valve on Aerobic Digester A has not been working properly. The actuating valve adjusts the airflow to the digester as needed, by opening and closing the valve a certain percentage. Currently it is not adjusting the airflow as intended. I will be contacting the Rotork Representative for Wisconsin, LAI, to inquire about this issue and get the problem resolved. The UV Disinfection System will be installed and put in service before May 1st, for the 2026 disinfection season. The 2025 Compliance Maintenance Annual Report should be made available soon, my goal is to have this report completed for approval by the Commission, at the May 2026, Utility Commission Meeting. Connor Smith, UWSP Intern, has agreed to work again for the Utility during the summer of 2026. His first day back will be Monday, May 18th. Submitted by: Ken Bloom, Director of Public Works & Utilities