Commissioner's Corner
Ron Nowicki

With summer now upon us, it is a good time to invite you to visit our beautiful water conservation garden located at Lakehaven Center (adjacent to French Lake Park on 1st Avenue, south of 312th). It is open to the public and showcases native plants that are sustainable with little, or no, irrigation.

The recent downturn in our economy has affected your utility district. We are presently seeing water sales close to our normal levels, which represents a slight increase from last year’s wet summer. On the other hand, we have seen a drastic reduction in new customers and new service connections. New customer connections generally provide about $2 million in revenues annually. We are making up this shortfall primarily by planned reductions in capital programs. We have deferred hiring new employees for several open positions; performed work in-house rather than contracting it out; and sought internal operating efficiencies to reduce costs.

We know that the economy is also making it more difficult for many of you to pay your water and sewer bills. For those of you who may be having difficulty in paying your water and sewer bills, Lakehaven has a program to assist you. Contact the District’s Customer Service Supervisor, Jean Gardiner, for details.

We have installed several energy efficiency projects in partnership with Puget Sound Energy to reduce our energy costs. In addition to installing a new energy-efficient blower system at the Lakota Treatment Plant, we are seeking ways to use the methane produced at our facilities to generate additional power. While speaking of partners, we are working with Federal Way School District, South King Fire and Rescue, the City of Federal Way, other Cities and volunteer groups on a joint emergency preparedness exercise. Approximately 70 persons will be attending a FEMA sponsored emergency training exercise in Emmitsburg, MD beginning the end of August. Costs for this training will be covered by the federal government, and will provide great benefits for our local community. This exercise will test our training to deal cooperatively with a major disaster in the Puget Sound region.

Finally, due to good planning and the favorable geology of our area, we are in a very good position to meet the growing needs of our community for water and wastewater services. We are studying the need to add filtration to our Green River water supply to increase its availability. We are also progressing with the OASIS (aquifer recharge/reuse program) project to increase water storage. Jointly, these projects will provide existing and future district customers with a water supply for 50+ years. On the wastewater side, we have begun a major study to reduce rainwater and groundwater that gets into sewer pipes and is treated at our Redondo Treatment Plant basin. Presently, significant amounts of rainwater and groundwater flow through the treatment plant, which simply takes up pipeline and wastewater plant capacity but does not require treatment. Removal of these flows will result in increased capacity and better treatment options for this facility.

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LAKOTA PROCESS BLOWER REPLACEMENT

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2010 WATER CONSERVATION CALENDAR POSTER CONTEST

Lakehaven Utility District, in partnership with area elementary schools, and with donations from the Federal Way business community, sponsored its 14th annual Water Conservation Calendar Poster Contest to help teach the importance of water conservation. This year, 548 children from 12 elementary schools submitted posters for the District’s 2010 Water Conservation Calendar. On June 11th, the District’s Board of Commissioners was pleased to announce the winners and their respective schools as follows: Julia D., Spring Valley; Claudia A., Adelaide; Kamryn B., Mirror Lake; Lucero V., Lake Grove; Nedinia T., Nautilus; Shreya S., Panther Lake; Sejin I., Silver Lake; Rose Michele M., Mirror Lake; Yohairah M., Sunnycrest; Destiney G., Panther Lake; Steven H., Sherwood Forest; Brian R., Mirror Lake; Yareli R., Wildwood. Special thanks to the generous businesses who contributed gifts for the event: Wild Waves, Metropolitan Market, Costco, Print Solultions, Wal Mart South King Fire & Rescue, T-Shirtz to Go, and Big 5 Sporting Goods.
2010 Water Conservation Calendar POSTER CONTEST WINNERS And Officials	Board President Chuck Gibson presents awards to contest winners.
Pictured L-R: 1st Row:  Brian, Julia, Steven, Kamryn 2nd Row: Lucero, Sejin, Claudia 3rd Row:  Destiney, Yohairah, Rosemichelle, Nedinia, Yareli 4th Row: Ron Nowicki, Jeanne Burbidge, Dini Duclos, Len Englund 5th Row:  Don Miller, Chuck Gibson, Tom Murphy (School Superintendent)

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KIDS CORNER

Chuck Gibson - President
Ed Stewart - Vice President
Don Miller - Secretary
Ron Nowicki - Commissioner
Vacant Position - Commissioner

Regular Board of Commissioners meetings are held the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month.
These meetings are held at the Lakehaven Center at:

Lakehaven Center
31531 First Ave. S.
Federal Way at 6 p.m.