After 10 years of anticipating the necessity and considering input from engineering consultants, local residents and FPB staff, the Frankfort Plant Board finalized plans to replace the 130-year-old water reservoir including approving a roof design. At its monthly meeting Tuesday night, the board also approved a fence design to enclose the site at Tanglewood, appointed an ethics committee, approved rental rates for the community room and discussed a Customer Service Action Plan.
Since 2007, Strand Associates, an engineering consulting firm, has assessed the reservoir and staff has made interim repairs as the tanks have shown signs of seepage and slippage. Tonight the board voted to move forward with the previously approved 7 million-gallon pre-stressed concrete tank incorporating the 1/10th rise dome. This roof option does not add any costs to the estimated $4 million in tank construction costs.
The board also approved installation of a new fence to enclose the reservoir site. The fence design, a seven-foot Black Aegis II fence on grade with ring detail and brick piers, was selected by the Tanglewood Neighborhood Association and accepted by the board.
Now that the fence design has been selected and approved, the next step of the process is to develop a landscaping plan. This will be presented at the board’s monthly meeting in August. After a planning review period, bidding and awarding the project contract and executing the contract, fence construction and landscaping is scheduled to be complete Oct. 2, 2018.
In other actions, the board created a three-member ethics committee and approved a financial disclosure form. The form requires board members, senior management and those involved in the procurement process at FPB to confirm that they have no financial interest in business dealings with FPB. The board appointed Steve Reeder, Paula Moore and Jill LeMaster to the Ethics Committee.
FPB’s new administration building includes a community room and kitchen that is available for rent to the public. In an effort to keep the costs low, the board approved rates that considered cost recovery only for cleaning expenses and no profit margin. The approved rental agreement consists of three rates: $100 for a half-day weekday, $150 for all day weekday and a $200 weekend daily rate.
At the May meeting, the board heard the results of a customer service survey, which indicated that 75 percent of FPB’s customers are satisfied overall with the customer service they’ve received in response to questions, problems or situations. The report also reflected that satisfaction with wait times to speak with a customer service representative was 54 percent, which was significantly lower than overall transaction satisfaction. Additionally, customer comments throughout the report suggested that wait times are often the reason for preventing overall scores from being higher.
In response, the board requested an action plan to address customer wait time and other efficiencies. At the July meeting, Customer Service Director Monique Avery discussed the prepared plan including 12 action steps to improve the overall customer experience. These steps include filling two vacant positions in the department, implementing online customer account actions, reviewing incoming call volumes, patterns and release codes that impact work time percentages, and implementing an electronic queuing system that will more efficiently route walk-in and phone customers.
The board appointed FPB General Manager Herbbie Bannister to represent FPB on the Kentucky Municipal Energy Agency (KyMEA) Board of Directors. It also appointed Assistant General Manager Hance Price as an Alternate Director. The board did not approve a confidentiality policy proposed by KyMEA.
Kelley Dearing Smith, Vice President of Communications and Marketing for the Louisville Water discussed the marketing plan for Louisville Pure Tap brand. This campaign accentuated that Louisville’s tap water is just as good, or even better than expensive, less-regulated bottles of water. FPB looks to follow this model to better promote Frankfort’s tap water.
Other board business included approval of agreement for Hosted PBX Service, approval of renewal of 5-year agreement with Killer Tracks for production music, approval of addendum to the Master Service Agreement with Spectrum to lease a 10-gigabit transport circuit and approval of agreement with Equinix to lease interconnections in the Equinix Data Center.
The board also approved an upgrade agreement with CenturyLink Communications for burstable internet bandwidth, approved an annual price contract for distribution transformers to Brownstone Electric Supply Company, and awarded contracts for conductors to Brownstone Electric Supply and Wesco Distribution.
The FPB Board of Directors’ next monthly meeting will be Tuesday, August 15, 2017 at 5 p.m. at the FPB administration building at 151 Flynn Ave in Frankfort.
