RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - A sharp debate over the location of Rancho Murieta’s proposed emergency water storage tank and a broad review of next year’s capital improvement projects dominated the Rancho Murieta Community Services District Improvements Committee meeting on May 6.

The committee also reviewed emergency culvert work, a throttle valve project at the water treatment plant and the district’s long-range infrastructure spending priorities.

The Improvements Committee is composed of Directors Bill Gere and Randy Jenco, Interim General Manager Amelia Wilder, Interim Operations Manager Travis Bohannon and other staff.

The committee looks at infrastructure issues in depth and makes recommendations to the entire board.

The most contentious discussion came at the start of the meeting, when developer Bob Keil challenged committee chair Gere over efforts to reconsider the preferred site for a new emergency storage tank. Site 4 is located on a hill west of the water treatment plant.

Keil said the board and engineers had already settled on “Site 4” for the tank and accused Gere of working “secretly” with Interim General Manager Amelia Wilder to explore alternatives without the knowledge of the board, the public or the district’s contract engineer.

Gere rejected the characterization, saying the district was simply reviewing “the best location for the tank that is the least expensive and the best for the community.”

Gere argued that the district should instead pursue a location near the existing water plant because it already owns the property. He said that would save the district the $900,000 that the Rancho North developer was asking for the four acres at Site 4. Gere also mentioned that Rancho Murieta Properties was asking for $1.25 million for the larger parcel.

RMP property manager Jeff Pearson responded to the price tag during public comments. He said that district representatives (Interim General Manager Amelia Wilder and Interim Operations Manager Travis Bohannon) had approached RMP (Pearson and CFO Tony Valez) to discuss a purchase price for the site. Pearson said they initially asked whether the land could be gifted to the district, which caught them off guard.  

“We are perfectly willing to negotiate, but I would not call it a negotiation session at all,” he said.

“We gave a price based upon what we believe to be the market value of the property. We gave an option, and that was it,” Pearson added.

Another major topic was the district’s revised Capital Improvements Project list for the coming fiscal year.

The CIP projects would be funded through district reserves and were reviewed after Finance and Administration Director Cecilia Min asked staff to reduce the overall cost of the district’s infrastructure “wish list.”

One of the most significant decisions was to keep the proposed Urban Water Management Plan project – estimated at roughly $500,000 – on the priority list despite mounting financial pressures.

The committee also discussed trimming or delaying several other projects to conserve reserves.

Among them was the water plant throttle valve project, which had originally been approved to automatically regulate water flows to the Rio Oso tank during periods of high demand.

Bohannon recommended effectively shelving the valve installation, arguing that operators could manually control flows when needed rather than spend potentially thousands of dollars on automation.

“Last year, the district had only a handful of days where that would potentially be needed,” Bohannon wrote in his staff report. “Since it is not an everyday thing, I don’t see the need to potentially spend $250,000 or more when the operator at the plant can manually close the valve for the 3 to 4 hours needed.”

At the meeting, Bohannon said the district had already spent some money on engineering and design work for the project, including drawings for the valve and portions of the electrical design, but he recommended pausing further work.

The committee agreed to forward the issue to the full board for further discussion.

The committee also received updates on two culvert repair projects.

A change order totaling $22,540 for emergency repairs at the 14th Hole North Culvert was forwarded to the board after staff said saturated soil, bypass pumping and additional rock bedding increased costs beyond the original estimate.

Despite the added costs, Veerkamp General Engineering still remained the low bidder on the project, staff said.

The committee also learned that M3 Construction had been awarded the Murieta Equestrian Center culvert repair project with a bid of approximately $343,000, below a competing proposal of more than $386,000.

Other topics included updates on GIS mapping software, raw water storage data, dam insurance and ongoing discussions on the Integrated Water Master Plan.