SLVWD Board Meeting Summary
April 16, 2026
Prepared by Mark Dolson for FSLVW
NOTE: Provided purely as a public service — NOT the official SLVWD Meeting Minutes.
Highlights:
Special Inspection Contract Award
Hazardous Tree Removal
Next Board meeting will be at 6:30 PM on May 7, 2026
Preliminaries
All five directors were present.
President Russ said the Board took no reportable actions in the just-concluded Closed Session.
There were no changes to the agenda.
There were no public comments on non-agenda topics.
Unfinished Business
None.
New Business
Special Inspection Contract Award
Engineering Manager Garrett Roffe introduced this agenda item. The District’s 5-Year Capital Improvement Program includes over forty construction projects. The District needs to hire an independent third party that can perform special inspections during construction projects to verify the work is in conformance with the project specifications.
The District issued a request for proposals and received five proposals. Staff assessed all five respondents as capable of performing the work. Garrett said Staff had a preference for Haro, Kasunich and Associates (HKA) based on proximity and relevant experience, but the Board was free to choose differently.
Director Fultz was unhappy with the background information that Garrett provided to the Board. He would have appreciated a clear summary of the most relevant details and of Staff’s reasoning in the Board packet. Director Smolley expressed the same concern, and President Russ agreed. All five Directors ended up engaging Garrett in an extended Q&A session.
Over the ensuing 40 minutes of discussion, the following facts emerged:
HKA is the Engineer of record for some of these projects, but this is not expected to create any conflicts of interest.
This is a three-year contract to have someone on-call for special inspections. The firms will only bill when they are called, so the bids are only estimates of what the District might end up spending. Still, RKA’s bid was for $191,000 whereas Twining’s bid was for $117,000, and the two firms scored almost identically in the Staff’s assessment matrix.
It was unclear to what extent the District might be able to limit its need for special inspections by bringing a majority of this effort in-house.
It was also unclear how much Twining (located in Concord) would charge for travel, and whether this could be subject to further negotiation.
Lastly, it was unclear exactly how the proposed contracts comported with the relevant prevailing wage requirements.
President Russ said this matter was being referred back to Staff.
Hazardous Tree Removal
Environmental Programs Manager Chris Klier introduced this agenda item. The District is planning to start the 5-Mile Hazard Tree Mitigation and Shaded Fuel Break projects in May 2026. The projects will mitigate about 650 hazardous trees along the 5-Mile Pipeline and implement a shaded fuel break along 2.5 miles of pipeline and one mile of access roads to the pipeline. The hazard tree mitigation will allow the District to begin other phases of the pipeline reconstruction, such as a survey. The shaded fuel break will protect the pipeline once rebuilt, the Lyon Water Treatment Plant, and provide access to fire crews in protection of the town of Boulder Creek.
The projects are included as part of the District’s $902,000 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Fire Prevention grant awarded in February 2026, and all project costs are expected to be covered by the grant. The only additional expected costs not captured in these agreements are rent for the California Conservation Corps (CCC) camping space and portable restrooms for the crew, both of which are expected to be covered by the grant.
The projects will be implemented in two phases:
The CCC will mitigate the hazard trees and create the shaded fuel break simultaneously along the pipeline using their grant-funded Forestry Corps Crew, with a planned start in May 2026.
The District will hire a contractor to implement the shaded fuel break along the one mile of access roads (outside of nesting bird season).
Chris said Staff were bringing two agreements and one agreement amendment to the Board for approval:
California Conservation Corps Agreement. The CCC has a grant-funded crew who will implement the hazardous tree mitigation and shaded fuel break, providing an estimated $626,400 of crew labor. The District is only responsible for funding CCC crew lodging, food, tools, and overtime, which is estimated at $110,956.26.
Powers Forestry Agreement. Powers Forestry will develop specifications for the shaded fuel break, provide oversight of the CCC crew, ensure compliance with environmental protection (e.g., watercourse protection zones), and mark any additional trees that have become hazardous since the initial survey. The cost for these services is $11,920. (Note that Powers completed the initial hazard tree survey, has familiarity with the pipeline and the hazard trees, and provided oversight to the CCC crew conducting the hazard tree mitigation work on the Peavine Pipeline.)
Harris & Associates Agreement Amendment. Harris & Associates Agreement for 5-Mile Pipeline Replacement Environmental Review for $89,831 was approved at the October 17, 2024 Board meeting. The addition of the Shaded Fuel Break, which was designed in 2025 for the grant, requires an amendment to fulfill biological and cultural resources requirements. The main cost addition is nesting bird surveys, which will be implemented for the work conducted during nesting bird season (March to August). Additional cultural review and project management costs make the amendment add up to $25,254, bringing the total agreement to $115,085.
Director Largay said his only concern was about the potential for CCC crews to be unpredictably pulled away (e.g., for fire-fighting).
Director Layng got Chris’s reassurance that this work would not contribute to the spread of Sudden Oak Death disease.
Director Smolley questioned whether the District should be doing the cultural survey in advance of making a decision about the Five Mile Pipeline project. It was noted that this was only a $7000 piece of the project and a necessary precursor to rebuilding the pipeline because it will look at the landing zones for where pipe will be flown in (if the pipeline is rebuilt).
Director Fultz said he thought Chris had done a good job of presenting this. His meta question was whether the District really does want to replace the pipeline to Sweetwater (which contributes only 10% of the North System surface water). He observed that hazard tree removal doesn't mean the District has to replace the pipeline. He suggested maybe deferring Sweetwater to last. Director Smolley added that Sweetwater was the costliest section of the Five Mile Pipeline.
There was no public comment.
President Russ moved to approve the resolution, and Director Layng seconded. The motion passed 5-0.
Consent Agenda
There was one item on the Consent Agenda:
a. Board Meeting Minutes 4.2.26
This item was accepted without discussion.
District Reports
Monthly Financial Report for February, 2026
President Russ asked roughly how much money was now sitting in a checking account. Finance Manager Cheri Freese said it had varied between $200,000 and $500,000. Everything else is in an interest-bearing account.
Director Fultz commented that the District is currently on track to hit the $6.5 million figure that is central to President Russ’s recently completed financial model.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 PM.