the producer of the report that you receive or we've been sharing with you all on our drought update and reports and she does that. So if you want more of those things quite frankly I think you do almost all of our I know it's a team effort but a lot of our utility reports. though. Um before we turn it over to Corey, I'm going to uh actually call on Scott Barry, assistant manager Scott Barry, um [snorts] to kind of tee this conversation up as we talk about our utility billing system because Scott was last in charge of the system that we have currently. So, I thought he might want to share a few words um as Corey gets going. >> Yeah, thanks Russ. And uh good evening, Mayor Council. So I think back to 2008, young Scott was working in public works and got hired by Karen Mills to come over to the finance department to implement uh advanced metering infrastructure or AMI. And so between 2011 and 2012, we implemented over 60,000 meters, first of its kind in the triangle system. As part of that, we also looked at through um some board recommendations and from what council wanted, we looked at a utility billing portal. Um all this called Aquaar. So this 15 years ago, we implemented this thing called Aquaar. We're still using that portal that we implemented today. Uh in addition, we have a back-end system called Navaline, which is even older. And so I'm just glad to be here as part of the refresh. And um we'll turn it over to Corey to give us an update of where we are. Thank you. All right, everybody. Um, so just as a start big, you know, Kerry is a regional utility. You all know this, but um, we are providing drinking water to Kerry, Morrisville, RDU, the Wake County portion of RTP, Apex, and Chattam County. That represents a population of over 300,000 people. And of that we provide utility billing distribution utility billing to those first four Apex and Chattam County have their own distribution and billing but of that you know the top four carry Morrisville RDU and Wake County portion of RTP that represents over 200,000 people. That's 75,000 meters out in our system. And so um what we're coming to you saying today is we understand that this is a big responsibility. This is a lot of people that depend on us to make sure that this utility billing system works well. And so that's why we wanted to, you know, we've been taking a lot of time to make sure we do this right. So the utility billing system isn't just about one thing. We can't just do utility billing. The utility billing system has to integrate with our Oracle financials as well because once we take in the money from our customers, it needs to go back into the utility fund. And that's how it does that by integrating. And then the other thing it has to do is it has to integrate with the customer portal. So when customers come in, they get to look at their usage, they get to make their payments. All that happens through the customer portal. And all three of these things have to be working together in order for us to have a successful utility billing system. We're moving to Oracle customer cloud service, CCS. Um, and really the reason behind that is that like Scott said, we currently have Navaline. It is an aging legacy platform. It has limited flexibility. Staff perform so many manual processes just in order to make it work. Um, and so just think about that compared to what we're looking at with Oracle is a modern, you know, industry-leading platform and it's going to have that improved functionality and and automation for staff. So, it's going to help everybody to be more efficient. Um, and then why do we need a new portal? You know, Scott kind of touched on it. We built this portal back in the early, you know, 2010, 2011. And just think about anything from back in 2010, 2011. Um, we have definitely progressed in the last 15 years technology-wise, and the portal has not. And so, we are we're looking at a lot of things that we can upgrade. Um, currently the portal that we have would need significant um, updates in order to meet the ADA standards that are coming out. Um, that's something that's really important to us and so we are making sure that our new customer portal will be able to meet those ADA standards. In addition, there's limited flexibility in addition to that outdated, [clears throat] you know, graphical user interface for folks. So, we want to make sure that we're bringing all these things to our customers. We want to make sure that it's a place that they can go. It's easy to find things right now. It's very difficult to find your usage. It's difficult to do things like set up leak alerts. We want it to be so easy for folks to go and navigate this new customer portal. And so, how are we doing that? Well, we have been going to our advisory boards. Um, we've been chatting with several of you. We've met at those advisory boards already. And, um, in addition to that, um, we're here today at council, right? We want to make sure that we are engaging with our customers and with you council especially over the next 9 12 months as we get ready to go live with this new portal. It needs to be right and so we are going to be coming back to you. We'll be asking you for your help with things um and we'll be asking those advisory boards. So you'll continue to see us there on the advisory boards um chatting with them and asking for help as well. Um we are expecting to go live in 2027 and that's not going to be the end of customer engagement. Right beyond that go live we also expect to be coming back and asking advisory boards how is it going how are you know folks feeling about how we've did we hit the mark with this >> and Corey let me add on that slide >> um because I mentioned this to some of you in passing 2027 is a target date. if um if something's not right, we need more community engagement, we'll we'll we will not launch this until it's ready to be launched. >> Great. Thank you, Russ. Absolutely. >> And then so these are the things we heard from our advisory boards, [clears throat] right? It's really important for us to not just go, but to really understand what folks are saying and to make sure that we have these things. So folks are looking for more information. Um they want recommendations on how to use their water, how they can save money. um they want to see more comparative chart historical data and it's really important to people that we're thinking about offering other languages you know currently we just have English on our on our platform and we need to be thinking bigger about those things um make sure that we're addressing accessibility and then you know we want to make sure that we can push critical alerts and notifications to our users if we have a water outage things like that um if they would like to know get some leak alerts um so we want to make we have all those abilities with our new portal. It's very important to us. Our next step is really ensuring a smooth roll out. Like Russ said, we're not going to do this if we're not going to do it right. So for us, it's we're working on ensuring we have sufficient testing and training for our staff because they're going to have to understand both CCS and the portal in order to help our customers when they call in on the portal on their billing issues. um we have taken some time and met with Raleigh, Apex and Fagatville because they've recently rolled out new customer portals and they've encountered some challenges and so we went to them and asked for their lessons learned and and they were gracious enough to really give us some feedback and pointers so that we could think about things like cut offs and late fees. How are we going to deal with those things? you know, we're going to figure that out over the next couple months and make sure that it's something that everyone feels comfortable with and council manager's office, etc. before we do anything. Um, and then another thing, pres preventing those initial login issues. We want people to come and and feel like this is an easy experience. It's very intuitive. So, we want to make sure we're thinking about all those things. And we're committed to customer engagement. We will be coming back um to the advisory boards. we will make sure that we're talking with you council. Um we're talking about public open houses. Um we have, you know, postcards, etc. So, this will not be something that just happens all of a sudden. We want to make sure that we've engaged our customers so they feel really comfortable. So, um with that, I will take any questions about utility billing, anything that we've chatted about before we um chat about drought with Sarah. I I have a question. Um, a quick Google search confirmed what I suspected and that this there's a lot of AI embedded in this platform and a lot of the automation is probably AIdriven and I'm assuming there's a significant agentic component of what this, you know, new solutions platform can do. I would simply ask that we also what I'd like to hear is is say Nicole Coughlin's perspective on how we're going to manage the security just to make absolutely sure especially when we see what happened with Apex and how challenging that was >> that we are being really really proactive about um making sure that we can contain um if there's any problems and make sure that we are securing this platform very significantly. One of the benefits of a legacy platform is while a lot of times they are vulnerable, they can't do quite as much. And so, um, it took me about two seconds to go, oh, this does really cool stuff. Let's make absolutely sure [clears throat] that we, you know, I' I'd like to hear, you know, a very expert opinion on here's the steps we're taking and here's how we're um making absolutely sure that if a bad actor tries to get in there that we've got a plan to stop it and if and when we can't stop it, a plan to contain it. >> Yeah. I don't know if you have any thoughts. Nicole is not here tonight. I'd like to put that on the list and Corey can add what she wishes and then we can continue the conversation around that as we bring you more information over the next year, year and a half. >> Yeah, absolutely. We definitely need to keep that on the list. We have worked with our CISO to ensure that he's gone through and and looking at those things as well. But you're absolutely right. It's so critically important to us. You know, we do not we will not fail the way that we've seen some that some things fail. So >> now CESO is is perfectly acceptable to me. I just am not familiar with that individual. So, >> right. Absolutely. So, yeah, Russ will bring an appropriate person. >> I know Nicole, that's all. Okay. >> I have a question. Um, you mentioned that we went to other municipalities and they shared their [snorts] experiences, lessons learned. >> What are the challenges and issues um if you could just tell me like briefly um that they shared in in their journey? >> Yeah. um you know, lots of things, but there's definitely some things around um communications with folks. So, some folks um rolled out their communications too early and people started trying to go and log into the new website that did not exist yet, things like that. And so, it it's just about being very specific about um what exactly we're asking. What is the ask from this postcard? We just want to let you know, just an FYI versus we need you to go here. we need you to do these three things. So those are some of the feedback. >> Are you going to provide any support to um senior citizens to our senior citizen communities, you know, or um do we have any plan? >> Yes, thank you so much for that question because we absolutely do. We will be doing public open houses at the senior center and community centers both in Kerry and in Morrisville. >> Yeah. >> Couple of questions. Well, first off, I'm glad to hear you're getting off the AS400 platform. [laughter] I think that was the first platform I programmed on out of college. [laughter] >> Get out of here. >> Yes. So, nobody has to do the math. So, that's really great. >> Back in the 90s. >> Yeah, that's it. Um, so that's really great. Are there uh there's a couple of things that we've heard about from people. They love the AMI capability. They love Aquaar. Um but we've lost some capabilities over the last few year or so, right? The ability to do te for you to be texted. Um when you go over a certain amount, right, of water usage, will we be gaining some of those critical capabilities back? And what does that look or what are you all we talked about you worried about, but what are you all excited about about the capabilities coming forward? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um there's going to be lots of capabilities coming out um and you know maybe things to add as we move forward, but there's definitely going to be things that are more comparative that we didn't have before. So being able to compare to you know what does this bill look like compared to the last bill that we had and you know um hopefully in the future we'll be able to do things like compare to your neighbor um you know things like that. And so those are some of the additional things that we're going to be able to do that we can't currently do that we're looking forward to. >> Great. Thank you. >> Uh I I want to share that I started to use Aqua Star because I had $1,000 utility bill [laughter] a couple years ago >> and that I called staff >> with Yeah, that's why I learned this. It's so important to remind me that I'm using too much water. Yeah, >> that's because of the um irrigation system and leaking in in the house. So, uh what I I I I feel that system is very helpful to save money especially you have too many case like shower too long. [laughter] You can see in the Aqua Star what time the water uses is the at the peak. We are I'm not using that much water. Yeah. So um my question for the CCS is do we have different uh like uh using on laptop or phones or appad the different platforms do we have that kind of user interfaces >> right so it's it will be um mobile friendly right it's not its own app on the phone because nobody wants we heard from advisory boards nobody wants another app um but it will be you know mobile friendly so that it will you know get smaller and bigger based on the size of the device that you have. You know, some folks like to use their iPads rather than like a laptop or a phone. So, yes, it has that capability. >> Yeah. And also, I really appreciate the the notification. Uh if we have not only email and text messages will be very helpful, especially you're out of town, you don't know what is happening in your house. >> So, that's help very helpful for to save money, right? >> Yeah, absolutely. And the and the new portal will have the ability to push notifications via text and email. We will we will be able to do that for sure. [laughter] >> Bringing back the text. >> All right. >> Anything else? >> Okay. >> All right, Keith. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. I love all these questions. And I'll add I'm excited about the portal that it'll be more visible. It'll be the billing area and the usage area in the same place. and we're gonna have this opportunity to campaign about it, which we didn't have haven't done with the Aqua Star one. So, I'm very excited about that, too. And I'm also excited about the rain. Um, so yes, good evening, mayor and council. [laughter] Great to see you guys. Um, it is Murphy's law that um, plan a meeting on drought and the rain will come, but we wanted to talk to you guys about it because I know I've been providing some information, but there's a lot of information out there. So, definitely feel free to ask questions as we go. I'm going to give kind of a drought 101 overview. Um I think the first one I'll start with is just some context. If you were around in 2007 and 8, it was a it was a dry time. Uh on the right side is the um United the North Carolina drought map which looks at various factors and you can see we were in the most extreme level of drought throughout most of the state. Um, right now we're not in that same situation, but the area that has been that same level happens to be over the watersheds for Raleigh, Falls Lake, and for Durham. And that's part of why some of their experience has been a little bit different than ours. They're smaller wheds affected um more readily and kind of different locations of where drought is happening. That was last week. If my animation No, my animation doesn't work right. It's slightly better this week. um and will be slightly better even next week. Um but before jumping into drought, I just want to say we've heard a lot in the news about restrictions. That is just one aspect of our conservation strategy. So um we started an official conservation program in '96 when council made a vision to reduce per capita per person usage per day and we've seen significant reduction in per person usage. A lot of that is through tiered rates. That's having a higher rate for higher usage. So, it's not a discount commodity. Um, we also have reclaimed water both in bulk and distributed. We have the leak alerts with our automated meter system. And then we have several policies. I'll go [clears throat] into more detail about alternate day, but we also have a policies that if you have an automated system, you need a rain sensor um so that you're not watering when it's raining like right now. Um, and no water waste, so you're not watering the sidewalks hoping they'll grow. Um, and we do also have a water shortage response plan. um which I want to give you a little bit more overview on. This was actually something required by the state after that 2007 drought to make sure that people were prepared to understand what levels of restrictions they would go to, what would be the triggers and thresholds to get there and how they communicate and roll that out. So um we are in our year round um stage and that's something we have the autonomy as car to decide what is in our plan um and per our value of conservation we have year round alternate day watering. Um we most importantly we are not anticipating at this point needing to go into stage one. Um it's a dynamic situation. We're calculating it every week really every day. Our particular trigger um for these different stages is based on days of supply remaining. Right now we're at 200 days, which is pretty normal for this time. 120 days is the level that you'd have to get to for stage one. And week to week, you can see that fluctuate up and down. It's simply a function of how much is coming into the lake and how much are we pulling out to use. So glad to deep dive more into that if you want, but um just so you know, these are the different stages we have, the different restrictions involved. Um and you can learn a lot more at krnc.gov/drout. Um, and just for those that might not be as familiar with alternate day watering, it means that if you have an home address that is ending in an even number, you are allowed to water your automated system on Sunday, Wednesday or Friday and odd Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday with no one doing irrigation on Monday. You might get some questions about what this applies to. That's something we've heard um our friends in Raleigh and Durham that have implemented more restrictive stages and clarifying questions. Anything that you are walking away from is considered automated. So you may continue to handwater or do drip irrigation or reclaimed any day of the week. Um but this applies to kind of those automated systems. And we do have um a website that has more information not just about our policies but other ways folks can learn to save money, link people to Aquaar. So just some resources for you to have as questions come up. Um, and we have been communicating with our with our citizens, with our residents. We pushed out a press release in July 7th to remind people of the alternate day watering. Um, we have had a few more posts uh recently just making people aware that we're aware of the drought. It's not that we're unaware. It certainly can be challenging because we have a shared media shed um with our neighbors and other places, but a different watershed. Um, so speaking of that, I thought I would take you on a little watershed field trip, Miss Frizle style, which fits with how my hair is working out today. [laughter] Um, so if you've ever driven on 64 headed west, you've probably driven by a raw water pump station, which is the beginning of the journey of the water serving our 200,000 people that we distribute water to. Um there are two pipes that go into Jordan Lake with two different pairs of screens that bring water to the wet well and then through the pump station and it actually um we have two different levels purposely for drought. So we normally operate just our top intake screen um just for it's a higher quality water. So it makes sense for us to do that. We've already enacted our lower in intake screen. Additionally, um, we do that at elevation 212 for Jordan Lake, which is normally at elevation 216. Today, it's at 213 and a half, so that's great. So, we're just prepared. Um, but we also have mitigation strategies in place. So, that's part of the indicators that we provide is so you know when we've gone to the lower intake, how we're ready for that. And if you were curious what these looked like in real life, >> out of the water, obviously, they're in the water now. Um, but they're quite large and uh, we even upgraded them in 2018 with the expansion at the plant. Um, and so they travel about six miles to the Caripex water treatment facility off Wimberly Road. Of course, this is a simplified map, but with everything in utilities, there's redundancy, multiple lines, generators, etc. because we ensure continuous service. And our carex treatment facility um is a 56 million gallon per day capacity plant. You know, that's partially because we're planning for the future. If you want to talk about long range planning or even our annual water resources year in review if you want to see trends I've got a few extra um booklets in the back be delighted to talk with you about that. But we purposefully have space for growth. So that's why you can see the capacity is much larger than an annual average day we might get about 23 million gallons per day. That's averaging the whole year. Obviously there's peaks in the summer. As we continue to grow we expect each year we make new peaks. We have done that this year as well. So, um, as of now, our last greatest peak was last Thursday, uh, 20 36.7. Uh, we may see that peak again. We'll we'll see what happens. Um, but this actually includes, um, approximately 5 a.5 million gallons per day that we're sending to Durham, which I have a slide to talk about as well, but I wanted to keep this capacity one up here just so you know that we are completely able to supply and support the needs of the residents in Kerry. is not at risk at all even with supporting Durham. Um because when it comes to supporting our neighbors, it's partially treatment capacity and it's partially supply. Um so we have the capacity in our treatment plant. Um and one important clarification has to do with supply. So the portion of Jordan Lake um that's accounted for as water supply is managed by the state actually and they all lot um portions of that water supply pool to different municipalities. So Durham is actually technically accessing their own water allocation. So further not affecting Kerry citizens and residents. Um and so we have a mutual aid agreement with them. Something that we're really proud of in the utility system is being good neighbors and having interconnections to support during emergencies like this. So it allows us to send them water um obviously for feet and we are doing that right now through two of our three interconnections with them at Sorl Court and Highway 55 pump station. So about 5 and a half MGD right now. Um, and I think that's all the updates I have for drought, but I'm delighted to take questions before closing out on Western Regional Wastewater Partnership. [laughter] >> Yes. >> Having been around forever, uh, I remember the interra interbase transfer days. Yeah. >> And so I know that's like a fiveyear process. Yeah. Yeah. And so I know you guys anticipate way in advance so we can do that process so we can expand in the future. So when do you anticipate we will need to start the process to go to future expansion which seems to me like 10 years away. Is that too far away? >> Great question. >> I am delighted that the way that our interbase and transfer is managed now is different than it was in the past. Um and so in the past it was a daily cap and that was challenging because peak days are different than the annual average days as you saw from that graph. So because our current interface and transfer certificate is based on a max month average day so like what's the average day for July um we do not anticipate needing to initiate an interbase and transfer certificate expansion. uh with our current forecast. We update our long range plan every five or so years with a very that's frequencies because we really have a lot of data that we take in coordination integration with the vision that you all have for growth what that looks like functionally. Um we do though have anticipation of a need to ask for additional water supply. So there's a lot of factors that come in right now talking about lake level. Is that what you're talking about? So yeah, of that um 100 MGD million gallons per day is the rough approximation of what the water supply pool portion of Jordan Lake is. Jordan Lake is, you know, initially was built for flood storage. So a lot of the diagram, if you will, is flood storage. There's also space for sediment to come, which hasn't really totally come. So that's another potential future access point of of water. Then there's water that goes over the dam and downstream. And then there's water for supply. And within that most of it has been allocated but there is about 8.8% which comes out to about 8.8 MGD that is still unallocated that we will be looking to work with the state and our partners um to initiate a round five of Jordan Lake allocations. Um that's part of why we're also working on a regional water supply plan so that we come with a kind of unified position on that. So um that is something we anticipate growing in. But our long range plan kind of gives a forecast of all of the kinds of expansions at wastewater at um water treatment, water supply. But fortunately, we're feeling like we're in a good position with IBT specifically. >> And I can I add just I don't think you had touched on it invasion transfer for those that now can watch is >> we're in two basins. >> Yeah, maybe detail that a little bit. >> We pull from the >> Jordan Lake is in the Cape Fear River basin. pull from the fear >> deposit in the news, >> right? We are a railroad town which is delightful and railroads love ridge lines but water does not. So we are perfectly splitting um the Capefir on the left side and the noose on the right side essentially. Um and so our first two water reclamation facilities which are a huge conservation energy management sustainability strategy because they use gravity to drain. So, a lot of that um drains to our north and south carry water reclamation facilities going to the noose. And that's why um when we built our third most recent water reclamation facility, Western Wake, it is specifically further west than you would think it would be for Kerry. Partially because it's co-owned with Apex Q to the next slides, [laughter] but also because it returns water to the Capefir River. And it does that with a relatively large outfall, 11 miles. Most times water reclamation facilities deposit directly to this adjacent stream. But that was an important necessary and strategic decision on our part. Um 2014 was when it opened. The work for that was much longer in proceeding. Um >> and just an anecdote for people watching, the water we deposit is cleaner than the water we intake. >> It is true. It's really lovely if you get to I mean maybe lovely is an overstatement. this comes to the excitement about utilities. But if you get a chance to visit one of our um carry 101 or deeper sessions, we have little um jars that show kind of the intake stream and the different points along the way and the output. And so yeah, we we take that very seriously and are very proud of our um high performing water reclamation facilities. Can >> can you repeat that? Um you know, the the water we leave is cleaner than one we take better. For me, I um completely confused my senior advisory board by stating that and doing it very poorly inacc inaccurately. And I'd like to be able to go back to them and be like, "Okay, I think I finally got it right this time." So, we're pulling from >> Jordan >> Jordan and it's going into the >> Cape Cape Fear Basin cleaner than we pulled it out of Jordan Lake. >> The water we return is cleaner than the quality of the stream that it's going into. That's true for all three water reclamation facilities. Yeah, >> you can see it in I've seen at the outfalls at particularly at the um on the Cape River. I've you can take a picture from the outfall and you see this like clear plume of water going into like a slightly turbid [laughter] >> river coming by. So the quality of the water leaving the the [clears throat] treatment plant, the water reclamation facility is higher than the quality of the water naturally in the stream. That's because we're Yeah, I won't >> Sounds like we should get you a picture. >> That would be terrific. I can do show and tell and get it right this time. Bring the water out. >> My understanding too though is there's been a lot of um [clears throat] water quality >> issues. Not issues, but the water quality has been increased in Jordan Lake as well. Is that not correct? >> Um it's a dynamic situation. Um yeah, >> I mean as regulations come that improves certain things. Um, yeah, we what's great is that regardless of what's in Jordan Lake, we are well positioned to treat it and we are already meeting things that are suggested regulations. So, um, much like if I have a drought meeting today and it rains, I feel like if I say water quality is great, then that would not be something I'd want to say for, you know, [laughter] [gasps] >> you never know. But we're ready to treat whatever happens and um, there have been changes in the >> and in the process also removing PAS, >> correct? Right. We are because we have at that site that you saw that I showed you the picture of the reclaimed or the raw water pump station. We are applying um polyactivated carbon right there which is one of the more proven technologies for capturing that. And because we have that six mile pipe that's what makes that a really effective strategy for us in carry. Not a lot of folks have that long contact time. So that's been really beneficial for us. So yeah we are in a great position with that. And I think I have heard that there's been maybe some decrease. I think once it comes into the news there might have been some people changing processes upstream but >> what's good for us for water supply by having a large waterhed is interesting when it comes to a large wershed bringing all kinds of you know fun things >> I think um Russ you presented this once and you mentioned correct me if I'm wrong but you mentioned that the location of Kerry is such that you know the p first does not even flow go from factories to carry the actually geographically it moves into the other direction. >> Yeah. S explain that a little bit. >> Yeah. That um I wonder if I could go back it probably nause in the very first picture but Jordan Lake majority of the flow coming in Jordan Lake is from the Hall River Basin and the Buck uh Buckhorn Dam where it flows down is kind of at the very bottom of Jordan Lake. Highway 64 is like a third to halfway up Jordan Lake. So not only um are we not close to right where the hall comes in, we have the actual some barrier in highway 64 itself. So um it's it's our intake in Jordan Lake is well positioned to be protected from the source of a lot of the um PAS and other things coming from the textile industries that were in that triad area. Oh yeah. >> Another important thing we learned at the Jordan Lake One Water is that when you have a drought, water quality is much more difficult, more costly to keep because of that picture, >> which is that the water quality at the top of the lake is better than at the bottom. Makes sense if you look at a sediment. So the problems with the drought isn't just less water, but it's also that the water quality starts off a little bit more challenging, meaning we have to use more resources to clean it up, >> which makes it more costly and more time >> because we're already applying that polyactivated carbon. It helps us address some of the issues. But we definitely open that lower intake slowly so that it's helping the plant get used to it. And we were pleased it wasn't, you know, it wasn't as bad. Some of that's because the sediment storage in Jordan Lake hasn't isn't filled and probably won't be filled. So, um I think the big takeaway is be really glad you're in a place that has Jordan Lake as a as a water supply. Um not just for resiliency, um but even the water quality. There are a lot of municipalities that are pulling their water right from a river and that can be a much more challenging set of calculations and water quality challenges. So, um, we're passionate about improving and maintaining and projecting, but we are also really grateful to be in the position that we're in. >> So, speaking of delightful. >> All right. Thank you. Now, back to >> one last piece of this update. This this one will be fairly quick. >> Yeah, exactly. This is just one slide, so everybody can just relax. I'm not going to talk forever. Um but we did want to bring this back to you guys because um we are working we've been working on this regional wastewater study for some time now. Uh and this came about it started with a conversation between the Kerry and Holly Springs managers back in January of 25 and you know they at that point directed their staffs to work together on an engineering study. So, we've been working with the staff from Kerry, Apex, Morrisville, and Holly Springs um on on this particular study. Some of you folks on council were able to participate in a joint council work session u between Kerry and Holly Springs back in August and and that's when you all heard from them their need for um increased wastewater capacity. And so the point of this study is that we are looking to see if we could potentially bring Holly Springs into our partnership that currently has Kerry, Apex, and Morrisville. Um, and that's the work that we've been doing. We are almost done with that work and so we just kind of wanted to preview that, let you know that it's coming and that we'll be coming back to you with the results of that engineering study here in the fall. So we're we're really excited and looking forward to having those conversations with you guys. And I was add some of the dates we were working on the other night where you were working with Jenny on calendaring. You know, we're trying to get potentially another work session, joint work session with Holly Springs. I'd made mention that they you could be hearing from them. Um I meet with the Holly Springs manager regularly. Um and this is a great concern for them. I think they're getting you can correct me if I'm wrong, but working on getting additional water capacity from Sanford. Yes. As a partnership. So they're looking to us for some waste water and they might even be trying to expand their own plant a little bit. >> Yes. >> But they they don't have the same >> Well, we're lucky to have the capacity issues that we do and they have a different situation in Holly Springs. >> Yeah. >> Um this will be uh talking to Lisa about it. There would be likely a lot of um legal agreements and possibly payments by Holly Springs and how to fund it and pay for it will be a lot of the discussion that's going on. So, didn't want to bore you with those details tonight. They're still kind of in the works. Um, but Holly Springs is um, you know, probably pretty antsy to get this done and you know, we're we're trying to meet their schedule but also meet ours. Um, so just more to come is kind of the message tonight. >> So, so the question I have is um, our capacity for the future. We don't do it million gallons a day, do we? Like we do water intake, we do it by population, I thought. So this is also by million gallons per day. Okay. Yes. >> And so how far would that carry us? At one time when New Hill was built, I thought I read something like takes us to close to a quarter of a million residents in Kerry or something like that. I don't know how accurate that was, but I'm just want to make sure we're not giving away water and then we're short. I mean giving away wastewater capacity without >> Right. Yeah. In our long range planning, we're always looking 50 years out and there are populations that we associate with that. Obviously, we are reiterating our long-range planning. So, I don't know that we've converted into people. That's an interesting concept. But we are um so if you you may have heard a number in the past that went out to I think 2040 was when the Jordan Lake round four, you know, major planning effort went. So, our current plan looks out to 2070. Um as far as Car's needs, obviously a lot of dynamics have changed. So when we last had um designed or when we were designing Western Wake, it was before it was based on val numbers that were before um the 2007 and 8 drought and some of that significant decrease in our per capita usage. And so instead of um high water use, we're seeing much more efficient usage and we're seeing apex grow a lot. So um it's actually the the forecast of what we expected from Kerry has not kind of come to fruition in that same way. So, the ability to potentially partner, we know that we would do it only if it was a win-winwin and it actually um could be a good strategy for us because we're wanting to expand anyway, partially for Apex's needs and a little bit for ours. So, this could help kind of be some of that funding of they'd have to buy in and then expand. Um, so it's there's a lot of dynamics at play, but of course it does not compromise um Car's >> needs and and the if I remember correctly too, these this is years ago, New Hill was built as a region in mind. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> It wasn't built for us. >> Yeah. >> It was built with all of the municipalities and Holly Springs was a partner back then. So, >> Right. Yes. Exactly. So, a lot of the facilities are already sized for something larger. So the the pipeline that goes all the way down to the river and which is a very long pipeline from the wastewater treatment facility, it's already there. All those things are already there. We just need to expand our treatment process. Um so and that will be a good thing. Like Sarah said, it's a win-winwin for everyone because that gives us a chance to upgrade things at the facility and, you know, improve things as well. So, we're looking forward to it, but we'll come back to you guys with all those details. >> And they we're talking waste water here, but they also have an allocation from Jordan Lake as well that they're not using is correct what we were told it. >> Yeah. And that's part of the regional water supply plan of looking at, okay, what are the needs? What are the strategies? They honestly don't have an effective plan right now of how they will access that. So, that's part of something we discuss as a as a region to figure out who would need water in a in an additional round. I like the idea of the ex re uh extending the invitation because it was originally regional, but if they're also going to potentially uh use us for wastewater because I think they get it from Kate Fear now. They're they're get their water, not waste water, but get their water. >> Yes. >> And we put back into Capefir. So, you never want to you you want that to be as even as possible where you take from. You don't want to put extra into the downstream. It will add a lovely level of complexity to my interbase and transfer calculations. [laughter] >> She's excited about that. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thank you all. >> All right. Thank you. I told you they were passionate [laughter] >> about utilities. >> So interesting though. >> Can I ask you a question? We used to meet >> about utilities and we don't anymore. Why did we used to meet and we don't anymore? Um I believe you delegated it to some degree. >> Yeah. When the Western Wake Partnership was first forming before the plant opened in 2014, there was a lot of joint work that was happening and you probably remember the mayor's meeting with the managers and that sort of thing. But once the plant got up and running, the need for those meetings, it's kind of reduced. >> Okay. >> It's a welloiled machine at this point in time because I used to go as well. Um, all right. We're going to move on to some GO Carry updates and bring in our transit director, Kelly Blazy, uh, for some timely Go Carry updates. >> All right. Good evening. Um, I had so much fun at the council meeting a few weeks ago and as passionate as they are about utilities, I am equally as passionate about transit and so I asked if I could come back and give you a few more updates. So, we have three topics that we'll cover tonight. Uh the first is bus rapid transit or BRT and then we'll talk about the downtown multimmoal center and also the downtown loop. So as we start with our first topic of bus rapid transit um you should have a handout at your seats. You don't have to look at it tonight. It is just additional information and more detail than [clears throat] we'll go into in these next couple of slides. Um but it gives you a little bit more about the history of BRT in Wake County and specifically in Kerry. And tonight we'll focus on two of those projects. So, as a little bit of background, um, we've probably been talking about BRT in Kerry for roughly the same number of years that I've been here, which is now nine. So, it's been a little bit of a process to get us to this point. Um, the Wake Transit Plan when it was approved in 2016 outlined four bus rapid transit corridors for Wake County, all of which begin in Raleigh. So Raleigh is the city or is the um project sponsor for BRT throughout Wake County and then they [clears throat] work closely with municipal partners for the corridors as they then enter into those other municipalities. So tonight we'll focus on that first core route um that's part of those initial four that comes into Kerry. So, it is very aptly named the Western BRT corridor because it starts in Raleigh and it heads west where it connects to Kerry. It's about 12 miles long. You can see the alignment here. And it has roughly 20 stations. And we say roughly because at this point they're still working through the details of what the downtown stations will look like in Raleigh. So, we might have 19 or 20 stations in total. But what we know for sure is there are going to be six stations in Kerry. and you can see those outlined in that blue shaded circle. So, this alignment will probably look familiar to some on council because you um endorsed it as part of the locally preferred alternative in 2020. So, going back six years, that's part of the um eligibility requirements to receive federal funding. So that was a process that was led by Campo and as part of that council endorsed the alignment so the direction that the route travels the station locations and then the technical term is termini but basically the starting and ending points. So the Kerry multimmoal center is one of those points um and that's where the western BRT will end as it travels out of Raleigh. We have now reached the 30% design milestone for this project and so the plans for that have been submitted to North Carolina Department of Transportation and are also going through the review process with the town. And so it's now a good time to kind of remind the community about what we've been working on with this project. And as the project sponsor, Raleigh will be leading an engagement effort this fall that will really be a refresher for people. So it will remind them of the alignment, the way the route travels, the station locations, and really what's unique about BRT and the features that make it different than what you will see as part of the local service um with go carry bus service today. Um, also as part of that, we'll outline the timeline and next steps for the rest of the project as it works toward implementation in probably late um, 2032, early 2033. So the route that we just looked at, that original western BRT is at the bottom of this graphic in the red outline. [clears throat] And all the way to the left of that is the Kerry Multimodal Center. The circle above it is the creatively named Western BRT extension. And so that is now the next study that has just completed. So that effort was also led by Campo um and that looked at the alignment and the station locations for this extension of service um that will begin at that termini location at the Kerry Multimmoal Center and extend to RTP. So with that study wrapping up in May, Campo will now present that work um for public comment in August and then they're scheduled to take action on it in September. So that process is very similar to the process that Kerry Town Council went through in 2020 where you endorsed the alignment and the termini location of the multimodal center. but you're not required to go through it again with this extension because it's starting at the point that you've already previously approved. Um the Morrisville Town Council will um see this presented in August because this is the first BRT service that is in their jurisdiction. So this alignment is about 11 miles long and it has 13 proposed station areas and two of those will be in carry. So, in addition to the multimmoal center, the two that are um highlighted in yellow are within Kerry Town limits. So, that's uh the station that's at Chapel Hill and Maynard and then at Weston and Evans. And I'll pause for a moment and see if there are any questions about BRT. >> I don't want to derail the Sorry, [laughter] I couldn't resist. Um, RTA had a hub plan for I40 that had autonomous vehicles going into RDU. How does that all fit together? >> So, that is somewhat addressed in the one pager on the back about future BRT. So, we haven't quite gotten to that point yet. Um there is an MIS so that's a major investment study which is the very initial planning work when we're trying to determine what the alignment of the corridor will look like and that will begin later this fall and that will study two different options for additional BRT service um some of which could be uh in carry and that will be part of that study and so um the two options that they'll be looking at to determine which one makes the most sense to then go into design and um implementation first and will then receive funding first is looking at service along I40 um from uh from Raleigh um to RTP and then um extending on Harrison um and the Kildair Farm corridor. So that first option is the one that will look at and study the feasibility of that uh transfer hub and that that work will begin um later this fall. >> Miss Ples, would you kindly uh clarify what's different uh between BRT and regular bus service? Yes. >> For anybody paying attention? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um so it's really focused on the R in the bus rapid transit. So, it's meant to get people from point A to point B more quickly. And the way that it does that, the alignment is um straighter than it would normally be with local service. It has fewer stations and they're generally spaced further apart. Um it travels in dedicated lanes for the majority of the corridor. So, that means um you'll see lanes that are only for the use of the vehicles for bus rapid transit. And in our case, that's um for most of the the portion that's in Kerry. If I go back a little bit, um so within that that blue area, um really anything that's on um Kerry Town Boulevard and Maynard will have dedicated lanes. And then as you start to get closer into downtown Kerry, where you're in um more of a uh urban and dense environment, you're going to be in mixed traffic and that starts to slow things down. And so you want as much um dedicated lane as possible. They'll have signal priority so they get through lights faster. And then the stations are designed for everything to happen more quickly. So it's an elevated platform where you don't have to deploy a ramp or a lift. People can just walk on with level boarding. And if there are um fairs, you're generally paying for the fair at the platform before you get on the bus. uh and that it has very unique branding so that you can designate it differently from what you would see with local service. >> So for someone like me that lives in downtown Kerry, BRT would be a very reasonable time um you know how long it would take me to get to say an office in RTP. >> Yes. >> And it would be a really attractive way to not drive on 40. >> Absolutely. And it uh the frequency will will be um much faster than local service generally as well. So, it's projected to be um to have a bus every 10 to 15 minutes during peak service and then uh maybe every 20 or 30 minutes during off peak and the scheduled hours will start earlier and end later as well. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. All right, I will now move on to the multimodal center then and if you have questions about BRT, we can come back to those at the end as well. Um so, a quick update on the downtown multimodal center. Uh we completed abatement and began demolition of the project site earlier this month. Uh so you can see some of the work there. Um we have uh staff that are helping us capture the progress using drone footage. So we'll have a very good um start to finish of this project throughout the years and we'll be providing updates along the way. The outline of the project area is the the red um box to the left. So you see where the existing Carry Depot is and then to the west of Harrison is the project area for the new multimmoal center. And so that's made up of 21 different parcels that are all owned by the town. And the um parcels that have been marked are the seven that we have completed demolition on so far. And then work will continue um throughout the end of the year and will wrap up close to the end of the year, beginning of the new calendar year. And so while that's going on, we're also working through next steps to plan for what will be built on this site. And we know that obviously we have a major transit component that we've had a lot of study around for many years, but we're working through what else would make sense on this site. And so we're working closely with our director of planning and community development, Heather Willahan, and her group to develop a master planning exercise um that we'll bring back to council later this fall for further direction and anticipating beginning around the start of the new calendar year and probably lasting around six or seven months. um to really look at what else could this site accommodate that the public would like to see that the market can deliver and that the town can support. So there will be a big engagement component to this so that we can get feedback from people um throughout the community about things that they would like to see so that we can study it to see whether it can be accommodated as part of the site. Um, we hope that that again will last about six or seven months and then we can bring recommendations back to council probably around this time late summer of next year and then that will lead us into the initial phase of design for what that might look like. >> Can you talk about the funding that uh is proposed associated with it? I know we don't have a plan yet but um can you share the funding model? >> Sure. Um, so we're fortunate that this is an a project that was identified very early on as part of the Wake Transit Plan as something that is um a key need to support transit throughout the region. And you can see from the site um we have rail lines to both the north and the south. Um and so we're not just talking about go carry local service. This is local and regional service. It will accommodate the BRT. Um so both the core BRT and the extension and then future BRT that's um just in that very early planning stage. Um inner [clears throat] city passenger rail, other micromobility options like bike share and ride share and um those are things that will determine through the design process what all of that will look like. But because it's such a key location, um there is funding through the wake transit plan for the design and construction of the facility for the transit portion of that. Um and so that's been identified as part of the plan from the beginning and then we'll refine those budget numbers as we get further into the design process. And and your point being, as you really alluded to it, if there is to be private development or some sort of partnership, we have to come up with a funding model opportunity for what that might be, which will be part of the planning process coming up. >> But it doesn't have to just be transit. It can be the envisioning of it could be residential associated, retail associated, right? It doesn't have to be just transit. >> Correct. It does not have to be just transit. Um, and that's what we're hoping to get from the study is what else would people like to see and uh what can fit on the site and what other uh sources of funding may be available to support that. So, we're looking forward to seeing um what opportunities and concepts come out of that that we can bring back to you for further consideration. >> Great. >> And will the concepts plans also talk about the existing carry depot and what happens there? So that's not part of the initial um planning work that we've been doing. So I think that's um for future conversation as well and what council would like to see for next steps. >> We we own the deep depot, not the railroad. >> We do. We own the depot. >> Do they have a significant right of way associated with it? >> Yes. [laughter] >> Yeah. Probably all of it. >> I made that assumption but figured I'd ask. >> There's like a corner on one end. I think we might have >> Yeah. Yep. All right. So, we'll move on to the downtown loop. Um, I'll give a brief update. I know you've seen the news that we had uh suspended service a couple of weeks ago because we've been experiencing a driver shortage. Um, this is something that kind of es and flows and we've been very fortunate that um we've had strong staffing numbers for many years. Um but we've had a recent drop in that and we've were able to cover the gaps for a little while with overtime. Um but then it got to a point where we were starting to see impacts to service and so we had to look at um how do we make changes to service that have the minimal impact to the full system. And with the downtown loop of the 13 stops, all but three of those are served by other routes. um all of which uh uh meet at the depot. So very close by. So even the three stops that don't have another route that goes directly by it, there are stops for other routes that are very close by within walking distance. Um the good news is that a recent update, we had nine drivers come out of training recently and I think we have four more that are in the final stages. So by August 3rd, we should be back to um full staffing and I think potentially one over hire at that point um to fully cover service, but it's I mentioned it es and flows. And so we're constantly monitoring um through our contractor. They're they are responsible for managing all of the recruitment and hiring for the drivers um within the go carry system. Um, and we keep in mind that other transit agencies are in the same position, so they're hiring as well. Um, and so they're working through some strategies um to keep our numbers up there. And then I'll turn it over. >> And the contract is with Can you say who the contract? >> Yes. With MV Transportation. So they they've been our contractor for um 10 years or longer at this point. The current contract is 10 years, but I I believe they've been here for longer than that. >> Right. I was going to bring up the downtown loop. um kind of a second scenario is because during the um budget process this year and probably for a couple years now, council member Bansaw has been uh kind of advocating for um transit in district D. So, something that we talked about during the budget process was since lighter writership is kind of low here, which led to um suspending the service with the driver shortage is that we could um look at using the resources given to this route and uh moving them to district D. Um if that's something you're interested in and the whole council's interested in, we would um start looking into that and um wanted to have a discussion around that if there was interest and give uh council member Bansaw an opportunity to speak to it as well. I [clears throat] wasn't ready for this but you know I will fight for this today. [laughter] Well um this is one of the things that you know that have come up time and again with the residents in district D where the connectivity is an issue and um you know every district has its own challenges. I think for district, majority of the issues um kind of seem to be with accessibility and the connectivity with the downtown and having that you know that service available is going to help a lot of like senior citizens, lot of students and um one of the things that um has come time and again u during our visit to Carolina preserves and you know all the different uh communities with senior citizens, this has been one of the biggest ask. So um when the whole discussion came up about Danton loop, one of the things that I also heard and correct me if I'm wrong was really that um the this was this service was really started because we didn't [clears throat] have too many uh parking lots or um available in downtown and this was one of the ways for us to help connect residents across you know the entire downtown. And when we those parking lots were built, it was kind of time to transition out of that. And that's when the discussion started to re position and reallocate the funds to the uh to district service. >> Well, and so we had also suggested in some of the budget conversations as we were talking about possible ways to um gain more revenue or maybe spend less was that it was suggested that maybe we look at um suspending this route for good. We learned in talking to Kelly that we can't you can't necessarily do that. You can explain it better than I, but you need this is part of the full plan. Um, so you need to use these hours, which is good that it's on the screen somewhere else in the system. Which kind of led to well then that might be an opportunity to provide the exact amount. Um, we don't there was no more money um allocated in the budget, but if you wish to allocate the resources to this loop route, we could bring you back some options uh for D or any other part of Kerry. Um, but you had brought it up for D, so I just wanted to give the opportunity to speak to it and see how you might wish us to proceed >> and and talk about it if you will or ask Kelly any questions you have. [snorts] >> Um, sure. And I can respond to the the budget piece of it. Um, so when Wake Transit first began in 2016, um, and we knew that as part of that plan, we would be receiving funding to expand public transit service in Kerry. They looked at the level of service that was currently being provided um, through local um, funding and that um, was set as a baseline going forward. And so we need to maintain a baseline of service to continue to be eligible for all of the funding that we receive through Wake Transit. So if we reduce our baseline any it then reduces what we're receiving from Wake Transit. And for the most part that's our core service anyway. We already had um six routes at that time and Wake Transit increased some frequency and added Sunday service but those core routes have remained in place. But then there was this other piece that at that time um was like a killedair farm express route and we've tested it as part of the route 8 and now as the downtown loop. So it's kind of served as this pilot program um to look at how service can work in different parts of the community because it is a small piece. Um, just as a comparison, the 48 hours per week for the downtown loop is about 25% of a route in our schedule. And so what that equates to in funding is about 250 to $270,000 um compared to over a million dollars for a new um for one of our standard routes for a full year of operations. So that doesn't take into consideration capital at all. Um but just for the the service piece of it. And so if we were to repurpose what we've been using for the downtown loop, it would be about 48 hours per week, which is around um that $250 to $270,000 of our budget. >> And to be clear, um not asking for direction on to decide anything tonight. Be much like a council initiated item. um you could request us look into options to bring back to you and then you could decide what to do with it. >> If you were to do that, is there possibility, as much as I love the idea of going to Western Kerry, are there other needs that are potentially greater or do [snorts] we've heard a lot about regional connections that people say that there's not enough connection with Apex or not enough connection with Raleigh. I mean, how does Western Kerry line up with the needs of the greater service area? >> So, we're actually going through a bus plan update as part of the wake larger wake transit plan right now and that's looking at um service over the next 5 to 10 years and what would be prioritized for funding for Carrie through the wake transit plan. Um, so there could be some opportunities that come through that, but I think it also goes back to the microtransit study that we did a couple of years ago where that really identified that the biggest gaps in service are in western and southern Kerry and outlined um kind of the priority areas that we had heard from the community about where they would like to see service. So it it does um fit in with the needs in western and southern Kerry that don't currently have service. But then there could also be opportunities to expand hours on existing service um or add more frequency if that were something that that others wanted us to look at. And if you move if you add a service to western Kerry or southern Kerry or District D and District C, >> can it then be reimbursed by Wake County or are they extensions and that means that Kerry will be a paying for those forever? >> It depends. So the way that the Wake Transit Plan works is that um the service would have to be part of the plan in order for it to be eligible for funding. And so if we implemented a service that were prioritized in the plan before it was funded, then it could be eligible for reimbursement once it reached the year in the plan that it had funding. But if we decide to implement something that's not part of the plan, then it would need to be funded through carry um and it doesn't become eligible for federal funding until it's in service for at least three years. And then it's still not 100% covered. It's a it's an allocation um based on writership and some other fund numbers that I'm happy to get into at some point, but it's it's a portion of the funding. So, there would still be a significant um uh level of funding required from the town. >> Okay. >> And I just wanted to jump in at 608. Kelly, for my clarification and the clarification for everyone listening, you know, I I could see a resident saying, "Well, there's low writership here and it's $200,000 plus dollars. Just eliminate the route and save that money." But what you're saying is we have to maintain this baseline of hours per week. And so there is not a scenario where we cut service and Car's bottom line saves money. we lose dollars. So, you lose service and lose funding. >> Yes. Yes. >> Great recap there. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Good job. >> Thank you for bringing up the microtransit study. I I know we definitely need service out in in West Kerry and also um as you said the microtransit study covered um well we learned about southern and western and because I'm in district B and share a border with district C and people knew I had an interest in transit um from the time I was on council several people have reached out about um southern as well as routes that were a route that was eliminated that they felt if it had had a little more hours it would have been sustainable or or like days of the week it would have been sustainable but instead it was cut back. So I'm glad to hear that we have an option of kind of looking um holistically again >> and that's why I think a suggestion if you want us to look at something is let the process of the looking at the whole system continue and if you desire to have a do something different with the um circulator route by itself is that's why you you could direct us to do something with that >> and you need a motion tonight to do that. Correct. >> I think a motion would help us um know how to proceed. >> Okay. So, what exactly do you want in the motion? I can do that. >> Probably something like directing staff to look into options for wherever you'd like it. Um, and bring something back to council to make a decision. >> Okay. So, I'll do it for district D. Um, I'll put a motion for the staff to look into um repurposing this um service hours to district D and help us identify what the um what the path is going to be and propose some um >> bring you options >> bring bring some options back to the council for the decision. Can we >> would you be open to amending that to have >> them look at both D and C so that we could get some options. Would you be open to amending that to include D and Z? I want to add that especially uh Kokaboo area and southern um like publics that are weak uh wick tech I think a lot of needs around that area if we can just extend uh services to there will be very uh I will appreciate that. >> Okay. So I will amend um the the koka booth and wake area as well. Wake Tech >> Wake Tech Wake Tech, not Wake Mat um area as well um to bring back some options for council to consider. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously. >> Thank you very Thank you very much. Um believe that is all for tonight other than I I'll draw your point to Jenny passed out believe the pulse report from 301 calls for service um over the last month. That's otherwise that's all we have for tonight. Thank you. We're session adjourned.