Greater Peoria Sanitary District Observer Report

​GPSD Trustees participated in person and online. That option was open to the public also. Staff and Trustees were welcoming to have an Observer.
Their website was very helpful finding the location, time, date, how to participate online or in person. Also from their website https://www.gpsd.org/

• their FY ’22 Strategy: Safety & Employees, Environmental Protection, and Community & Customer Expectations. 
• their long-range strategy: “Our three main focus areas are: (1) a cleaner river (including consent decree implementation), (2) collection system rehabilitation, and (3) treatment plant rehabilitation.” 

Trustee President Robert Gates presided at the 9:30am meeting. Executive Director Brian Johnson led his staff to explain the monthly reports and issues including:

• Financials
  • the pension assets (IMRF) yielded 16.2% return so the 2022 employer rate will be decreased
  • discussed their investments and reserve ($23million in savings but an outage of a turbine or other equipment can cost more than that.)
  • costs have increased significantly with chemicals increasing 15% and utilities increasing 26%
  • insurance costs have increased from $36, 875 to $44,672 – GPSD insures all its properties since an unexpected flood or other cost would be significant
  • doing an automation study to help plan for failure replacements of equipment especially their diesel turbines which must operate even in event of power outages.
• Mr Johnson presented the proposed Budget Strategy which considers an aging plant and anticipated growth in North Peoria. He will work with each Trustee to answer questions, etc. Some highlights:
  • customer rates from GPSD @$300/year are well below national average which is @$586/year, however they will be looking at an 80cent/month increase in their budget for 2022-23.  And, they don’t have the City of Peoria’s rate yet.
  • “Consent Decree” term is used referring to the CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) determination. Almost half of their “Capitol Projects” are Consent Decree projects
  • fiscal year starts in May
  • Public Hearing on the 2023 Budget is scheduled for April 19, 2022 at 9:30am
• Other agenda items:
  • Approved a new ordinance for grease collections since the previous company doing this stopped operating last year. It takes additional effort for GPSD to deal with this (mostly restaurant) waste stream and GPSD kept the previous operator’s fees in place until they complete a cost study underway.
  • Discussed “authorized Water Shutoffs on Delinquent Accounts” at length including Low Income pledges from PCCEO, landlord/tenant issues, huge bills due to landlords not repairing plumbing
  • Only one sewer backup last month and staff has worked with that owner

Cheryl, Observer