A Message from outgoing LCWD President, Julie McWhorter

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as Director 2009-2013, acting President since 2012, and President for the past year.

It has been quite a journey filled with great accomplishments, a significant highlight of my community service, and I sincerely appreciate the support I received from so many members of the community and the LCWD staff and board members.

Our Accomplishments  

I want to thank everyone that contacted us, visited the office, called me and stopped me in town to thank me and the LCWD Board and staff for the great work and all the accomplishments we made in such a short amount of time. Your expressions of appreciation made our hard work and extra effort worthwhile.  Thank you!

In just a year and 3 months, the Lebec County Water District has accomplished the following:

• LCWD is now California State Compliant on all Working Wells
• LCWD is now OSHA Compliant with Cages, Hatches and Safety Equipment
• All Water Tanks are in the process of being cleaned, with half completed to date – a service we don’t believe has been conducted in our almost 50 year history.  
• A New Truck was purchased and new facilities were set up. 
• A Website was created to keep customers informed that now offers “BILL PAY” service to make paying water bills more convenient.
• New Tools and equipment were purchased to make delivering water service more efficient.
• A Grant for a New Well is almost completed with 100% no payback possible.
• The Books are Balanced - something the former management group and board could not accomplish.  It was a monumental task. 

We have nearly $250,000 in the Bank.  A far cry from the balance left by the old board. This is due primarily to the decision to manage the district and oversee all procedures rather than outsourcing the management services to a company at a cost of $27,000 per month.  This significant change was at no cost to the district.

Grateful to an Exceptional Staff

I would like to personally thank Debbie Bechtel for her dedication and commitment to correcting the multitude of problems left by the prior LCWD Board. If not for her, my job would have been considerably more difficult.

Thank you to Rafael for all his hard work and dedication to making our district run more efficiently than it ever has in the past.

Thank you to Anthony, one of our newest team members and second water operator. His strong work ethic has assisted the district in accomplishing all the system improvements that are in place today.

Thank you to Amanda, who is a daily joy to work with, for her dedication to keeping the LCWD office running smoothly and ensuring that every customer is treated fairly and professionally.

Best wishes to the LCWD staff, board members and the incoming president.  I look forward to seeing them continue to succeed in making improvements in our water system in the coming years.

Julie McWhorter

Lake of the Woods Water Requests Purchase of Water from LCWD

On Sept 19, 2013, LCWD received a request for water from the Lake of the Woods Water Company.  An Emergency Meeting was held to address the request.  LOWWC requested 25 to 30 truckloads of water per month, with a monthly cap of 100,000 gallons.  The emergency request comes after LOWWC lost their well some months ago and the recent cancellation of Frazier Park Public Utility District agreement to supply water.  The State of California has made $50,000 available to LOWWC for emergency water purchases.   LOWWC will pay LCWD for the water and then be reimbursed by the State.

The LCWD Board approved an agreement to supply LOWWC with the requested water by a 5-0 vote.  Supplying the water to the Lake of the Woods residents will in no way affect LCWD customers.  If a problem arises with our own water supply, our customers will take precedent over the needs of LOWWC customers.  All surplus water sold by LCWD falls under this rule. LCWD monitors its water tables diligently.  LOWWC is expecting this problem to be corrected soon with the installation of a new well.

LCWD has the right to terminate the water supply agreement with LOWWC at any time for any reason.  A copy of the agreement and a CD copy of the Special Meeting are available at the LCWD office.  The verbatim version Minutes of the meeting is available at the LCWD office and will be posted here on the website after the minutes are approved at the next LCWD meeting.

We’re happy to help our neighbors when the unexpected happens.  We believe LOWWC would do the same for us in an emergency situation.

Current News

A BIG Thank You! to all our customers that stopped by to enjoy a hotdog and spend time with us at the BBQ on Saturday, August 10, 2013. Our “Open House” gave all of you the opportunity to see our new office.

Information on the recent “income survey” helped to explain why the State was now using our “Accurate” area map, to obtain a grant for the completion of a new well.

A special thanks to Vice President, Tony Venegas, for all the help in picking up supplies, donating his BBQ, tables and Popup, and for manning the BBQ! Many thanks to our great LCWD staff who gave their time to set everything up! Perfect Job!

Thanks to Rafael for the information boards. The boards are fantastic and gave our customers a peek at all the improvements that have been made in the last year. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Wainright 12” Water Line:

As of the August 23, the Wainright 12” Water Line was potholed by use of a backhoe to check for depth, cement encasement, and thrust blocks. This assisted us in providing answers to questions that have been asked by LCWD customers. Hopefully this concludes the issue that has been on the agenda for years and will move us forward.

Lebec Well:

On Friday August 23, we were alerted to a problem involving low water pressure in the Lebec Zone. We determined there was an issue with the new pump that was installed earlier this year. CJ Pump was contacted to investigate the problem. While pulling the pump up for inspection, it became unthreaded and dropped to the bottom of the well. CJ Pump returned to their shop and created a tool to retrieve the pump.

During this time, the Lebec Zone was converted over to the State Well, which needed manual switching to keep the Lebec tanks full. This was done in the early morning and evening to insure that the Lebec Zone had a sufficient amount of water.

On Saturday August 24, the pump was retrieved from the well and taken in to CJ Logan's for inspection and cleaning.

On Monday August 26, the repair and installation was completed at CJ Logan's expense and the well was chlorinated.

On Tuesday August 27, water samples were taken to BC Labs.

We hope to have the test results back from BC Labs on Thursday August 29 and the well operational. We’re sorry for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience while the repairs were being made.

Thanks to the many LCWD customers for their valuable feedback and the praise the board has received for a job well done.

Current News

If any LCWD customers have  any questions regarding the latest article published in the June 21, 2013 issue of the Mountain Enterprise regarding the June 11, 2013 LCWD Regular Board Meeting, please feel free to use the email link below to contact us with your questions.  Here are some facts that may have been overlooked or excluded:

The Grand Jury report arrived at our office the first week in April with explicit instructions, that the contents of the report were confidential until public release on May 14, 2013.  At the end of their Recommendations, they posted their website, to contact them for early releases and stated to post a copy of the report where it would be available for public review.

The report was ready to add to the agenda for discussion at the June 11 Meeting.  A district customer reminded us that a copy of the report needed to be posted at the LCWD office for public review and we did so immediately. 

The Grand Jury’s recommendations are as follows;

1. Proper responses to the previous two 2011-2012 Grand Jury Reports should be made, on District letterhead, and signed by the Board of Directors.
2. When funds become available the District should purchase another District vehicle for the second Water Operator to drive to perform job requirements.
3. The District vehicle should be appropriately marked with a District decal for identification.
4. When funds become available the District should provide medical benefits to the employees.
5. All Board Members should complete AB1234 Ethics Training every two years.

An ad hoc committee was formed at that June 11, 2013 Regular Meeting to answer these recommendations. This will be addressed at the next Regular Board Meeting and will be voted upon at that time.

The last of our Well parts have finally arrived and will be installing on the State Well this next month, bringing LCWD into State compliance on all of our wells.  We are extremely happy to have accomplished their requirements on all three wells in such a short period.

We lost our Lebec Well motor this year due to freezing and are now researching the cost of protective structures over our wells to handle extreme weather.  This is a very important preventative measure to avoid very costly repairs in the future.

Our new Truck is operational now with our new logo and phone number.  This was a much needed addition to the District.

Last month LCWD addressed some road concerns.  The road leading to the Lebec tanks was in such bad condition that our service truck was getting stuck in the ditch alongside the road. This was extremely hazardous, but also a liability.  We also addressed two other road problem areas, one with no turn around area by the Phillips tanks and a small area on Cuddy Valley Rd, near Mesa Valley Road, that had a very shallow pipe crossing the road.  All of these road problems were corrected.  Thank you to Vice President Venegas, for graciously giving his time and the use of a dump truck to spread donated crushed asphalt on the many problem areas.

And finally, we have completed the first cleaning and sanitizing of our many tanks.  The second should begin shortly.  This service was long overdue and should improve our water quality in the future!