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Proposal to Change the Way Johnson County Wastewater Customers are Billed
JOHNSON COUNTY GOVERNMENT
STATE OF KANSAS
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: November 3, 2011
The Johnson County Commissioners will make an important decision in the next several months which would affect all Johnson County Wastewater customers.
Currently, customers pay for wastewater services on two separate bills: a user charge bill to recover operating costs; and most customers also receive an annual real estate tax bill that includes a special assessment to recover capital costs. For those customers with a mortgage, the special assessment may be paid as part of their mortgage payment.
The Board is considering moving the capital charge from the real estate tax bill to the user charge bill in January 2013. This will be a revenue neutral move and will not change the total amount customers are charged.
The Board is also considering phasing in the adoption of a combined fixed and volume-based charge in 2014-2016. As the volume-based capital charge is phased in, there will be those who will see their bill increase, and others will see their bill decrease, depending on whether their water usage is higher or lower.
Public meetings are being held to share more information and seek public input for the Board’s consideration. All meetings are set for 7 p.m.
Nov. 15, 2011 - Westridge Middle School, 9300 Nieman Road, 66214
Nov. 29, 2011 - Leawood Middle School, 2410 W 123rd Street, 66209
Dec. 1, 2011 - Trailridge Middle School, 7500 Quivira Road, 66216
Dec. 6, 2011 - Shawnee Mission West High School, 8800 W. 85th Street, 66212
Jan. 12, 2012 - Indian Hills Middle School, 6400 Mission Road, 66208
Jan. 17, 2012 - Mill Creek Middle School, 8001 Mize Blvd, 66227
Jan. 19, 2012 - Blue Valley Middle School, 6001 W. 159th Street, 66085
Jan. 24, 2012 - Prairie Trail Middle Schoo,l 21600 W. 107th Street, 66061
Johnson County complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act; if a customer has a disability and will require special accommodations at a public meeting, please call (913) 715-8555.
Additional information regarding the proposal to combine charges is available at www.jcw.org.
About Johnson County Wastewater (JCW)
JCW is responsible for the safe collection, transportation, and treatment of wastewater generated by residential, industrial, and commercial customers. The system provides service to approximately 440,000 people and covers a service area of more than 160 square miles and 16 cities. JCW is governed by the Johnson County Board of Commissioners
John O'Neil elected to NACWA Board
John O’Neil, general manager of Johnson County Wastewater (JCW), was recently elected to serve as a Region 7 representative on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) during its 41st annual meeting, July 19, 22, 2011.
O’Neil has been with JCW since 1989, first as the Director of Operations and Maintenance and since February 2006 as Wastewater General Manager.
As JCW’s General Manager, O’Neil oversees all aspects of the wastewater utility, including the Operations and Maintenance, Business Operations and Planning, and Customer Relations divisions. Engineering functions are divided between the Operations and Maintenance and Customer Relations divisions.
As Operations and Maintenance Director, O’Neil emphasized cross training and removing barriers between the operations functions and the maintenance functions. As General Manager, following recommendations of a recently completed Strategic Business Plan, he is coordinating the building of strong bridges between the three department divisions to provide a unified level and quality of service to JCW customers.
O’Neil is actively involved in current water quality and affordability issues at a national level.” “John brings a wealth of experience in the water pollution control field to contribute to the role of the Board of Directors of NACWA,” said Jeff Theerman, president of NACWA’s Board of Directors.
“I consider NACWA’s role as critical to achieving reasonable and affordable solutions to improving the water quality of our nation’s waters,” O’Neil said, “and I’m excited to become part of that solution.”
O’Neil has a Master of Education from Kansas State University and a Master of Science in Environmental Health Science from the University of Kansas. He holds the highest level of certification for both Collections System and Wastewater Treatment Operation in the State of Kansas.
NACWA is a nationally-recognized leader in environmental policy and a sought-after technical resource on water quality and ecosystem protection issues and enjoys a close working relationship with Congress and EPA in helping to shape the course of environmental protection.
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Johnson County authorizes $37.8 million for waterwater plant improvements, including tunnel
JOHNSON COUNTY GOVERNMENT
STATE OF KANSAS
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: July 14, 2011
Contact: John O’Neil, general manager at Johnson County Wastewater, at (913) 715-8570
OLATHE, KS (Johnson County Square) — Johnson County is going to a great depth to carry millions of gallons of treated wastewater from the Mill Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Shawnee to empty into the Kansas River.
On Thursday, July 14, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners authorized construction of an underground effluent pipe between the treatment plant at 20001 West 47th Street, just south of the river, to a discharge point on the river located just downstream of the raw water intake site of Water District No. 1. The intake is just east of I-435. The treatment plant is about 1.3 miles west of I-435.
The total authorization for the Mill Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent Capacity Improvements was increased by $37,830,000 to $41.6 million by the Board.
In a related action, the Board approved a contract, totaling $31,979,450, with S.J. Louis Construction of Texas to construct the effluent tunnel. The Texas firm submitted the lowest bid among six bidders. The other bids ranged from $32 to almost $39.9 million.
The project will span approximately 9,800 feet, almost two miles, with a concrete pipe with a 96-inch-diameter. The tunnel will be buried deep –approximately 100 to 110 feet - and require boring under portions of Mill Creek, I-435, Wilder Road, Holliday Drive, and railroad tracks.
Treated plant effluent will flow by gravity through the tunnel to the river. Plant effluent currently is pumped to the same discharge location, but the pumping station does not have the capacity to pump extreme wet weather flows. The pumping station will be taken out of service after completion of the project, which includes construction of new plant piping to convey treated wastewater from the plant’s final stage lagoon to the tunnel.
The tunnel will eliminate the risk of untreated sewage flows into nearby Mill Creek and the Kansas River in time of heavy rains since it is underground, so groundwater can’t seep in and treated wastewater can’t seep out.
“What the tunnel does do is reduce our carbon footprint and operating costs since we will not need electricity to pump the effluent as we do now,” John O’Neil, general manager for Johnson County Wastewater, said. He estimated the project, once completed, will save more than $200,000 annually in moving ultimate future flows.
Construction of the tunnel is expected to begin by late summer with completion by late 2013.
It is the second tunnel project for Johnson County Wastewater in two years. In 2009, the Board of County Commissioners authorized a 3,300-linear-foot tunneling project under the Overland Park Arboretum near Antioch Road and 179th Street. The tunnel, with 60-inch piping and depths of up to 74 feet, preserved hundreds of trees and parkland at the arboretum that would have been removed if open-cut trenching had been used in the project.
The tunnel, costing $5.9 million, was completed in mid-April 2010.
The project was part of construction of Blue River 26 gravity sewers, costing $18 million and totaling more than 37,000 linear feet, that will open up an area of approximately 25 square miles for development in southern Johnson County.
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Johnson County plans August public hearing on proposed sewer project for Gardner Lake
JOHNSON COUNTY GOVERNMENT
STATE OF KANSAS
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: July 21, 2011
Contact: John O’Neil, general manager at Johnson County Wastewater, at (913) 715-8570
OLATHE, KS (Johnson County Square) — A public hearing has been scheduled on August 22 regarding a decades-old issue of providing sewers to Gardner Lake.
On Thursday, July 21, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners approved the hearing date to allow public comments on the proposed enlargement of the Consolidated Main Sewer District and the Consolidated Lateral Sewer District and the proposed creation of Lateral Sewer District No. 1 of Kill Creek No. 2 to provide sewers to the Gardner Lake area. The public hearing begins 6:30 p.m. at the Sunset Drive Office Building, 11811 South Sunset Drive, Olathe.
Construction of a sewer system to serve the small lakeside neighborhood, located north of the city of Gardner, has been discussed and debated since at least the 1970s, perhaps even longer.
“This is a very good step forward for Gardner Lake and for the people of Gardner Lake,” Sixth District Commissioner Calvin Hayden said.
Informational meetings in March and April were conducted by Johnson County Wastewater regarding the possibility of the sewer project. Since then, a petition signed by owners of 66 percent of the land area within the proposed district has been submitted to the county requesting creation of the sewer district, which consists of residential neighborhood with 279 homes served by septic tanks. It is the largest septic-tanks-to-sewers project for the Wastewater Department in more than three decades.
The project will include construction of low pressure sewer mains for the entire district as well as grinder pumps for property owners who decide to connect to the system. The proposed enlargement area, totaling about 84 acres, is located between 151st and 162nd streets in the vicinity of Gardner Road. The sewers would connect to the Kill Creek Pump Station on 159th Street just east of Gardner Lake.
The project is estimated to cost slightly more than $8.7 million, including approximately $6.6 million from special assessments to property owners and approximately $2.1 million by Johnson County Wastewater’s Capital Improvement Fund of the Consolidated Main Sewer District.
It is likely a key factor in the increase in support for sewers in this area is the availability of a new funding source. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has offered a State Revolving Fund Loan with 40 percent principle forgiveness (effectively a grant) for the project. The principle forgiveness applies to the portion of the project funded by the property owners and Johnson County Wastewater.
If authorized by the Board of County Commissioners, construction of the sewers would likely begin in the summer of 2013 with completion expected by summer of 2014.
Gardner Lake dates back to the mid-1930s when it was created as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) as a response to the massive unemployment caused by the stock market crash in 1929.
The WPA was established in 1935 to provide basic work for the high number of unemployed. In 1938, the WPA was reorganized and renamed the Works Projects Administration. More than five million Americans found work between July 1935 and December 1938 as a result of WPA projects.
The overall Gardner Lake project began in 1935 and ended three years later at a cost of $567,245. It included not only the construction of the lake, but the creation of an earthen dam, beach, shelter houses, toilets, outdoor ovens, picnic tables, athletic fields, and a boat dock. It was the largest of a dozen WPA projects commissioned in Johnson County during the 1930s.
The project also involved construction of the Gardner Lake Beach House, a one-story building of Kansas limestone that was built in 1938 on the west side of the lake. It is one of the only remaining structures in Johnson County resulting from Depression era relief projects.
The Gardner Lake Beach House was in use from 1938 until 1989 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
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Sewer project involves Lone Elm Estates
JOHNSON COUNTY GOVERNMENT
STATE OF KANSAS
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: July 21, 2011
Contact: John O’Neil, general manager at Johnson County Wastewater, at (913) 715-8570
OLATHE, KS (Johnson County Square) — Property owners in the Lone Elm Estates area, located north of Spring Hill, have petitioned Johnson County Wastewater for future sewer service.
On Thursday, July 21, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners scheduled a public hearing for August 25 to accept public comments on the proposed enlargement of the Consolidated Main Sewer District and the Consolidated Lateral Sewer District and the proposed creation of Lateral Sewer District No. 2 of Little Bull Creek No. 1 to provide sewers to Lone Elm Estates located at 180th Street and Lone Elm Road on the east side of Lone Elm Road. The public hearing begins 6:30 p.m. at the Sunset Drive Office Building, 11811 South Sunset Drive, Olathe.
An informational meeting was conducted on April 7 by Johnson County Wastewater regarding the possibility of the sewer project. Since then, a petition signed by owners of 58 percent of the land area in the proposed district has been submitted to the county requesting creation of the sewer district, which consists of a residential neighborhood with 63 homes served by septic tanks. This area has considered getting sewers since the early 1980s.
The project will include construction of low pressure sewer mains for the entire district as well as grinder pumps for property owners who decide to join the system. The sewers would connect to a force main going to the Little Bull Creek Pump Station.
The project is estimated to cost $1,475,640 and funded from special assessments to property owners. It is likely a key factor in the increase in support for sewers in this area is the availability of a new funding source. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has offered Johnson County Wastewater a State Revolving Fund Loan with 40 percent principle forgiveness (effectively a grant) for the project.
If authorized by the Board of County Commissioners, construction of the sewers would likely begin in early 2013 with completion expected by late summer 2013.
The State of JCW
Information presented March 10th, 2011 to the BOCC in the State of the County Services Report by JCW.
Mar 2011 PDF, 3.64 MB, 4 pages
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Employee Recognition Archive
2011
- First Quarter - JCW STARS recipient
Tim O'Donnell
2010
- Fourth Quarter - JCW STARS recipient
Jimmie Hunsucker - Third Quarter - JCW STARS recipient
Rob Kimmons / Employee of the Year - Second Quarter - JCW STARS recipient
Derek Long - First Quarter - JCW STARS recipient
Troy Young
2009
- Fourth Quarter - JCW STARS recipient
Patrick Beane - Third Quarter - JCW STARS recipient
Susan Pekarek - Second Quarter - JCW STARS recipient
Richard Howe
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Press Release Archive
2011
- February, 2011
Johnson County Wastewater to meet with residents in pilot areas.
2010
- October, 2010
Middle Basin’s “green” projects reported by KCTV5
--Link to investigations page - http://www.kctv5.com/investigations/index.html
--Link to Road to Recovery: Going Green - http://www.kctv5.com/investigations/25381519/detail.html - September, 2010
JCW project recognized by Vice President Biden - August, 2010
JCW wins National Environmental Achievement Award. - April, 2010
... health advisory lifted with water in lower Indian Creek... - March, 2010
... health advisory to avoid contact with water in lower Indian Creek... - March, 2010
Phone Scam Continues.
2009
- August, 2009
Phone Scam Alert. - July, 2009
Bill Scam Alert. - May, 2009
JCW 101 on 710 AM KCMO.
2008
- September, 2008
Prestigious Awards for JCW. - April, 2008
Lori Sand is the new Communications Director.
2007
- September, 2007
Four Prestigious Awards for JCW.
- August, 2007
Beth Brandel is the new Director of Business Operations and Planning. - August 8, 2007
...lifted a health advisory to residents living near the Indian Creek tributary ... - August 3, 2007
Avoid contact with water in Indian Creek tributary ... - April, 2007
Kurt Winters is the new Operations and Maintenance Division Director. - March, 2007
Randy Robinson, Director of Administration, joining the city of Henderson, Nevada, as Deputy Utility Services Director. - February, 2007
County funds major expansion of wastewater treatment facility...add a nutrient removal system and to expand the treatment capacity of the Douglas L. Smith Middle Basin Treatment Plant in Overland Park.
2006
- September, 2006
... JCW news release and following lifted health advisory near Turkey Creek ... - June, 2006
... JCW has lifted a health advisory near the Dykes Branch ... - June, 2006
... health advisory to residents living near the Dykes Branch tributary stream ... - May, 2006
... two individuals posing as JCW employees attempting to collect money on wastewater bills ... - May, 2006
... ASPA chapter to honor Smith with 2006 award ... - March, 2006
... JCW moves to new Johnson County Sunset Drive Office ... - January, 2006
... John P. O’Neil has been named the new administrator of the department ...
2005
- December, 2005
... Douglas L. Smith honored by BOCC. - September, 2005
... Douglas L. Smith plans retirement. - September, 2005
... JCW mourns death of Myron Nelson.
2004
- November 4, 2004
...has lifted a health advisory to residents living near Royse Swimming Pool. - October 20, 2004
... a health advisory to residents living near Royse Swimming Pool.
2003
- April 14, 2003
...has lifted a health advisory to residents living or recreating near a small tributary stream of Indian Creek... - April 10, 2003
...has issued a precautionary health advisory to residents living or recreating near a small tributary stream of Indian Creek due to a break in the sewer line in the general vicinity of 104th and Cody... - January 9, 2003
...has lifted a health advisory to residents living or recreating near a small tributary stream of Mill Creek due to a blockage in the sewer line. The sanitary sewer line is in the general vicinity of 119th Street and Ridgeview Drive...
2002
- December 30, 2002
...has issued a precautionary health advisory to residents living or recreating near a small tributary stream of Mill Creek due to a back up in the sewer line in the general vicinity of 119th and Ridgeview Drive... - October 31, 2002
...has lifted a health advisory to residents living near the Mill Creek... - October 24, 2002
...has issued a health advisory to residents living or recreating near Mill Creek from north of Johnson Drive... - July 16, 2002
...has lifted a precautionary health advisory to residents living near the Indian Creek tributary stream... - July 10, 2002
...has issued a precautionary health advisory to residents living near the Indian Creek tributary stream due to a broken sewer line in the general vicinity of 99th Street and Hardy Drive...
2001
- December 6, 2001
...has lifted a health advisory for Little Mill Creek... - October 31, 2001
Johnson County Wastewater crews are in the process of repairing a 21-inch sewer main at Greenwood and Hallet in the City of Lenexa after discovering a break in the line on Monday, October 29, 2001. The break resulted in a sewage discharge into Little Mill Creek. As a result... - July 3, 2001
Shawnee, Kansas–Johnson County Wastewater (JCW) crews responded quickly to clean up spilled sewage from two severed force main sewer lines near the Kansas River...