Tuesday, August 22, 2020

Dear Little Elk Creek Owners

This letter regards the background and present status of metering the water service lines to each home in the subdivision. Owners are referred to the posted annual meeting minutes of 2018 and 2019 on the website, as well as the updated reserve study also posted there, and encouraged to read these and the minutes of the Trustees meetings in the intervening months for background on this project.

The Board of Trustees and Owner Dan Harris have been working on this actively since the 2019 Annual meeting in which the ownership indicated an understanding and endorsement of adding meters to the Little Elk Creek water system.  The Trustees have named a contractor, chosen a method by which the meters will be actively monitored each day, ordered meter pits and discussed with counsel the ability of the Association to install meter pits in the utility easements which surround each lot on all sides. It is the intention of the Trustees to utilize the capital reserve account (present balance $824,085) to pay for this work.

Typically the meters/meter pits will be installed near your existing curb stop (generally marked by a 6 foot blue fiberglass rod) but within the designated easements. Costs are expected to be $3800 per meter for 80 meters, total costs $304,000 with 15 percent contingency included. The reserve study spreadsheet tool has been used to forecast reserve levels and needed contributions forward until 2048, with a $304,000 expense for this work incurred in 2020. Little Elk has strong enough reserve funds to meet this expense without falling below a "low risk" of special assessments in the next 30 years, nor of need to increase assessments beyond those projected in the study for funding the capital reserves over that time period.

Work is expected to begin this month, with hopes of installing two meter pits per day. Should your lot have active water in irrigation ditches within the easements/excavation area, it will be the homeowner’s responsibility to divert such from the excavation. Once the meter pit is installed, any related water source or irrigation ditch adjacent to the meter pit will need to be lined or piped to prevent ditch water from penetrating or otherwise compromising the meter pit. Similarly, should excavation of the meter pit to expose the water service line to your home reveal that service line to be inadequate, ready to fail, or in failure when exposed, you are strongly encouraged (since many service lines are 40 years old) to repair such sections of line at your expense and/or replace the line in its entirety. The same will hold true should an owner’s existing curb stop be inoperable, i.e. it will need to be repaired or replaced at owner expense (approximate expense $750-$1250).

Clearly it is possible that not all meters/meter pits will be installed by the time weather closes down this project. There are some unknowns that will -literally- be unearthed as the project moves forward.  The continuance of leaks on an aging water system, overuse in recent years of Little Elk’s allocated water rights, ongoing drought conditions and increasing monitoring of water use by the State of Colorado are all contributing factors in the Trustees decisions to move forward with this project.

To all Little Elk Homeowners:

We have a definite schedule now to start the installation of water meters on all homes in LECV and on the homes on our water system outside the subdivision.

On July 29, there was a Zoom meeting with our attorney attended by the Board members and other interested parties. Our attorney made it very clear that LECV has the right to install water meters within our utility easement. Each lot has a 10’ utility easement around all lot boundaries. The call made clear that, as a utility (our main one), work on the water system is allowed in that easement.

We have also clarified a few other lingering issues so we are ready to start next week on this project.

I have staked out about 20 locations for meters. The meter locations are indicated by a survey stake with yellow and blue flagging on it. I started at the intersection of Haystack and Katydid and have marked all homes east of there on Katydid Ave. I have also located meters on all lots on Little Elk Creek Ave. from the entrance to LECV around to Haystack.

We plan to start on the easier homes on this section of water mains. The plan is to install about 2 meters/day which will have us install 10 meters each week. I am meeting with Timberline Excavation on Friday to review the locations established and locate lot corner pins if needed. If you are interested in seeing the finished product of an installed meter pit, Timberline did install a meter pit at John Ott’s house (129 Little Elk Creek Ave). It is on the south boundary of John’s lot on LEC Ave, right next to the street. There is a slight cut in the street and beyond that is a new curb stop and beyond the curb stop is a meter pit. All you will see is a small circle of rocks. I will send a more detailed schedule out weekly or more often as this work progresses.

This schedule will include any shut downs of water service that may be necessary. So far, most lots have the existing curb stops placed where we need only shut the curb stop to install the meter pit. This means that while your meter is being installed your home will be without water. During this process, Timberline will check all curb stops to make sure they operate correctly. If not, they will repair -if possible- or replace the curb stop at the owner’s expense. We may install additional curb stops as needed. These added curb stops will be part of the project and be paid for by the Reserve Fund.

We will also examine all existing water service lines. If there is a problem with your line, we will alert you to the problem. This has been a long process to get to this point. I speak for most folks to whom I have talked over the two years and we all support this improvement to our water system.

Thanks, Dan Harris