The Ukiah Valley Water Authority (UVWA) is gearing up for its launch on January 1, 2025. The launch will bring together water districts across the region under one streamlined system. The October 1, 2024, meeting of the UVWA Executive Committee outlined efforts to prepare.
Jared Walker, General Manager of Redwood Valley, Millview, and Willow County Water Districts, and Sean White, Water Manager for the City of Ukiah arrived at the meeting after spending a day in triple-digit temperatures with engineers from Carollo Engineering. They toured over 20 sites in the Millview and Willow County Water District. They planned to spend the following day touring water infrastructure in Calpella, Redwood Valley, and Ukiah. This is to give Carollo a big picture of all the infrastructure and geographic areas that will be consolidated into the new UVWA. The Carollo engineers used drones, GPS and other technology to view the facilities, and will prepare a report in support of amending the SAFER grant application to the State of California Department of Water Resources.
The consolidated service of the new Ukiah Valley Water Authority is expected to begin on January 1, 2025. Willow County Water District announced its intention to sign onto the Joint Powers Authority and join the UVWA
The integration of the billing and meter reading systems of Millview, Redwood Valley with the City of Ukiah is nearly finalized. Eventually, the Willow employees will be absorbed into the City of Ukiah, along with Millview and Redwood Valley employees. Efforts are being made to ensure that the employees who join Ukiah will receive comparable pay and benefit packages to what they had at the individual districts. A mock payroll and mock customer billing have been run in an attempt to prevent glitches after the consolidation. White said he was glad that they were able to run the trial payroll and billing in late September, rather than wait until December.
Committee Member Tom Schoeneman, representing Redwood Valley, wanted to know the timetable for Carollo to finish their planning study. White replied that after this first pass of reviewing the infrastructure, the next step would be a large mapping exercise. Then Carollo will interview staff. Next, they will produce a hydraulic model. After that, they will work on the engineering component. When all that is done, Carollo will assist UVWA in applying for a construction grant, about a year away. The construction of new infrastructure will most likely take three years.
Schoeneman wanted to know what the costs would be to Redwood Valley in the consolidation. The City of Ukiah will have to analyze how much staff time this takes and how many billable hours the staff uses during the transition. In 2025 the meter replacements should be finished in Redwood Valley and Millview. The final costs for that have not yet been determined. Costs are not expected to be fully accounted for until 2026, when the budget will be analyzed.
Juan Orozco, a Committee member representing Ukiah, said, “There are always hiccups. I can’t imagine it going flawlessly.” White replied “Jared and I are invested in making it as good as possible on day one. There will be trial and error, but nothing that can’t be worked out.” The UVWA has a web page explaining how the transition will work. White and Walker both expressed confidence that their teams can handle the consolidation.
As far as water rates, Redwood Valley is currently in year 4 of a 5-year plan of annual rate increases. Redwood Valley customers will have a planned rate increase next year that has nothing to do with the consolidation. Ukiah is due for a rate study. There will most likely be a combined rate study at the end of 2025.
Because Willow has voted to join the UVWA, the Joint Powers Authority Agreement will be amended and restated for Willow to join, and to allow a path for Calpella to eventually join. Executive Committee member Doug Crane, representing Ukiah, pointed out that Calpella has a sanitation district in addition to a water district. Crane also asked whether Rogina Water, a private mutual water company, would consider joining the JPA. Executive Committee Member Jerry Cardoza, representing Calpella, wanted to know if Rogina would be eligible for the SAFER grant. White said, “It really is the last missing bit as far as consolidating all the small companies and Ukiah.” Rogina’s current status as a private mutual company would require some extra steps in order to join the UVWA.
The board of the Upper Russian River Water Agency is scheduled to discuss the future of URRWA, a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) working for the consolidation of Ukiah Valley’s water. The board includes a single member from Willow County Water, Calpella County Water, Redwood Valley County Water, Millview County Water, and most recently the Ukiah Valley Sanitation District.
Having covered everything on the agenda, Committee Chair Adam Gaska called an end to the meeting. The next meeting will be November 7 at 5 PM.
