Sunny Meadows Missoula County Water and Sewer District
Meeting Minutes
October 23rd, 2025 06:00 PM at East Missoula Fire Department
Roll Call: Cyndie Winchell, Dusty Deschamps, Meggan Quigley (by phone), Michael Bushey, Paula Niccum
Approval of Minutes: Cyndie mad a motion to approve, Paula seconded. Motion carried and minutes were approved.
Financial Information: Financial reports from the County are still a mess. Formatting is an issue. Both Cyndie and Meggan attempted to print them in multiple formats and nothing prints out in a way that makes sense. Dusty, Cyndie and Meggan want to set up a meeting to meet with the county commissioners and financial officers. Cyndie will call to schedule. Financials were tabled until the next meeting.
Public Input: None.
Old Business: Project update: We still need to get our well pumps operating properly. Both Cyndie and Tami have been contacting Amy about the resolving the well problems so we can move forward with the telemetry system replacement. Tami and Cyndie contacted the well contractors and they said they would contact Tami the next day. Cyndie gave Tami a list of questions for them and to request that they come to the site. Cyndie then contacted Amy and told her that we need somebody from Great West to be on site and that she would like to be onsite when they are there so she can see what is going on. Cyndie feels we need an engineer on site when the well contractors are there.
Telemetry bids- Cyndie called Omnisite, who already does our sewer telemetry. She asked for information about our sewer system and found that they have not billed us since 2023. They have sent us a partial bill. She also asked for a bid on the cost of water system telemetry. Tami was able to work on the transducer for our water telemetry and it is working right now, but there is no support if we have problems with the system since they are no longer in business. There is a bid from the state and one from Neeley Electric. The Neeley bid is more competitive but we would still like to have other bids.
Rate increase will be discussed at a future meeting.
ARPA Compliance Review- We need to add Conflict of Interest language to our ordinances and by-laws to be in compliance. ARPA will furnish the language we need to use.
Sewer line video and follow up on manhole cover at 4400 Edgewood should be scheduled for spring. Cyndie and Tami requested to go over and look at the manhole cover and are planning to go over on Saturday.
New Operator & System Manager Scope of Work and contract is still in progress. Tami has not been paid for any of the work she has done so far. Dusty made a motion that we pay Tami $1500.oo, which would have been the base rate of $500.00/month for the three months she has worked so far. She has been keeping track of everything she has been doing and the time it has taken. Paula seconded the motion, the motion passed and payment was approved. Cyndie will ask Tami to submit an invoice for the compensation.
Review of meter readings looking for and addressing system alerts such as low or high water use, leaks and/or faulty equipment-
Cyndie believes the Board should also check to determine whether there is still a backflow preventer on every water line connecting to the system, including irrigation connections. Some residences may need expansion tanks to protect their hot water heater tanks, but the backflow preventers are required on all water lines. This includes backflow preventers on all of the new meter pits as well as checking whether any homeowners have modified their plumbing.
Ordinance and By-Law updates:
Mike Harrison suggestion to post a video for system users about how to exercise their curb stops- Tools are available to exercise curbstops by contacting board members or the system operator/manager.
New Business:
Cyndie and Paula moved all of the remaining materials out of the shed so it can be removed from the lot. Dusty and Michael are hoping to do it before it snows.
Tank cleaning and recommendations: The cleaning went well, the tank inspectors suggested driving some grounding rods into the ground and connecting them to the tank. We will discuss at next the meeting.
The DEQ inspected our system and did not find many deficiencies at all, everything looked really good. They liked the new well building, it was a huge improvement. She did not think there were any problems with the vault. She thinks we need a gasket around the vault lid. Tami is going to address.
We had a level 2 Coliform Bacteria Violation and Tami is troubleshooting the problem. She has chlorinated the tank as recommended by DEQ, and has been doing extra testing at different locations to look for leaks.
The board will discuss Director Compensation and a donation to the East Missoula Fire Station for the use of their meeting space. Paula will look up director meeting attendance and who much we donated to the fire department last year.
Bond payment resolutions will be voted on in December. This will be the last payment on one of our bonds.
Adjournment: Paula made a motion to adjourn, Michael seconded, motion passed and meeting adjourned.
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- District Website: http://www.sunnymeadowswater.com/
- Respectfully submitted by Paula Niccum
