Sunny Meadows Missoula County Water and Sewer District
Meeting Minutes
January 22nd, 2026 06:00 PM at East Missoula Fire Department
Roll Call:
Dusty Deschamps, Michael Bushey, Cyndie Winchell, Paula Niccum. Amy Deitchler, Great West Engineer for our system upgrade project also attended.
Approval of Minutes:
Cyndie made a motion to approve the draft minutes as posted on our site. Michael seconded, the motion carried and minutes were approved.
Financial Information:
We are waiting until next month after Cyndie, Robbie and Meggan have met with the county.
Public Input:
Cyndie spoke to our new engineer and water operator, who said the state told him that he only needed to do one test. She requested that he does two tests, one from the well house and one from the booster station. We had previously had a bad BacT test from a house on the hill. After replacement of the backflow preventer, the next test was fine, but we still want to monitor water on the top.
Old Business:
Project update and final documents from Amy Deichtler of Great West Engineering: Amy brought the final documents for the completion of the project. We are done, updates and final bills are in. Great West will continue looking for planning grants. A new cycle opens in August. We would like to consider using grant money to upgrade the well house pumps to 3 phase, and to remedy anything we find out on the booster pumps after monitoring them.
Amy stated that if any of the contractors or operators we work with need information about the system, she will be available to help.
We are still trying to identify and resolve the fact that the pumps in the booster station are frequently turning on and off. Dusty suggested we look at the flow from the booster pumps and compare the flows from the homes served by the booster station. Amy says this time of year should be the perfect time to evaluate this since people aren’t watering lawns or gardens this time of year. Cyndie will take flow readings at the booster station when Robbie reads the meters for the next few months so we have numbers to compare.
ARPACompliance review- Cyndie has received the language that we need to add to our ordinances and we will include it when we do the Ordinance and Bylaw update planned for March.
Rate increase discussion is on hold for now.
Sewerline video and manhole repair at 4400 Edgewood: We discussed the project with the new system operators and requested they hire the contractors and supervise the job.
Review of meter reads for system alerts: There were two during the last reading cycle. One home needed the radio re-attached, the other home had previously shown high flows over 24 hours but did not give us an alarm for that this cycle.
Ordinance and Bylaw update planned for March.
Removal of shed on the well house lot: Dusty says the ground is frozen and he will be ready to move it on the weekend.
SMS issues: Meggan has found a new SMS service for texting system users.
Booster Station lot and Well House lot mowing and weed trimming: Cyndie and Michael are considering sharing the duties for bill credits. Trying to figure out how to get it set up to water on timers, we shouldn’t do underground sprinklers. Still considering options.
New Business:
Directors are requested to come up with a list for future improvements.
Paula mentioned that since we had changed the meeting dates in November for Thanksgiving and December for Christmas, the Calendar did not agree with the Minutes. She will call Mike Lilley and ask him to adjust the calendar so the dates are consistent on the website and also adjust the date change for November 2026.
Flowmeters were included in the bid for our telemetry, Amy said they could be helpful. Cyndie asked if we could include our Sewer lot telemetry in the system when the telemetry is installed.
Adjournment: Paula made a motion to adjourn, Cyndie seconded. Motion carried, meeting adjourned.
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- District Website: http://www.sunnymeadowswater.com/
- Respectfully submitted by Paula Niccum
