Work Plans

December Emergency Repairs -- NONE!

So far the month of December has been nice and quiet. Fingers crossed that it will remain that way!

October Emergency Repairs - 100% complete

In October, Tanks 1 & 2 were hit not once, but twice by lightning costing the ASADA a total of $7,829.86. During this month, repairs were needed at Well 1 (613) and while some were easily done by Roberto with materials on-hand, unfortunately, when the 2nd pipe broke, it released the pump which sunk to the bottom of the well. This repair cost $1,615.90.

Day-to-day Operations

Roberto is once again performing work for the ASADA. Roberto is the boots on the ground person who fixes any broken pipes, water leaks and regularly monitors the tanks to ensure that there is always water available. This is a manual job and so we ask that you notify the ASADA in advance if you will be using more water than normal (eg. filling your pool, major leak on your property, etc.) so that he can make sure that the tanks are not drained leaving no water for the community.

New Due Date for your Water Bills

By standardizing the due dates for payments, it should make it easier for Associates to know when their water bill is due. Effective November 1st, all water bills will be due on the 15th of every month.

Contractors

The ASADA is busy collecting quotes from 3 service providers for work that needs to be done. Serviteca has been chosen, for the time being, to be the contractor of choice for emergencies

Move meters

Currently there are some meters that are behind people's gates and/or very close to their homes while others are buried in mud. This makes it very difficult to read the meters every month and can lead to erroneous meter readings or not being able to read the meters at all which impacts on the ASADA's ability to collect water fees which are the only monies that the ASADA collects on a regular basis and is used to pay for maintenance and emergency work.

Automate all tanks with pumps

Currently, the ASADA needs to pay to have someone monitor the tanks 7 days a week. In order to save money long-term, there is a need to replace the existing 2" pipes with 4" pipes. This will allow for a more robust transfer of water which will be able to withstand the pressure of the automatic valve turning on and off without breaking. At the same time, it will set-up the ASADA so that when they are in a position to install hydrants (which require 4" pipes), they will be able to do so without incurring the cost of replacing the pipes at that time.

Clean inside of tanks and paint inside and out and repair any damage found

We have requested 3 quotes from reputable companies to do this work. Update - October 27, 2023. The 1st quote is over $92,000 to do this work. We're still waiting for the 2 other quotes.

Ditch & Leaks

The big ditch by the Orchard was done after discovering a big leak on the piping structure. Thankfully, it was on a pipe that runs from the well to Tank #5, this means that if the tank was full enough, water shouldn't run through the pipe so the waste was going to be minimum and eventual but of course we had to take action the soonest. Leak is FIXED by now and the ditch will be covered on Thursday 11/16 if everything checks alright.

Improve current infrastructure

The current infrastructure is quite old, uses electrical conduit and not proper water pipes and as such is prone to pipes breaking requiring immediate repairs. By systematically replacing all pipes, the ASADA will not only reap in savings by not having to pay for numerous repairs, but it will allow the water to flow better and prevent recurring water outages caused by these breaking pipes.

PRIORITY 2

Priority 2 pertains to the AyA requirements that need to be met in order for the ASADA to be able to issue water letters

Transfer electric meters into the ASADA's name

There are 5 electrical meters being used by the ASADA with only 1 actually being in the ASADA name. The remaining need to be changed over. At the same time, it is hoped that we can upgrade the electrical to 3-phase in order to reduce the cost of our electricity every month. Currently, we pay on average $2,500 every month for electricity.

Clean inside of tanks and paint

We have requested 3 quotes from reputable companies to do this work. Update - October 27, 2023. The 1st quote is over $92,000 to do this work. We're still waiting for the 2 other quotes.

Install Loop from Lomas del Mar to Public Road and back

The ASADA is waiting for a quote on this work. According to an AyA engineer, some members of the ASADA Board have been told that the LDM ASADA can receive approval to provide water letters on a temporary basis. During this time, the ASADA MUST finalize all work on moving the easements for all the tanks and well to the ASADA otherwise AyA will once again deny the issuance of water letters at Lomas del Mar.

Install lightning rods at all tanks and determine the efficiency of the existing grounding rods

Due to the 2 lightning strikes that have caused damage to electrical and circuit boards at Tanks 2 and 3, we have requested a quote from Serviteca to have lightning rods installed at all tanks. At the same time Serviteca will determine how efficient the existing grounding rods are and whether or not they need to be replaced as well.

Upgrade to electronic water meters

Electronic water meters would greatly improve and streamline the meter reading and billing process since the readings can be taken electronically online and wouldn't require volunteers to go and physically read the meters every month. At the same time, it would calculate the water usage month-to-month and allow the accountants to use this electronic information for billing purposes.

Install Hydrants

With 2 large fires within the LDM community over the last 2 years, it would be more efficient and provide better water availability if there were water hydrants installed throughout the community. It should be noted however that while all Associates contribute towards the cost of these meters, it is only 26 colones per m3. Also, the current infrastructure will need to be upgraded from 2" pipes to 3" in order to accommodate the hydrants.

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