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Meeting - March 24, 2006...
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Minutes:
CALL TO ORDER:
The legislative meeting hosted by the Utility Notification Center of Colorado was held on the 24th day of March 2006, at their offices at 16361 Table Mountain Parkway, Golden, Colorado. J.D. Maniscalco called the meeting to order at 9:08 a.m. and welcomed attendees to the seventh meeting. J.D. noted that the OPS may reauthorize availability of dollars to states via grants to promote one call enforcement processes. It might be possible for the Colorado Legislative Task Team to apply for grant dollars to improve enforcement efforts in Colorado. This might involve the PUC issuing notices of non compliance that would be reviewed by an industry appointed committee. J.D. showed the 811 logo that has been developed by CGA. In Colorado, Qwest has completed all necessary switch changes to route 811 calls to UNCC. UNCC has begun the application process for the assignment of the 811 number. The group agreed to hold discussion without breaking into groups.
MEMBERSHIP:
The Tier II document discussed at the February 10, 2006 meeting was again reviewed. This document showed numbers of Tier II members leveled based on the number of referrals given by UNCC on an annual basis. There was also information received that legislation may be proposed by another entity to level the Tier II members based on numbers of customers served. Discussion was held regarding whether legislation language proposed by this group should be narrowed down to one issue. It was agreed that prioritizing the three issues that have been discussed would be beneficial. Excavators present made it clear that the current process does not work well for them. Discussed was the idea of developing an industry committee of excavators, Tier I members and UNCC representatives to make presentations to groups that represent many Tier II members (i.e. CML or SDA) or Tier II members themselves for the purpose of education regarding the process. Other ideas discussed included offering a two year free Tier I membership to all Tier II members prior to billing at the Tier I rate to allow for budgeting for the expense and defining the issues and recommending possible solutions documented by the percentage of committee members who agree or disagree with the solution offered. The group agreed to develop a listing of findings that could be released by the Task Team. The findings identified were:
Reduce underground facility damages
True One Call Center
Lack of enforcement
No standards for exemption
Need for education
Inadequate notification and communications
Cost effectiveness
These findings will be forwarded to the entire group for comment and further discussion at the next meeting. Jerry Beukelman asked that comments be solicited also for the request from the previous meeting about the Tier II and excavator issues with the current one call system and this was made an action item.
CONCLUSION and NEXT MEETING:
Future meetings were scheduled for Thursday, April 13, 2006, Thursday, May 11, 2006 and Thursday, June 8, 2006 at Utility Notification Center of Colorado at 16361 Table Mountain Parkway, Golden, Colorado.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 a.m.
ACTION ITEMS:
Pre-marking.
Documentation by Tier II members and excavators regarding objections to the current one call system.
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