From lserna at nrao.edu Mon Mar 5 12:17:13 2007 From: lserna at nrao.edu (Lew Serna) Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:17:13 -0700 Subject: [Escoordminutes] ES Division Coordination Meeting minutes--Feb 27 Message-ID: <45EC5099.0@aoc.nrao.edu> Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, February 27, 2007, at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending were Lew Serna, Ramon Gutierrez, Charley Chavez, Bob Broilo, James Sullivan, Gene Cole, Martin Lopez, Guy Stanzione, Jim Ulvestad and Jon Thunborg. BUDGET ? ES budgets are spending down rapidly. The ES division head after discussion with supervisors will hold any requisitions they feel can wait until later in the year. There is a good probability that money for painting St. Croix will be available this year from a settlement with Lockheed Martin over the GBT rail. Some $4.5M may be awarded to NSF. Monies from this settlement may then become available to NRAO Operations. It is hoped that some of this money can be spent for several projects in NRAO NM some of which are the St. Croix Painting, Rework machine for Correlator boards and the Digital Back End project. It is possible that the VLA site generators will require costly major overhauls in the near future. VLBA TT Trips? Shipping the container to St Croix is extremely expensive, so we propose to ship a container one way with all the parts needed to repair the antenna and with tools needed for future tiger team visits. A new sea worthy container has been purchased to make the trips from here on out. A similar situation exists with the MK and HN site where shipping costs are about $12K minimum. A permanent container may be desirable for these sites as well. Several MK dish panels on the down side are damaged. SC has corrosion damage on the roof of the building; this work should be done by local site technicians. Tentative Tiger Team Trips in 2007 are scheduled for FD (05-01-07 to 05-07-07), BR (07/25/07 to 07-31-07) and OV (09/20/07 to 09-26-07). HN needs foundation repairs and the subreflector needs to be replaced. The HN work is tentatively scheduled for July (the same time as the BR work). The subreflector should be ready by then. The current plan is to send only 2 mechanics on TT trips in an effort to maintain the EVLA schedule. In addition care should be taken not to schedule TT trips during the moves to avoid manpower conflicts. We plan to replace one wheel assembly at each of this years TT visit to FD, OV and BR. Each of these sites only needs one more wheel assembly replaced for completion. AZ Bearings ? Grease samples show that antennas 28, 10, 20, are good candidates for the next bearing changes An estimated three weeks in the AAB are required before a bearing change can occur. Parts from the bearings removed from antennas are needed for measuring and fitting of new parts and should be stored until they are scheduled to be shipped to Rotek for repair. Antenna 14, 16 & 18?s bearings have been shipped to Rotek for refurbishment. There is a 1.5 year lead time for delivery on these refurbished bearings due to other factory commitments. Delivery of these bearings is estimated to be about May of 2008. There is one good Azimuth bearing on hand. One spare bearing should be maintained at all times in the event a catastrophic failure occurs. One of the three bearings sent for refurbishment cannot be refurbished so a fourth used bearing was sent for inspection. If this bearing cannot be refurbished a decision to purchase a new one will have to be made (refurbished = $22K, new= $45K). No Bearing replacements will occur in FY 2007. NEW PROJECTS: Control building Stairways? The Control Building Stairways are being replaced due to their rapid deterioration. The stairways will be replaced with an improved design conforming to ADA. A new concrete landing will have to be poured at the base of the eastern stairway. The eastern stairway is now deemed unsafe due to trip hazards and is barricaded preventing its use. The western stairway is complete. AAB OFFICE/BREAK REMODEL? Work is in progress should be completed in March. Waste Oil Storage Tank? The two old storage tanks behind the Generator building will be replaced with a one double wall storage tank bringing us into HAZMAT compliance. Concrete bases will be necessary to set the tank down and plumbing will be required. The tank will arrive next week with tentative installation by July. HANCOCK SUBREFLECTOR & HANCOCK ANTENNA FOUNDATION? These projects are scheduled to be completed by the end of July. VLA WAREHOUSE SAFETY Rail.? Railing is required on top of the rooms in the warehouse where parts are being stored. Welders will have to fabricate and install. Materials will be ordered on a Business division account. Estimated cost is $275. SC CONTROL BLDG ROOF.? The roof on the SC building is corroded badly along the eave and needs to be repaired. The Site Techs say they can repair the roof in the manner that is commonly used at St Croix for this type of damage. ST Croix Painting.? St. Croix Antenna has severe corrosion problems which will require extensive repair and painting. An investigation to begin repairs and painting in the fall are underway. Jon will attend a corrosion control symposium in March to prepare for the fall painting of the VLBA telescope at St. Croix. VLA ANTENNA FOUNDATION MOVEMENT?A problem with north arm antenna foundation movement needs to be addressed. It appears that the two rearward pillars have been slowly separating over the years at several stations (2 or 3). They have separated far enough that 2 bolts can no longer be used to secure the antenna pads to the foundation pillars. A plan to investigate and correct or stop the movement will be initiated. Jon suggests a meeting in the near future at one of the stations to develop a plan or for solving the problem. EVLA STATUS; Correlator Room? the DC power plant for the Correlator will be installed by ES Division Electrical group. Battery handling equipment is purchased and ready. Batteries and rectifiers will arrive by next week. Installation of the power system should be finished by May after which time the Correlator Room will be turned over to the Correlator Group (Electronics Div). The Control Building EVLA UPS is to be delivered by March 19. Installation of this UPS will require a complete power shutdown of Control Room and Correlator for a possible 8 to 16 hours at a date to be determined (possibly as early as April or May). EVLA Antennas? Antenna Mechanical outfitting is going well enough to be ahead on fabricating of EVLA structural pieces. L-Band fabrication and assembly is ahead of schedule. S-band rings are cut and ready for assembly. SAFETY REPORT ?J Sullivan 2007 Accident Reports: There have been three (3) accident reported this year. There have been two (2) accidents attributed to the ES Division. Since the last meeting there have been two new accidents reported. 2007-001-ES Div- Employee fell on ice and broke finger. The employee has not been back to work since the accident. New 2007-002-ES Div- Employee tripped and fell backwards over hydraulic floor crane. New 2007-003- Elec Div- Employee struck knee on cable wrap in upper pedestal room. Incident Report: There have been a total of 5 Incidents reported this year. There have been four (4) incidents attributed to the ES Division. Since the last meeting there have been two new incidents reported. 2007-IN-001-ES Div-Truck rolled back wards in to gate post and damaged driver side door. 2007-IN-002-ES Div-Vehicle being towed was hit by semi-truck after causing the vehicle doing the towing to lose control because of wind, snow and ice. 2007-IN-003-ES Div- GSA vehicle damaged. Unknown when damaged occurred. Tag G43-20287 New 2007-IN-004-AD Min Div- Employee received a laceration to right thumb while cutting apple. Non work related Reference OSHA 1904.5(b) (2) (iv). New 2007-IN-005-ES Div- NS vehicle damaged. Unknown when damaged occurred. Tag NS 641 VLA Site Safety Meetings: There were two site safety meetings in February. The first was the rescheduled January site safety meeting on February 1st concerning Eye protection. There were 29 employees in attendances. The second meeting was on February 22nd concerning electrical safety. There were 40 employees in attendances. The next site safety meeting will be on March 29th. Questions have come up concerning PPE for the electrical shop employees and the electrical power control boxes on site. James has addressed the questions with the employees and put them to rest. Arc Flash Program: This program/policy is in works. There was a meeting February 27th with an outside vendor concerning PPE. Jaime will start working on the SOPs soon. Training: CPR training needs to set up for employees that need refresher training on CPR and the AED. This will be at the AOC and the VLA. Bloodborne pathogens training for the HVAC group, EMS, Firefighters, janitors, and AOC CPR/AED trained employee. Forklift refresher training for VLA site employee and select AOC employees. This will also include the specialized industrial trucks (Terex Aerial lift). ANNOUNCEMENTS: A TIAA-CREF one hour presentation is planned for the VLA on March 6. The TIAA-CREF representative, Christopher Day, will be available for private consultations by appointment on that day. All Hands Meeting ? Jim Ulvestad and Director Fred Lo will be addressing all hands on March 8, @ 9:00am. The Video conferencing equipment in the cafeteria should be working by then. 2007 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROCESS BEGINS April 2 The performance evaluation process is intended to be a continuous process of communication between employees and supervisors. Training is available upon request for supervisors who will be required to complete these evaluations. If you have questions or need additional information please contact Allen Lewis. April 2----- Supervisors begin soliciting information about employee work performance from other supervisors and coworkers May 1----- Due date for employees to return the self-appraisal forms to their supervisors with the appropriate sections completed. Supervisors begin writing employee evaluations based on their observations, coworker feedback, and the self-appraisal completed by the employee. Supervisor reviews the draft goals for the coming year and modifies as appropriate. June 1----- Supervisor reviews completed performance appraisal forms with division head and receives approval. Supervisor begins scheduling and holding evaluation meetings with employees. June 29----- Due date for all evaluation meetings to be concluded and appraisal forms signed by the employee. Employees should be given sufficient time (at least 24 hours) to review and comment on the evaluation. Based on information provided by the employee, supervisors should make corrections and changes as appropriate. July 6 --- All of the original completed and signed appraisal forms must be forwarded to the appropriate Human Resources Office. A copy of the signed appraisal should be provided to the employee.