By Shannon McFarlin WENK/WTPR News Director
Paris, Tenn.—At Tuesday morning’s meeting of the Paris Board of Public Utilities (BPU), board members heard Winston Truett from Alexander Thompson Arnold say that the electrical department cash reserves are “thin”, especially compared with what the TVA seeks. But—which is the norm for BPU audits—there again were no findings.
Board President David Flowers congratulated the staff for its hard work and BPU General Manager Terry Wimberley noted, “We have a long history of clean audits here and I want to thank Bethany Edwards and her staff for that.”
Truett presented the 2018 audit report and noted that in the BPU’s electrical department, cash reserves are at three percent and noted that TVA “would like to see that up to 10 percent or even up into 20 percent.” He noted that BPU is “significantly” below that.
He and Wimberley noted that that status will be changing as the rate increases come into play. Truett also noted that locally “your money is going back into the system as you construct and are adding to your system and into paying down debt. That is where your cash is going.”
In the other two departments, Truett said cash is up in the water department and thin in the sewer department.
Flowers noted, “When you look at it for an audit, you’re looking at the average cash at a one day snapshot. The average balance in that account is more than it appears on the audit report. And that will change with the rate increases in place.”
Wimberley agreed, noting, “We certainly are dealing with that issue”.
The BPU Trust (also known as the Roundup program) received a good audit report and Truett noted its numbers were “as close to break-even as you can be”.
Earlier in the meeting, Director of Water and Wastewater Operations Tony Brown reported that water system problems are being addressed on Mineral Wells and Tyson Avenues “and we’ll do our best to stay out of the streets” while working on them. He said city of Paris crews will be helping BPU on the problems.
Wimberley and Brown also noted ongoing problems in the Grove Park housing complex area as well as a few other neighborhoods in Paris. Wimberley said, “We could do a public education campaign, putting on door knockers. Or we could do the ‘can the grease program’ like they do in big cities, telling people this is what you can do with bacon grease and other issues. But cities are spending a lot of money on this problem and that would be a problem for us, throwing dollars we don’t have on the problem.” Wimberley noted a baseball lodged in a water pipe that caused a problem in recent days.
“This has been a challenge for us,” Wimberley said. “Public education is what we need.”
Brown said a meeting has been scheduled with managers at the Grove Park housing complex shortly. Wimberley said, “Talking to management will be a good start.”
In other business:
The BPU approved bids from W & O Construction Co. of Livingston, Tenn., for the Water Plant Phase 2 construction. The low base and alternate bids from them were $6,769,343 and $556,500, which puts the project under the loan budget of $8.2M.
Four bids were received on the project and all of the bidders were Tennessee companies.
“So now we can get started on the water plant,” Wimberley said.
–The BPU will be re-opening in its headquarters on W. Washington St. on Monday, Dec. 17 following the ongoing remodeling and renovation project.
–Wimberley read a letter from the mayor of Sylvester, Georgia where BPU workers stayed for 10 days working to help them restore power after Hurricane Michael.
Photo: Board members hear the audit report from Winston Truett. (Shannon McFarlin photo).
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