Tia Lyons
Staff Writer
EL DORADO — Questions about revenue and the amount of water pumped led Friday to a discussion by the El Dorado Water and Sewer Commission about the need for a better understanding of the relationship between the two items.
As commissioners reviewed the May financials, chairman Pete Parks noted that revenues of $389,000 were down for the month, compared to the year-to-date average, but higher than in May 2015 — $229,000.
“May is traditionally not a high month. This year, we haven’t had as much pumpage,” said Mark Smith, general manager of the El Dorado Water Utilities.
Parks said he would like to see more information on how free water-users are factored into the report and how the number of gallons of water that is pumped each month relates to revenue.
He cited the El Dorado Fire Department as an example of a free water-user.
“I’d like to see how many gallons are billed versus how many gallons are pumped each month,” Commissioner Bret Garrett said.
“We bill seven times per month. We have seven cycles, seven routes,” Smith explained.
Parks pointed out that water losses have decreased over the past couple of years.
Mayor Frank Hash inquired about previous figures that showed an annual loss of 150 million gallons of water.
“How much revenue is that? he asked.
Parks said the loss is not associated with less revenue, but rather water that is lost to leakage and the pumpage to free users.
“It’s the cost to get it to the point of the leak and through to the fire department. The loss we’re experiencing is for actually producing the water,” he told Hash.
Hash said city officials are concerned with how the leaks damage city streets, and Parks agreed, saying that the commission and utilities needed to focus their efforts on upgrading water and wastewater lines.
Smith said such damage is typically caused by small leaks.
“It’s a little bit of water, but it can cause a lot of damage,” he said.
In recent years, the department of public works has worked closely with the EWU to coordinate repair schedules on water and wastewater infrastructure and city streets.
City officials complained that EWU crews often had to cut open city streets for repairs in areas where public works’ crews had recently completed street improvement projects.
“It really drives how we can maintain streets, and if they’ll last for a while. I think we’re taking repairs a lot more seriously than we have in the past. We’ve got to keep our eyes on that,” Hash said.
To “get (leakage numbers) below 10 percent is almost impossible,” EWU engineering consultant Lorraine Murtha said.
Parks said that if he spots a leak or other obvious problems while driving around town, he reports them to the water utilities, and he encouraged citizens to do the same.
Smith said citizens are already doing their part, telling Parks that about half of the calls that come into the EWU office about such issues come from customers.
He said citizens often express frustration if they don’t see immediate action to address the complaints.
“Sometimes it takes us a while. We have to prioritize these things,” Smith said.
He noted that EWU crews recently responded to such a call, and while en route, they were pulled away on a more urgent situation in which water was flooding the streets in the area of Center and Louisiana.
Parks said the issues are evaluated and re-prioritized each day.
Smith said the utilities is taking proactive steps to try and get ahead of the problems.
For instance, he said bollards were installed around a fire hydrant in the area of Liberty and Thompson to prevent vehicles from striking the hydrant.
“One of those bollards is down, and we’re going to fix it because that can cause a major leak if it gets hit,” Smith said.
Further, Smith announced that a new three-man crew has been hired and is hard at work, bringing the total of EWU work crews to six.
During 2016 budget talks, commissioners agreed to set aside $200,000 to hire additional crew members in order to keep pace with work orders and needed improvements for the city’s aging water and sewer infrastructure.
Smith said then that the amount would cover pay and benefits for a foreman or leadman, two other employees, a truck and additional equipment for the first year.
The annual cost for the additional crew is projected at $150,000 for each year thereafter through the first decade.
The new team will also help to cut down on overtime hours that work crews had been racking up, commissioners said.
Smith said Friday it may take a while for the new-hires to gain enough experience to work on par with seasoned veterans, but he is impressed with what he has seen so far.
Neal Black, EWU operations manager, reported that 32 work tickets were issued for wastewater issues in May and 40 were completed.
He said the additional eight tickets were left over from the previous month.
On the water side, 19 tickets were issued in May, and 15 were completed. Overtime hours for each side were 268 and 159, respectively, Black said.
He presented the report in the absence of Buddy Kinney, director of operations, who was unable to attend Friday’s meeting.
The numbers contrasted with numbers that were previously reported by Kinney.
In December 2015, crews received 92 work orders in December, and completed 68.
A month later, 168 work orders came in and 128 were completed. Kinney noted at the time that the 168 total did not include 24 work orders that were leftover from December.
Overtime hours came to 482 in December and 535 in January.
Kinney told commissioners in April that the number of work completions and overtime hours had begun falling.
In other business, commissioners approved bids for four new pickup trucks, one for the new work crew, Smith said.
Low bids were awarded to Teague Auto Group for a Ford 350 Crew Truck and Jim Golden Ford Lincoln Mercury in Camden for three Ford F-150 Supercabs, one 4x4 and two 4x2.
Hash asked commissioners if they would consider awarding all of the bids to Teague, noting that there was not much difference in the prices offered by the two auto dealerships.
“Just trying to see if we could keep the money local,” Hash said.
Murtha said the higher bid could be accepted if a reasonable circumstance has been determined.
“I think our local folks understand that’s the way the process works. We want multiple bidders to get the most competitive prices,” Parks said.
Smith added that Teague performs a lot of vehicle repair work for the EWU.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.