Phase 1 of the city’s water main replacement project has not yet finished but Phase 2 has begun.
At the Enterprise Water Works Board Meeting March 12 Water Works Board Field Superintendent Alan
Mahan said that Belair Drive, the first street listed in Phase 2, has been finished.
Phase 1 of the water main replacement project, expected to be completed by September of last year, is
nearing a “substantial completion inspection” expected in the next week, the city’s consulting engineer
Glenn Morgan reported.
Morgan said that he and Mahan had prioritized the five streets in most critical condition and would work
on them first. In addition to Belair, top priority streets include Pine Leaf Drive, Natchez Drive, Crescent
Drive and Mill Avenue. “Once those are completed there isn’t a particular order the contractor will follow,”
Mahan explained. “The grouping of streets on the list are in close proximity of each other so they’ll finish
each area before moving to another. Currently they are working on Pine Leaf Drive.”
In unrelated business, Mahan reported that the use of unrevenued water is decreasing and he credited
the city department heads for that progress.
At a board meeting in November 2018, Mahan told the board that in Fiscal Year 2018 city facilities had
used 270 million gallons of water at the cost of $538,000. At that same meeting he explained that since
the city is not charged for water by the board, the water used is non-revenue gaining and referred to as water “lost.”
Mahan set a goal at the meeting to cut the “loss” by 34 percent in FY 2019 and another 26 percent in FY
2020 for a total reduction of 50 percent. “I do want to say publically that I appreciate all the departments
working with us on this,” Mahan said. “I appreciate it very much.”
In other business, Enterprise City Finance Director Lori Senn told the board that the reason that expenses
are above budget is that depreciation had not been budgeted on the previous financial statement. “One
thing I do want to point out is that for some reason depreciation was not budgeted and we have caught
up with depreciation this time,” Senn said. “I don’t think it was reported for the first quarter but we have
reported it for January.
“That’s $350,000—almost—that wasn’t budgeted so that is part of the reason that we are over budget
this time,” she added.
“Did we change the way we did depreciation or did it just get missed?” asked Water Board Chairman John
L. Mitchell.
“I guess it just got missed when the budget was done from what I could tell,” Senn replied.
Mitchell also questioned the office expense line item. “We spent $42,000 last year and this year we spent
nothing?” he asked. “Is there any chance that office expenses are under ‘supplies’ because this is $32,000
over?
“It could be,” Senn replied. “I’ll look at that.”
Mitchell asked that Senn email the board with the results of her research.
The next meeting of the Enterprise Water Works Board is April 8 at noon in the mayor’s conference room.
The meeting is open to the public.