The Pearl River County Utility Authority Board of Trustees heard an update on how finances are going and that the project to widen Highway 11 to four lanes has been delayed by at least a year.
Utility Authority Executive Director Ray Scott said the previous month’s revenue came in at $347,000, which is about $40,000 more than budgeted.
Water revenue was up by $1,400, while sewer revenue came in at $49,000 more than budgeted, Scott said. He said the increases are associated with the recent rate adjustments.
He also addressed the timeline for the Highway 11 widening project. As stated in the last meeting, Scott said the project appears to have still been pushed back by a year. Operations Director Allen Howe said the Utility Authority has spent about $25,000 so far in preparation for that project. Those expenses paid for engineering fees and work to identify the location and depth of their utility lines. Initially, the Mississippi Department of Transportation gave the Utility Authority until this fall to identify all of their lines along Highway 11, but recently said they won’t need that information until sometime next year, Scott said.
“They’ve been talking about putting that four-lane in since I moved here in ‘89,” Scott said.
In another matter, Utility Authority Engineer Vernon Moore said the wastewater rehabilitation project still has about $145,000 left in the contingency fund. There is still 25,000 feet of sewer main left to line, of which the crew was able to line 6,000 feet last week. He said he is monitoring the project to determine a cutoff point before the contingency fund is exhausted.
Moore said he expects the project to be completed by the deadline in December.
The Board also approved a motion to advertise for bids to install SCADA devices on all of the 26 pump stations in Poplarville and all 59 pump stations in Picayune. These devices will connect to cellular towers and alert staff when a pump station loses power or has a backup, Howe said.
Currently, most of those pump stations are monitored daily by five staff members. By installing these devices, staff monitoring can be cut to a weekly basis, freeing up additional man-hours for other work, Moore said. Each device costs between $700 to $1,500, and would require a monthly monitoring fee of $30 per device.
Howe said the expense is worth the savings in man-hours and protecting businesses and homes from sewer backups.
The Board also approved a motion to employ Topp McWhorter Harvey, PLLC to conduct their annual audit for a fee of $34,500. Scott said it is the same firm that has performed audits for the Utility Authority in the past four years, however the firm’s name changed after one of the partners retired.
A change order was also submitted concerning work to replace sewer mains along Bay, Magnolia and Manning streets in Picayune. The cost to conduct the work was changed from $30,874 to $29,878. Work to Magnolia Street will involve installation of a new manhole. The Board approved the change order.
The next Board meeting will be Aug. 18, at 2 p.m. in the boardroom at the Picayune wastewater treatment plant on Neal Road.