Water tank construction continues

 

March 25, 2018



Work is progressing on the water storage project at Alva’s Young Street Tank Farm. A new, larger water tank is being constructed to replace the 1930s era tanks in that location. After the old tanks were removed, there was a construction pause for testing of soil to make sure it would support the load of the new tank.

It was determined the site would have to be excavated four feet deeper than planned and then backfilled with gravel. Additional reinforcement was also required. This caused a change order and some additional cost which was approved last month. The city is still within budget since a contingency amount was built into the total estimated cost.

At Monday’s city council meeting, Business Manager Joe Don Dunham said the city held the second progress meeting with Wynn Construction, the DEQ and Myers Engineering. To accommodate the additional reinforcing of the tank foundation, the city authorized the removal of a ladder from the interior of the tank and is going to self-perform some painting or marking of piping within the pump house. Due to the additional work on the foundation and the Geotech testing, an extension on the completion date was granted.

Credit/Debit Card Payments

In February, Dunham told the council his office was working toward accepting credit and debit cards for payments of utility bills and other bills. He said that project is underway and should be completed in April.

Telcom Audit

Last November, Dunham signed an agreement with The SpyGlass Group, LLC to perform a telecommunications audit. The company was to review the city’s billing to determine if the appropriate fees were being charged.

The cost of the service was contingent on SpyGlass finding some savings for the city. If they didn’t find anything, nothing would be charged.

At the beginning, SpyGlass was told of five lines already scheduled to be eliminated once the storm siren system was upgraded so those lines would not figure into the audit.

Dunham said SpyGlass identified up to $1,919.79 in additional savings above the $2,860 the city was already going to save by eliminating the five siren lines. These two sets of savings should reduce the city’s monthly telecommunication bills from about $10,000 a month to about $5,220. Dunham said the city will have paid $19,168 to SpyGlass to realize over $58,000 in annual savings.

Water System Update

About half of the water Alva was pumping from the well fields was not going to paying customers. This was the situation a few years ago. “Over the past two years, the City of Alva has really stepped up the efforts to reduce the line loss which we have experienced,” said Dunham.

He defined line loss as any water which was pumped from the well field and not included in utility billing. This loss can result from water line breaks, water used through fire hydrants for fires, water used but not metered or uncalibrated water meters.

Dunham said in June 2015 the city was experiencing a line loss of approximately 24 million gallons a month. For example, in the winter about 20 to 30 million gallons per month were billed, so the city was experiencing line loss of about 50 percent.

Over the last two months, the city had 1.3 to 2 million gallons of line loss a month. Dunham credits several city actions for this improvement: replacement of all water meters with new ones, implementation of automatic meter reading, reduction of read time from 24 days to five days, replacement of broken meters with new ones, replacement and enhancement of water lines, and the quick repair of water leaks.

Financials

Dunham provides the city council with a comprehensive written report each month on the financial status of the city. On Feb. 28 the cash balances for all city accounts was $257,085.72 and investments totaled $2,482,689.97. Over the past month cash increased by $217,169.53 and investments have grown by $3,130.36.

He said through February the city has purchased or encumbered $3,855,559 of the $3,787,079 which was budgeted for capital improvements. Current projects include the Young Street Water Tank Farm construction which will continue through the summer and the shade structures at the Alva Recreation Complex which are completed.

The council authorized the purchase of a belly dump trailer during Monday’s meeting. Staff members are preparing bid specifications for a new ambulance for EMS. Dunham said some minor projects are planned such as bleachers and a couple of new mowers, one for the ARC and the other for the cemetery.

In long-term debt, through January the city has made $369,291.71 in principal payments and $47,282.56 in interest payments this fiscal year. Across all entities, the city owes a total of $5,429,371.71. The payoff dates range from July 2019 to September 2048.

Sales and use taxes are a major source of city revenue. As of Feb. 28, the city had collected $2,767,807 in sales and use taxes for the fiscal year. Compared to a budget of $4,506,675 that averages out to 5.25 percent below expectations. However, Dunham said the city is ahead of fiscal year 2016-2017 total collections at the end of February by 4.11 percent.

He said the city’s projections included a 15 percent increase in tax collections due to online companies slated to start remitting who had never remitted taxes before. What the city is actually receiving is about ten percent lower than expected.

Looking forward, Dunham expects another drop in collections for March. He said if the current trend continues, by the end of June, the city would still complete the fiscal year two percent above the 2016-2017 fiscal year collections.

The increase in utility rates is helping the city to improve the revenue picture. In February, utility collections were up 27.79 percent. For the year to date, Alva has shown an increase of 12.367 percent in utility billing. The increased rates did not take effect until last September.

Overall the city has collected $7,315,795 for July-February, an increase of $563,538 over the same time last year. Expenditures through February were $8,239,762, an increase of $294,910 from the previous year.

 

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