A $339,000 payment for an elevated tank and other capital expenditures left the East Medina County Special Utility District with just over $2 million in bond proceeds in its account, according to a financial report for April submitted to the board May 17.
“We are starting to see a little uptick in our interest rates through across all of our accounts,” business manager Lauren Evans said. “That’s nice because we’ve just been seeing those steadily fall to nothing recently.”
Outside of bond proceeds, EMSUD took in $259,692 in revenue in April, Evans said. Expenses for the month totaled $368,224, including the acquisition of Creekwood Ranches Water Supply Corporation.
A payment was also made involving a completed project to add 3,300 linear feet of 8-inch PVC water main on U.S. 90 from the Castroville Veterinary Clinic to CR 4612. A second phase of that project is 50 percent complete.
EMSUD superintendent Bruce Alexander reported to the board that steel for a tank construction project at Plant 5 in the northwest part of the district has been delivered.
“If you’ve ever seen one built it’s pretty interesting how they do it,” Alexander said.
However, storage tank and service pump improvement proposed for EMSUD Plant 1 remains on hold waiting for materials, Alexander said. A generator slated to be installed at the recently acquired Creekwood Ranches Water Supply Corporation is not due to leave the factory until the end of May.
Also, an application for funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to add a generator at EMSUD Plant 6 remains on hold, Alexander said. Problems collecting payments from other water districts in Texas has complicated the issue, he said.
Supply chain issues continue to hinder progress on updating EMSUD’s System Control and Data Acquisition system. The project involves using 2-way radio systems to communicate between the various plants and the district’s main office.
Legal issues regarding a contested certificate of convenience and necessity (CCN) continued to drag through the Texas Public Utilities Commission.
The certificate grants a CCN holder the exclusive rights to provide retail water or sewer utility service to an identified geographic area. In this case, the conflict hinges on an alleged verbal agreement dating back more than 30 years.
“The Public Utilities Commission took action (on May 12) to refer the matter to a state hearing,” Alexander told the board. “They are not convinced that the area is ours exclusively because the other party still claims that he had an agreement from 30 years ago.”
Editor’s Note:
We want to thank the leadership of East Medina, which had generators in place when the historic winter storm hit, ensuring water service when many other entities had water service cut off for days. And for East Medina’s foresight to continue installing generators at various plants to ensure service for any future events. You are one step ahead of the game, and the residents of EMSUD appreciate it! -Kayleen Holder
By Anton Riecher