Local News – Monday, May 15th, 2023

The Salem Utility Committee meeting was held Wednesday at the Salem Community Center @ The Armory. City of Salem Treasurer Stacey Houston reviewed the actual numbers for the year through April and also discussed preliminary draft budget numbers for the electric, water and sewer departments. Houston said all three utilities have or will exceed their budgeted sales for the current fiscal year, but also said the expenses associated with those accounts have also gone up. In preparing the budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, she said she reduced the amount of kilowatts sold by 2.5%, but the wholesale cost of electric increased by 12% and by city ordinance, an increase in the electric rate will automatically go into effect after the budget is approved which she estimated at 10%. She reminded the utility committee the $10 residential and $15 commercial availability fee charged this year to boost the reserves will sunset unless the committee elects to extend it. Houston also talked about how the budget reflects the contribution to the Reserve Funds of each utility as described in the Reserve Funds Balance Policy. The policy says the City will strive to maintain electric, water, and sewer reserve fund balances of at least 25% of the prior completed fiscal year’s actual expenditures for the respective department. It also says the City’s annual budget shall include budgeted transfers to reserve fund balances of at least 5% of the prior completed fiscal year’s actual expenditures for the respective department. The policy allows for budgeted transfers to reserve fund balances will be made quarterly with the 4th quarter installment amounts determined by the City’s financial condition. Houston said the city has budgeted buying a vacuum truck for $191,000 that would be split with other departments. They estimated the electric fund to have a surplus for the current fiscal year, but the preliminary budget numbers for the 2023-24 year with the additonal expense for capital improvements, the truck purchase, poles and more would show a $37,000 plus deficit. For the water department, there is a $6.00 service availability fee on all bills and this year there will be a surplus, as there will be for the 2023-24 fiscal year. The city also will be needing a new well and storage tank, and that will eat up those surpluses quickly and there is no automatic water rate increase by ordinance so no increase was budgeted in her draft budget. That is expected to be done in 2024. The sewer fund will have a rate increase, but that will not be known until the cost of issuing the sewer bonds passed by voters is determined and the city does not yet have that figure. With the work that must be done on the Waste Water Improvement Plant, the payback of the bonds as well the Certificate of Participation payments, the utility committee will have to determine the increase once all the data is known. To help determine some of the rates, City Administrator Sally Burbridge discussed in lieu of a meter charge based on size of water line, the rate use by St. James for their sewer is based on water consumption in gallons so the more water you use, the higher the service availability meter fee. So those who do not use as much water will not pay as much. She presented this to the committee to consider as an option. Currently Salem uses just a straight fee all meters of $6.00 per meter. The committee was updated on infrastructure improvements including the paving of Water Street, 228 potholes being patched, numerous leaks repaired including an eight-inch water line busted in half going out to the hospital where the entire section had to be replaced with new base pea gravel. The old base was jagged rock and not pea gravel and the rock eventually cut into the PVC pipe causing the problem. Burbridge talked about a product demonstration held by Midwest Infrastructure Coating on how to stop infiltration through the manholes in the city of which there are about 500. Over time, these manholes deteriorate allowing for leaks through the grout, along the pipes, etc. Burbridge said the city’s average flow at the Waste Water Treatment Plant is about a million gallons on a normal day, but if there is a steady rain, it can jump to seven million gallons. The example provided showed that if a manhole leaks two gallons of groundwater per minute for an entire year into the wastewater system, that equates in one years time to 1,051,200 gallons, and if it costs $3.00 to treat 1,000 gallons of wastewater, that would cost the municipality $3,154 for that one manhole which is more than the $2,250 cost for the coating per manhole. Burbridge would like to budget for this process and it will be brought up at the Capital Improvement Committee meeting. More information is available on the City of Salem website. The meeting was then adjourned.

An accident happened Friday morning just before 11:30 in Texas County on Highway 63 about three miles north of Houston. According to the highway patrol report, a 2005 Ford E-250 van driven north by 47-year-old Michael Wandra of Springfield, stopped for an animal in the road. The van was struck from behind by a 2011 Ford Fiesta, driven by 65-year-old Randy Harris of Licking. Harris suffered minor injuries and was taken by Texas County ambulance service to the Texas County Memorial hospital in Houston. The Fiesta sustained moderate damage and was towed from the scene by Jay’s Towing. The Ford van had minor damage and was driven from the scene. Both drivers were wearing seat restraints at the time of the accident.