Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Commission Hammering Out New Budget

Gurdon's Water Commission has been working on a budget for its fiscal year 1997-98.

Harold Hurst, department manager, said the 1996-97 budget was off only $8,000, which was pretty good.

For the coming year, though, Hurst believes the department will generate revenues of $562,562, working on a monthly budget of $46,882. At this time, the preliminary expenses are anticipated at $279,436, but this doesn't include any depreciation figures for the system. Therefore, the budget is only a preliminary one until the department is audited and the auditors set the depreciation.

Hurst told the commissioners, during the regular monthly meeting Monday, June 16, it's hard to figure a budget exactly because there are no hard or fast rules on what will be coming in as revenue or going out as expenses.

He said this coming budget year should have the new rural water project on line and operable for seven months with all the new customers on the system for this period of time. Because of the rural water system and new customers, he said it will be difficult to figure the revenue or expenses involved.

According to Hurst, the budget could fluxuate because of this, but should equal out by the time the fiscal year ends. "The budget could look bad until everyone is on the system," he said. The sewer figures should remain unchanged, though.

"I feel some rural customers will hook onto the system (after it's fully installed and operational)," he said.

The proposed budget for the coming fiscal year was increased by $50,000, Hurst said, mainly because of the anticipated revenue from the rural water system.

In addition, room was left in the proposed budget for raises next year, if any are given.

Hurst said there could be some overtime paid out because of the rural project, as the construction crews are working hard and battling the weather to meet the deadline.

There will also be three more electric bills added onto the department's expense budget because of the project, he said. This will be for the motors to operate the pumping stations an well.

In discussing the project further, Hurst said a test drill for the well found 62 feet of sand. Should all go according to expectations, he said, the new well could produce as much as 350 gallons of water per minute.

Because of this, some of the piping will have to be increased in size to handle the extra flow of water.

The next step, however, is to develop the well and get the water tested for quality by the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH). In addition, the samples will be tested at a second, but private lab for quality.

Should the results come back positive, all work on the wells will proceed as planned. Otherwise, a new site may have to be found.

Hurst said the construction crews have pipe strung out through Moon Valley, and is pretty much done in the Sycamore Church area in Beirne. The crews are working on Red Springs Road near the cemetery, heading toward Sticky Road.

In other business, Hurst was given permission to purchase a new electric motor, after the bill for having one struck by lightning rewound cost more than $1,600. A new motor would only cost about $1,600, Hurst said.

Larry Conyer was hired as the newest member of the department.