Riverbend Water Resources District held their third annual open house and employee appreciation luncheon Wednesday, with several community members taking a look at the offices and hearing the organization's future plans.
Bowie County Judge James Carlow, along with newly-elected Miller County Judge Kathy Harrison attended the open house and regular board of directors meeting, along with area mayors from the cities of DeKalb, Maud, Annona, Maud, Hooks, Atlanta and other member entities.
During the meeting, the board approved a request for qualifications for Riverbend Executive Director/CEO Liz Fazio Hale to negotiate and execute a contract for engineering services for a feasibility study for the wastewater treatment plant in Hooks.
Riverbend's Systems Manager Eli Hunt said they were looking at three possibilities.
"One, rehabilitating the current facility," he said. "Two would be the demolition of the current facility and build a new one, or three, demolition of the current facility and transporting wastewater to the Ron Collins facility."
Hunt said they received five proposals and chose MTG Engineers of Texarkana, Texas to perform the work.
If the third option is decided upon, he said putting the wastewater through Ron Collins plant would not affect the total capacity.
Fazio Hale said that it would not send the plant over capacity, but there would need to be a plan in place, as the plant is designed to treat 3 million gallons of water per day and is currently built to treat 1.5 mgd.
"So it will be time in the near future to engage in a second build out of that phase two of the project overall. I think bringing Hooks on would probably bump us in that direction sooner," she said, adding that Riverbend is conducting the study to provide the city of Hooks with information on available options.
"The decision remains entirely with the city of Hooks whether or not they want to pursue any of these avenues," she said. "We are just helping them make good decisions for their future and be educated on where they're at in their treatment."
The board also discussed, but took no action on an in-house accounting position.
Fazio Hale said they are looking at undergoing several large projects in the near future and have reached a point where she would like to begin the search for someone to perform financial services for Riverbend. She also said they were not in any hurry at his point.
"We are particularly looking at somebody who can handle a lot of different bond issuances and keep track of some of our finances on an in house basis," she said. "The position will be built into next year's budget for the military to decide what portion of this salary portion they will pay. Really the need is because we are growing."
Directors also considered, but took no action on a request for qualifications for legal services specifically for water law at the state and federal levels.
Fazio Hale said the need for someone with water law expertise was also due to anticipated growth.
"If we decide to move forward on any new projects that we'll be laying out in the next month or so and move forward with the issuance of bonds, we will need new interlocal agreements or supplemental contracts with each of the member entities that want to participate to define what level they want to participate at and obligate them to contribute to pay for the bonds before we can issue those bonds," she said. "In order to construct those contracts, we want to at least solicit for water law attorneys in the state of Texas who have background in doing wholesale contracts with municipalities."
She added that the person chosen for the position would work in conjunction with their current attorney to create the contracts.
The next meeting, which will be held in coordination with the city of Texarkana, Texas and the Sulphur River Basin Authority, will be held at 1 p.m., Tuesday, July 17 at the Texarkana, Texas Convention Center.