NEW BOSTON, Texas-Riverbend Water Resources District's Board of Directors approved adding Central Bowie County Water Supply Corporation as a member entity during their regular meeting Wednesday.
Adding Central Bowie is a project the district has been working on since October 2018 when the board initially passed a resolution recognizing that the corporation wanted to become a member.
"At the time, there had to be changes to the enabling act to allow water supply corporations to be members," Riverbend Executive Director/CEO Kyle Dooley said. "During the last legislative session, House Bill 1574 was approved and changed the legislation. On Aug. 6, we received a letter from Central Bowie to officially petition for membership."
Riverbend's Attorney David Glass is currently working on the contract and they will have it ready to bring back to the board for ratification, Dooley said.
In other business, the board considered the true-up numbers from Texarkana Water Utilities and the 2019-20 budget.
During the Aug. 14 true-up meeting, TWU presented the actual water costs and usage by the district's original member cities and the projected cost for those cities to be able to budget for the upcoming year. The new rate will be $.9389 per 1,000 gallons. Last year's rate was $.9006 per 1,000 gallons.
Board President Fred Milton said the report represented a lot of hard work by TWU to determine the 2019-20 rate, which went up due to inflation, utility and chemical cost increases.
"I think through the years since we have started, this process has become extremely transparent, the cost and those things associated with treated water have been paid for and the presentation of those numbers especially associated with that cost that is passed back to our member entities from a wholesale perspective," Milton said. "I'm grateful we're to a point where there's not many questions. They certainly gave a great explanation of what the changes were this time."
The board also took a first look at the 2019-20 budget, which shows the TexAmericas Center East budget combined with the wastewater budget. The combination was approved by the Red River Army Depot. The budget also includes a proposed 2% cost of living adjustment and $100,000 for special projects.
"The numbers look good from my perspective," Milton said. "I know from an admin perspective, we jump into a lot of things in supporting our member city entities and getting our needs into Region D, especially from the supply and the needs perspective and paying those consultants. We saw that reflected in last year's budget and expenses and I think that was money extremely well spent. We look forward to laying out the $100,000 that's in there for this year to support some of the same types of efforts."
Riverbend has funded a water availability model and a volumetric and sedimentation study in Wright Patman Lake, along with a feasibility study for the city of Hooks.
In other business, the board approved Dooley to issue a request for qualifications to conduct a residential and commercial water and wastewater rate study and a raw water rate study of TexAmericas Center and Red River
Army Depot.
"I know we've extended a lot of effort in doing a rate study for our member cities and we want to drag that over for our Army footprint as we get ready to support the project that's coming down the lines," Milton said.
That project includes a new water treatment plant at TexAmericas Center, a new water intake structure on Wright Patman Lake and a new raw water line to TexAmericas Center.
"When we start providing raw water also will be a consideration, especially from the TexAmericas perspective," he said. "This will be a great thing in laying the groundwork for us to get to that point."