The 2022 Branson Board of Aldermen and members of the Finance Committee during a discussion on the upcoming city budget.
The 2022 Branson Board of Aldermen and members of the Finance Committee during a discussion on the upcoming city budget.
The Branson Board of Aldermen and the city’s finance committee held a joint meeting on Thursday, Oct. 6, to begin the work of crafting the city’s budget for the next year, with concern about a key part of the city’s infrastructure dominating much of the discussion.
Capital improvements and repairs of the city’s water and sewer infrastructure were discussed in connection with a raise in rates, which became a point of debate between the aldermen, board members, and city staff.
Utilities Director Kendall Powell spoke to the board and committee members about the department’s plans for capital projects, showing a five-year plan calling for $8 million in projects for 2023, the bulk in water mains and water line rehabilitation, which could impact the rates for water and sewer.
The city manages two water treatment and wastewater treatment plants, seven ground wells, eight water towers, over 200 miles of sewer lines and 100 miles of water lines, 38 lift stations, 3,000 water valves, 5,000 manholes, and 950 fire hydrants.
“We span out a 20 year model, so this is a snapshot,” Powell said. “As we go beyond five years, things can change, so I didn’t want to throw too much at you at one time. In our model, we include tourism projects, but those projects do not impact water/sewer rates, and life cycles are built into it. High flow pumps are replaced or rebuilt every five years, because they go through extreme conditions pumping dirty water, and our normal flow lift stations are rebuilt every seven years and replaced about every 20 years. Drinking water pumps, which push clean water, last 12 to 15 years before rebuilds.”
Powell highlighted neighborhood construction projects.
“In 2023, we have $3.3 million in there,” Powell said. “In 2024, it’s another $3.3 million. That’s designated for Hiawatha Heights subdivision, it’s the first subdivision where we want to do a complete water main replacement. Not only will that significantly reduce water leaks, but help with fire flow, because there’s a project right now having trouble with fire flow. There’s also federal mandates related to lead and copper rules.”
Branson Mayor Larry Milton questioned whether the replacement of water lines to help curb breakages was new for the budget, and Powell confirmed it.
“You’ve seen our media releases where we’ve had an uptick in water main breaks,” Powell said. “We had to start somewhere. To be open about it, the subdivision which shows the significant amount of greater leaks is actually Parnell, Eiserman, and Lakewood Estates area, but we chose to postpone that subdivision because of our Compton Drive flood protection project. We didn’t want both construction projects going on at the same time and have a significant impact on the residents of that area. They’re already going to see impact with the Compton Drive construction, so we staggered those two projects, and next was Hiawatha Heights. Parnell, Eiserman, and Lakewood would come in 2025.”
Powell noted current situations related to equipment are significantly worse than pre-COVID, not only in increased costs but the availability of necessary equipment. He said the systems have redundancies, such as two pumps at lift stations, and they’re designed where one pump can run while a second failed pump gets a replacement; however the time frame for replacements planned in the design of those systems is shorter than current available delivery times for new equipment.
Milton noted the lift pumps can take up to a year to come in.
Powell also noted most of the pumps are customized for the specific station where it’s used to pump at specific levels, so the city can’t really purchase pumps to keep on hand that would fit at multiple locations.
“Hopefully the industry will turn around soon,” Powell said.
Powell noted his department is in need of additional staff, because it hampers the department from being able to meet some of the requirements of the state. In 2020, a water safety act which requires utilities to maintain a valve and hydrant exercising program along with a GPS map of the system. He said currently as an example, only 2% of valves are being exercised versus the 10% they’re supposed to be doing under regulatory requirements.
When questioned what would happen if the state would examine where the city is on the requirements, Powell said it wouldn’t likely be an immediate fine because his department is making good faith efforts to meet the regulatory requirements.
“If it’s repeated, it’s possible they could implement something, but it’s a black mark on us,” Powell said.
Water customers in the city could see a 12% increase in their rates in 2023 under the current budget proposal.
Powell noted the department is a big user of electricity because of all the pumps and equipment used to maintain the city’s water supply. He said the city’s supplier has raised rates already 8% because of the current economic environment.
Milton noted, along with other aldermen and board members, the city is seeing additional money coming into the city through tourism taxes, and he can see why some may question why water rates need to rise to fund the department’s necessary upgrades.
“We’ve had some really good years,” Powell said. “2021 was good, 2022 is looking really good, but I can’t say we took off or did away with projects. We’ve postponed capital for 2020 and 2021, especially 2021, we had a lot of emergency purchases. We’ve had to dip into our internal services funds to replace them.
“The biggest costs come from postponing capital projects the last two years, the new salary adjustments and new positions, and the big one is our water tower maintenance. We had two coatings failing, we had two emergency purchases last year where leaks caused emergency services to come in and fix.”
Due to the complexities of the situation, the Board of Aldermen decided to extend the previously scheduled study session on Tuesday, Oct. 11, to continue talking about utility issues and how they will impact the 2023 budget.
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