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City Council Water & Sewer Subcommittee <br />Feb. 18, 2003 <br />Page 9 <br /> <br />were told to reduce their cost by 10%, then 10% means we have compensate <br />for the debt service. Mr. Johns said they were told there are two given things, <br />safety of the people and quality of the product, but you have do it, you have to <br />come up with a way to do it. Mr. Quarles questioned the possibility of cutting <br />other costs before rates are raised. Mr. Campbell said one thing that the city <br />is doing to improve the efficiency is building another elevated storage tank. <br />Mr. Quarles said you were increasing the debt load with that. Mr. Campbell <br />said yes. Mr. Quarles said you are not cutting cost, why would you do that, <br />you already have the quality of water below what the state mandates. So, why <br />would the city do anything that would increase cost or debt? <br /> <br />City Manager Malone explained that this last debt issuance was to meet the <br />EPA Administrative Order and there was a list of projects provided by that <br />engineering study that the city was forced to do. City Manager Malone said the <br />study identified all of the elements in the system that needed to be replaced or <br />repaired and the EPA determined that the city would be given three years to get <br />it done. The City Manager said the city attacked these projects with local <br />contractors doing work by the day and direction from the engineering <br />inspectors to try to save money. He said the debt was issued in anticipation of <br />being able to assure the EPA that we had the funds available to fix all of these <br />things that they were telling us to fix in this period of time. City Manager <br />Malone advised that the city was successful in working our way out of the EPA <br />Order much cheaper than what the consultants estimated. He said the city took <br />the savings from these projects and is using the money to build the elevated <br />storage tank. The money is already in the debt service. He said they were <br />shifting what they would have spent on these repairs that were demanded by <br />the EPA because the city was able to do them more efficiently than what the <br />engineering study suggested. The City Manager advised that the city is able to <br />use that savings towards other needs and we are taking the highest priority <br />needs. Mr. Wilson wanted to know if the city can pay for it in savings on <br />pumping cost and in electricity. The City Manager pointed out that is not the <br />only element, it is also an element if you look at these other cities and see the <br />capacity of overhead storage for fire protection. He said the city has been <br /> <br /> <br />