City receives $1.125 million state grant

The city of Berryville has been awarded a $1.125 million grant from the Arkansas Natural Resources Council, Mayor Tim McKinney announced during a city council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

The money, part of $270 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding approved by ANRC, will be used to help pay for the rehabilitation of the city’s water tower on Hailey Road.

“It’s a $1.5 million estimated cost, so that will take care of $1.1 million,” McKinney said. “Hopefully we can get in under, get a good bid, and that’s really going to help a lot.”

McKinney said the state has mandated that the water tower be rehabilitated.

“We were planning on painting it anyway in the next two to three years on our normal cycle,” he said. “But we had the issue of the chlorine residuals not being what they wanted on top of the tank. That’s basically the way the tank’s plumbed. The water goes in the bottom and out the bottom. So that water that gets on top just sits there, especially in the hot summertime. The chlorine dissipates out of it, and that’s where they draw the samples. We were low on chlorine and about the same time we failed a water test here in town. So they tied the two together and laid all this on us that we have to do. They said: ‘You’re not going to wait two years. You’re going to rehab it now.’ So that’s how we ended up at that point. It’s basically the same water we’ve been drinking for years.”

McKinney said an increase in the city’s water rates is coming, although he isn’t sure how much of an increase will be implemented.

“Act 605 was passed in the last legislative session and to put it in a nutshell, it puts the state in charge of our water rates,” the mayor said.

ARNC will audit the city’s water system and determine what rate increase is needed.

“It not only has to cover your hard expenses that normally your rate would cover but also depreciation,” mayoral assistant Jay Lee said.

“You’ve got to show that your rates are enough that you’re fully funding your depreciation fund because that’s what a lot of these smaller areas are getting into,” McKinney said. “I’ll throw you a number out there, just ballparking and using their figures and the preliminary figures we got it looks like about 14 percent. That’s a mayor’s estimate, looking at real rough figures, that doesn’t fully understand their accounting system yet and how it’s going to work. But I think it will be substantial.”

Lee said the last time the city increased water rates — with the exception of pass-through increases from the Carroll-Boone Water District — was 1991.

“You can imagine with inflation and wages and the price of pipe and everything … ” McKinney said. “What me and Jay have talked about is go ahead and implement a small 5 to 7 percent rate increase. I think that will also make our rates look better as far as funding the depreciation. So whenever Arkansas Natural Resources comes in and does the audit, I think it will actually help that. So we may have something at the next meeting on that. We’re actually losing money in wastewater right now, if you put the bottom-line pencil to it.”

In other business, the council approved the second and third readings on separate ordinances to increase McKinney’s salary from $27,200 to $50,000 a year and to increase city attorney Clint Scheel’s salary from $26,000 to $30,000 a year.

McKinney also presented council members with a proposed 2023 budget. The proposed budget lists total revenue of $11,540,600 for 2023, with total appropriations of $11,128,800, and includes 6 percent raises for all city employees.

The council is expected to vote on the proposed ordinance at its next meeting, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20, at City Hall.