Audit Brings Good News for Water Utility

A recent audit of the Waukesha Water Utility determined that the utility is in a sound financial position, according to CPA John Andres from Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP.

“You’re sitting very well as you face this large project. Looking into the future, you’re as well-positioned as you can be,” Andres told the Waukesha Water Commission Thursday night.

Some key-points from the audit, according to Andres:

• The utility’s water conservation program is working, with consistent decreases in gallons of water sold since 2008.
• The utility’s water rate of return, which is an indicator of how well the utility is doing financially, shows that the utility is right where it needs to be as far as rates and revenues are concerned. Debt to equity ratios are also very strong.
• Operating expenses declined $253,000 from the previous year, from $6,536,000 to $6,283,000, showing that the utility has done a good job in controlling expenses.

Andres said that compared to other water utilities, Waukesha is in the “upper echelon” of how its sitting financially compared to other similar utilities like Appleton, Green Bay and Madison. Many of those other utilities have more borrowing than Waukesha mainly due to filtration projects.

“I don’t get to say this often but I think you as commissioners and your management team should take a certain pride and satisfaction in how well you’re positioning yourselves for the future,” Andres said.

In other good news,  Jeff Detro, operations manager at the water utility, informed the water commission that Well No. 10, one of three radium-compliant wells in the city, is back in service. . A subsequent break-down of left the city with only one well providing radium-compliant water.

With Well No. 10 back in service and producing over 4 million gallons of radium-compliant water per day, the utility’s radium-compliant capacity increased to 8.4 million gallons, Detro informed the commission.  An average day’s water use is 2.9 million gallons and in June, the peak high was 7.5 million gallons, according to Detro.

 “We’re right on track with the amount of radium-compliant [water] we have for what we’re seeing in demands,” Detro said.

Well No. 3, the last radium-compliant well yet to be fixed, is still out of service and is expected to be back in service by the end of July. Currently, the utility is finalizing contracts for new equipment for that well, according to Detro.

In other water commission news, the water utility commission gave Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak instructions to inform other municipalities including Milwaukee, Oak Creek and Racine that the City of Waukesha is close to finalizing its water negotiating team and that they would like to negotiate with the other municipalities at their earliest convenience.

The intent of the communication would be to begin working out the logistics and a calendar for the negotiations, according to the consensus reached by commission members.

Last week, Waukesha Mayor Jeff Scrima made by Common Council to keep him from the water negotiation team.