By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The budget for the coming fiscal year was at the top of the agenda for the Grayson Utilities Commission during their regular meeting last month.
“We had a really good finish to this fiscal year,” Commission Director Gerald Haney told the commission, adding that there was a lot accomplished over the course of the last year.
For instance, Haney noted, they had “finished off the downtown cast iron project this year.”
“So, if you recall, we used grant money and some of the bond sale money from leftover projects. We had just a little bit when the new fiscal year started,” he reminded the commission. “But then we paid out of our own capital improvement for the blacktop and the final pay request or two and some of the engineering.”
“We also completed that East Carter High School project,” Haney pointed out. “We started in December and finished in April. So that is why this (the budget) seems a little inflated.”
Haney provided charts, and went over the profit and loss as well as fluctuations in budget over the past few years with the commission. He also addressed changing capital projects, grants, and state reimbursements for certain expenses such as the easements that needed to be purchased for the East Carter High School project.
“As I said, we had a really good finish to the year,” Haney told the commission.
Adding to the strong finish was the fact that there had been several late payments that were collected, he said.
“Also, over the last five years you have been hearing me talk about the lead service project. We have been working on that since 2021, and we have had a bunch of our labor invested in it.”
Haney told the commission that there had been multiple commission employees who had invested their time on that project.
“Well, I have been keeping track of everyone’s time involved in the project,” he told the commission. “We got $78,000 back for that on Monday. And that doesn’t have to go back out to pay anyone, but goes toward recovering our labor. Next month we will be processing one for Terra Graphics for that same project and it’s for around $65,000.”
“I plan to use those two windfalls to buy a new truck for the water department and a trailer to haul the excavator,” Haney told the commission.
The trailer the commission currently owns isn’t old or worn out, he said, but it struggles to handle the day-to-day demands of use.
“We have made repairs on it twice, and it’s just not holding up to the weight of the excavator. And that is in the budget under new equipment,” he told the commission.
“It’s between $15,000 and $16,000 for a new trailer,” he said. “And a new truck is around $66,000. That is a gasoline model. A diesel model would be over $76,000.”
Haney said the truck in question comes with a long utility bed and has more space. The new truck will be in addition to a 2009 model vehicle already in service, and Haney said he plans to keep that truck and not surplus it out for sale.
“It has been a great truck,” Haney said. “But we need a newer, dependable model. And I plan on keeping the current trailer as well. It’s handy to have because it is good to haul pipe on and has a low-profile bed.”
Haney said he had received quotes from several companies, but the most economic was from Tadlock Trailer Sales in West Union, Ohio.
The commission discussed other potential and ongoing projects including numerous requests for gas service that would need to be addressed in the future.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
