By TRAVINA COLEMAN
Isabel Baker was named to the Tahlequah Public Works Authority board, and is the first woman to do so.
She took her seat, after a loyalty oath, along with fellow new board member Mark Smith at the regular meeting of the TPWA meeting Friday morning.
Stan Day, general manager, wanted the board to confer with Jim Milton, an outside attorney, to review the upcoming rural water district contracts that have been in place for 40 years, to avoid potential liability.
Milton said he was asked to look at the contracts and compare them with other municipalities, with the potential of adding some terms to the contracts that would protect TPWA.
He advised he would submit a letter to the board outlining some of the areas he felt could be updated.
Day said notices for the phase two section of the rate increase will be going out to customers soon.
“The first rate increase was done in December of 2008,” he said. “This is the second part of that. The total impact on the average customer is about $2.25 [per month].”
The board approved several items on the agenda including retaining Courtney & Associates to perform an independent electric rate cost of service study and entering into a contract with Pinnacle Consulting Management Group for right-of-way or land acquisition services.
The board approved the monthly financial report, and also approved the purchase of an extended cab, half-ton truck from Stuteville Ford to be used at the water treatment plant.
“This was a budgeted item at $25,000,” Day said. “I had it bid both ways, with a single-cab and the extended-cab truck. It’s my recommendation to approve the extended-cab truck, which is still less than the budgeted amount.”
Board members also gave the nod to begin advertising for bids on the Tenkiller Water Treatment Plant Project, contingent on approval from the Department of Environmental Quality.
“This is for the plant only,” Day said. “Not the entire project.”
