By Jeremy Pittari/Item Staff Writer
The Picayune Item
PICAYUNE — Some financial issues with the City of Picayune have been resolved, allowing the Pearl River County Utility Authority to obtain a clean audit report.
The Utility Authority’s new Operations Manager Cliff Diamond said during Thursday’s meeting that the Utility Authority Board met with City Council members, the city’s mayor and Ron Bowman with Bowman and Associates.
In that discussion Bowman told board members about the work that was conducted on the city’s accounts receivable to rectify previous city utility accounting issues. Those issues were affecting the Utility Authority since the city collects money for sewer services within its limits and sends a check to the Utility Authority, Diamond said. The city turned its sewer system over to the Utility Authority a couple of years ago.
Now that those issues have been cleared up, the Utility Authority can get clean audit reports, Diamond said.
Another change with city utility billing will allow the Utility Authority to collect for actual usage. At a previous City Council meeting, City Clerk Priscilla Daniel said most city residents can expect to be billed for actual water usage their bill. That will allow for larger checks to be issued to the Utility Authority, Diamond said.
Other issues discussed at the meeting included some repairs that were conducted on Palestine Road. Those repairs were in preparation for paving work along Palestine Road. Some joint repair work on Shepherd Drive fixed a sewage problem, but left a mess. Diamond said the Utility Authority will repair the large hole that had to be dug to make repairs, but the dirt must settle first and repairs must be checked to be sure problem was fixed before repaving the repair area.
Some electrical problems at the lift station near Pizza Hut also have been rectified. Diamond said the power company came out and repaired a problem with a power line. That was a major repair considering all of north Picayune’s sewage comes through that station before being sent to the Jackson Landing Road area and the treatment plant.
Hide-A-Way Lake residents are coming on board with a new sewage system, about half of them anyway. Diamond said 470 residents have signed up to have their sewage ccollected in a community wide system. According to previous reports, all of the nearly 900 homes in that subdivision have septic tanks. Diamond said for $250 the Utility Authority will install a tank, grinder pump, control panel and effluent line to a home, connecting it to the planned community sewage system. Residents have until Feb. 26, to sign up for the program to get that work done at that price. Diamond said after that, if residents choose to connect to the system, it will cost them between $4,000 and $5,000.
“We have seen a rapid increase in sign-ups in the last couple of weeks,” Diamond said.
In other business, the board pproved renewal of a line of credit used to acquire easements on private property through First National Bank.
The next meeting will be March 18, at 2 p.m. in the Poplarville City Hall.
