River Bend Town Council Budget Workshop Minutes May 6, 2025 River Bend Town Hall 4:00 P.M. Present Council Members: Mayor Mark Bledsoe Brian Leonard Kathy Noonan Buddy Sheffield Jeff Weaver Lisa Benton Town Manager: Delane Jackson Public Works Director: Brandon Mills Finance Director: Mandy Gilbert Members of the Public Present: 3 The Mayor called the meeting back to order at 4:00 p.m. and recognized the Town Manager. The Manager began discussions by presenting the Council with several slides related to the agreed upon changes for a tax rate of 28ç, as was discussed during the previous workshop. The Manager stated that his recommendation is to use the additional revenue from the increased tax rate to reduce the amount of fund balance appropriation and not increase spending. All agreed with that recommendation. The Manager also stated that Public Works Director Brandon Mills was present to answer any questions related to water or sewer operations. The Manager stated that the town had just today received the results from recently completed water system test and deferred to Brandon for a summary. Brandon said that all the test results were good and he specifically discussed the iron and manganese results. The Council discussed ways of possibly sharing the results with the public. Brandon also discussed the upcoming water line flushing schedule, which will include unidirectional flushing this year. The Manager then discussed the proposed budgets for the enterprise funds. The Manager followed the advertised agenda and presented details related to water and sewer funds cash levels, all water and sewer fund departments, water and sewer capital improvement plans, the utility rate model and revenues for the water and sewer funds. The new wastewater treatment plant and water plant projects, and how they impacted the budget, was also discussed. During slide #28, the Manager pointed out that the town's reserve capacity at the wastewater treatment plant had increased slightly due to lower usage and the plant was currently operating at about 31% of its capacity. The Manager stated that there had been some misinformation circulated about the plant's lack of reserve capacity in the past. He stated that information was naccurate then and that the plant's reserve capacity was even more now than it was then. During the public input, Richard Taylor suggested using various techniques to inform the residents of the upcoming flushing plan. The Manager presented slides from the water and sewer rate model and stated that his proposal contained no changes to the rates. He showed what impact the future projections had on the water and sewer cash reserves and said those reserves needed to be monitored closely over the next few years for the need for possible rate hikes. He pointed out that there had only been 2 years with utility rate increases since 2017. The Manager suggested changing the start time for the next budget workshop since most of the major budget items had already been agreed upon. With no further questions, Councilman Sheffield motioned to recess the meeting until May 8, 2025 at 4:45 p.m. The motion was unanimously approved. The meeting recessed at 5:20 p.m. Dulan J Jocp Delane Jackson, Town Manager