Batesville City Council: City formalizes water agreement with Cushman

By Andrea Bruner, White River Now

The vast majority of the water the city of Batesville sends to Cushman never makes it to the customers. Instead, Cushman’s crumbling infrastructure allows thousands of gallons of clean water to seep into the soil.

Tuesday night, the Batesville City Council approved a resolution authorizing the Batesville Water Utility to enter into a formal water utility agreement with the city of Cushman.

Since March 2021, BWU has produced all water distributed by the city of Cushman, but due to the state of its infrastructure, Cushman loses approximately 80 percent of that water, according to Batesville city officials.

Due to the losses, Cushman is unable to financially pay the full monthly bill and now owes BWU about $960,000.

Currently, Cushman is paying a flat rate of $11,500 a month. This agreement acknowledges the current deficit but also sets expectations for both parties going forward. Cushman is actively repairing its infrastructure with the goal being to lower its losses to the point where the flat monthly payment will begin to address the deficit.

The agreement states that Cushman’s water usage shall be stabilized within a 20 percent loss rate or decreased based on the same month’s average from the same months in prior years. It also states that Cushman agrees to increase the monthly amount payable to BWU if financially possible, but even after its monthly usage bill falls, it will continue to pay the minimum amount of $11,500.

If the debt reaches $1.5 million, the contract shall terminate 30 days from notice being conveyed to the mayor of Cushman, unless the terms are extended or renegotiated by a written agreement approved by both parties.

In other business, the council heard the first reading of two separate ordinances for doing business with certain individuals who have a connection to the city but also work in the industry of providing financial services to the city of Batesville.

State law requires that the governing body of a municipality (the city council) must approve by ordinance any contract or business arrangement between the city and an entity employing a city council member, employee, board or commission member.

The first was Alderwoman Julie Hinkle, who serves as vice president of the Batesville branch of the Bank of Cave City. The second was Alderman and Public Works Commission member Robb Roberts, senior vice president for commercial lending at First Community Bank.

Because two city council members – Paige Hubbard and Landon Reeves – were absent and Roberts and Hinkle would each be abstaining from the ordinances involving themselves, the council did not have a majority to read the ordinances by title only, as is traditionally done with most ordinances, or to do away with the second and third readings of the ordinances, which is also usually done with these ordinances.

Both ordinances were placed on the agenda for a second reading at the next council meeting, which is set for Oct. 14.

The council also appointed Pete Roulier to serve a term on the airport commission; the term will expire in 2029.

During his comments, Mayor Rick Elumbaugh said the city had accepted bids for upgrading the community center with exterior outlets so it may be illuminated during the upcoming holiday season, at which time the majority of the city’s Christmas lights will be moved around the center.

The low bidder was Richardson’s Electrical, and the council agreed to pay the $7,500 bid out of the community center’s perpetual maintenance fund.

Finally, during council comments, Roberts praised the city’s text system. He said he had recently texted about some debris, and it was gone quickly. He noted that “it will not happen every time,” but said the system “works well.”

Citizens can text “hi” to 870-512-5155 and then at the prompt, report issues, ask questions, and/or receive alerts from the city.

There were no comments from citizens on Tuesday night.

Image of Batesville Municipal Building by Gena Tate, White River Now