Thursday’s Bridgeport Utility Board meeting was one of strategy as the board discussed future approaches with regard to both water and sewage matters. 

 

Budgets and projects – both those completed and those projected for the future – were looked at by board members. 

 

“We’re about 40 percent complete with regard to sewer projects,” said City Engineer and Director of Public Works Tom Brown. “Taking into account depreciation and everything, we ended up in the plus even with having done some major projects. We ended up with better revenues than we had projected. We had a good year financially with regard to sewage projects.”

 

Since a study took place in 2006, sewer projects have been prioritized according to what was in the worse shape, Brown said. In 2011, the board implemented the same plan with regard to water projects. 

 

“We have now completed that and so we’re looking ahead for the next five years and what we want to accomplish,” Brown said. “We’re coming up with a long-term control plan to get a strategic plan in effect.” 

 

The board discussed water and sewer projects planned for 2016-2017, including work on Main and Third streets. 

 

“We’re ready to put out a (request for proposal) for engineering services for those projects,” Brown said. 

 

The board also talked about some long-term planning with regard to water service, including the possibility of developing a water line between Bridgeport and Southwestern (Water District.) 

 

“We had talked about that in the water resiliency committee before and we put together some really preliminary figures,” Brown said. “They wanted us to tighten that down a little bit and see if we could get closer to the cost of water coming from Southwestern for a commercial account, secondary user, and just to do a little more study into that and report back at either the next board meeting or another to follow.” 

 

Financed by fund balance, various water projects have been completed, enabling the BUB to meet a goal to be at or below 10 percent water loss, said City Engineer/Director of Public Works Tom Brown. 

 

Storm water drainage was also discussed. 

 

“Instead of storm water management, we’re talking more about repair of storm drains,” Brown said. “We’ve been using cameras to find where we have problems with the storm draining and developing ways to either repair or replace those. Over the last three years or so we’ve had a crew using cameras in sewers and in storm drains so we can better develop a strategy in moving forward.” 

 

The next Bridgeport Utility Board meeting is Aug. 18 at Bridgeport Municipal Building.