SRBA approves contracts, budget

By LYNN MONTGOMERY | East Texas Edition

August 25, 2005 - Contracts and the annual budget was approved during the monthly Sulphur River Basin Authority (SRBA) meeting Aug. 16 in Mount Pleasant.

The two-year contracts, up for renewal, involved the Clean Rivers Program, which was implemented by the state to monitor water quality in the Sulphur River Basin. The three renewed contracts were between SRBA and the Texas Committee on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), a sub-contract with Paul Price and Associates (who recently sold to HDR Engineering), and a sub-contract with Texarkana College.

“I feel comfortable with the terms (of each contract),” Mike Burke, SRBA executive director, told the board during the meeting.

The only difference within the TCEQ contract is the SRBA will be receiving at least $10,000 more from the state agency during the upcoming two years, according to Burke. “That will allow us to do a little more monitoring in the basin.”

According to Burke, Paul Price was the only engineering firm who responded to the board’s request for bids, and the firm whose contract was approved would receive $26,400 for two years. Their contract is “the same as last year except for who would be signing.”

Texarkana College, a state-funded entity, can only contract for one year at a time, “so you multiply $39,900 by 2” to get their payment amount. Students from the college do the actual monitoring in the basin.

“There is also approximately $20,000 in lab cost,” Burke added.

Requests for bids to conduct the 2005 fiscal audit were also sent to various accounting firms throughout the basin. Six firms responded. SRBA accepted the bid from Wilf and Henderson, a Texarkana firm. The firm submitted the lowest bid, and promised the quickest turnaround. They bid $4,000 and stated they could have the audit completed by Oct. 15.

The annual budget was also considered and adopted during the Aug. 16 meeting. Deadline to approve the budget was drawing near (Aug. 31), therefore the board approved the budget with plans to possibly amend the budget in September. Information from the Joint Committee on Project Development would not be available by the Aug. 31 deadline, according to SRBA officials. This committee is partnered with SRBA and several metroplex water districts with regards to a basinwide study.

During the meeting’s public comment time, David Nabors from Paris addressed the board about the proposed Red River County landfill near Avery. The landfill, located just outside the city limits at Highway 82 East and County Road 4325, would be located in the Sulphur River Basin. Nabors questioned whether the SRBA should “be a party to any public hearing with regards to the matter.” The response from the board was the matter would be looked into.

The next SRBA meeting will be 1:30 p.m., Sept. 20, Civic Center in Mount Pleasant.