Daleville Water Board approves raise

The Daleville Water Works and Sewer Board approved a 3 percent raise for its employees at its last regular meeting on Sept. 17.

The 3 percent raise will coincide with the discussed 3 percent raise that the city is discussing for its employees, according to Board Member Jo Reese who also serves on the Daleville City Council.

Board Member Charles Tongret voted against the motion.

He said that he wished to wait and make sure that the city approved its discussed three percent raise before approving the Water and Sewer Board approving its raise.

The motion served as a change to the Fiscal Year 2020 budget.

In other business, the board unanimously approved two trucks, light bar and a radio to be added to the Water Works and Sewer Department’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget.

The board then approved a motion for the board to receive yearly maintenance logs for all the vehicles in the Water and Sewer Department fleet.

“If we had those records, we could see the cost of each vehicle yearly and get an idea of how long they last and how long we should keep them,” Tongret said. “The more miles that are on it, the less you’re going to get on that website (GovDeals) that you sell them on. If they’re wearing out at 60,000 miles, we should get rid of them. If they’re lasting until 120,000 or 130,000 miles we keep them until then.”

Reese agreed, saying that the logs would allow the board to better keep up with its fleet to reduce surprise costs.

“That way even if they’re not going to be asking for one next year, we can see at the end of the first, second and third year how the vehicles are progressing,” Reese said. “We can kind of keep up with it, not just be faced with it. That would be fair to y’all and to keep us from getting blind-sided.

The next Daleville Water Works and Sewer Board meeting will be Oct. 15 at 4: 30 p.m. in the Daleville City Council chambers at Daleville City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.