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PARKERSBURG -- The Parkersburg Utility Board received a clean audit, members were informed Tuesday.
A copy of the audit performed by the accounting firm Suttle & Stalnaker was accepted by the board on a 3-0 vote, with one member absent and one seat vacant, during its regular meeting Tuesday. The utility once again received an unmodified opinion, with no findings or other issues for the fiscal year that ended on June 30.
"You don't really appreciate a good, clean audit until you get one with findings," said Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce, the board's chairman.
PUB Manager Eric Bennett thanked Comptroller Erin Hall, Assistant Comptroller Christopher Pauley and other staff members for their work.
"It's definitely a group effort," Hall said.
The audit was the only item for the board's last regularly scheduled meeting of 2023.
The PUB saw substantial completion this year of a $19.1 million water system improvement project that replaced more than 60,000 linear feet of water mains, upgraded an elevated storage tank and repaired the backwash basin and south reservoir. A $1.4 million project to extend water and sewer service to the top of Fort Boreman Hill to make property there ready for prospective development was also completed.
Both projects were funded in part by American Rescue Plan Act money.
In 2024, the board expects to see construction begin on a project to install an activated carbon filtration system to remove per- and polyfluorinated substances like C8 from the water supply. A principal forgiveness loan from the state will cover $12.6 million of that project.
The audit report lists the total estimated cost at $16 million and noted that the utility "is also pursuing other options to insure this does not adversely impact PUB's ratepayers."
Bennett said Tuesday evening that the higher figure was the most recent estimate. While the original intent was for the state funds to cover the entire project, he said the expectation is still for it to be funded without affecting utility rates.