In the recent election all Board members serving as Officers were reelected, except for Secretary Roger Whitlock. At the August 29 Board meeting, new Director Steven Muro was unanimously elected Secretary. These are now Crestview’s Officers:
- President: Frank Mezzatesta
- Vice President: Alma Quezada
- Secretary: Steven Muro
- Treasurer: Laurie Bennett
New Director Dave Stephenson replaces Sol Chooljian, who also was not an Officer in his final term on the Board.
In her prepared report and in response to Shareholder questions, Treasurer Laurie Bennett made the following points.
Total cash declined about $1,351,000 in the last 12 months for two main reasons. First, we used the $970,565 unspent proceeds of the loan taken to pay for Well #7 to pay off that loan because we cannot borrow the larger sum we will need for a well as long as that loan is outstanding. Second, as a result of unexpectedly high rainfall this year, revenues from water sales were about $720,000 under budget for the first eight fiscal months.
Bennett said industry guidelines for water companies like ours suggest we should hold cash equal to about 18 months of expenses. Budgeted expenses for FY2023 are $2,022,506. As of the end of July, our cash on hand was $1,335,057. [Corrected “revenues” to “expenses” 9/2/23.]
All of our cash is now in accounts that are fully insured by FDIC.
Some assets were written down in July per instructions from our CPA firm, because they are fully depreciated or no longer owned. About nine accounts were affected. Bennett announced at a previous Board meeting that these adjustments were in process.
Interim General Manager Durrell McAdoo reported that the environmental document for Well #8 will be published September 15. That will open a 30-day public comment period.
McAdoo also reported that in 2025 we will no longer be able to “roll forward” to the next year allocated water we fail to pump—we will then be on a “use it or lose it” basis. [Does anyone think this Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency rule will cause waste and ought to be changed?–Ed.]
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I guess with all the election business the water company did not have time to warn Cerro Crest about the brown water this week. That’s ok it is clear again. Let us remember the business is not politics , it is water.