Following a lengthy discussion Tuesday night, the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors began to make headway toward improving Gloucester’s ailing public utilities department. Marty Schlesinger, director of public utilities, spent more than an hour listing the department’s needs during a special work session between the supervisors and the Utilities Advisory Committee held in the colonial courthouse.

Schlesinger explained, facility by facility, where processes are on the verge of failing or in need of repair, beginning with the water plant, located adjacent to Beaverdam Reservoir. The list seemed to go on and on. However, when Schlesinger told the board that the well in the basement of the water plant building had not been inspected in over three years, there was clear concern on the supervisors’ faces.

This well tank is encased in concrete and all of the water that the county treats runs through it. Schlesinger said that if the well fails inspection, it would have to be shut down until a temporary tank could be installed.

Asked how long a shutdown the facility could take before a loss of service, Schlesinger said, "We can only have a 24-hour shutdown of the water treatment plant." He also said, "Five thousand households would have to get by from what we can produce (with one well)."

Schlesinger explained that Gloucester’s system is not connected with any other system, so it could not temporarily receive service from Newport News or York County. "That has its advantages and disadvantages," Schlesinger added.

"Everything goes through the clear well, and we’re just not sure the condition of that clear well," he said.

Another point of contention Tuesday came up when Schlesinger passed around photos to the supervisors of the restroom facility for employees that work out of the distribution yard. This facility is located behind the Southern States building on Main Street.

Ware district supervisor Gregory Woodard was shocked when he saw the photos. "This concerns me," he said. "It’s shocking to see county employees using these facilities … this is an urgent need and should have been taken care of 10 or 18 years ago. It’s inhumane in my opinion."

Since it is not the county’s intent to keep the distribution plant in that location long-range, supervisors unanimously voted to direct county staff to investigate an appropriate option that may alleviate the current situation involving the restrooms at the distribution plant without incurring the expenses involved in designing and constructing a permanent structure.

Later in the meeting, there was a discussion about changing the debt service that the county utilities department is currently operating under. There was also talk about hiring a financial consultant with special expertise in an enterprise fund. It was the consensus of the board to issue a request for proposal, to help guide the utilities department.

Gloucester’s public utilities department received a transfer of $500,000 midway through this fiscal year from the county’s general fund and is expected to receive an additional sum close to $500,000 in fiscal year 2011.

Schlesinger said as of March 1, departmental revenues are down approximately four percent from what they were last year. However, expenditures are down about 10 percent from what they were this time last year.

One of the major burdens on the department involves the special consent order, implemented by the state, and takes up the greatest percentage of the utilities’ operating budget. The consent order, Schlesinger said, involves two legal documents. One is a special order of consent between the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and the Environmental Protection Agency.

"This requires HRSD to cooperate with localities to accomplish certain things," Schlesinger said. The other document involves the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and contains provisions that the localities would work with HRSD and accomplish virtually the same thing.

Schlesinger said the current estimated cost for the repairs/renovations under the EPA consent order is expected to be between $200,000 and $5 million. The only good news, Schlesinger said, is that there is not a tight timeline to get the work done, and Gloucester has much less infrastructure to repair/renovate than nearby localities such as Newport News or Virginia Beach.

A more in-depth report of the department of public utilities can be found on the county’s website at www.gloucesterva.info.

Emergency communications

In other news, the board voted unanimously to award the construction of the county’s Emergency Communications Center to the Phoenix Corporation, a full-service general contractor located in Newport News.

Garrey Curry, Gloucester’s public works director, informed the board that all original bids came in over budget, and that negotiations were made with the lowest bidder to lower the price while not adversely affecting the integrity of the project.

In the end, an additional $607,098 will need to be allocated to complete the $1,955,271 project.

Supervisors adjourned Tuesday’s meeting and continued the meeting until Wednesday night, where the board was to discuss the report presented to the county from the International Association of Assessing Officers.