Work Session 06 13 2025

The City of Starkville held a work session focused extensively on the utilities department's recent efforts and future plans, particularly addressing water loss and wastewater infrastructure. Key topics included a detailed review of water loss reduction strategies, metering system upgrades, and billing improvements, highlighting investments in digital meters and AMI system enhancements. The city also presented an updated capital improvement plan for water and sewer systems, outlining a $43 million investment over the next seven years, with accelerated wastewater treatment plant projects to increase capacity by 2027. Funding strategies discussed involved a combination of existing budget allocations, borrowing through bonds, and potential grants, with proposed sewer rate increases to cover debt payments. Additionally, the meeting covered various municipal matters such as special exceptions for land use, street improvement amendments, professional service contracts for project monitoring, and technology upgrades including an outage management system and SCADA supervisory control. The session concluded with consent approvals on multiple agenda items and preparations for upcoming board meetings.