CULLMAN, Ala. – Cullman Mayor Woody Jacobs on Friday announced two major projects have been completed or are near completion – one financial, the other physical. First, the City of Cullman will save more than $20 million on interest payments on the Duck River Dam project. Second, water will begin flowing from the Duck River Dam to the Cullman Water Treatment Plant next week.
City Clerk Wesley Moore described the financial project and what its completion means for the City: “We’ve been working on a financial project for around two years. The city council and the utilities board, we were approached by some underwriters doing refunding of the 2011 Duck River bonds. At that time, the savings was around $8 million, but we patiently waited. We knew the market would improve, and we continued to watch the bonds over the past two years and we’re glad to report that there are gonna be some really tremendous savings.”
Moore said the board’s financial bond rating improvement to AA- (the highest rating it has ever received) as well as falling rates led to this week’s refund yielding the largest savings of any refund the City has ever done.
Moore gave Jacobs the honor of announcing the amount: $20,490,238.09- That’s the total amount the City and utilities board will save on interest payments while paying off the debt for the Duck River project. Because of this savings, water rates for city residents will decrease. The amount of that decrease was not specified.
“Every year when we calculate the water rates, they’ll be a little cheaper,” said Jacobs.
As for the physical project, Jimmy Knight, chairman of the Duck River Advisory Board, took to the podium to talk about the history of the water systems in Cullman County and make the second major announcement.
“Cullman is on a plateau, and having a source of water for the public has been an issue ever since it was formed,” he started. “Back in the 60s, Mayor Bill Nesmith and a lot of others had the vision to build Lake Catoma. He said it could produce 8 million gallons a day, and at that time they were using 3 million gallons a day. Most of us were raised where we had an outdoor toilet, didn’t have running water, and a public water supply just seemed out of the question. But the people at the East Cullman Water System started it, said they’d borrow some money, and built a water system to East Cullman. Then it went to VAW (VAW Water System Inc.), then through Johnson’s Crossing, and then to Walter, then the County got into the water business in 1972.”
Gesturing to the representatives of the East Cullman, V.A.W, Johnson’s Crossing, Cullman and Cullman County water systems and the County Commission, Knight said everyone gathered there represented 100,000 people who have access to City water through the current system.
Of the intense drought the county faced several years ago, Knight said it highlighted the need for an additional source of water. After years of planning, working and “jumping through hoops,” Knight was pleased to announce, “Very shortly, water will be flowing from the Duck River Dam to the East Point water plant. Everyone in Cullman County will have access to public water if they want it.”
Jacobs recounted his own experience during the drought and his reaction at seeing how drastically Lake Catoma fell. He said even though there has not been another drought as intense since then, it could happen again at any time and that year really drove home how necessary another water source would be.
“This has been a long time coming, and it’s been a lot of work to get here,” said Jacobs. “There’s been some environmental folks who didn’t want this to happen, and it really cost the rate payers some money. We could’ve built this impoundment, the debt would be half paid off and we could’ve built it for cheaper, but that’s not the reality. The reality is that it’s built, the pipeline is complete, next week they’ll be flushing lines and by the end of the week, they can begin treating some of that water.”
Jacobs beamed, “It’s a great day for all of Cullman County – all the rate payers, chicken houses, farms – and we couldn’t have done it without everyone in this room.”
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