Weatherford Municipal Utility Board Meeting – March 26, 2026
Weatherford Municipal Utility Board Regular Session – March 26, 2026
The Weatherford Municipal Utility Board met on Thursday, March 26, 2026, at 12:00 PM in the City Council Chambers. The board accepted the annual audit report, approved a construction contract, and received detailed project updates from staff. The meeting adjourned at 12:46 PM.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The board unanimously approved the minutes of the February 26, 2026, Municipal Utility Board meeting. Motion by Ken Davis, second by Tom Novak.
Discussion Items
- Annual Audit Report (FY 2024-2025): Assistant City Manager/CFO Dawn Brooks presented the audit, performed by Pattillo, Brown & Hill, LLP. Audit supervisor Michelle Majowski reported a clean (unmodified) opinion with no material misstatements, no instances of non-compliance, and no internal control findings. Financial highlights included a $17.6 million increase in equity, a $1.1 million increase in electric sales, and a $0.7 million decrease in water/wastewater revenues. The board accepted the report unanimously.
- Construction Contract – Spring Street, Eastview Drive, and Garner Road Water and Wastewater Improvements: Public Works Director Matt Leppla presented a $3,495,885 contract with J&L Construction, LLC. The project includes 4,800 linear feet of 6-inch water line, 2,000 linear feet of 8-inch water line, 4,000 linear feet of 8-inch wastewater line, and 60 linear feet of 6-inch wastewater line. Notice to proceed is scheduled for April 26, 2026, with a 240-day contract schedule aiming for completion in December 2026. Streets will be repaved after installation. The board approved the contract unanimously.
- Staff Reports – Project Status Updates:
- Water/Wastewater Projects (Matt Leppla):
- Bodark Street water and wastewater project: underway, on schedule, within budget, completion expected August 2026.
- Town Creek Interceptor Project: behind schedule; liquidated damages began March 5, 2026; contractor submitted a revised schedule targeting completion by end of April 2026.
- Frankfort Pleasure Plain project: $3 million, 270-day contract, notice to proceed in April 2026, completion in January 2027.
- Impact fee study: revamping water and wastewater impact fees, consolidated with roadway fees for efficiency.
- Electric Utilities Projects (Joe Farley, Director of Electric Utilities):
- Overhead feeder construction on Fort Worth Highway (planning stage): 4,300 linear feet, dual-certified territory, includes joint use with Oncor and Texas DOT permitting.
- Palo Pinto Street overhead-to-underground conversion (planning): 6,500 linear feet, includes AT&T and Spectrum; RFQ for engineering, design 6–9 months, construction 9–12 months, project likely 2+ years out.
- Interstate 20 north side overhead line (design): 6,700 linear feet, dual-certified with Oncor, serving undeveloped property near Costco.
- Azel Highway overhead line upgrade (design): 9,300 linear feet, will improve capacity at Lake Weatherford substation.
- Eureka Street main feeder upgrade (construction): 3,100 linear feet, $215,000, improves backup feed to the hospital.
- Weatherford Point commercial development (construction): 2,400 linear feet underground primary, $300,000, nearly complete, serving area that is triple-certified (Weatherford, Tri-County, Oncor).
- Completed projects: new main feed on Highway 51 from BB Field to Airport Road ($180,000); automated metering system base station replacements at Kwana Hill, Harburger Hill, and a third location (total ~$51,000, providing backup coverage for 10–15 years).
- Residential subdivisions: approximately 1,000 new meters expected within the next year.
- Water Utilities Projects (Rick Shaffer, Water Utilities Director):
- Water Purification Plant Expansion: Phase 2 (filter process building) – contractor 80% complete on west wall, 50% on east wall, scheduled for completion by end of July 2026, followed by testing. Phase 3 (raw water pump station and pipeline) – 75% design complete, 100% design due in two weeks; new pump station will increase capacity and redundancy (two fully redundant pipelines from Lake Weatherford and Benbrook). Permitting with Corps of Engineers and Texas Historical Commission ongoing; no historical findings from shovel tests. Expected to advertise in May 2026, award in August 2026. Phase 4 (clear well, high service pump station, backwash, chemical improvements, GAC contactors 5–6 plus shells for 7–8) – may be split to avoid delays; GAC structure may be issued as separate GMP 6. Grant funding opportunities: up to $15 million (100% grant) from Texas Water Development Board (House Bill 500) – application available April 1, 2026, deadline July 2026, decision by September 2026; separate $30 million grant application for GAC structure due in two weeks, decision expected September/October 2026.
- Water Distribution System Update: 311 miles of pipe; 62% PVC, ~20% asbestos cement or cast iron; 13% of AC/cast iron replaced in last 5 years; estimated 20 years to replace remaining. Wastewater collection: 76% PVC, 24% clay; 24% of clay pipe replaced in last 5 years; estimated 15–20 years to replace remaining.
- Water/Wastewater Projects (Matt Leppla):
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous acceptance of the annual audit report for FY 2024-2025.
- Unanimous approval of the construction contract with J&L Construction, LLC for $3,495,885 for the Spring Street, Eastview Drive, and Garner Road water and wastewater improvements.
- Directive: Staff will pursue grant funding opportunities (House Bill 500 and GAC grant) and consider adjusting the Phase 4 schedule to accommodate potential delays from grant awards.
- Next Steps: The Town Creek Interceptor contractor is under liquidated damages; staff will monitor progress. The water plant expansion will continue with Phase 2 testing in August 2026. The raw water pump station design will be completed and advertised in May 2026. No citizen comments were made.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here today. Before we start our meeting and call it to order, I'm gonna ask uh utility board member Howard McClurkin to lead us in our invocation. Uh members, please uh bow your heads in prayer. Merciful Father, thank you for the opportunity for allow us to assemble, give us the wisdom to make the correct decisions that benefit uh uh the citizens of our community uh and everyone in this room and with the city. Uh please keep them safe, send your healing and protective annuals to encamp around them and give them good days uh if there's if they uh are stressing or having difficulties. Uh give them the wisdom and uh and and your love to know that uh you walk with them daily and that you will get them through these uh these difficult times. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you for that, sir. It is uh 12 p.m. and I'm gonna call to order the uh municipal utility board meeting for the city of Weatherford. Um announce we do the quorum present. We've got a full house today. Everybody's here, so thank you all for your service. Item three on the agenda is pledges of allegiance to the United States and Texas flags. Our mayor pro Tim Zach Smith is gonna leave us the most. Please join me. Appears to be a motion for approval by Ken Davis. Tom Novak provides a second in questions or comments before we vote on. And minutes pass. Item five on the agenda's regular agenda items 5A is consider and or act upon acceptance of the annual audit reports for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025, as presented by Patillo Brown and Hill LLP, certified public accounts. Welcome, Don Brooks. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the board. I'm Don Brooks, Assistant City Manager and CFO. Finance Department is pleased to present the annual financial report for the municipal utility system for the fiscal year ending September 30th of 2025. Today's action is merely just an acceptance of this report. Before I we ask you to take action, Michelle Majowski, our audit supervisor with Patillo Brown and Hill, is here with us this afternoon to discuss the results with you. Welcome and thank you for being here. Thank you for that introduction, and thank you for that gracious welcome. I appreciate the opportunity to come and discuss the results of the audit with you. So I'm gonna go ahead and get started. Please be patient with me as I've never worked with anything this fancy before. But really, today I just wanted to touch on the results of the audit, um, point out a few financial highlights and see if you have any questions. So to give a little bit of context, uh we completed an audit of the utility system as a part of the city's overall um financial statement audit, and with that, we issued a clean opinion. We issued an unmodified opinion in accordance with government auditing standards, meaning we didn't find anything materially misdated or incorrect due to fraud or error or anything that could materially affect your decision making as users of the financial statements. Also, in the course of our audit, we performed some limited testing over internal controls and um the utility system's compliance with certain laws and provisions, and we're required to disclose any instances of non-compliance or any findings that we come across in the course of our testing, and I'm happy to report that we did not come across any instances of non-compliance or anything that would uh warrant further disclosure. And that just speaks to uh the uh skill and experience of the finance team and all the effort that they put into preparing this report for you. Um, just touching on a few financial highlights. Um, as you can see, just looking at um fiscal year 24 and 25 at your equity. Uh your equity, you reported positive um equity classifications across all classifications. Um it was a 17.6 million dollar increase in that position uh of that electric electric sales increased about 1.1 million, and water wastewater revenues decreased about 0.7 million. That was all I had. Did you have any questions? We thank you for the information. Are there any questions related to the audit today? Comments. Thank you very much for all of your hard work at Patilla and Brown, and thank you to the finance company. Our in-house finance company. I I'd like to reiterate something that was said at uh city council, and that is that this finance department excels in what they do because it's very few finance departments of our size that can put this together, and we really really do appreciate everything that you do and the cost savings that you save the citizens of Weatherford. So thank you very much, and thank you.
openpublica.com