BRISTOL, Va. – Bristol Virginia Utilities concluded fiscal 2010-11 under budget with a positive net income, BVU officials said Monday.
On June 30, BVU closed its books as a division of the city of Bristol, Va., $671,000 better than budgeted, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Bright told the utilities provider’s board of directors. BVU began operating as an independent, public authority July 1, after the city and General Assembly approved the split.
“The auditors were here for a week and finished their work and we’ve finished under budget for the year by $671,000,” Bright said. “That came from OptiNet, from over-accruing money for one of the vendors. Overall, we’ve done very well.”
Figures are reported as unaudited until the fiscal 2010-11 audit report is completed later this year.
The electric and wastewater divisions missed budget projections by a combined $323,000, but BVU’s water division was $296,000 better than projected and OptiNet finished the year about $699,000 ahead of projections.
Forecast to finish with $1.8 million in total net income, the utilities provider wound up $2.5 million in the black.
BVU reported total revenues of $76.2 million, total operating expenses of $70.2 million plus $3.5 million in other expenses.
A key finding, Bright said, is that BVU has fulfilled a recommendation from financial advisers Davenport & Co., to set aside sufficient monies to deal with damages from catastrophic ice or wind events, in three of four divisions.
The advisers previously recommended that BVU set aside $13.9 million for electric assets, $2.1 million for water, $2.5 million for wastewater and $2.3 million for OptiNet.
As of June 30, only the electric reserve hasn’t been met, Bright said.
“We added $1 million to bring the [electric] total to $5.27 million. So at $1 million a year, it will take us several years to get to that,” she said.
BVU has about $63 million in electric system assets and about $78 million in OptiNet assets – much of which is exposed to the elements.
dmcgee@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2532
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