Prejean: News story on auditor report inaccurate

Baldwin Mayor Abel “Phil” Prejean provided clarification Thursday concerning recent news of Baldwin being in dire financial straits as per a report from the State Legislature’s Auditor’s Office.
A news story from KATC.com, published on Wednesday, contained remarks from Prejean in which he explained the hierarchy of town utilities and services as they would be considered for termination due to the town’s inability to function, if such a scenario were to arise.
The 15-second clip of Prejean, in the context of the story, is discordant with what Prejean explained at Thursday’s town hall meeting.
“The discussion was about, ‘What is the situation in the town? And what do you do if you don’t have the money to keep going?’” Prejean explained. “And the question was, do you cut the water off, do you cut the gas off, do you cut the sewer off, or do you cut the police off (first)?
“And that was the context of a notation of which way it goes.”
Prejean went on to explain that the report from KATC.com was based on that hierarchy of termination as outlined in the legislative auditor’s report.
He explained that in his estimation, the reason Baldwin made the auditor’s list of towns in jeopardy, is due solely to its acquiring its water from Water and Sewer Dist. 4 instead of from its own wells.
“We think that we are turning the corner in this town,” Prejean argued. “We are getting things back in order.
“Now, don’t presume that I’m saying we are in great shape, because that’s not my point. What I’m saying is that we are still funded. Our police department is fully funded for a whole year. That’s not going to change.
“Other things we are doing are we’ve fixed our sewer stations, in most cases with one new, and in some cases, with two new pumps. We have new control panels in all of them. So, we are making headway.
“We’ve got a water program going on with improvements to the water system, with new valves and new meters, and inside the main meter, it tells you how much water you are buying from the district. It’s a new electronic meter, and that is going to be precise.
“We are reactivating the water tower. We will fill the water tower in the evenings and work that pressure off during the day to go through the town.
“So, those improvements are going in, and they are not the kind of things you put up a billboard for, but we are doing them.”
Prejean went on to note that he had spoken with auditors who are presently auditing the town’s accounts for 2018, and he said those auditors “are at a loss as to why it was reported like that, because it certainly did not come from them.”
Alderman Clarence Vappie wrapped up the matter by saying, “We are not in good shape, but we are in better shape.”
The board and mayor agreed.