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Prescott subcommittee reviews semiannual water budgets; council questions large restroom allocation
Summary
At an Oct. 7 meeting of the Prescott City Council Subcommittee on Water Issues, staff presented semiannual residential and nonresidential water budgets and project summaries for July 1–Sept. 24, 2025. Council members asked staff to add address details to project listings and pressed staff to re-check a restroom allocation that appeared large.
Prescott City Council Subcommittee on Water Issues members reviewed the city’s semiannual water budgets and recent project approvals at their Oct. 7 meeting, with staff reporting remaining allocations for the current budget period and answering council questions about several line items.
The presentation, delivered by Bridal Reese, the city’s Water Resources Manager, covered the residential and nonresidential water budgets set under the amended 2022 water policy guidelines. The policy sets a semiannual allocation of 25 acre-feet per year for both residential and nonresidential categories for the July 1–Dec. 31, 2025 budget period.
Reese said four residential projects were approved administratively between July 1 and Sept. 24 and that those projects consumed 8.87 acre-feet per year, leaving about 24.13 acre-feet remaining in the residential allocation for the period. For nonresidential projects, Reese reported four approvals totaling 1.99 acre-feet and said 23.02 acre-feet remained in that budget category for the period.
The budget presentation prompted two operational requests from council members. Chair Goode and Member Freeworth asked that staff add street names and address numbers to the project description columns, particularly for nonresidential entries, so council members and the public can more readily identify project locations. Reese agreed to include that level of detail in the next meeting’s materials.
Council members also questioned the water-demand estimate assigned to a commercial restroom at a food-truck court. “I had to ask, what is a restroom that needs 0.42 acre-feet? ... It’s a lot of water for one restroom,” Councilwoman Freeworth said, asking staff to re-check the demand analysis and the comparable projects used to set that number. Reese said staff would review the restroom demand analysis and adjust the estimate if warranted.
The subcommittee also reviewed a table of 10 projects reported as under existing contracts; Reese said those projects collectively account for 1.9 acre-feet per year and that those volumes were not included in the semiannual budget tables provided for decision-making.
The meeting included one formal action: the subcommittee unanimously approved the minutes from the Sept. 2, 2025 Subcommittee on Water Issues meeting. Chair Goode moved to approve and Member Freeworth seconded; members voted by voice and hand signal.
Details and next steps in the presentation included a follow-up staff review of demand analyses on individual line items and a commitment to expand project descriptions in agenda materials. The subcommittee did not change the policy allocations during the meeting.
