Fountain utilities report shows water fund progress but warns of revenue pressure from falling consumption

Dan Blankenship, the city's utilities director, told the Fountain City Council on Oct. 14 that the electric and water enterprise funds together now meet the O&M reserve test used by bond lenders, but the water fund remains short on its own.

"By the state's methodology our water fund O&M reserve for 2024 was about negative $3.2 million," Blankenship said. He explained the state calculation treats the reserve as current assets less current liabilities and that combining water and electric reserves is a customary way lenders judge overall utility financial health. "The electric fund has assets of about $19.7 million, and that combined position puts us back into compliance with our bond covenants for the first time since 2017," he said.