Britt Dye, CEO/general manager of Fayetteville Public Utilities (FPU), gave his quarterly report to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen during its April meeting. The report included updates on new waterline installation within the city that required “tearing up the streets, making a mess and starting to clean up.” He also gave an update on taking over the Peterburg water system, electrical updates around Blanche, Coldwater, Park City and toward the state line, installation of fiber inside the city limits, continual tree trimming and adding gas lines in the southern part of the county.

Dye said FPU has installed more than 25,000 feet of waterline throughout the city, which, he said has created better water pressure. “We’ve replaced up to 29 new fire hydrants,” he said. “We will have a lot of 6-inch and 8-inch lines to put in. When you see the steel plates, we still have a lot of valves to insert on the water lines to make the connections on other streets.”

Work will be completed on First Avenue, Swanson Bouldvard, Scenic Blvd., Hatcher Drive and Morningside Drive before moving to the “south end of Bellevue Avenue going to Hedgemont Avenue. From Hedgemont, we’re going all the way to Davidson Drive,” Dye said. “That will be the next section of town we’ll be repairing. There will be some side street work, which is on Davidson Drive down to Sunset Drive.”

Dye said he and Jack Williams, public works director, had discussed paving on Kiwanis Avenue, Clay Avenue, McDonald Street and Elmwood Terrace. He said with FPU cutting in valves in that area, it wouldn’t be of any benefit to pave since big trucks would be running up and down the streets.

Petersburg’s water system

“We hope to bill Petersburg customers the middle of May,” Dye said. “We will be doing some things on May 4 as far as meter reading. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge on how their meters have been read. Not really read — they’ve been estimated for quite some time.”

Dye said, “Some of the bills will be high; some will be low; some are going to be really high; some are going to be really low because they’ve just been estimated. Once we get in there, they’ll have a partial billing.” He said FPU won’t be bank drafting the first water bill because “we don’t know if they want to add it to the bank draft of all utilities being together. So, they’ll have that option coming back later and saying if they want everything on bank draft at one time.”

FPU Electric

“We’re doing a lot of improving the size of the conductors around the Blanche area and down around the Old Huntsville Highway,” Dye said. “We’ve increased the size of the conductors around Coldwater and are getting ready to pick up some additional load in that area. We have growth coming from the south, out toward the Park City area, further south toward the state line and on Old Quick Road. We’re building in that area as residential loads are picking up.”

Fiber

Dye said installation of fiber is almost completed around Twin Oak Manor and Country Club Drive. “We’re about ready to wrap that up,” he said. “We still have some cleanup. We’re in the Timber Lake area. From there we’ll be moving to another underground fiber installation.” Dye said once the underground portion is done, FPU will be doing the aerial replacing most all of the old cable inside the city. “This was the first part that was built back in 1999,” he said.

Dye said homeowners will have to activate the fiber inside the house. He said FPU would be putting out door hangers to let residents know what’s to be done “if you’re interested in getting fiber. Eventually, you’ll have to hook up to the fiber because we will no longer support the old cable because with new technology all that is becoming obsolete.”

Alderman Joseph Faulkner asked Dye what residents could expect for internet speeds. Dye said he couldn’t give an exact number because some places are faster than others. “It’s going to be a whole lot faster than what they’re getting on cable, if they have cable. Everybody that’s hooked up to the new fiber, even out in the rural communities, it’s very, very fast.” He told Faulkner he could get him numbers.

Tree Trimming

Dye said tree trimmers are working everywhere. “We had a dry season and right now we’re going into a wet season,” he said. According to Dye, a lot of Ash trees are dying due to the invasive emerald ash borer beetle. He said a lot of trees are falling in the rightsof- way and taking down power lines. “We’ve been trying to keep up with that. It’s been a challenge, but they’re doing a great job so far to keep up.”

Natural Gas

FPU is adding additional gas lines around Bellview and in the southern part of the county to increase pressure. Dye said even though gas lines are underground tree trimming crews work beside the gas lines. “We still have to keep the right-of-way cut out when you flag and mark those lines,” he said.

Budgets

“Work has begun on budgets,” Dye said. “Instead of five different budgets, this time we’re going to be looking at six different budgets with the addition of Petersburg.” He said budgets are very, very tight. “We’ve been able to hold our own so far with the cost of everything that’s increased. You know what’s going on in foreign countries and how that affects everything that goes on here, especially with fuel. We use a lot of porcelain as far as insulators, steel, copper. You know everything is increasing. We have to be sure we keep on top of that to see what we will have inside our budgets.”

In concluding his report, Dye said, “We’ve torn up a lot of streets but we’ve made a lot of good progress on the water. I am totally surprised at everything we’ve done so far. We’re about 38% done. We still have another two and a half years to go.”

In December 2023, Gov. Bill Lee and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) Commissioner David Salyers announced the City of Fayetteville received three loans totaling $17.8 million to improve water infrastructure. The loans were approved by the Tennessee Local Development Authority, with $15.2 million from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Loan Program (DWSRFLP) for the replacement of aging waterlines. The loan has a 20-year term at 2.3% interest. The city received $7.5 million in principal forgiveness with the remainder of the loan amount to be paid back as principal.

Fayetteville received a separate $1.8 million loan from the DWSRFLP for water treatment plant improvements. The loan has a 20year term at 2.3% interest. The city received $1.26 million in principal forgiveness with the remainder of the loan amount to be paid back as principal.

Another $800,000 loan from the same program was for water treatment plant expansion. The loan has a five-year term at 2.1% interest. The city received $250,000 in principal forgiveness with the remainder of the loan amount to be paid back as principal.

BOMA approved three resolutions, on behalf of FPU, to approve applications for the three loans. Last May, FPU began its multi -million-dollar water project to replace aging infrastructure around the downtown square. Dye said “age and condition” and “flow and pressure improvements” are why this project is necessary.