After more than seven years employing a private corporation to fill their utility needs, Karnes City is preparing to take back operation of the town’s water, sewer, and street maintenance.

The switch will happen June 30 this year. As of July 1, the city will be on its own and responsible for hiring its own employees to fill the various utility needs of Karnes City residents.

"We anticipate a savings in the water fund of approximately $160,000 to $200,000 and $50,000 to $75,000 in the sewer fund," City Administrator Larry Pippen said.

He’s overseeing the transition and making all the preparations needed, including the hiring of seven new city employees and the acquisition of new equipment.

The city bought a new front-end loader last year, but will need a shredder, a commercial-grade lawn mower, and about three pickup trucks.

Veolia Water received $433,500 in payment for their services last year. Pippen said $45,000 of that went toward electric bills and another $44,000 went toward maintenance and repairs. The $344,300 left over was applied to employee salary, bonuses, and benefits. A portion is retained as company profit.

"What amount they make, I have no idea," Pippen said. "We don’t ask them."

He’s convinced, though, that the city can save money doing all the work themselves.

"The biggest challenge is finding the qualified people to run it," he said, "but I’ve had a lot of inquiries from experienced people since it’s been made known that we’re going to do this."

Veolia Water Area Manager Dennis Merrill said he wasn’t sure the city would be able to do the job for less than his company could, but expressed gratitude for having been given time to serve Karnes City.

"I think Mr. Pippen is going to have a hard time beating us on cost, but at the end of the day, I work for Mr. Pippen," Merrill said. "If he says it’s time to go, it’s time to go. We’ve been grateful for the opportunity. We hope to be around and hope to be of service to the community in the future. Of course we always hate to lose a client. It’s always been a pleasure serving the community. We have a really good staff there and we felt like we were offering a competitive salary."

He also noted the workers’ money-saving experience would have come in very handy once Karnes City’s new wastewater treatment plant goes online.

"We’ve got a lot of experience securing the lowest life-cycle cost for those systems and for water-reuse strategies as well," Merill said.

Veolia Water has been working for Karnes City since October 1999. Their contract was terminated during a special city council meeting January this year.