Board President Resigns; Crews Tackle Water Leaks

In a meeting that was once again at times contentious, the West Stone County Water Association saw a change in leadership, heard from a representative of the Arkansas Rural Water Association, and considered the condition of the system.

As soon as the board convened its Aug. 17 meeting, Board President James Sutterfield tendered his resignation. Sutterfield said that he would remain on the board but was resigning as president.

The board voted in Shane McElroy, who has been serving as vice president of the board, as the new president. After some discussion, Terry Rushing agreed to be nominated as vice president, and he replaced McElroy in that role.

A number of community members attended the meeting, which was held at the Fox Community Center to accommodate seating. Those attending included at least one former employee, and a number of people who were left without water for more than a week after pressure dropped in the water tank at Mozart last month.

Chris Harris from the Arkansas Rural Water Association, who has been working with the board to resolve issues in the system, fielded questions from board and community members.

Harris said Rural Water crews had found about eight leaks that they got repaired, and the level in the tanks started climbing again. However, with the dry weather and shifting ground, he said the level had started to fall again in the last few days. Harris also said that the system has quite a few broken valves.

Systems manager Brian Whitworth said that his crews had found six leaks the day of the meeting.

Harris said, “There’s no peace in a water system. There’s just moments between battles. And in those moments when you’re not fighting constant leaks, you should be looking for the next ones. On a system this size, there is no doubt that you’re going to have quite a few leaks.”

Craig Hicks, owner of Fox County Store, had submitted a list of questions to the board in writing. These included questions about the bylaws, terms and elections of board members, and the rate of water loss on the system. Hicks said that he had requested a list of the leaks that were found and fixed over a period of time, and that he believed the water association was required to submit such a list to the government.

Harris said that such a list is not required by law, but that the Arkansas National Resources Commission does ask for that every year on a report, along with commercial and residential meters, and he would encourage any manager to have such a list ready to go.

Hicks also said, “In your minutes you guys noted that your water losses are 54 percent. I don’t recall anything in your minutes about anything being done about it.”

McElroy said that they are fixing leaks every day. “This system’s 45-years-plus old, and had very little scheduled upgrades,” he said.

Harris was peppered with questions about the experience water crews have and how that affects their ability to find the leaks. Most of those questions came from former water system employees or their family members.

Harris said that learning the system is important to being able to find leaks. He said he could not speak to the capability of the current crews, but told Hicks that they now have a map of a good portion of the valves on the system.

In the process of answering Hicks’ questions, McElroy also said that the board did not have an annual meeting in 2025 because they had trouble getting their audit done.
“There had been some things the auditors had requested from the office, that we didn’t know about. We found a file in a drawer,” McElroy said. He added that by the time they found the file and were able to get information to the auditors, tax season had started.

”We got our audit back last week for 24-25,” McElroy said. He said that the board would schedule this year’s annual meeting, and that they were already ahead in the audit process for 2026.

McElroy also said that the board is hoping to install a pump for the tank at Mozart, where community members were left without water last month, because later this year the inside of the tank will need to be repainted. He said the previous contractor did not do the job properly, and the tank will have to be emptied and repainted.

McElroy also told Hicks, in answer to a question, that the board would look at different ways to keep community members informed of future meeting dates and locations.

In other business, the board:

• Heard Whitworth give the operations report, including an update on the progress in installing a new telemetry system which will allow crews to be informed of leaks more quickly.

• Heard from Whitworth that in July crews had fixed 29 leaks, installed three taps, and that Arkansas Rural Water had helped them find a faulty valve that was causing tank 5 to overflow at night.

• Approved a total of $9,165 for an actuating valve that would replace the valve that was allowing tank 5 to overflow.

• Approved the purchase of a replacement hammer for the track hoe for $7,052.92.

• Accepted the highest bid on a 2012 Ford F-150 that the water department was no longer using.

• Talked about adding another tank near Rural Special School at a cost of $500,000. Terry Rushing said that he and fellow board member Preston Hipp had been looking at grants and loans, and said they would bring more information to next month’s board meeting.

• Reported that an executive session had been held prior to the meeting for personnel issues, but that no decisions had been made.

The board then opened the meeting for public comments.

Maggie Bradley of Shirley brought up the issue of merging the system with Community Water System out of Greers Ferry. Bradley’s father, Doug Hutto, husband of board member Lori Hutto, works as an operator for Community Water.

Bradley asked the board if it would be possible to hold a community survey or have some kind of voting process to determine if West Stone County’s customers would like to merge the two systems.

As McElroy and Bradley were discussing the issue, former water association employee Raymon Lancaster began to pepper the board with questions and accusations, including questions about a $1,200 stipend that had been paid to Becky Sutterfield, wife of James Sutterfield.

As Lancaster began to fire questions and accusations at the board without pausing to let board members answer, McElroy quickly moved to adjourn the meeting.

McElroy said later that Becky Sutterfield had volunteered her time and her experience in accounting to help the board get together all the materials that they needed for the audit, and that the board had paid her a $1,200 stipend after estimating that she had put more than 100 hours of her time into the process of getting ready for the audit.

The next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 14 at 5:30 p.m. at the West Stone County Water office in Fox.