The Webster Parish Police Jury will soon be sending out requests for statements of qualification as they move forward with constructing a parish water study and plan.
Juror Daniel Thomas, District 3 and chair of the intergovernmental relations committee, has been working to get information together on every water system in the parish to jumpstart the project.
“For quite a while, we’ve been talking about the water study and plan, and what I would like to do is send out an RFQ,” he said. “The reason for this is we don’t have an estimate for what this service would cost.”
The RFQs are submitted, and then engineering firms would be rated based on criteria showing the most qualified for the project. Once that is done, the police jury can start negotiations for cost and scope of the project.
“At some point in time down the road, we’ll have to decide if we want to spend the money to do this,” Jury President Jim Bonsall said.
Thomas said the plan was necessary for future growth.
“Caddo and Bossier parishes have a water study and plan and we don’t,” Thomas said. “I feel like we’re operating in the dark as far as future growth and water needs for the parish. We’ve done the data collection on daily usage, etc., so we have as much information put together as we can to save us as much money as possible.”
The water system list has been updated to reflect the current contact information for each water system in the parish. There are 32 water systems in the parish, including municipal water systems.
The purpose of the water study and plan, Thomas said, is to develop the plan so the jury will have the information to help water systems possibly obtain grants or use the information for business and industry.
There has been no discussion on the funding source for the study, he said.