I am pleased to report to the membership that Davidson Water, Inc. has 67,438 total connections and 58,517 active meters. That is an increase of 916 active taps from the prior year. Currently, the company has 80 full-time employees and 1 part-time employee. Last December, Davidson Water was awarded the Brad Leonard Memorial Business of Distinction Award presented by the Northern Davidson Chamber of Commerce.

COVID-19 continued to dominant and consume our attention in our daily operations. Our priority has always been protecting our staff and our members. As essential workers, we enacted safety protocols to minimize direct contact and committed funding towards creating safe workstations, providing appropriate PPE, and implementing new standards for sanitation of our shared spaces. Though over half of our employees have been impacted in some way by COVID-19 within the past year, we were able to maintain operations to serve our members. We appreciate all of the effort employees have put forth to protect each other. Our lobby has been close since March of 2020. We hope to reopen soon.

Water Treatment Plant and Water Quality: Our average daily flow was 10.9 MGD (millions gallons per day) and peak flow was just under 17.5 MGD. Water quality remains our top priority with all test results being well within EPA regulations. We are pleased to announce that in 2021 Davidson Water received the North Carolina AWOP (Area Wide Optimization Program) award given by NC Department of Environmental Quality. The program was developed to help water systems meet much more stringent regulations and achieve higher levels of water quality.

We have just about completed a $3.3 million bleach conversion project. This project changes our disinfectant from Chlorine gas to sodium hypochlorite (bleach). Not having large quantities of Chlorine gas makes our plant much safer and we have much less EPA air quality regulations to meet, all without change in water quality.

Distribution: Our distribution system saw large line upgrades, line extensions, and pipe relocation of 13.3 miles of new line and 7.5 miles of line replacement pipe. We had over 23 new projects permitted and have approximately 66 active projects under or in the process of construction. We completed construction on the Tower Road Pump Station in Thomasville, NC. This pump station replaces the station that was constructed in 1982. We also began the replacement of the Hwy 52 Pump Station, constructed in 1969, located at Enterprise Road and Old Hwy 52 in Lexington. The new pump station along with the aforementioned large line work will provide water for future growth in the northern part of Davidson County. Other projects included business fire lines and numerous new subdivisions due to the recent housing boom.

Meter Services: Our meter department installed 1,980 radio read meters bringing the total number in our system to 58,517. This has completed a multiyear change-out program with all residential meters are now AMR (Automatic Meter Read) technology. We will be focusing this year on larger size meters with various technologies such as ultrasonic meters and cellular reading.

Our newest member of our meter department is Puddles, our leak-detection dog. Puddles is a beautiful two year-old female chocolate lab who loves to find water leaks and play with her ball. She has been a hit with the public and we hope to use her to represent Davidson Water in schools and public events.

Customer Service and IT: Over the past year, Davidson Water has made several improvements, the most notable of these was the implementation of a new work-order system. The new system gives us more flexibility moving forward when it comes to adding new work-order types, as well as record more precise information on work-orders we have currently established. In addition, we have added an additional staff member in the IT department to focus mainly on our new work-order application.

With our lobby being closed, the number of payments made via the website have continued to climb at a steady pace. Just this past October, for the first time ever, we surpassed a total of 1,000 payments made in a single day using our website.

As Davidson Water continues to experience several significant world events, we have continued to see an ever-present need to maintain vigilance regarding cyber activity. While these growing concerns have always been on our radar, rest-assured that we continue to focus efforts towards improving cyber security as new concerns present themselves.

We begin construction on front parking lot, an additional drive-thru, and lobby renovation to improve customer service. We hope to be finished very soon.

Capital Credits: Last year, the Board of Directors approved the retirement of $408,000.00 in capital credits. Capital Credits are excess margins (or profits) created by non-profit companies. We distributed that money to members who received service in 1989.

Employee Giving & Community Outreach: Davidson Water employees have demonstrated an admirable need to give back to the community in more ways than one. This year our annual United Way campaign contributions totaled $6895.00. Our annual Food Drive at Christmas is always a huge success. This year, employees contributed $945 in cash and 81 lbs. of food for Greater Things Outreach Center in Welcome. We also contributed over $2,064 in Christmas gifts to Angel Tree children.

Scholarships: Davidson Water annually awards four college scholarships in the amount of $2,000.00 each to deserving high school seniors in memory of past board members. Last year’s recipients were: Isabel Cribbs, Wheatmore High School; Jacob Phelps, West Davidson High School; Logan Rogers, Wheatmore High School; and Allison Wray, East Davidson High School.

Davidson Water also awarded four $1,000.00 scholarships to students attending Davidson County Community College. Last years’ recipients were: MacKenzie Marsh, East Davison High School; Madison Miller, East Davidson High School; Emily Nifong, Oak Grove High School; and Savannah Routh, Oak Grove High School.

In closing, I want to emphasize our commitment to our mission of providing safe, reliable water to our members at the lowest possible cost. We will continue to do that with the leadership of our board and management, the expert guidance of our professional partners, the dedication and expertise of our employees, and the support of our members. Thank you.

Ron Sink, General Manager