The Town of Century cannot account for 58 percent of the natural gas it purchases for resale and is facing a projected loss of $188,000in the fiscal year.
At a budget workshop held last Friday in Century, CPA Robert Hudson said the new installation of gas meters and changing out old ones should result in an increase in the gas fund.
Councilwoman Ann Brooks asked Hudson about the gas income increase from $400,000 to $450,000 and Hudson pointed out that changing out the old meters will show an increase.
“We will get the meters in and just watch it trickle to the bottom line,” said Hudson. “We are billing right now half of what we have purchased. If we are making a bold move to do the meters, our gas revenue has got to go up.”
It has been determined that the gas is not leaking. Officials have said it is either a problem with customer meters, meter reading or a discrepancy between the amount billed by the town's supplier and the quantity actually delivered.
The council decided to keep the gas department's projected income for the next fiscal year at $400,000 to make it easier to look at financials and see increased income from the new meters.
With about 500 Century and area customers serviced by the Century Gas Department, the town will purchase the new meters with $100,000 from a Special Revenue Economic Development Account that has $112,000 balance.
The next scheduled budget workshop will be at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 4 at Century Town Hall.
