2024 Annual Newsletter

Jim Kelly Board Service to IBWS

Jim Kelly was elected to the IBWS Board in August 2005. He became the President of the Board in August 2006 and served in this leadership role until he resigned in October 2023. Jim was a “hands on leader” of Inlet Beach Water System. Jim spent countless hours to ensure that our membership received quality service at an affordable price. If you asked him a question, he would quickly pull out the pertinent contract, letter or analysis related to the issue. Jim worked tirelessly for our system for 18 years of its enormous growth. The Board would like to thank Jim for his unselfish service and thank his wife Janie for sharing Jim with us. 

Upon Jim’s resignation, our Vice President, Ernest Clark was elevated to President.

Bryan Corr, Sr Appointed to the Board of Directors

 Bryan Corr, Sr has accepted an appointment to the Inlet Beach Water Service Board of Directors to fill the unexpired term of Jim Kelly. Bryan is principal of the Corr Group, a real estate development company, whose portfolio includes the 30Avenue Lifestyle Center at Inlet Beach. Prior to the Corr Group, Bryan had extensive experience in operating and selling utility entities. He was President of Otelco, a landline telephone business in Oneonta, Alabama. He also founded a start-up cellular phone business in Alabama and Georgia which is now a part of ATT.

IBWS Improves Water Quality

Some customers have complained about rust settling at the bottom of their tank water heaters in homes used on a seasonal basis. This has been caused by the amount of free iron in the water. In response to these concerns, IBWS has added a system to feed a Poly Orthophosphate solution into the water supplied to our customers. This solution was approved by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and has been used by many water systems for a long time.

You might see us digging in your yard…

All community water systems are required to submit Lead Service Line Inventories to FDEP by October 16, 2024. This will require field inspections in and around meter boxes, in order to document that the materials used are in compliance according to the Federal Lead Ban. All non-compliant materials must be reported to FDEP. All findings will be publicly available.

 June 2024 Litigation Update

 The IBWS Board is committed to bringing its customers high quality service at the most reasonable rates. The IBWS Board previously filed a lawsuit against Regional Utilities and Walton County related to issues in connection with both the cost of sewer processing and providing treatment services to new IBWS members.

Litigation brings our members cost, great uncertainty of possible outcomes, and risk in how the lawsuit would be resolved. Therefore, the IBWS Board determined the best interest of its members was to reach an amicable, out-of-court resolution to the lawsuit. 

As part of this resolution, Regional Utilities and IBWS entered into a purchase and sale agreement, approved by Walton County, to sell the water and wastewater utility systems of IBWS to Regional Utilities. The Purchase and Sale Agreement was entered into by IBWS’ Board after much consideration and the Board’s determination that, under the circumstances, the sale of IBWS to Regional Utilities is in the best interest of the IBWS members. The IBWS Board unanimously agreed to execute the Purchase and Sale Agreement and had full legal authority to do so in accordance with the Florida Nonprofit Corporations Act and IBWS’s Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws.

The IBWS Board took steps to ensure that:

1- Residents of Inlet Beach will not incur any disruption in the water and wastewater utility service

2- Regional Utilities will not charge residents of Inlet Beach any fees or charges not otherwise charged in the ordinary course to Regional Utilities existing customers.

3- Residents of Inlet Beach will not be charged any fee to transfer or otherwise become a customer of Regional Utilities.

The purchase price will be determined in a fair manner based upon multiple independent appraisals of the IBWS’ system completed by professional appraisers with experience in appraising water and wastewater utility assets.

The distribution of proceeds from the sale of IBWS’ system, along with other assets not included in the sale, will be handled in a legal and equitable manner in accordance with all laws and accounting guidelines. IBWS has retained national legal counsel and an independent accounting firm, each with significant experience with cooperative members’ distributions.

If you have any questions, we ask that you send them to info@inletbeachwater.com. We will respond to your questions as soon as possible.

Annual Meeting

This year’s annual meeting will be held at the Grande Pointe Pavilion, 78 Grande pointe Dr N, on October 19, 2024, at 10 am CST. If you are unable to attend, please come by the office and pick up a blank Power of Attorney form. This form will need to be notarized and brought to the IBWS office by October 18, 2024. At the annual meeting, an election for two director seats will be held, one for the seat held by Ernest Clark and one for the seat held by Bryan Corr, who are both seeking re-election.