by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“On the afternoon of June 30, I got an email from the auditor saying they couldn’t do our audit before the end of the year. That doesn’t work,” Sewanee Utility District manager Ben Beavers advised the board of commissioners at the July 21 meeting, apprising them of the difficult circumstance confronting the utility. The audit was due in the State Comptroller’s office at midnight on the day the email arrived. SUD had kept in regular contact with the auditor and Beavers was prepared to call a special meeting for last-minute approval by the board if necessary. “They’ve been stringing us along,” objected Board President Charlie Smith.

The auditor, formerly known as the MG Group, recently changed hands. The MG Group had performed SUD’s audit for several years. Beavers explored finding another auditor. Best-practices guidelines recommend changing auditors periodically, and SUD had some issues with recent audits, including the auditor’s failure to catch what was likely a software error where category totals failed to correspond with entries. None of the local firms Beavers contacted could take on a new client with a midyear deadline, and SUD again retained the MG Group to conduct its audit.

Seeking advice when he learned the auditor could not perform the contracted for service by the deadline, Beavers contacted the comptroller’s office and Buddy Perry, the principal of the firm conducting a rate study for SUD. Beavers received several names and reached out to CPA John Poole from Hendersonville, the geographically closest name on the list.

“Poole was familiar with the situation,” Beavers said. “We were not the first clients of the [former] MG Group to contact him.”

“He’s well qualified,” Beavers commented. Poole holds degrees in accounting, law, psychology, and an MBA. He offered to do SUD’s audit for the next three years for the same fee the utility had planned to pay the auditor they were under contract with and could provide SUD with a draft 2025 audit by the end of August.

The board voted to contract with Poole for the three-year term. “We might have to look all over the state to find someone else,” Smith said. Beavers explained SUD could cancel the contract at the end of the first year if there was a valid “material reason.”

SUD is required by law to have a contract with an auditor on record. Poole will advise SUD on cancelling the contract with its current auditor, now operating under the name Strategic Vision. SUD will not be fined by the comptroller for failure to submit its audit on time.

“I’d like to see if there is any kind of board of responsibility for CPAs,” Smith said.

Beavers agreed. “I’m going to ask that question. If nothing else, I’d like to lodge a complaint about unprofessional conduct. I don’t want this to happen to someone else.”

On another strategic front, Beavers updated the board on plans to flush and flow test the utility’s fire hydrants.

By law, SUD is only required to flush hydrants every five years. Flow testing is not required. For the Sewanee Fire Department to receive the best ISO score, meaning lower homeowners’ insurance rates, hydrants must be flow tested and the caps color-coded to indicate the flow rate available when the fire department hooks a hose to the hydrant to fight a fire. Commenting at the February 2025 meeting on the feasibility of annually flow testing and flushing all its hydrants, Beavers said, “It would take one-third to one-half of one worker’s time over a year plus the water loss.”

Responding to community concerns about both fire protection and demands on the community’s water utility, the University is investigating hiring a private contractor to flush hydrants, test flow rates, and color code the caps. The Alabama contractor under consideration estimated completing the job in two weeks. “That’s an optimistic timeline,” Beavers said. He predicted the project would take as much as three months.

Consistent with past joint projects between the University and SUD, the University will pay 80 percent of the cost and SUD will pay 20 percent. Beavers will work with the contractor hired to coordinate when and where flushing and flow testing will occur so as not to impinge upon water availability.

Commenting on her personal experience with flow testing when she lived in Nashville, commissioner Amanda Bailey said, “The white clothes I was washing turned brown.” Beavers explained the high-pressure surge during flow testing could bust loose iron and manganese deposits. Customers will be notified when flushing and flow testing will occur via The Messenger, Classifieds, and Facebook.