At the annual membership meeting on April 30, 2024, the membership of White House Water System (WHWS) voted by an 80% to 20% margin in favor of turning over the system and its assets to North Baldwin Utilities (NBU) which currently supplies, and for most of WHWS’s 50+ year history has supplied, 100% of WHWS’s water. This will mean all WHWS assets and liabilities being transferred to NBU, along with all maintenance, distribution, and billing services responsibilities, etc.
Action by the WHWS Board of Directors is still required, however, in order to approve the transfer of the system to NBU, and to dissolve WHWS. This is expected to happen sometime in the coming weeks or months, after the Boards of WHWS and NBU, with the aid of their respective legal counsels, complete the final details of the proposed transfer.
Once all arrangements are finalized, all WHWS members/customers will become NBU customers. However, the current WHWS office will remain open as a local branch office of NBU for your convenience in paying bills, applying for or terminating service, etc. WHWS members/customers will see little change for the time being, as NBU has been under contract to operate and maintain the WHWS for the past several months, and NBU vehicles and personnel are already a familiar sight in the WHWS service area.
With this transfer, current WHWS members’ rates are planned to drop to $4.70/thousand gal, which will be a substantial cut from the current $6/thousand, and an almost 50% cut from the $9/thousand rate which was in place up until just a few months ago. The $4.70/thousand rate will be frozen for the first 3 years, and will be GUARANTEED FOREVER after that to NEVER be higher than the rate charged for all other NBU customers.
NBU will also be committing to making millions of dollars of improvements throughout various parts of the former WHWS, using NBU and former WHWS capital and grant funds. All customers will be receiving a one-time $100 bill credit from NBU as well, once the transfer is complete.
Also at the annual meeting, Board member Dewayne Holley was re-elected, and Mark Frenette was elected to the Board position previously occupied by Rick Bullard. Congratulations to Dewayne and Mark, and a sincere thank you to Rick for his years of service to the Board.
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