The Butler County Water Authority is considering a proposal from U.S. Tank for an annually scheduled maintenance program for its seven water tanks.

The BCWA typically budgets $10,000 per month for maintenance, but has increased that number in recent months to $15,000 for necessary repairs and painting to its Ridge water tank.

The Ridge tank would be cleaned and re-painted under U.S. Tank’s proposal, and the company would charge the water authority $8,500 per month to perform routine maintenance and repair to any water tank in the system. The company would also perform any emergency repairs to water tanks as well as annual inspections of both the exteriors and interiors.

“Say a hunter shoots a hole through one of your water tanks during hunting season,” said U.S. Tank President Jim Morris. “We’ll come and repair it under this contract.”

The terms of the contract would run 10 years, but the BCWA would be under no obligation to renew the contract each year, said Morris.

U.S. Tank is based out of Chipley, Fla., said Morris, and was incorporated in 1972. The company currently provides maintenance for 35 tanks in northwest Florida and the southern parts of Georgia and Mississippi.

Annual cost for the contract would be $102,000, but Artesian’s Wesley Bass said the BCWA is already budgeting $133,000 per year for future maintenance costs. The contract with U.S. Tank, said Bass, would basically take the guesswork out of what maintenance would be done and when it would be scheduled.

Bass said he would check a list of references provided by U.S. Bank before the board makes a decision.

In other business:

The water authority approved a $2 million budget for the next fiscal year. Estimated expenditures are $1.895 million, leaving the BCWA with an estimated profit of $167,333.