Cave Creek to explore sale of water utilities during special meeting

By Jeff Wendt
Mail

The Cave Creek Town Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday night to explore the option to sell its water utilities to an outside company.

The town had initiated an invitation for bid for the Desert Hills Water System, because the Desert Hills system could have some economic value by selling its assets and the town keeping about 550 acre-feet of Central Arizona Project water currently being sent to the Desert Hills service area.

The CAP water used by Desert Hills was viewed as a valuable asset in light of the fact Cave Creek has been looking to augment its water supply by purchasing additional resources. The town’s recent utility master plan identified the need for an additional 1,000 acre-feet annually of new water resources beyond the current 2,000 acre-feet used.

The town has made progress in negotiating water exchange agreements with the cities of Peoria and Surprise and is planning to activate one or more wells in Cave Creek to help mitigate these reductions over the next 3 to 5 years.

The town is considering expanding the scope of the sale to include the Cave Creek Water System and the Cave Creek Wastewater System as well. By expanding the original scope of the Desert Hills Invitation for Bid to include all the systems, the council will evaluate the submitted bids to determine if it makes sense to keep the utilities or to sell them.

The council would like to retain the firm of Raftelis to assist in the Invitation for Bid process. This would cost the town approximately $114,000.

Raftelis will provide a number of services including appraising the assets, conducting financial analyses of the bids, identifying the pros and cons of selling or keeping the systems, estimating cost avoidance of purchasing additional water resources, and the financial impacts/benefits to the General Fund.

Expanding the invitation for bid on all of the town’s water and wastewater systems will enable the council to have additional information to help make future decisions on its utility systems.

Jeff Wendt
Reporter | Phoenix/Cave Creek

jwendt@iniusa.org

Meet Jeff
Jeff Wendt started at Independent Newsmedia in January 2023, after 25 years working for Gannett and The Arizona Republic. Started as a high school sports scoretaker, worked up to reporting high school sports and then became an associate high school sports editor in 2002. Also worked in the Design Studio as a copy editor.

Community: Jeff serves on the Board of Elders at his local church.

Education: Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication

Random fact: Attended Game 2 of the 2001 World Series.

Hobbies: Playing video games (yes still the kid in me), watching reality TV, playing poker.