PIERCE, Idaho – When the city of Pierce was looking to expand and improve their water system, they ran into a paperwork roadblock.
            “They’ve been trying to do this for five years,” said Pierce Mayor Greg Gerot, who took over the office in January.  “I didn’t have a lot of experience in these issues.”
            The community had received funding to update water lines, add a boosting station and add a new water source. The problem they had was getting the finances organized.
            “They had some financial difficulties,” explained Diane Sauer, an Idaho Rural Water Association circuit rider that assisted Pierce. “They had a project on hold because they didn’t have the right financials and audits.”
            This kind of assistance has become common for Sauer, who has a background in accounting. Once different agencies became aware of her experience, they started referring towns with accounting problems to her.
            “A lot of these small systems don’t have people with a background in accounting,” Sauer explained. “They don’t really know how to organize the audits or know what the books should look like.”
            Sauer explained that such financial issues can lead to difficulties when communities and utilities try to fund improvements with grants and loans. In Pierce, the city needed to do a rate study to identify how they were going to finance the project, including bonds and raising water rates.
            “They called me and asked for help doing a rate study, and they wanted it by next Tuesday,” Sauer explained, adding that the Pierce officials asked for the study the previous Wednesday. “I told them I couldn’t do a rate study that soon, but I gave them some ideas how they could look at their rates.”
            With Sauer’s help, Gerot and Pierce officials worked with the incomplete records and limited information to create an appropriate rate study. Sauer even attended several public meetings when the community was developing the project and continued to advise the mayor.
            “She was a big help getting me up to speed,” Gerot said.
            “It was mainly just getting them in the right direction with rates,” Sauer explained. “[Gerot] runs a business, he’s business-minded, I just gave him some direction.”
            The efforts have been beneficial so far, and the project is progressing.
            “She was fantastic,” Gerot said of Sauer. “She’s been as much help to us an any agency we’ve worked with. She’s a real asset to Idaho rural water.”

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