Bank of Holly Springs

HSUD celebrates audit report

The City of Holly Springs and Holly Springs Utility Department got a big morale boost with the recent completion of an independent external audit in December that showed a clean slate on its finding page.

HSUD employees were treated to a catfish dinner, prepared by sheriff Kenny Dickerson and crew, thrown by the Tennessee Valley Authority. "TVA is just here as our partner and they sponsored our meal," said Bill Stone, general manager of HSUD.

The celebration was in conjunction with TVA's board of directors holding a meeting in Oxford.

Stone said that in the past couple of decades HSUD has not maintained a perpetual inventory reporting system as well as it should have.

That is now over and behind the utility due to new leadership at HSUD, including Stone and new assistant general manager Steve Reed, who specializes in accounting.

"This could be the first time ever we didn't have an inventory finding on the audit," said Stone, citing an audit report from 1961.

There were other issues but the perpetual inventory is one of the main issues that needed to be resolved, Reed said.

"A perpetual inventory is an ongoing inventory. You have everything coming in starting with a work order system to track use of materials," Reed said. "We didn't really have that in place. The other part is receiving where the purchase order is matched with a receiving report and then accounts payable that matches the purchase order and invoice." In simple terms, if the inventory control shows 10 utility poles are in inventory, then a count of the actual number of poles in the stock yard should match what is on the books, that is 10 utility poles.

TVA and HSUD partnered to recognize the accomplishments of the employees that were made over the last year.

"The No. 1 thing is no findings on the audit at year end," Stone said.

Reed added, "We just want everybody to understand this is a positive thing. We are moving forward. All employees are part of the work-order system."

Stone said all along the employee stream, staff members are doing a good job of turning in work orders.

"The warehouse guys, Larry Whisenant and Keith Freeman, are the focal point on all this," he said. "They have done a great job of implementing this inventory system."

HSUD still uses a paper trail for inventory but now the paperwork is scanned in and stored electronically. Eventually, employees will file their work orders and receiving on an iPad-type device.

The electric department audit is what the party was all about.

Credit for the clean audit is also owed to the accounting department and CSA people who work with accounting in the electric utilities as well as all staff at HSUD.

"This is a real team effort," Stone said. "That's what this is all about, going through the process so we can have clean audits. It's a team effort. We are here to say thank you for all the hard work."

The Holly Springs fire and police departments were also thanked, as well as the city clerk's office.

Justin Maierhofer, vice president of governmental relations/TVA, had happy things to say as he walked up the yellow painted stairs with handrails to the podium.

"Safety first," he said.

He is from a small town in Georgia close to the Alabama state line, which is in many ways like Holly Springs. TVA serves small communities like Holly Springs all across the valley.

He said executives at TVA understand small-town people and small-town characters.

TVA has about 10,000 employees which he said are good people and good partners.

"We are all in this together. We don't have any shareholders. We just have each other," Maierhofer said.

"Where there is no vision, there is no hope," he said quoting George Washington Carver. "We know who does all the work. That's you all. Keep up the great work, keep open the lines of communication. We are here for your support. It's important for all of us together to be successful."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat from New York, signed the TVA Act in 1933 with bipartisan support from Congress. The Act was sponsored by Republican Senator George Norris of Nebraska.

Maierhofer wondered aloud if that could happen today. But the Tennessee Valley Authority has served the small rural communities for 87 years.

Its mission was energy, environmental stewardship and economic development.

"Our job is to keep the lights glowing, the river flowing, and the valley growing," he said.

President Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act on May 18, 1933, creating the TVA as a Federal corporation.

The new agency was asked to tackle important problems facing the valley, such as flood control, providing electricity to homes and businesses, and replanting forests. The federally-owned corporation provides electricity to about 10 million people.

Holly Springs South Reporter

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