A Message From The General Manager:   With the end of ID No.1’s financial fiscal year on June 30, 2010 I wanted to take the opportunity to provide the ID No.1 customers with a recap of the highlights of the budget year, water service improvements, system upgrades and cost savings activities.  Each year, the ID No.1 Board of Trustees approves a budget which is a financial guideline or projection of the revenues and the subsequent expenditures for the operations, maintenance, administration, debt service and capital improvements that are planned for the upcoming year.  At the close of the 2009-2010 fiscal year, much has been accomplished and actions taken on behalf of the ID No.1 customers.   As with this year, the 2009-2010 fiscal year began with a balanced budget and no need to tap into reserves to meet its financial needs.  In fact, the revenues from water sales and other sources including conservative investments, funded all of ID No.1’s water purchases, the operations and maintenance for the production and delivery of domestic and agriculture water as well as the general and administration costs to assure its customers receive their water through the meters over this past year.    Next, the revenues for the year also provided for the capital projects such as to name a few: the ongoing water meter replacement program; automated meter reading system; water main rehabilitation and replacements on Cedar Street and Highway 246; fire hydrant repairs and replacement; the Still Meadow-Dove Meadow pressure improvement project; Ontiveros water main loop; river well reactivation project; repair and cleaning the four storage reservoirs; and, fisheries-related facilities and projects.  All of these capital improvement projects and more were funded as part of the budget along with other routine maintenance for all of the ID No.1 water system facilities.   These same revenues also covered the annual debt repayment for long-standing water facility financial obligations, the legal costs related to the protection of ID No.1’s water rights, legal proceedings with the federal, state and local government entities related to the protection of ID No.1’s water supplies, and other legal defense resulting from litigation by others.  The budget funding also covered the costs of the special fisheries studies and activities as a result of the federal actions to list the steelhead as an endangered species in the Santa Ynez River.   Again, all funded as projected in the budget.    In addition, ID No.1 also received its final reimbursement amount from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for a total $5.2 million in funds.  In 2005, ID No.1 staff secured and was obligated those funds from the Federal government at no cost to our customers and without withdrawing any reserve funds to install new water production wells that were lost in the flood emergency and pipeline infrastructure to connect those wells to the existing distribution system.   This bolsters an already very sound and reliable source of water supplies.     All in all, the end of the 2009-2010 budget year resulted in less expenditures due to the continual financial monitoring, conservative spending, and cost oversight by staff and the Board so as to assure that the ID No.1’s customers' money is soundly invested and utilized. This means ID No.1 remains financially sound while continuing to provide its customers with the most efficient water rates which, in a county-wide survey, are less than the average of all county-wide water purveyors.   ID No.1 is proud of its efforts to provide the highest quality and on-demand water supplies to our customers while assuring our customer’s funds are effectively and efficiently used.  We work very hard every day to earn the confidence and trust of our 2,589 customers with ID No.1’s goal for the new fiscal year is to continue and improve the level of service to its customers.   ID No.1’s customers remain the most important asset; thus, our doors are always open and we appreciate and encourage comments and suggestions from our customers as we work together to fulfill our mission.  Please feel free to contact the District Office at (805)688-6015, send written comments/suggestions to Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District, ID #1, P.O. Box 157, Santa Ynez, CA, 93460 or email at general@syrwd.org.     Sincerely,       Chris Dahlstrom General Manager