Proposed Changes to the By Laws
To be voted on at the Annual Meeting in January 2026
Cypress Water System
By-laws changes
November 2025
The Board of directors of the Cypress Waer System met on April 8, 2025 at the Heflin, Louisiana Civic Center to discuss amendments to the current by-laws of the water system written and approved in February 1975. No other changes or amendments to the by-laws are known to exist. The following amendments will be reviewed by Paul Kitchens, Attorney for the water system and David Wilkinson, Chief Engineer for the water system grant and then presented to the Board of Directors for review and then to the water system members at an annual meeting for approval.
Board members in attendance: S. Franks, J. Davis, F. Love, R. Miles, B. Rembert, C. Toney
Board members absent: J. Cobb, J. Dean
Amendments
- Article III, Seal. Legal requirements for a seal were discussed. P. Kitchens stated that when the bylaws were written in 1975 it was customary for the water system to certify documents with a seal. He agreed with the board discussion that the system does not need a seal. A motion was made by S. Franks, second by B. Rembert to remove Article III, Seal, from the bylaws. Motion passed.
- Article IV which refers to the Farmer’s Home Administration (FHA). P. Kitchens explained that, in the past, the FHA was a federal agency that loaned money to water systems for improvements. The FHA is now the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and is still responsible for the loan program. P. Kitchens suggested that all references to the FHA in the bylaws be changed to the USDA. The board agreed and this will be accomplished when the bylaws are rewritten.
- Article VI Membership Certificates. When the bylaws were written each customer were issued a certificate confirming them as a member of the water system. Since records are now maintained electronically, a motion was made C. Toney, second by R. Miles to remove the language in Article VI that refers to Membership Certificates. The motion passed. The rest of Article VI will be renamed Section 8 and Section 9 will be added to Article V and Article VI will be deleted. This is a format change based on the removal of Article VI.
- ARTICLE VII. Section 1. Meetings of Members. Change the information concerning the place date, time location to read, “The annual meeting of the members of this corporation shall be held at the City of Ringgold or Heflin, Parish of Bienville or Webster respectively, State of Louisiana subject to the place, day, and time of the annual meeting to be provided to the members by giving notice thereof to each member not less than ten (10) days in advance thereof”. This was not discussed by the Board and is included in the sample bylaws presented by P. Kitchens and should be considered as an amendment. The present bylaws require a meeting be held on the first Monday of March. Amending this requirement provides the Board more latitude to schedule the Annual Meeting.
- Article VII Section 4. The current reading of section is four is Section 4 states, “The presence at a meeting of members entitled to cast in their own right or by proxy twenty (20%) per cent of the total number of votes shall constitute a quorum.” A motion was made by J. Davis and second by R. Miles to change the number of customers at a meeting either in person or by proxy to 10% of the total number of members of the water system. Motion passed. The rest of the section 4 remains the same.
- Article X Section 3. Remove the wording, « corporate seal if applicable and” and “affix said corporate seal to all papers requiring seal”.
- Article XI, section 6 as it pertains to the to the authority of the board to annually determine the minimum monthly rate to be charged during the following calendar year. Should be amended to read, “Water system rates will be determined by a Rate Study conducted by the Louisiana Rural Water Association or other agency certified by the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) to conduct rate studies. Rate studies are required by LDH every five (5) years but may be requested earlier by a majority vote of the Board of Directors.
These amendments are true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
Respectfully submitted
Sandy Franks
Secretary
- Water supply systems get water from a variety of locations after appropriate treatment, including groundwater (aquifers), surface water (lakes and rivers), and the sea through desalination. The water treatment steps include, in most cases, purification, disinfection through chlorination and sometimes fluoridation.
- Treated water then either flows by gravity or is pumped to reservoirs, which can be elevated such as water towers or on the ground (for indicators related to the efficiency of drinking water distribution see non-revenue water). Once water is used, wastewater is typically discharged in a sewer system and treated in a sewage treatment plant before being discharged into a river, lake or the sea or reused for landscaping, irrigation or industrial use (see also sanitation).
Drinking water quality has a micro-biological and a physico-chemical dimension. There are thousands of parameters of water quality. In public water supply systems water should, at a minimum, be disinfected most commonly through the use of chlorination or the use of ultra violet light or it may need to undergo treatment, especially in the case of surface water. For more details, please see the separate entries on water quality, water treatment and drinking water.