The embattled water board in Prichard will get a $1.5 million boost for repairs and upgrades to its aging water system, despite one of its own requesting that the allocation be delayed until there is a plan.

The Mobile County Commission, with a unanimous vote Monday, allocated the money to the Prichard Water Works and Sewer Board for rehabilitating a lift station and repairing leaky pipes.

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The allocation came after board member John Johnson Jr. requested commissioners consider tabling their vote until the splintered water board had time to decide what to do with it.

“I want to work closely with the county commission so that once this $1.5 million is rewarded, it goes where it belongs,” Johnson told the news media after the vote. “Once it falls into the hands of Prichard (water board) leadership, it’s a totally different story.”

The money – Johnson said it represents the largest one-time influx of public support in years – comes at a time when the fate of the water board representing one of South Alabama’s poorest communities is in flux.

A default looms this week on a $55 million loan taken out in 2019 to pay for utility upgrades, according to Johnson. If that occurs, the water system could wind up under bank control.

“A default, from my understanding, would be like a home foreclosure,” Johnson said. “They would do what it is (needed) to recover their losses.”

Jay Ross, the water board’s attorney, said he was uncertain where things stood this week regarding a loan default. He has said previously that the board has made past bond payments, including a full payment in January.

Ross, who also represents the Mobile County Commission, said the $1.5 million of county general fund money that is going to the water board will not be allocated until the water board decides how to utilize it.

“(Prichard) will have to do the work and the county will pay for the reimbursement up to $1.5 million,” Ross said.

The needs are great, and the $1.5 million would cover only a fraction of fixes needed in a city inundated with 80-year-old leaky pipes, which have led to customer complaints for years about escalating water bills.

The water system had previously requested millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds, including a $333 million request to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management last year to fix its deteriorating system. It has not, according to media reports, received any help.

Complicating matters is an public corruption scandal that board members have aptly called, “Guccigate.”

Johnson said the $1.5 million is the biggest public windfall for the water board since the scandal erupted last year over an alleged misuse of funds by water board employees including former manager Nia Bradley. She was accused of utilizing a board-issued credit card to purchase Louis Vuitton and Victoria’s Secret, and to take trips to New York, Chicago and Sandestin in Florida.

Since then, water board meetings have been a house of theatrics with shouting matches and board members accusing each other of not paying bills and or not being transparent with the utility’s budget.

The water board will still have to vote how it wants to spend the county’s money, and a timeline on that is unknown.

“Where is the money going?” said Gene Doyle, a Prichard resident. “A lot has happened, and we want to see some improvement.”

The water system has struggled with solvency for over a decade. Voters twice in 2014 and 2012, approved referendums to dissolver the water utility and have the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System take it over.

The 2012 referendum was invalidated by the Alabama Supreme Court after justices felt it was improper to put the issue before voters statewide.

A more narrowed referendum, including only Mobile County voters, was approved in 2014. But days before the vote, the Prichard Water Board approved a five-year multi-million-dollar contract with Severn Trent to handle the management of the system. That vote was viewed as a “poison pill” by MAWSS representatives, and the utility backed out.

MAWSS has not had any renewed conversations about reconsidering a takeover.