FERRIDAY — This year will be the last one for a long-standing feature in the Town of Ferriday’s audit.

The town’s approved audit for fiscal year 2014 was released by the legislative auditor’s office Monday. The audit was given with a qualified opinion because the town could not fully track its revenues because 40 percent of its water meters were broken.

The state-approved filing notes the issue has been cited in several previous audits.

But this year, the water meter issue has been addressed since the audit was completed, Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen said.

“The meters have been installed for two months, since December,” Allen said. “They are all operating at this point.”

The new meters are part of a larger project to replace the entire Ferriday water plant, with the accurate revenue generated paying the U.S. Department of Agriculture loan and grant financing behind the new plant.

JCP Management has been hired to manage the plant, and Glen Womack with JCP said last week 1,610 meters have been put in place and 72 remain to be installed.

The electronic meters will be automatically read by signal to a centrally located tower, and can monitor in real-time if any problems arise at a given location, Womack said.

The audit also notes the town spent $2,551,771 out of its general fund, while having only budgeted $2,000,750 for the fund.

Allen said while the expenses were higher than budgeted, the town’s revenue was also higher than anticipated and the town didn’t deficit spend. The problem can be fixed in the future, he said, by amending the budget so it doesn’t exceed the state’s guidelines to have no more than a 5 percent variance from the budget.

“We couldn’t judge how much money we would have coming in,” he said. “This year we will amend our budget at budget time.”