Baldwin Mayor Abel Prejean told the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday that the town will be out of the red in two years.

FRANKLIN — The Town of Baldwin will be back in the black in two years.

Mayor Abel Prejean delivered the good news to members of the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce during their monthly luncheon Wednesday at the Forest Restaurant.

“We’re progressing really well; we’re no longer on the ‘three strikes you’re out list’ with the Legislative Auditor and the Legislative Oversight Committee,” Prejean said, as he touted how his administrative is tackling what he described as messy accounting in the town hall.

“I really believe in two years, we will be out the red. However, we have a plan to get out of deficit financing, and it seems to be working.”

Prejean explained that Baldwins’ woes are due primary to bond indebtedness. He said as each bond note is paid, that money is being reallocated.

“Residents of St Mary gloat about their city or area’s success. Then they look at us and say, and then there is Baldwin! Well, that’s about to change,” he said.

Prejean said the primary reason for the bond debt is due to the town trying to grapple with its aging water system in the past. He said the town is now out of the water business, and is buying its water from Charenton.

“It’s reality. Our wells are bad, and there is no way we can treat water,” he said.

Prejean commented on how the town is in the process of acquiring new water meters.

“Finally, we are going to begin recovering losses that have been occurring for years.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to replace the original water meters that were first connected within the town,” Prejean said.

Prejean has been Mayor of Baldwin since January. He was set to campaign last fall, when incumbent Mayor Donna Lanceslin changed her mind and dropped out of the race.

Since taking office, he has been grappling with a host of problems, most of which Lanceslin inherited.

Last August, Bradley Cryer, director of Local Government Audit Services, said the Legislative Auditor had been engaged with Baldwin since 2013, when several deficiencies were found in audits that included the town not collecting all of the revenue it was owed.

Cryer said during an audit advisory council meeting that the LLA offered several recommendations after that initial audit that Cryer said were followed.

“The town did that,” he said, “but there were controls that were not in place and we had a fraud with a member of the government, about $63,000 worth of fraud.”

“We’re in a situation with Baldwin, it’s kind of a chicken and the egg situation,” Cryer said. “You have financial problems being identified, but you have the cause of the problems not being well defined. Do the problems result because of lack of staff or vice versa?”

When asked how Baldwin got to this point, Lanceslin said it all started with utility bills and not collecting monthly statements.