Gerry Sweeney: Well, it was really – my understanding is you have stimulus dollars coming into play, but then you also have direct potable reuse DPR. Sounds and feels as though and the read we’re getting is more projects coming down the pike, driven by both those sort of opportunities.
Frederick McTaggart: Yes. The stimulus dollars, just a quick comment. The only project that we’re involved in is getting money from the federal government is the Hawaii project. They’re getting grants. So we are aware of that, but we’re not involved in anything else.
David Sasnett: Gerry, it’s no secret that desalination has been a challenge in California…
Gerry Sweeney: That’s my point on DPR, right. I heard the…
David Sasnett: Yes, they also – everyone knows they need a lot more water and you can only recycle so much. I think DPR is another opportunity for us. I think they will – I think a lot of potential clients will take that approach as they can’t build a desal facility. I think it would be the source of potable water for – so I think it’s very positive for us.
Gerry Sweeney: That’s what I’m hopeful for. And then final question. I don’t want to monopolize it. It sounds like retail payments, are you back at 100%? Or is there still some opportunity for the pickup from post COVID or and/or expansion for growth in the region? And then I’ll jump back in line. Thank you.
Frederick McTaggart: We’re beyond in sales volumes where we were before COVID. So we’ve already exceeded that. I mean I hadn’t seen that there’s no sort of recent population estimates for Grand Cayman. But I mean, it really feels like there’s a lot more people on the island. It’s not just tourists. I think the population has grown there. So I was kind of reluctant to say anything in the speech there, but it really feels like when they get the new population data, it will show some pretty substantial growth there. So.
David Sasnett: If you visit Grand Cayman, if you – just the last three or four years, the amount of construction activity is taking place on the island is substantial. And there’s still construction underway there. So I think overall activity on the island has increased. And I think in part as Rick said, it’s probably driven by a population increase. But tourism is back. It’s very healthy there. It’s evidenced by the fact that if you try to get a hotel room in Grand Cayman in the month of February or March, the rates have gone through the roof, which tells you there’s nothing available there so.
Gerry Sweeney: Okay. Thanks guys. I appreciate you taking so many questions.
Operator: Our next question comes from [Richard Serasa]. Please go ahead with your question.
Unidentified Analyst: Yes, hello, can you hear me?
Frederick McTaggart: We can.
Unidentified Analyst: Yes. I’m just curious if you could update us on the status of the Mexico situation?
Frederick McTaggart: Richard, thanks for asking. We are still trying to resolve that through an arbitration. And we’ve had discussions with the Mexican officials. I mean, there’s nothing more that we can say about that at this point. It’s an ongoing legal matter.
Unidentified Analyst: Yes. Okay. Thank you. And congrats on a great quarter.
Frederick McTaggart: Thanks.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from John Bair from Ascend Wealth Advisors. Please go ahead with your question.
John Bair: Thanks. Good morning, gentlemen. And congratulations on a great year, a great way to celebrate 50th anniversary. And also, I would like to say I really got a chuckle out of Rick’s closing comments, almost a paraphrase of align in the Ghostbusters. We have a – and we have – I got a good chuckle out of that one. So anyways…
Frederick McTaggart: That was on purpose…
John Bair: What’s that?
Frederick McTaggart: I said that was intentional.
John Bair: Good, good, good. I’m glad I picked it up. So my question is regarding – you said a lot of bid – strong bid activity and so forth. What’s sort of the timeline? I know they all vary based on the size of the projects and so forth. But do you have a feel for what kind of flow you may have on contract awards that you have bids out for?
Frederick McTaggart: Well, there’s at least one that comes to mind that is an O&M contract, and we bid that several months ago. It’s being evaluated. So it’s really up to the client on the timeline. I would expect that we would hear something back this year. It’s a meaningful contract. From the standpoint of design build projects, I mean, the things that we’re pursuing now would probably not come to fruition this year. So they take – from the time you hear about these projects. So qualify through the bidding process, it typically takes about a year. So that’s why we are certain that as certain as we can be that the Hawaii project, which is $150 million, which is almost twice the size of cereal in terms of dollars will start recognizing revenues from that in the third quarter of next year. So that’s about as much as we could tell you right now, John.
John Bair: Yes. I was just trying to get a sense of the balance between some of these larger type projects that now take longer to come to fruition versus maybe some shorter-term smaller projects? I don’t know if that…
Frederick McTaggart: We have clients that we do O&M work for that from time to time require upgrades to their plants and replacements. But I mean, those are sort of in the $3 million to $5 million range. The more meaningful projects, $30 million, $40 million and they typically take about a year to cycle through. And if we’re successful, then we would obviously get moving on those sometime next year.
John Bair: And do you think that there’s any slowdown or any – excuse me, with the interest rates being up has that slowed the process down at all? Or not so much the process, but the projects coming out looking to be bid because of higher cost.
