The Orange County Board of Supervisors has taken the first steps toward what many think will be a county-owned utility company.
The board unanimously voted Tuesday night to apply for a $700,000 Community Development Block Grant to partially fund a pump station and sewer line connecting Timber Truss Housing Systems Inc. near the county airport on State Route 20 to the town of Orange sewer system. The county will provide $583,000 for the $1,283,000 project.
After receiving a preliminary engineering report on the proposed sewer line, the county's Industrial Development Authority voted unanimously to support the project. It also voted that "the county should consider this project as a step toward developing a county-owned water and sewer infrastructure and therefore retain ownership of the new line."
The supervisors agreed. The county will maintain ownership of 11,000 linear feet of 4-inch force-main pipe and the pump station. Supervisors see sewer service in the area also serving the airport, nearby Booster Park and area homes with failing septic fields.
Orange County has a hodgepodge of water and sewer providers. The town of Orange owns and operates its own system, but, because of permit-limit and discharge violations, is operating its sewer plant under a consent order with the Department of Environmental Quality.
The Rapidan Service Authority owns and operates the water and sewer systems in the State Route 3 area, including Lake of the Woods. It also buys water from the town of Orange and sells it to Gordonsville and operates the Gordonsville sewer plant.
Timber Truss has made an estimated $8.4 million investment in Orange County for land acquisition, road construction, site preparation and plant construction. The plant, which will make roof trusses, is expected to begin production in November.
According to County Administrator Bill Rolfe, the facility is expected to employ 130 people.
The land near the plant cannot support a septic field, so the county agreed in negotiations with the company to provide a pump-and-haul sewage solution. Sewage will be removed from the site every three days and taken to the town of Orange sewer plant.
The Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission staff prepared the grant application, according to Executive Director Mark van de Water. One of the state's 21 regional commissions, the agency provides planning and technical services for Orange, Culpeper, Fauquier, Rappahannock and Greene counties and the towns in those counties.
The block grants are federal funds provided through the state. Van de Water said the commission expects to find out whether the county will get the grant in the spring.
"This is an important project regionally," he said yesterday. "Timber Truss will create a lot of jobs and people will be hired from all over the region."
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