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Culpeper hopes plant will resolve sewer issues

Warrenton development company offers to build 2.5 million-gallon sewerage plant for Culpeper County

Date published: 3/23/2008

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

Culpeper County may be willing to gamble to save the vast majority of the 3.5 million-gallon wastewater allocation it received from the state three years ago.

That allocation, which the county quietly applied for and received in 2004, has since been used as leverage to force the town of Culpeper to join a regional water-sewer authority.

Thus far, the strategy has not worked. And the county, which desperately wants to get into the water-sewer business, is now faced with losing much of its allocation if it does not use it by the end of 2010.

Enter Angler Development, a Warrenton-based company that has a number of large holdings in Culpeper.

Under an offshoot company called Culpeper Utility Partners, Angler proposes to build a 2.5 million-gallon sewage-treatment plant east of the town of Culpeper that officials say will serve the county's needs for the next 50 years.

In addition, Angler says it will install the entire infrastructure needed to make sewer and water available to homes and businesses from Lake Pelham on the U.S. 29 Bypass north to Brandy Station and east to Stevensburg.

Angler says it can do the job for about $90 million and get its original investment back--plus interest at an as-yet-undetermined rate--from future sewer taps. Those taps would cost at least $25,000 each.

County Administrator Frank Bossio isn't sure where Angler will get the initial investment, but said the plan brings minimal risk for the county.

Bossio said that Angler submitted its "unsolicited proposal" only after the county "talked to a lot of developers" late last year.

After these feelers, the regional company, whose backers have a long development history, put their engineers and accountants to work and came up with the plan that now appears on the county's Web site.

QUESTIONS ABOUT ANGLER

Why is Angler interested in taking on such an ambitious task?

First, the company has three major projects--residential and commercial--that could someday be served by the infrastructure.

Second, according to Executive Vice President Steve Vento, the construction slowdown has created a void that Angler could fill with this job.

"We've got a good development team and I'd really like to keep them busy during this downturn," Vento said.

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Date published: 3/23/2008