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Water-sewer timeline an issue in Culpeper

Town of Culpeper's deliberation in signing water-sewer agreement has county officials worried

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

Date published: 8/27/2008

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

The Culpeper Town Council is not having second thoughts about a water-sewer agreement it reached with county supervisors last month, Culpeper's acting town manager says.

"The county just has a different timeline," Tom Huggard said.

In fact, the town has no timeline when it comes to putting together a plan that would turn over its sewer and water infrastructure to a regional authority in exchange for moving a sizeable chunk of county land into its corporate limits.

Culpeper County, however, is faced with losing as much as 2.5 million gallons a day of state sewage-treatment allocation unless it comes up with infrastructure to handle it by Dec. 31, 2010.

That's why a set of "guiding principles" e-mailed yesterday from Town Attorney Bob Bendall to County Attorney Dave Maddox threw some county staffers and supervisors almost into panic mode.

Those "guiding principles" stated that the town might need as long as 90 days to study the issues involved and "negotiate necessary agreements to create such an authority in exchange for property annexation."

The e-mail further states that it could take as long as a year to work out the details of a final agreement. The county had hoped to have the pact in place by next week.

The "guiding principles" also hint that the council might seek to allow voters to decide in a referendum whether the town should transfer its sewer and water assets to an authority.

"It's too early at this juncture to know what impact this will have," County Administrator Frank Bossio said.

Bossio said county and town staffers held a two-hour meeting yesterday and will hold another tomorrow. The Town-County Interaction Committee will also meet on the issue this morning.

Supervisor Tom Underwood, who has been pushing for a town-county agreement, voiced frustration over the town's failure to act quickly on the memorandum of understanding the two sides agreed to last month. "Time is running out relative to our allocation," he said. "Our deadline is unchanged."

He noted that the state Department of Environmental Quality, which hands out allocations, refused to extend the county's deadline.

THE ISSUE: Culpeper Town Council and county Board of Supervisors reached a memorandum of understanding last month in which the town would turn over its sewer and water infrastructure to a regional authority in exchange for moving some county land into town limits. TOWN POSITION: Town attorney says council may need up to 90 days to study the issues involved and as long as a year to work out a final agreement. COUNTY POSITION: Supervisors say they expected a deal to be signed next week. They're worried because the county will lose a 2.5 million gallons-a-day sewage-treatment allotment from the state if it doesn't have the infrastructure in place to handle it by 2011.

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Date published: 8/27/2008