The construction of an inn has become the latest battleground in the decade-long water-sewer war between Culpeper County and the Town of Culpeper.
According to County Administrator Frank Bossio and Supervisor Tom Underwood, the town plans to charge the county about $650,000 in tap fees for a 98-room Hampton Inn being built just outside the town limits.
That is about 10 times what the town charged the 88-room Holiday Inn Express, which is now being completed inside the town limits.
At odds is the interpretation of a 2003 Water-Sewer Agreement between the two localities, which permits the county to be a town customer with rights to resell what it buys. Under that deal, the county paid the town $3.3 million earlier this year for the rights to "up to 3,120 water and sewer taps or 600,000 gallons per day" of water and wastewater capacity.
While county officials stressed in meetings prior to the agreement that they wanted the utilities to serve commercial and industrial customers, Bossio and Underwood say the town is charging tap fees based on residential, not commercial, use.
"There is a difference of opinion as to how this [agreement] is to be administered," Bossio said.
While he acknowledged that residential rates are not specifically mentioned in the agreement, Mayor Pranas Rimeikis argued that that's what the deal boils down to.
"When the county purchased those taps, it was according to the residency equivalency charge," Rimeikis said, adding that the town figures residential and commercial water flow differently.
The county's purchase was based on 192.3 gallons a day, which the mayor admitted might be a little excessive for residential consumption.
demanding a lower rate
Bossio was tight-lipped this week because of the possibility that the issue might end up in litigation, but Underwood was outspoken.
"The purpose of this agreement was to provide water and sewer to businesses that want to locate in the county," Underwood said.
He added that the problem first came to light when the town required Teremark, the international Internet routing company that opened in June, to buy seven residential taps when one commercial tap would have sufficed.
Underwood believes Teremark wound up paying three times what it should have.
"That shouldn't have happened," Underwood said. "This problem should have been addressed then."
It is being addressed now. On Nov. 7, Bossio sent a letter to Town Manager Jeff Muzzy reminding him that, under the 2003 agreement, the town is obligated to sell the county capacity at "the lowest rate being charged to any town customer."
Bossio's letter also says: "Based on the agreement, we conclude that the county should be treated as a single customer and pay the lowest in-town rates for water and sewer, which are $2.95 per thousand [gallons] and $4.49 per thousand for sewer."
who's at fault?
Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors' Building and Grounds Committee voted to formally establish a commercial rate structure for the resale of water and sewer capacity it receives from the town.
That rate, which will come before the Board of Supervisors for approval in December, would charge resale customers 1 times the rate the county pays the town. This is the rate the town typically charges county customers in separate three-part agreements with the county.
Under that rate structure, the Hampton Inn would be paying roughly $110,000 for a single commercial tap, based on the Holiday Inn rate.
If the county must buy 40 residential taps, which is what the town is requiring for Hampton Inn, for $650,000 and then adds $330,000 for its resale rate, the cost to the hotel would rise to almost $1 million.
"That makes no economic sense," Underwood said yesterday. "That's higher than any rate I'm aware of anywhere in this country. Why is the town trying to stifle business development in the county?"
Rimeikis said the county simply didn't do its homework when negotiating the 2003 agreement.
"They bought those taps and now they realize they can't resell [the water and sewer services] that way," the mayor said. "Those are the figures they came up with, not us. They did the math."
Both Underwood and Bossio have hinted that unless the town revisits its policy, the county may take legal action.
"If the town refuses to honor the agreement, this could go to a neutral arbitrator," Underwood said.
Donnie Johnston:
Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com
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The Hampton Inn site, just north of Lover's Lane, would become part of the town if But that's only if there is still Meanwhile, county Supervisor Tom Underwood says there are rumors of a "hostile annexation" floating around. Town Mayor Pranas Rimeikis says he knows nothing of such a plan. |