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Culpeper sewer and water deal boils down to money Date published: 3/5/2010
BY DONNIE JOHNSTON Last night's joint Culpeper Board of Supervisors-Town Council meeting ended as the previous three did--with each group instructing its staff to "bring us back the figures." The meeting began with Councilman Jim Risner assuring everyone that money was not the most important issue in putting together a water-sewer deal between the two groups. An hour later attorneys for both jurisdictions argued that money was the primary factor in putting together a regional service authority. And almost everyone agreed that no matter what happens, town residents are going to get the financial shaft, whether as real estate taxpayers or utility customers. The Board of Supervisors used the possible loss of a 1.5 million gallon sewage treatment allocation as its strongest argument to get an agreement hammered out in the near future. Three years ago, the county received a 2.5 million gallon allocation from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and has already lost 1 million gallons because it was not used. "We are going to lose those 1.5 million gallons if we don't have an agreement in place by November," County Administrator Frank Bossio told the elected representatives. "The message to us from the DEQ was, very strongly, there's got to be a regional approach." Bossio warned that the town, which is upgrading its sewage treatment plan to 6 million gallons a day, may soon need that extra capacity, especially if the Environmental Protection Agency and the DEQ tighten restrictions. The town, however, continued to worry about lost operating revenue if it places its water and sewer plants into a regional authority. Billing and other town operational costs are partially funded from revenues generated by those utilities. Equipment is also shared among the town's water, sewer and electrical plants. County Attorney Roy Thorpe, however, warned that a case now pending in state appellate courts (involving Fairfax and Falls Church) will probably prohibit a municipal utility from subsidizing the town's general fund. Both Thorpe and town attorney Bob Bendall also cautioned that the town may not be permitted to just hand over its assets to a regional authority. The lawyers said that an authority would need to buy the town plants and that a sale price--which might include payments to help offset town revenue losses--needed to be set.
we have too many elected officials. Force the County and the
City to consolidate and this issue will magically disappear as
will 1/2 of the miscreants masquerading as elected officials.
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