After 10 years of bickering, stonewalling and legal battles, it took the Culpeper Town Council and the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors just five minutes yesterday to close the deal on the first part of a joint water-sewer agreement.
Both bodies voted unanimously to accept a "nutrient allocation consolidation agreement" which, in effect, places the county's 1.5 million-gallons-per-day state sewage treatment allocation into the town plant.
That agreement, signed by both Mayor Chip Coleman and Supervisor Chairman Brad Rosenberger, forms the basis for a second agreement that will give the county access to town water and sewer services.
The second agreement, according to Town Attorney Bob Bendall, should be ready within 30 days.
Since the late 1990s, when Culpeper's building boom began, the Board of Supervisors has been negotiating with the town to provide water and sewer to commercial and industrial county land just outside the town limits.
Under a 2003 agreement, the county bought those services from the town on an as-you-go basis and resold them to businesses attempting to locate close to the town.
But disputes arose over the cost of those services, and last summer the two parties ended up in court with a judge ordering that if a settlement could not be reached by July 1 of this year, the 2003 contract should be void.
They could not, and it was.
The primary reason for the failure was that the county pushed for a regional water-sewer board with the town putting in all of its infrastructure and the county throwing in the 1.5 million-gallon allocation.
The town would have no part of the idea, and the turning point came in early spring when Councilman Mike Olinger made this fact clear in a meeting.
Another factor contributing to better relations between the town and county was the election of Coleman as mayor. Coleman's primary goal was to get a water-sewer deal finalized, and the first part has now occurred.
By October, the town and the county will have a working agreement that will allow the 1.5 million gallons of sewage treatment capacity to serve county businesses for the next 25 years.
That agreement, being drawn up by town and county attorneys, is "in the wings," Rosenberger said.
Donnie Johnston:
Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com