SNOW HILL — A town and a county are at odds over an alternative source of water. Snow Hill and Greene County boards met last week to begin a discussion with citizen input.
Because of a state mandate aimed at decreasing the amount of water taken from the aquifer, Greene County began investigating a number of alternative water sources.
Ultimately, county officials chose to contract with Greenville Utilities Commission. With the county’s engineer, McDavid Associates in Farmville, they urged all the water entities in the county to join together to share the expense.
The contract obligated Greene County to manage and administer the water project, which would bring water from Greenville to Snow Hill and then distribute it throughout the county through lines constructed over a period of years.
Nine of 10 water entities signed an inter-local agreement on March 16, 2005 to begin the project for water supply and distribution. Jason/Shine Water Corporation did not sign the contract.
Greene County, for its part, contracted with GUC to purchase water for 40 years, as did Farmville.
The contract required water users to pay a surcharge that would fund the construction. Each year, customers paid $1 more a month until fiscal year 2012-13, when it topped off at $12 a month.
Last year, McDavid produced an amendment to the contract with a new schedule of payments with increasing surcharges for the next several years ending with the payments “to be determined.”
It was the understanding of many officials — including the former county manager, Don Davenport — the payments would stay at $12 or possibly end.
By the end of June 2012, Hookerton Mayor Bobby Taylor stated the town would stop making surcharge payments after December because it needed the money to repair its own aged lines.
Snow Hill customers continued to pay until the period designated on the contract — July 31 — and the town’s officials determined not to sign McDavid’s amendment.
Glenn Gray, president of Jason Water Corporation, urged the town board to reconsider dropping out, saying there was a “gentlemen’s agreement” made.
“And I look at, you're obligated until those bonds are paid off,” Gray said.
Snow Hill Mayor Dennis Liles summed up his thoughts on the issue.
“We’re here together,” he said. “We’re going to try to work together. … You look at that contract and you talk about a ‘gentlemen’s agreement. … It scares me about that ‘to be determined.’ I don’t understand that part.”
The town’s viewpoint is the contract with them ended in July and the understanding was the $12 surcharge had ended.
The town has converted its system to using chloramines and the water lines have been completed throughout the town, which is the hub where water flows into the county from Greenville and then flows directly into the county water lines.
“We’ve paid our part,” Town Administrator Dana Hill said.
However, infrastructure for GUC water in many areas around the county has not been constructed yet. That construction is likely to continue for a number of years.
If Snow Hill should cap off the lines, it would virtually stop water from flowing to many county customers. If the town isolates itself, it will cost the county an undetermined amount of money to reroute the lines.
And the cost to continue construction will increase for customers within the GUC project, which is why Gray is concerned. Jason and Shine have been considering joining the county and paying the back-surcharges.
Gray said Jason and Shine are in a worse situation than Snow Hill. It will cost their 250 customers $120,000 to pay back surcharges.
“So we've got some major problems of our own to face in the next year,” he said. “We did it to ourselves. And I hate to say it, but you-all did it to you-all selves because you-all signed and you-all made this agreement. But you can't go back and rehash what's already happened.”
Snow Hill resident and former consultant to the town, Bob Masters, asked Hill what the town would do if the state mandates 75 percent water usage from an alternate source.
“Probably the most feasible option for Snow Hill if the 75 percent were to come into play,” Hill said, “would be to install some — one, two — number of shallow wells. And we’ve had a test well installed and our water quality is great. The production is good.
“The state will allow wells to be drilled into aquifers that are not regulated now without any implications.”
Hill said the cost in today’s figures would be about $75,000.
“That’s tough,” Masters said. “That’s tough to walk away from.”
Masters told the boards he recalls back in the early 2000s it appeared the county owned the water resource. But now it seems it doesn’t. He suggested that be clarified so the town can know what decision to make. He also recalls another discrepancy.
“There did not seem to be any alternative,” Masters said. “I mean, I don’t remember any discussion at the time that I can remember about Snow Hill having a viable alternative than going with the county, Greene Utilities and this contract.”
Commissioner Bennie Heath provided insight.
“What changed about that, Mr. Masters, was when South Greene (Water Corporation) pulled out from Snow Hill. That’s what changed the formula for Snow Hill.”
Masters said the town — which was supplying water to South Greene and handling their billing — took a “huge hit” then.
“I’ll tell you the truth about it,” he said, “I didn’t hear too many people in the county moaning about that at the time. The town had to suck that up, and there wasn’t too much relief coming the town’s way.”
Liles said the town and county would likely be meeting again to discuss the isolation issue further.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.