Two speak out on sewer, water rates

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Holloway, Sayre voted against utility increase earlier this week at Town Council

By Ben Orcutt-borcutt@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- The two Town Council members who voted against raising water and sewer fees earlier this week spoke out on Thursday to explain their votes.

The Town Council voted 3-2 on Monday to increase the water and sewer rates, effective Feb. 1. The new base rate for water is a 3 percent increase while the sewer charge will jump by 29 percent.

Councilman Carson C. Lauder Jr. was joined in the majority by N. Shae Parker and Hollis L. Tharpe, while Vice Mayor Chris W. Holloway and Councilman Thomas H. Sayre voted against the rate hikes.

Councilman Thomas E. Conkey was absent from Monday's meeting due a previous out-of-town commitment, Mayor Timothy W. Darr said.

"I voted against the water and sewer rate hike for three reasons," Sayre said Thursday. "One, the council, in my opinion, gave away too much to a new business wanting to locate in Warren County. I agreed to a reduced water rate, but I think the rate was reduced too much. The reduced rate comes on the back of the town rate-paying citizens of Front Royal. That did not sit too well with me."

Sayre said the lower rate was discussed in a closed session concerning the potential business, and no vote has taken place.

"Two, the water connection fee that is normally paid by the developer was reduced from the current $5,000 to $4,000," Sayre added. "Most if not all of the surrounding jurisdictions have at least a $5,000 water connection fee.

"Three, I simply think there's too much spending going on."

Holloway said the timing isn't right for the rate hikes.

"With the way the economy is right now, we're raising the fees on the water and sewer, times are really hard for a lot of the people in the community," Holloway said. "People losing their homes, you see all the foreclosures out here, but yet [we] want to keep raising fees for certain things. How much money can you keeping getting from the public? I mean, yeah, we need the wastewater treatment plant and we need the revenue, but I think we need to start looking at other things also instead of keep raising fees. The assessments have gone down, so you know as well as I do to equalize everything that the tax rate will have to come up. But then when the assessments later on down the road go up, do they [real estate tax rates] drop down? I don't know."

Town water customers will see their monthly rate increase from $6.75 for up to 3,000 gallons of water to $6.95. On the sewer side, customers currently pay $7.75 for up to 3,000 gallons, and will see their rate increase to $10.08.

Meanwhile, the connection fee for a three-quarter-inch water tap will drop from $5,000 to $4,000 while the sewer tap cost will increase from $5,000 to $7,500.

Holloway said he hesitated when he voted for the rate hikes following the item's first reading Jan. 10, and after talking to a few people about the issue, decided to change his vote.

While the increases are not that great, Holloway said, "Every little bit adds up."
Holloway took a different view than Sayre on the new business that is considering locating in the town.

"I think that Mr. Sayre's talking about a business that he thinks we offered too much to come to locate to the community," Holloway said. "Well I think that things like that, that's a little different. You want to try to bring in industry. You want to bring in jobs. But I'm just basically for the citizens out here and I just think [if] that we keep on at them and it's going to get to a point where [they're] not going to be able to give anymore at all. I just think we can't keep squeezing them."

The driving forces behind raising the rates are a sagging economy, increased costs, and the federal mandate through the Chesapeake Bay Act for an upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant, according to town officials.