Orange County NC Website
resources in the future, then it may help to look at whether the pricing goals are <br />incompatible with the conservation goals. <br />Mayor Phelps said that all of the Town staff is aware of water rates for in town <br />and out of town customers. He said that Hillsborough welcomes comment and they <br />have a budget process on the water and sewer fund. He said that citizens can make <br />comment and they also have a Water and Sewer Advisory Task Force that meets <br />regularly. He invited the public to come to these meetings. He said that the public could <br />call the Assistant Engineer far the meeting dates. He said that in June, Hillsborough did <br />not raise the water rate. The last time the rate was increased was about 16 months ago. <br />They hope to reduce rates but they have a debt to pay and they could not pay it off if <br />they reduced rates anywhere. He pointed out that the task force has members from in <br />town and out of town. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that it was years ago that a former Mayor of <br />Hillsborough threatened to shut off water to Town buildings. He said that before <br />Hillsborough had a reservoir, some citizens in the northern end of the County came up <br />with the idea of working together to develop a reservoir, Lake Orange, which provided a <br />guaranteed source of water for Hillsborough. For all of these years, the County has <br />handled the casts of this reservoir so Hillsborough could treat it the water and sell it to <br />the customers. He commended Will Atherton for getting involved and researching the <br />facts. He said that Mr. Atherton asked the County Commissioners to advocate for lower <br />utility rates and that is what he is doing now -advocating for lower utility rates. He <br />asked the Town of Hillsborough what the County Commissioners could do to help <br />achieve this goal. <br />Chair Jacobs said that in one of the proposed developments in Hillsborough, the <br />developers are pointing out how much money the Town will make in charging a new set <br />of residents double water rates. This is compounding the problem. He agreed with <br />Commissioner Halkiotis that the County Commissioners would like to work with the <br />Town to come up with creative ways to lower utility rates. <br />Mark Sheridan said that he appreciates what Commissioner Halkiotis said, but <br />what will help them is if the Town looks at all 4,500 water users as customers and treats <br />them all the same. The concept that once water passes an artificial water line it doubles <br />the rates is not justified. The Water and Sewer Advisory Board's number one priority <br />was to create equilibrium far out of town and in town rates. He said that it would make a <br />difference to narrow the gap and bring the rates down to the out of town customers 5- <br />10%and then bring the in town rates up. He thinks it is a question of philosophy and <br />politics and not economics. <br />d. Elizabeth Brady Raad <br />Craig Benedict said that the Economic Development District Task Force worked <br />in late 2000-2001 and found out that a lot of the land use decisions that were being <br />made in this 800-acre district were strongly linked to transportation issues. In the Spring <br />of 2001, the Economic Development District Transportation Advisory Group worked on <br />same recommendations for the important linkages in and around the economic <br />development districts and how they could be improved. One of the prime roadways of <br />issue was the Elizabeth Brady Roadway. There were same recommendations that were <br />forwarded to the MPO in October 2001. Hillsborough had a similar memo that talked <br />about 7 different things to do with Elizabeth Brady Road. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that there are three aspects of Elizabeth Brady Raad <br />that she would like to be addressed. She read from the Orange County resolution from <br />the October 30th meeting. She would like to focus on the statement about having the <br />