Orange County NC Website
r <br /> 2 <br /> i <br /> administrative costs are pending. The estimated total of <br /> County fees is $24,630, which includes $22, 130 in <br /> documented costs which have already been incurred (though <br /> not billed to the Piney Mountain account) and $2500 in <br /> estimated costs for transferring title of the Piney <br /> Mountain wastewater collection system and pump station/ <br /> force main to OWASA. If the cost estimates are correct, <br /> approximately $65,865 plus accrued interest could be <br /> returned to the Homeowners Association at the close-out of <br /> the Piney Mountain project. It now appears that the <br /> project will be completed and closed out in September <br /> 1995. A memorandum outlining the steps or process for <br /> closing out the Piney Mountain project, from County <br /> Engineer' s perspective, is attached. Included as an <br /> appendix to the County Engineer' s memorandum is a more <br /> detailed breakdown of the County' s administrative and <br /> legal costs as well as an accounting of general project <br /> expenditures and estimated costs remaining. <br /> Orange County' s participation in the process to obtain <br /> state grant funding and to provide an extension of <br /> municipal sewer service to the Piney Mountain subdivision <br /> was discussed in several of the BOCC meetings which <br /> occurred between March and September of 1994 . Throughout <br /> these discussions, it was considered as given that: a) the <br /> County would try to assist the Piney Mountain property <br /> owners to obtain state grant funds for wastewater system <br /> construction; b) the Piney Mountain Homeowners <br /> Association would pay all wastewater system costs not <br /> covered by grant funds; and c) OWASA would eventually own <br /> and always operate and maintain any municipal sewer system <br /> serving the Piney Mountain subdivision. However, the <br /> grant funding requirement that the County at least <br /> temporarily own the wastewater system was somewhat <br /> problematic for both the BOCC and County staff. A primary <br /> concern was the potential for the County to incur <br /> significant ownership-related liabilities and costs. To <br /> address County concerns as well as those of OWASA and the <br /> Homeowners Association, three contracts were developed to <br /> provide a binding agreement among OWASA, the Homeowners <br /> Association and the County. This agreement provided a <br /> basic framework by which the Piney Mountain wastewater <br /> system would be financed, owned, operated, maintained, <br /> administered, etc. <br /> In addition to addressing the County' s concerns about <br /> potential ownership liabilities, the three contracts were <br /> crafted specifically to conform to the principles <br /> intrinsic to the County' s Water and Sewer Policy and <br /> Wastewater Treatment Management Program (WTMP) . The <br /> overriding concept of the contracts was first to adhere to <br /> the Water and Sewer Policy by providing for the extension <br /> of municipal sewer utilities into the Rural Buffer solely <br /> to address a specific public health problem. Adherence to <br />