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066 <br /> Synopsis of Comments <br /> Goal 4 - County Involvement <br /> Establish a basis for Orange County's involvement in the <br /> provision of water and/or sewer services and facilities. <br /> A. General Policies (Draft Policy) <br /> (See Preceding Page) <br /> Orange Water & Sewer Authority (Continued) <br /> 6. Ownership and control of the water and sewer lines and facilities <br /> connected to a public utility system should be the responsibility of the <br /> utility which provides maintenance and operation of the system. A <br /> precedent for this has been established in the Agreements of Sale and <br /> Purchase with the Town of Chapel Hill and the Town of Carrboro. These <br /> agreements permit the towns to extend the OWASA system, provided they <br /> convey ownership of the improvements to QSA upon completion. Rather <br /> than having multiple agreements for the ownership, maintenance, billing <br /> and treatment responsibilities (such as has been done for the <br /> Efland/Cheeks sewer system) , it would be preferable to have only one party <br /> responsible for providing service. <br /> Section III(C) (4) states that the County will not participate in <br /> extensions beyond the urban and transition areas. If urban service areas <br /> correspond to these areas, then under Section IN(A) (6) the County would <br /> not require that it retain title to the improvements. How and by whom <br /> will projects be repaid? <br /> Town of Carrboro <br /> Again, the County's purpose here is unclear. The language <br /> of the General Policies under this section implies that the <br /> County would like approval authority over all utility extensions, <br /> although this is not clearly stated anywhere. <br /> In addition, the language concerning ownership and control <br /> of water and sewer lines and facilities raises questions about <br /> the County's intent -- why would the County be interested in <br /> owning segments of sewer lines? Ownership and control of such <br /> facilities should properly, be in the hands of the utility which <br /> provides for the maintenance and operation of the system of which <br /> they are a part; it should not be fragmented. This is true no <br /> matter who funds an extension. <br /> General Policy number 5 seems to indicate that the Board of <br /> Commissioners wishes to have approval power over the siting of <br /> all public facilities . It needs to be made clear that <br /> municipalities within Orange County have the authority to site <br /> and construct their own public facilities without rior Count <br /> approval. p County <br /> 4-A-4 <br />