Agenda - 08-28-2006-4 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: August 28, 2006 Action Agenda Item No. 4 SUBJECT: Water and Sewer Issues DEPARTMENT: County Manager/Purchasing & Central Services PUBLIC HEARING: (YIN) No ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: 8/25/06 Memo from County Engineer Rod Visser, 919-245-2308 Paul Thames, 919-245-2303 Pam Jones, 919-245-2652 PURPOSE: To discuss and provide direction to staff regarding two financial matters related to County utility services in the Efland area. BACKGROUND: Originally developed in the mid-1980s to respond to a public health emergency stemming from failing septic systems in the Efland area, the Efland Sewer System has been operated by Orange County since then with occasional tap-ons for eligible individual properties and periodic inclusion of new subdivisions or commercial enterprises. This work session provides the opportunity for the Board of Commissioners to review various background materials provided by staff and to provide policy direction regarding two financial aspects of Gounty utilities in the Efland area, as described under the subheadings that follow. Water and Sewer Assessment Policy Commissioners have raised the passibility that the County should consider recouping some portion of the costs of constructing water and sewer lines that have been installed to provide utility service to the new Gravelly Hill Middle School. Those lines will also provide an economic benefit to various individual properties adjacent to those utility lines (in and around the Buckhorn Economic Development District) that may be eligible for connection to the lines. An approach that the Board may wish to consider for recouping a portion of the capital cost of the utility lines is an assessment project. Accompanying this abstract are a variety of background materials compiled by the County Engineer that may assist the BOCG in discussion of this topic. These include: o a summary of the step-by-step process established in the North Carolina General Statutes o a fact sheet on assessments, including: o the bases upon which an assessment may be made, and o a note on properties that may be exempt from the assessment o a timeline showing the minimum required time to go through all the steps involved Efland Sewer Rate Structure When the Efland Sewer System was placed into operation in the mid-1980s, many of the original customers (and many who remain customers to this day) were individuals of limited means for whom a monthly sewer bill would become a challenging new expense, as sewer