Agenda - 11-03-1999 - 9d - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM TO: County Commissioners John Link, County Manager COPIES: Rod Visser, Assistant County Manager FROM: Paul Thames, PE, County Engineer DATE:. October 25, 1999 SUBJECT:. Water utility project for Rogers Road neighborhood As per the request of the Commissioners Halkiotis and Jacobs, I have outlined a potential strategy/scenario for the BOCC to consider as it deliberates on the process of providing an extension of OWASA water. utility service for the Rogers Road neighborhood. Although this strategy does not deal directly with the manner or source of funding for the project, it may strongly influence funding options. 6 The basic strategy which the County can employ to bring about the extension of water utility service to Rogers Road is one in which the County would work with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and OWASA to develop the project in a manner similar to a typical OWASA utility assessment project. Engineering design, surveying and construction would be provided by independent contractors or consultants. However, as per standard assessment project procedures, OWASA would provide the legal, technical and administrative services related to acquisition of easements and oversight of surveying, engineering design, construction activities, project close-out, eta The advantages of this process are numerous: a) OWASA staff, which is very experienced in dealing with utility extension projects, would be providing the administrative services for the project; b) the assessment process provides the potential for an annualized (as opposed to lump sum) repayment of project costs; c) the necessity to make final decisions on funding sources prior to project implementation is eliminated as the fmal assessment amount is not determined until the completion of the project; d) the effort to provide a system that meets OWASA's standards is greatly simplified. There may also be a few unclear areas relating to developing the project through the OWASA assessment process. One important issue is the application or suspension of OWASA's agreements with Chapel Hill and Carrboro as to OWASA's assumption of legal and engineering expenses and financial participation by the towns in assessment projects. A second issue is that coordinating the project through OWASA but securing Chapel Hill .and Carrboro's consensus for the process or the details of the project could prove to be as unwieldy as working through the LOG. Although there are obviously some potential difficulties in developing the Rogers Road water utility service project as an OWASA assessment project, these difficulties appear to be more than offset by the potential benefits. It is my recommendation that the BOCC direct staff to begin negotiating with OWASA staff to create an assessment project - with a specific set of criteria for delineating what costs are to be assessed, how they are to be assessed and when they are to be assessed -for the extension of water service to the Rogers Road community. The criteria would also address the issue of line size/capacity and how any additional costs attributable to sizing lines to provide capacity for future use would be assessed and paid. These criteria can be submitted for approval - as necessary - to the BOCC and the boards of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and OWASA.