With no water and a sign that is misleading, OASIS Car Wash remains stagnant without water. Council Members are bickering about what to do while the owner can't come up with the funding to pay back what it allegedly owes to the City.
Now, that being said, I want you to think about something here Folks. The City claims OASIS owes more than $200,000.00 in impact fees for the past two years. That's about $9,000.00 a month in water fees alone. Who in their right mind would pay $9,000.00 a month, (or expect to pay) just for water alone? Then consider what it cost to purchase the land, build the building, purchase the equipment and finance it all while still owing the City $9,000.00 a month on top of other major expenses.
I'm not suggesting it be free. I'm simply saying the City is driving businesses out of Town because of their stupid impact fees and quite frankly I think they're nuts. It was one thing to charge an impact fee when times were good but this is outrageous.
The Salisbury Zoo runs water 24/7 in exhibits that simply flows into ponds and right back into the sewer drain. They drain and fill the Bear Pool frequently and power wash it on a regular basis. There are fountains throughout the City that do the same thing, yet they conserve nothing. Wouldn't it be smarter to fill them up and leave it for the day, then drain them at night, clean them and fill them back up again for the next day?
If you're wondering why things are so expensive in the City, (water wise) now you know. However, the City's WWTP can only run at 50% most of the year after spending $84,000,000.00 and now an additional $50,000,000.00 to make it right. They have driven out numerous businesses because of their failure to properly run a business, (the City) and I have been preaching this for far too many years.
Something needs to change and the City needs business minded people to run it. Two Council Members filed Bankruptcy, proving they can't even handle their own personal finances. One Member refuses to step down in order to allow the City to move forward. Just what is it going to take before every one realizes its not working.
Perhaps the City is waiting for a Bailout, just like every other major business across America. Wake up and stop acting like fools. If you think things are bad now, I can assure you its going to get a whole lot worse, you'll see.
14 comments:
It's time to wake up Salisbury. You council clowns have no clue as to what the hell your doing. The city of Salisbury looks the WORST I have seen ever seen. Un cut grass , delapidated buildings , half assed road repairs. You don't have any money in your budget because you pissed it away. You constantly run businesses out of Salisbury because of your idiotic fees Etc. Shame Shame Shame !!!!
Can't the carwash drill a well and get their own water? Or would the city restrict them from doing that?
To Matt: NO they absolutely can not drill a well... The law prohibits this in the city... Also It is the law that if you have a drainage field and your open septic system and city water and sewer come in your area, By LAW you have to connect to it and pay what is now 20k for the connection fees for water and sewer combined... Not only that, your now into a 200 a month bill in which you didn't want need or care to have... This is what happens when the city annexes more land from the county to make into city land... Makes people who haven't had a sewer or water bill ever, have one and make them pay to connect to it... Not to mention when January 1, 2011 comes... Expect the price of the utility bill from sby to raise another 15%...
Thank god I live out of Salisbury and only have to work here... after all the tax credits run out at the end of the year and the soon to be newly raised income tax percentages , and then obama care, The firm I work for will probably close...
Some try to get involved and address the problems. Others just sit around bitching about it. Unfortunately we drive the first type out with negativity and the latter never seem to away. Human Nature.
i hate to say it but a deal is a deal and he knew the deal going into the game. Pay up! $200,000 plus interest . The meter is running.
no wells in city limits !
Salisbury business tactics are starting to rank up there with Enron. I would say the same for the city management but i dont want to insult the Enron guys and gals.
Wasn't the original post about him misleading his usage amount to begin with? I agree with 11:38am he knew the deal going in, so he owes the money. The city also does need to be more business friendly or it will be hollow shell with no one to collect taxes from.
The impact fees are why the City lost the EVO Brewery to Delmar DE, the Burley Oak Brewery to Berlin, MD (both of these are start ups by Salisbury natives), and there are a host of other industrial and retail deals which have voted not to do business in Wicomico County because of the huge front end connection fees and impact fees.
There were four large industrial deals (with a total of approx 330 jobs attached) that walked to other counties (MD & DE) in 2009 alone, after they looked at the matrix of water and sewer connection costs for Wicomico vs. comparable surrounding areas. The City never knew what they lost because the businesses wrote them off from the beginning in the site selection criteria phase, even though they were very attracted to the industrial opportunities in Wicomico County.
Wicomico can do little about this at this point because they insist on new development paying large upfront fees to balance the infrastructure investments necessary. The real problem is the usage formulas do not reflect real world use, and there is no one in the county with the expertise to sort out how much water typical new business "X" uses, and they go overboard on being conservative or miss the mark entirely as in the Oasis debacle.
It's a mess.
is it possible they were not accurate with the oasis car wash water usage. i know at that location on the self serve bays the machines would have trouble operating and switching possibly due to air in lines, could this have caused the usage to be miscalculated
Stop blaming the entire city council. The Queen of the Council takes whining pot shots at the two members with brains and creates the chaos. Lay the blame where it's due. She opposes impact fees but wants to build community centers and take on contaminated land and spend $200k for a single unit of affordable housing.
By this post, you want more developer reimbursements? Just a couple of years ago, you were howling about the giveaways to developers at the expense of other businesses.
Maybe the fees need to be analyzed for accuracy, but this Oasis case sounds like the guy purposely low-balled his water needs. It's a car wash, for crying out loud.
So boo hoo hoo. How many existing businesses have left Salisbury because of high rates and taxes because of Dunn & Comegys' great "gropf pays for gropf - not!" giveaways?
When I had my business across the bay, I paid my one-time hits and got on with my business. Moved here for the slower life and found an incompetent county exec, several incompetent council members, two incompetent mayors.
But I'll give credit it where it's due to those two brunettes on city council. I'd be bald if I was those girls.
11:38 is right. He knew what those costs should be, and he shammed the estimates. If he did not like the costs, then he should not have proceeded with the project. Like others, he could have gone elsewhere.
The costs were in place before his building; so pay man.
Note: I am certainly not in favor of thoses outrageous impact fees.
I love how the owner can't pay his water bill, but the kid/guy running the automatic car wash there was always in a new Benz. So what's gonna happen to the property? The weeds gonna overtake it? Its not like someone could buy it and open a restaurant there.
Off topic here, but, when is the Code and Compliance office gonna take care of the unfinished condo building on Fitzwater street? The owner of it (The Bank) should be forced to complete the project or demolish it.
"The impact fees are why the City lost the EVO Brewery to Delmar DE,"
That is not entirely true. The brewery was refusing to pre-treat their waste, so they moved to a town without pre-treatment. Had they opened the wastewater plant's effluent would have been even worse than it is now. I have stated this on in response to this topic before, I'm not sure why this myth that the brewery moved soley because of impact fees continues to circulate.
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