Wonder what the elusive funding obligations are that MDE is promising Fruitland if they serve water to the residential areas with the tainted wells? You have any thoughts?
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Sunday, September 29, 2013
A Letter To The Editor: Fruitland Wastewater Funding
Interesting comment by Mr. Outten about the "missing" MDE obligation. I believe he did not read the agreement that they signed as it clearly says that the funds WILL be indexed or subject to eligibility indexing. Also wait for the next shoe and that is by accepting those elusive funds their discharge limitations have or will be dramatically changed sort of what happened to Mayor Tilghman here in Salisbury leaving the new administration to deal with the consequences.
Wonder what the elusive funding obligations are that MDE is promising Fruitland if they serve water to the residential areas with the tainted wells? You have any thoughts?
Wonder what the elusive funding obligations are that MDE is promising Fruitland if they serve water to the residential areas with the tainted wells? You have any thoughts?
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11 comments:
Cant wait to sell my house in fruitland and leave this smelly state
Citizens will be screwed.
Why should the public pay to save a few persons from their foolish decision?
Let the pay owners pay the whole cost! !
Just to clarify what I am sure is a well intended letter, all grants are subject to eligibility, that is the purpose for the back and forth over the last two or three years with MDE. To make sure it meets eligibility. MDE finally agreed that it did in December of 2012 (after several requests from them for re-submittals)This long delay is what ultimately caused the clock to run out, and the 2.5 million in "green money" to expire. The purpose of the project and need for grant is because MDE has already mandated Fruitland to reduce their nutrient discharge. ENR means Enhance Nutrient Reduction. The only reason for the project is because of MDE's continuing and increasing requirements to reduce discharge limitations (This should not be a shock to anyone). Completion of the project will not put us "on the hook" for further limitations unless MDE once again decides to make their rules more stringent (again, this should would not be a shock to anyone). Not really sure what your last paragraph is supposed to mean, but the project to extend water to the contaminated area (better term) is actually a county project through an urban service agreement. There are no "elusive funding obligations". I am sure it makes for a more interesting post, but the mere fact is that an area of the county has a serious public health concern and an effort is underway to create a long term solution for people to have a safe supply of water. Fruitland happens to be the best fit for the situation. If you have any questions regarding the Morris Mill project, a public meeting will be held on October 14, 6:00 pm at the Civic Center. If you have questions regarding the ENR upgrade, I would be willing to go into much better detail with you at our next meeting October 8, 7:30 pm at City Hall, or feel free to give me a call.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify.
Lee Outen
It is not the peoples fault that have contaminated wells.
Spin Spin Spin as always
Thank you for the response Mr. Outten, seems quite logical to me. Nice to see a local representative care enough to try and explain something. Joe, are you familiar with the situation?
Nobody cares just write the check! Taxes go up pay goes down! More Fees are coming to cover costs! Landlord License are next in their sights! When water bill goes up blame MDE!!!!
Mr. Outen, thanks for the explanation, but I have a question for you How Much Money does Fruitland keep in Escrow by law I think to make sure the city can pay for any changes MDE may come up with during the year? I know a few years a lot of money was collected and put in account. Also could you explain to people that General Fund money cannot be used for water or sewer and the rates have to cover it. If this is true does Fruitland charge enough on the water and sewer bill to cover this? Or will the citizens have to pay later when you guys are all out of office? I ask because I have heard from Fruitland people that their bill went down which seems hard to believe in this day and time! I cannot use my name as my Employer forbids this web site!
anonymous 10:51, I am familiar with quite a bit of it but it gets very detailed.
My hat is tipped to Mr. Outen for being a public official who is willing to get on here, (as he has many times in the past) and straighten out the unknown.
It's the public officials that are AFRAID to defend their position that scares me the most. Which, (by the way) is MOST of them.
Look, people tend to send us information on a regular basis similar to this Post. We publish them because they want to be heard. It doesn't mean they are always right. All it takes is ONE public official to come on here and straighten the situation out. THAT is what we are here for.
In Fruitland, only 3, (or so) citizens actually show up for council meetings. Much the same can be said for Salisbury. Situations like this one are complicated and as I said, people are concerned. Mr. Outen has gone above and beyond to resolve each Fruitland issue.
Fruitland is required to set aside 20 percent of it's annual water/sewer budget for future expenses. It is called reserve/replacement and growth and can only be used for purposes related to such. The 20 percent started being set aside around 2009...so while there is some money in the fund, utilizing grant opportunities provided through contributions such as the bay restoration fee is certainly more advantageous. You are correct in that Water and Sewer are "enterprise" accounts. Meaning that the budget is based upon revenues collected from water and sewer billing. You cannot intermingle funds from the general fund (property tax). Yes, we did adjust the water/sewer bills last year, however, the revenues collected did not decrease. We changed the way that we billed from what was essentially a flat fee system, to a consumption based system. People that use less water (small family, elderly) saw a reduction in their quarterly bill. People that use more water (large family/some commercial) may have seen a flat bill or a higher bill. We believed this to be a fairer method of spreading out what is required to operate the departments. We also eliminated the front foot assessment, which varies from resident to resident based upon how much footage is in front of your home and replaced it with a flat reserve fee for everyone. It's purpose is to cover the 20 percent required from MDE that is to be set aside. This system was set up so that we wouldn't kick any cans down the road. We pay the same bills as everyone else so it is in our best interests to look forward. While there is no way to guarantee that the bill will never go up, we hope that it can hold it's own. If we can make Fruitland more attractive for single families to move here by lowering the cost of the bill on the low end, it will add more users, and that is what eventually could lead to everyone's bill going down.
Lee Outen
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