Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 18, 1990 TAG: 9007180114
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV15 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETER MATHEWS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The vote was 4-2. Authority members Todd Solberg and Roy Collins voted against the budget, which is about $20,000 below last year's because of reductions in overtime and loan payments.
The total does not include a contribution of $234,335 from Montgomery County. Utilities director Gary Gibson said the county's subsidy is about $30,000 less than the one for this year.
Solberg, who has often criticized the authority for not being self-supporting, did so again Monday after Gibson told authority members that the Smith Village Trailer Park wants to connect to the Shawsville water system.
Gibson said the connection fee would be $7,500, based on the size of the meter needed. Citing school overcrowding and the other service demands that trailer parks create, Solberg said the county should raise fees to discourage new ones from coming in.
Henry Jablonski also questioned the fee. He calculated that 150 individual residences would pay $52,500 in connection fees.
"I don't want to sound like I'm equating them," he said, noting that it would cost more to serve 150 separate residences than one trailer park. "But I wonder if it's not too much less."
The authority also approved a sewer agreement with Christiansburg for the Midway area, a rectangular strip along U.S. 460 from Montgomery Regional Hospital to the town limits.
The agreement would allow the authority to transport 100,000 gallons of waste a day to a Christiansburg pump station. It is still subject to approval by Christiansburg and the Board of Supervisors and review by attorneys for all parties.
The authority, which handles county water and sewer matters, is made up of all county supervisors except Chairwoman Ann Hess and Collins, who represents Hess' District B.
by CNB