Politics

Towns side with city in water war

By Bill Moss, Published: April 29, 2017

When they voted to seek legislation putting the Hendersonville’s water system under the control of state regulators, Henderson County commissioners were told that towns in Henderson County were afraid to bring up problems with the city water system for fear of higher rates.

A different picture emerged last week during a meeting of the Local Government Committee for Cooperative Action. Representatives of Fletcher, Laurel Park and Flat Rock all said they had a good working relationship with the city and that they saw no reason for state control of the city water system.
“Up to this point I’ve not seen a problem,” Fletcher Town Councilman Bob Davy said. “What do they see that I don’t see?”
Board of Commissioners Chairman Michael Edney had not yet arrived at the meeting so Flat Rock Vice Mayor Nick Weedman invited County Manager Steve Wyatt to explain the commissioners’ thinking.
“No sir,” Wyatt said.
Weedman said, “We voted to support the city of Hendersonville in their efforts to maintain an independent water system.”
“Laurel Park does not see a problem with the system,” Laurel Park Mayor Carey O’Cain said. “We have an extremely good relationship with the water department and we have continued to have that relationship for almost 100 years. Laurel Park had the original reservoir for the city of Hendersonville up on our mountain and that was established in the first referendum in 1889.”
Hendersonville City Manager John Connet took the opportunity to respond to what he called “bad information” the county had been spreading.
“We’re not sending money to the general fund to buy fire trucks, to buy police cars,” he said. “That’s the biggest misnomer that keeps getting reported or said in this room. We run it as an enterprise. We don’t send it to the general fund. That’s bad information. It’s not supplementing the general fund.”
If anything, he said, the city’s figures show the general fund is supporting the water system by almost $2 million a year. The water system cost $12,277,504 and brought in $10,420,522, for a loss of $1,856,982. The sewer system was in the black by $476,505 — with $4,521,764 in expenses and $4,998,269 in revenue.