ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601180053
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
Two Montgomery County Board of Supervisors members made it abundantly clear Tuesday that the cost of expanding sewer and water systems for a new Riner school should be included in the new building's cost, if it is legal to do so.
Supervisors Chairman Henry Jablonski and member Ira Long both argued that utilities expansion for the new elementary school should be paid for from money the county plans to obtain in a bond sale in April.
The issue dominated the meeting of a supervisors-School Board site-selection committee meeting Tuesday. The next step is for the county attorney to research how much of the sewer and water improvements could be financed from the Virginia Public School Authority bond sale, said Supervisor Jim Moore, who led the meeting.
For the past year, the committee has been working on details of a new Riner-area elementary school, the first of four new buildings the School Board says it needs to accommodate the county's growth. For months, the county has negotiated with a Riner farmer to buy land behind the existing Auburn High and Middle schools for the new elementary building. With a flurry of closed-door sessions in recent weeks, action on the land purchase appears imminent.
That's where the utilities issue comes into play. The county hopes to borrow money to build the school this spring. That would put Montgomery on a schedule to build and open the new school in late 1997. But expanding the water and sewer capabilities in Riner could take nearly as long, meaning the question needs to be nailed down as soon as possible or it could delay the school schedule.
The utilities issue first surfaced in the late fall when the School Board asked the county Public Service Authority - controlled by the Board of Supervisors- to reserve all current excess capacity at the small Riner sewer system for the new elementary school.
But PSA officials said that the new school would push the sewage plant, which serves the existing Riner schools, to 80 percent of its capacity and trigger a legally mandated expansion. Moreover, a PSA engineer concluded, the current Riner water system would have to be expanded to provide enough water to fight a major fire.
Early this month, the PSA engineer upgraded the need for a sewage-system expansion, saying the plant was handling 95 percent of its capacity in October, when school was in session for the entire month. The PSA subsequently OK'd the preparation of cost estimates, due March 1, on the projects.
Last month, the School Board's engineer disputed the need for the expansions and suggested in a memo that the PSA was trying to use the new school as a means to pay for an expansion needed to handle future residential growth. That didn't sit too well with Long and Jablonski. The latter said the schools were planning to include the cost of extending a gas line in the new school project. What's the difference, he asked, between the gas utility and water and sewer needs?
School officials, though still skeptical that the Riner schools alone are responsible for the sewer plant being at capacity, appeared to back down from that approach Tuesday. They agreed on the need to research how much of the utilities expansion could be paid for through the low-interest VPSA bond sale. And they also appeared surprised to learn from PSA utilities engineer Jerry Mabry that even today, with a 100,000-gallon water tank up on the hill serving the existing Auburn High and Middle schools and Riner Elementary, there is insufficient water flow to fight a major fire. That's why Mabry has recommended building a new 200,000-gallon tank beside the exiting one.
Long, not a member of the site-selection committee but there as chairman of the PSA, said the PSA doesn't have the money to pay for the expansions. The sewer plant modifications could cost $585,000; a new 200,000-gallon water tank could cost $188,800.
"This is a cost of doing business," Long told three School Board members and two top school officials. "The PSA does not [pay for] new water and sewer lines, the developer does. You're the developer."
Jablonski said whether the costs are covered by the PSA or in the school bond, county taxpayers will be covering it. The difference is that the school bond likely will involve lower interest rates than any borrowing the PSA might do, he said. That translates into long-term savings in debt service.
In a School Board meeting later Tuesday, members spent about 10 minutes discussing the issue. Member Barry Worth, a former negotiator, questioned Jablonski analogizing water and sewer with the natural gas link to the new school.
"The difference between natural gas is that Montgomery County is in the business to give water and sewer service to that area," Worth said. "It's a service the Montgomery County PSA needs to do and not at the sacrifice of our children."
In another Riner-school issue, county parks and recreation director Tom Bain appeared before the committee Tuesday to ask that planning include sufficient space for playing fields that could be used in recreation programs, similar to the arrangement Blacksburg used in the development of Kipps Elementary School.
Staff writer Lisa Applegate contributed to this article.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 linesby CNB