WYTHE WEIGHS SEWER HOOK-ON POLICY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 27, 1993                   TAG: 9301270205
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium
WYTHE WEIGHS SEWER HOOK-ON POLICY
Two members of the Wythe County Board of Supervisors will make recommendations to the full board Feb. 9 on whether hook-on and other policies should be changed in the planned Fort Chiswell wastewater project.
About 35 citizens came to the board's meeting Tuesday night with concerns over some of those policies, particularly one making it mandatory that everyone in the proposed service area hook onto the new system within 90 days of its completion.
A grant and loan from the Farmers Home Administration is being sought for the project, aimed at opening up the eastern part of Wythe County for development.
Travis Jackson, area FmHA representative, said his office has already made recommendations on how much of a grant should be made available for the project. He did not say what the recommendation was, except that it was more than 40 percent of the $9 million needed for the project.
But the recommendation is based on the number of users to be served, he said. If the county plans to reduce that number of users, the recommendation could also be lowered.
Jackson said FmHA does not require a mandatory hook-on to make a grant or loan. The recommendation for such a requirement came from Anderson & Associates, a consultant for the county.
Supervisor Olin Armentrout said there had been some confusion among the supervisors themselves over whether that was an FmHA requirement, but they now know it is not. Armentrout and Supervisor Alan Dunford are on the committee that will be looking at revising the requirements.
If the mandatory hook-on requirement is dropped, the number of users for the new system could also drop. And that would affect how much of a grant FmHA would make.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB