Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501050075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After discussing it in closed sessions in recent weeks, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors may vote this month on a settlement with Roanoke on a 4-year-old outstanding water bill. City Council also has discussed a settlement in closed session.
"I'm optimistic we'll be able to deliver a belated Christmas gift to the people of the Roanoke Valley early in the new year," City Attorney Wilburn Dibling said Wednesday.
Major parts of a settlement still are being negotiated, such as how much the county will pay the city on the outstanding bill, how much water the county will continue to buy from the city and for how long, and how the formula for what the city charges is to be calculated. These are "key issues" that will have to be resolved before any agreement is signed, County Attorney Paul Mahoney said.
"If we have an agreement, it will be within the next couple of weeks. We're awfully close," Mahoney said. "If it falls apart now, I guess I have to be pessimistic - it's probably not going" to happen.
But both sides have shown more willingness to compromise in recent negotiations.
The $759,000 dispute centers around a 1979 contract under which the county buys 2.5million gallons of water a day from the city. In a disagreement over the terms of the contract, the county stopped paying part of its bill in 1991. The city sued in 1992.
Roanoke County Circuit Judge Kenneth Trabue has made a decision on the county's claim that the city's case is unconstitutional. But the two sides have asked the judge not to issue his ruling until mid-January, to give them time to reach a settlement.
The county has argued that it shouldn't have to share the cost of improvements to the water system that it says benefit only the city. The county also contends that the contract may violate the state constitution, because it created long-term debt for the county without voter approval.
City officials contend that the county should share the cost of upgrading and expanding filtration plants, replacing water transmission lines and other large improvements.
The county may end up paying more than it would like in the settlement but might get a "more attractive" contract in the long run, said a source familiar with the negotiations.
The contract runs for 30 years - until 2009 - but the county's Spring Hollow Reservoir and water transmission lines will be ready to deliver water to county residents this year. The water it buys from the city still will serve county residents near Carvins Cove, where water lines will not be laid in the near future.
Mahoney discussed the settlement negotiations with supervisors in a closed session Tuesday, and supervisors said they expect to see a resolution within 30 days. What the settlement would cost the county was not discussed in Tuesday's executive session.
But, "it's going to cost all we haven't paid [on] the past water bill," said board Chairman Fuzzy Minnix.
City Council also discussed the issue in executive session recently.
"I continue, as I always am with our neighbors in the county, to remain optimistic," Mayor David Bowers said.
Teams from the city and county, consisting of attorneys and members of the utility and finance staffs, have been negotiating the settlement.
by CNB