COUNCIL CONSIDERS MAKING OPTIONAL WATER PIPELINE CONNECTION MANDATORY

The Kincardine Independent
By Kristen Shane
Post Date: November 25,2009
Ghosts of the past should be lucky Christmas is still a month away, because they had their hands full haunting Kincardine council last week.
It all came rushing back like a flood of bad memories.
In the wake of the Walkerton water tragedy, the provincial government required that municipalities upgrade water systems that weren't up to snuff. So Kincardine council, about six years ago, decided to install a water pipeline from the Kincardine treatment plant to Inverhuron to service shoreline residents outside the town of Kincardine.
At the time, some residents were begging for a reliable water source to replace their private wells. Others didn't want to pay to hook up to the new pipeline.
There were packed public meetings, complaints and compromises.
In the end, the municipality bent to the majority of residents' concerns and made pipeline connection optional.
Now, it seems, only 38 per cent of possible participants, equal to about 573 homes, have signed on. The municipality's chief administrative officer, John deRosenroll, told council last week that that's not enough to pay off the $5 million pipeline.
As of this summer, the municipality has taken on about $2 million worth of debt and it has to start bailing out the boat soon before it sinks ever deeper, deRosenroll said.
The rate at which interest is multiplying on the debt is greater than the rate at which residents are connecting.
So deRosenroll proposed a list of possible ways to bail out the water debt, based on recommendations passed by the public works committee.
They include:
            1. Giving notice to all occupied properties not connected to the pipeline that by 2015, they must be connected and help pay for the pipeline installation. In other words, the once optional pipeline connection would become mandatory.
            2. Starting next year, occupied properties fronting the pipeline would shoulder a flat monthly fee (today, it's about $25) for debt repayment.
             3. The municipality would give notice that owners of all vacant properties fronting the pipeline must pay their share of the installation costs by 2015.
            4. The price per property to pay for the pipeline was originally set at $6,100. Rising inflation and compounding interest mean that number is closer to $7,400 in today's terms. Residents who decide to connect today, however, are paying about $2,300 more than that, partly to service the debt and as a penalty because they signed on late. To make the fee fairer, though, the municipality would cut the price per property down to $7,400 starting next year. It would refund the difference to those who have already paid a higher fee.
            5. Lastly, when it starts a Development Charges Project next year, the municipality would consider how much of the debt to hand over to future subdivision developers.
These are just some of the menu of options council members could consider when deciding how to service the debt. Public works staff have drawn up another list, which includes knocking down the fee per property to entice more residents to connect, or making all users pay $100 a year until the debt is paid down.
The news left council members with a lot to chew on.
Much of their thoughts turned to who is to blame for the "financial disaster," in councillor Randy Roppel's words, caused by making connection optional.
I have no earthly idea how they considered recouping the funds," said Roppel. "When you give people options, they exercise their options."
Councillor Gordon Campbell accused Mayor Larry Kraemer of helping to make the decision. Kraemer fired back at Campbell. He said that the pipeline was introduced by one council, on which he sat, and another, on which Campbell sat, changed construction plans, which almost doubled the price per property.
Councillor Guy Anderson admitted he was one of the people that voted on the deal.
"The plan was brought forward and we thought it would work," he said. "Council thought this was the best plan…unfortunately, it didn't work as well as it should have."
Several councillors insisted that should be water under the bridge.
"You can't change the decision that was made back in 2003," said deputy mayor Laura Haight.
You also can't try to undo the effects of that decision in a half-hour discussion during a regular council meeting, she said.
"I feel a special meeting coming on," Kraemer quipped. Indeed, that's what council decided to do. It scheduled a public meeting in January to bring members up to speed on options to zero the pipeline debt. "It's sure to be something that doesn't suit all.
It's going to be how we find the least unfair solution," said Kraemer.
In the mean time, the municipality is undertaking an environmental assessment for another water pipeline, set to service the Inverhuron area.