Published: July 22, 2008 09:45 pm         

Sophia mayor touts PSC takeover of sewer system

Sophia Mayor Harry Taylor envisions a major savings in repair work and getting out from under bond indebtedness of $3.5 million if the Crab Orchard-MacArthur Public Service District takes over his town’s sewer system.

There are two obstacles to clear.

First, town council must approve a special election in its Aug. 21 meeting, and of late, Taylor told the PSD in its Tuesday meeting, some members have wavered on the idea of the takeover, albeit the unofficial last count had members split 4-3 in favor.

A second obstacle lies with the 933 registered voters themselves in Taylor’s town.

Dissension has begun to surface, and Taylor is doing his best to sell the idea of shedding the town of the costly task of running the antiquated sewer system, installed back in 1958.

“There are those diehards,” Taylor told the PSD.

“They think a sewer system is going to make the town a lot of money. You can’t make money on a sewer system. But you can’t tell people that.”

A 90-day interlude must pass between council’s approval before any such election can be held. Until then, the PSD will run the sewer system on an “operation and maintenance” agreement with the town. On this point recently, council was unanimous.

“My biggest concern is the council,” PSD General Manager Barry Milam said. “The way they’ve been going back and forth in this whole process.”

Sophia residents now pay about $25 a month for sewer service, but Taylor said their bill could jump to $75 if the town is forced to finance needed repairs.

For now, if the transfer is approved, Milam said rates would be frozen, if the PSD can run the system at existing rates.

“Eventually, when we take over a system, rates would probably go up to meet our rates,” Milam said.

“There’s not a lot of difference between their rates and our rates.”

Milam advised the PSD board that one conceivable factor that could prompt a rate increase, approved by the state Public Service Commission, would be “catastrophic” damage to the system, such as a tank failure.

“They have some concrete tanks down there that are pretty old,” he told reporters afterward.

“They have some metal tanks that have been there a little while. Usually, those things don’t fail. This is not like it’s something that is in danger of happening. It’s just a worse-case scenario.”

If the PSD assumed the sewage plant, the mayor told reporters it would assume about $3.5 million in bonds.

“That would take Sophia out of debt for the next 40 to 50 years,” he said. “That’s an issue, too. We’ve got one bond we’re paying $800 a month.”

PSD Secretary Zeno Sparks encouraged the council to approve the election, which could occur in late November.

“It seems to me, we need to see how people in Sophia feel,” he said.

“If they vote to let us take it, we’ll do whatever it takes.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com