REVISIONIST HISTORY:
How Town Changed Its Story on Sewer Charges
New Town sewer plant was designed to double wastewater capacity, but when developers of Bay Creek refused to contribute to the cost, the capacity — but not the expense — was halved. (Wave photo)
By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
September 30, 2013
The official Cape Charles Gazette printed a September 17 statement on sewer charges by Assistant Town Manager Bob Panek contradicting earlier Town policy. Panek wrote, “. . . there has been much public commentary asserting that the reason for [the sewer charge] increase is because the developer of Bay Creek Resort & Club did not pay the Town for their share of the cost of building the new plant as required by the Annexation Agreement. This is not accurate.”
He continued: “The agreement requires the developer to pay the cost of expansion to accommodate the additional treatment demands of the annexed property beyond the limits of the Town’s current permitted capacities. The capacity of our new plant is the same as our old plant, 250,000 gallons per day.”
Therefore, Panek concluded, “The requirement for the developer to pay for a share of expansion was not triggered.” (click here to read Panek’s complete “Wastewater Treatment” statement).
Panek now contends that Bay Creek developers are not required to pay a penny of the new $19 million wastewater plant, because it is the same size as the old plant. But earlier official correspondence by Panek obtained by the Wave reveals a different story.
Key to Panek’s statement is the word “triggered,” as in “The requirement . . . to pay . . . was not triggered.” But Panek earlier had insisted just the opposite. Following a December 1, 2008, closed meeting between Town officials and Bay Creek developer Richard “Dickie” Foster, Panek sent an email to Town Council contending that “Clearly, there is no firm ‘trigger’ of ‘once the plant reaches design capacity’ as maintained by Bay Creek.”
Panek argued in the 2008 memo that “we must expend effort and resources sufficiently in advance of when the new plant must be operational.” Furthermore, he wrote Town Council, sewer expansion plans were based on Bay Creek’s own growth projections “personally approved by Mr. Foster.” [Read more…]
