By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday, authorized the city manager to negotiate a payment plan regarding the relocation of utilities associated with the building of the U.S. Highway 17 bypass at Washington.
For more than three years, the council has discussed how to address paying $1.75 million in costs the city incurred for the relocation of water and sewer lines in the bypass corridor. The N.C. Department of Transportation, which required the lines be relocated, wants the city to pay the bill for the relocation.
Several years ago, DOT notified the city that it would be required to pay the $1.75 million it cost DOT to move water and sewer lines in the way of the U.S. Highway 17 bypass project. Those lines were under DOT’s right of way in the project area. DOT billed the city $1,296,397 to relocate water lines and $631,732 to relocate sewer lines.
“We have convinced NCDOT to allow us to pay this back by them withholding Powell Bill funds over the 12 year time period in equal amounts ($146,094.08) until this debt is paid,” wrote Allen Lewis, the city’s public-works director, in a memorandum to the mayor and council.
City Manager James C. Smith said he plans to ask DOT for “forgiveness” when it comes to payments due during the first two years of the plan.
City officials are not happy with DOT charging the city for relocating the lines. Under state law, municipalities with populations less than 5,500 people and all counties, regardless of population, are exempt from paying such relocation costs to DOT.
Councilman Doug Mercer said the city is being “penalized” as a result of that law. He said it does not make sense that the city is being forced to pay for the relocation of water and sewer lines when “others are getting it for nothing.”
The city and DOT have jettisoned a proposal that called for the state to withhold about a third of the city’s annual Powell Bill allocation each year until the debt was paid or for 20 years, whichever came first.
Powell Bill money, which varies each year, is used for transportation purposes such as paving unpaved roads. The amount varies because of the formula used to calculate the allocation. As a city or town’s population and miles of paved/unpaved roads changes, those parameters affect that city or town’s allocation.
In other business, the council told Dottie Moore, who complained about Washington Electric Utilities rates, the city would consider her request for a study of those rates. Moore said she and other WEU customers are finding it difficult to pay their electric bills, with some customers having to make choices regarding paying those bills, putting food on their tables and buying medications.
The council also said the city would determine what it can do, if anything, to help preserve the Hiram Masonic Lodge off Fifth Street. Thornton Gorham told the council that work on an adjacent ditch over the years has resulted in the lodge, which he said is 143 years old, leaning toward the north. Gorham said he wants the city to use grant funding to fix the problem. He contends the city is responsible for the threat to the lodge.
Mayor Archie Jennings told Gorham the city would undertake a “best-faith effort to find a solution” to stabilize and protect the lodge.
For additional coverage of the council’s meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.