(4/10) Water, water, water everywhere.

At its recent town Council finance workshop, the Council continued to discussed water rates as Mayor Frank Davis reviewed and presented updates and information about the Town’s water rates and water supply.

Discussing the water rate and tap fees became a point of contention as Commissioner Valerie Turnquist, who also serves as Town Treasurer, once again expressed strong opinions against the water rate increase and claimed the Town should be looking at other budget options.

"I’m not convinced that all of the interest that we’re earning at the bank is going back into the appropriate fund… if you look at our FY 24 budget, we can’t see that number," she said, claiming 50% of the interest goes to the general fund, 25% goes to the water fund and 25% to the sewer fund. Davis, however, disagreed and guaranteed that the interest was being put in the appropriate fund.

Reiterating she wasn’t making accusations, Turnquist cited a report provided at a recent workshop claiming the Town needed to review numbers, especially the percentage of salaries estimated in FY-24 to be charged to the water and sewer fund, claiming the Town has already exceeded those percentages so far, she said.

Turnquist went on to ask the other Council members that approved the water rate increase last summer if it was their intent to approve a 217% yearly increase for users connected to the Town’s water system via one and a half inch pipes.

Stating she wasn’t on the Council when the water rate increase was approved, Turnquist noted the Council needed to look at numbers carefully to review any wiggle room.

Davis reassured the Council that the Town is looking at the water rate numbers carefully, but pointed out that the Town was facing $15-20 million worth of failing water and sewer infrastructure projects and the Town had to use every tool available, including rate increases, to address the wave of oncoming repairs. "Just because we have a couple hundred thousand dollars, it hasn’t fixed our problem…one project could wipe us out," he said.

Davis noted he was initially and still is "dead set" against the five-year 36% increase, but it was decided as a Council vote and couldn’t just be retracted now.

While acknowledging the residents struggling with the rate increase, Davis noted the water rate hasn’t been raised since 2006.

"We’re struggling as a Town and we’re committed as a group of people to provide a service and we can’t provide that for free," he said.

After this first increase, Davis noted the majority of the residents are seeing a 36 cents per day increase, still significantly cheaper than Thurmont or Taneytown.

Noting the painful nature of the conversations, Council President Amy Boehman said it was the duty of the Town Council to ask hard questions to allow the Town to continually explore available options. "That is our due diligence as a board to ask those questions and figure this out," she said.