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Within a year after putchase the County plans to serve'the utility by County owned and operated plants. Thus, certain of the utility's failities, those relating to water supply, water treatment, and wastewater tr�atment, have no value to the County. Subtracting the physical value of these facilities from the total physical value equals $648,000, which is the physcial value of the facilities that would remain in service after the sale of the utility. This value divided by 200 connections equals about $3,200. The $1,500 per connection for new customers is almost half the physical value of the system on a per connection basis. From the above discussion the connection charge appears reasonable and can be considered a lire repayment fee. New customers will also pay the County's impact fee for water and wa tewater. This fee is for new capacity of plant, and does not relate to th Bent Pine Utility Company existing infrastructure. IMPACTS OF THE PURCHASE OR SALE ON UTILITY CUSTOMERS The purchase of Bent Pine Utility Company by Indian River County benefits both the County and the Bent Pine Community. The planned potential site of the sub -regional pump station (master pumping site) is near the: present BPUC wastewater facility requiring only that the station be connected to existing lines. Regionalization of wastewater treatment eliminates proliferation and provides for better effluent quality control. Decommissioning of wells within the Bent Pine community provide the opplortunity to dispose of effluent through irrigation on the golf courses, approximately 0.5 mgd. Lik wise, the present BPUC percolation ponds offer 0.07 mgd of effluent disposal. These two effluent disposal sites can.be used to accomodate effluent from other sources, other than the Bent Pine Community. In addition, the land purchased from BPUC is a marketable asset. Pip ng finished drinking water to the Bent Pine community conforms well with. regional water service. The Bent Pine community will be provided a higher quality of finished water. Growth in water demands will be handled by IRC and not require the expansion of the BPUC's existing facilities. Upo purchase of Bent Pine Utility Company by the County, the rates and cha ges of existing and future customers will be that which is levied to all County water and wastewater customers. This charge will result in an increase in rates to the Bent Pine customers. Bas d on consumption statistics for the last seven months, a Bent Pine res dential customer uses approximately 5,000 gallons per month on the ave age. Under the existing rate this average customer pays $19.10 a month for water and wastewater. Under the County rates the monthly charge would be 34.78. Thi increase is a negative impact, but offsetting this impact is the fol owing: 1) the higher level of service provided by the County's water and wastewater facilities; 2) the existing Bent Pine rates were set from its 'inception in 1979 and probably do not reflect the actual higher cost of service; 3) often when private utilities have the same level of service as a public entity the rates levied by the private utility are higher due to add d costs for taxes, etc., rate of return, and lack of economy of. scale. Hen e, there is a likelihood that rates would go up dramatically should the utility stay private. 47 BOOK 69 PACE 3018 P 8 1987 :I u