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Development of Customer Base <br />Utilities Director Terry Pinto emphasize that fire flow <br />capacity determines the requirements for water capacity. <br />Commissioner Tippin recalled that the Board authorized <br />expansion of the utilities department because DEP said we were at <br />some percentage of capacity vs dry lines. <br />Director Pinto stated that the department was below 50% <br />capacity but DEP said the county was maxed out. Negotiations were <br />held with DEP and we refused to sign the part of the permit that <br />said we had that amount of committed flow. The Comp Plan requires <br />that when we use 50% of our capacity, we have to start designing <br />the next expansion and when we reach 80%, we have to start <br />construction. This is a self-supporting utility which only <br />collects what we need to pay required expenses. Impact fees are <br />also an expense requirement covering the cost of providing new <br />capacity for new customers. Studies which indicate that our fees <br />are high in comparison to other counties do not take into account <br />that our system is entirely new while some communities have <br />facilities which were built many years ago. Also, other counties <br />have impact fees which are called by other names. <br />In response to Commissioner Ginn's question regarding the use <br />of revenue bonds, Director Pinto explained that in many instances <br />even though there are existing utilities which are taken over by <br />the county, the customers are still new customers and the county <br />has to provide new capacity. The County has set up a 10 -year <br />payment plan without incurring the funding cost of setting up <br />bonds. <br />17 FU -e,. <br />FEBRUARY 3, 1997 <br />L <br />