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County eyes Vienna's water rates
Town of Vienna officials say they will study water issues this fall, following last week's airing of concerns about the discrepancy between the town and Fairfax County water rates.
Supervisors Linda Smyth (D-Providence) and Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) asked Fairfax County to investigate the way the Town of Vienna and the City of Falls Church charge their out-of-town water customers.
"They buy water from Fairfax County and resell it to Fairfax County residents at a marked-up price," Smyth said.
Both Vienna and Falls Church charge their out-of-town water customers more than they charge town residents, and both water systems charge significantly more than does Fairfax County. County residents who receive Vienna water pay a rate of $112.88, while Fairfax County residents receiving water from Fairfax Water are paying $47.05. About 40 percent of Vienna's water customers live outside of town.
Both municipalities transfer a percentage of their water fees into their general funds, a circumstance that Hudgins has described as forcing out-of-town residents to subsidize low property taxes for in-town residents. For the last two years, Vienna has transferred $962,000 from water fees into its general fund.
According to Town Finance Manager Phil Grant, that works out to about 15 percent of the total fees collected, which he says is normal for a town utility.
"We asked our consultants what the industry standard was, and they told us it was between 10 and 20 percent," Grant said.
According to Grant and Town Manager John Schoberlein, the large transfer of money is intended to compensate the town for the time town employees like Director of Public Works Holly Chu dedicate to the water system.
"It's intended to recover the indirect costs of council and public works," Grant said.
According to Smyth, those transferred funds aren't going to the right place.
"They haven't been using the revenues from utilities on their infrastructure," Smyth said.
Vienna Councilman Dan Dellinger disagrees.
"We're working to correct oversights of previous councils. ... We're trying to catch up," Dellinger said.
Vienna's decaying water system is in such bad repair that the town has studied getting out of the utility business entirely. Fairfax Water has considered taking over the utility, but the investment needed to update Vienna's system is so high that the takeover would mean higher fees for all Fairfax Water customers, up to 7 percent or 8 percent over the current rates.
According to Dellinger, Vienna will be studying the issue further this fall. According to Hudgins, if Vienna were to start dedicating a portion of its water rates to maintaining its water infrastructure, "that would be the beginning of starting to address this problem."
“Vienna's decaying water system is in such bad repair that the town has studied getting out of the utility business entirely”
Vienna’s decaying water system; quite the metaphor of the entire town.
If only we, the town residents, could study getting out of the incompetent Vienna Town Council’s despot grip? Just think how much “better” Vienna could be if we were free of the cronyism of a few?
Imagine all the people, John Lennon
Posted by Gbaxter
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