Boone turns on financing

faucet for water source

By Scott Nicholson

The Boone Town Council moved forward with a financing plan for a proposed municipal water intake on the New River Friday.

In a special meeting, the council adopted a resolution authorizing the filing of an application to approve a financing agreement for a $25 million loan.

The council also set a public hearing for Aug. 21 on the proposed bond, and the referendum will go before town voters on the general-election ballot.

The financing application will go to the state treasury department’s Local Government Commission for approval. Voters must also approve the referendum.

Town manager Greg Young said the Watauga County Board of Elections had been informed of the bond referendum and given language for the ballot.

Young said the bond would allow the town to raise taxes if the bond was in default, or the Local Government Commission could also force the town to raise taxes to pay the debt.

Young said the intent was to repay the bond through the water-and-sewer fund instead of General Fund money or property tax revenue.

Young said water and sewer rates had increased over each of the last four years to set aside money for the expected debt.

The town has raised $800,000 to pay off the debt and will use future increases for the water intake plant if it is approved.

“That is the plan and what we’ll continue to stick with as we go forward,” Young said.

Council member Lynne Mason said people are seeing larger water-and-sewer bills and said people might be concerned if their rates were going up and they weren’t seeing immediate improvements.

Public utilities director Rick Miller said the town’s rates were average when compared to other municipal systems.

The resolution describes the bond as “necessary to pay the capital costs of acquiring, constructing and equipping facilities for a new water source along the South Fork of the New River, including the costs of related studies, plans and design; acquiring land and right-of-way in land and installing water transmission lines related to the acquisition of the new water source; [and] renovating the Town of Boone Water Treatment Plant in order to increase its daily capacity, including improvements to and acquisition and installation of plant equipment.”

The town has a purchase option on 10 acres of property in the Brownwood community, bordering Ashe and Watauga counties along the river.

The town is in the process of securing environmental assessments and water-quality permits before beginning construction.

Young said the town is also pursuing grants and other funding sources if the bond referendum isn’t approved by a majority of town voters.

In other business, the council adopted an encroachment agreement to allow Appalachian State University to supply various utilities across town streets for construction of the new College of Education building near College and Howard streets.

ASU will tentatively connect the property to its own water lines instead of using town water.
Young said construction plans also showed a traffic roundabout at the intersection, with issues of road ownership and liability yet to be resolved.

The council held a public hearing on an application for financing of a million-gallon tank on N.C. 194 that would store water drawn from the intake, with no one speaking.

The town received a $669,000 estimate for the tank, and Miller said it would have a concrete finish.

The neighborhood residents favored a concrete tank and will let the tank weather for a year to see how it blends in with the environment.

Young said LGC approval was required because it cost over half a million dollars and the town expects to pay for it within three years through the town water and sewer fund, with no tax increase expected.

Miller expects the tank to be finished before the end of the year. It will replace a 1966-era tank of the same capacity.