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By LOU HATTER
Rappahannock Ncwa SUIT Writer
After hearing suggestions from about a dozen residents at its public hearing on a proposed 2 Vi percent meal and transient lodging tax, the Washington Town Council last Wednesday night postponed action on the revenue measure.
Instead, council scheduled a work session, to be held Wednesday night, to consider the alternatives suggested by several residents. Advised by town attorney Frank Reynolds that adoption of the ordinance required a two-thirds vote of the seven-member council, the four members present would have been unable to enact the measure - in any case.
In remarks made prior to opening last week’s hearing to public comment, Mayor Dean Morehouse described the town as “currently in a crisis situation with the maintenance of the water system. We have spent two to three thousand dollars in the last several months fixing leaks . . . and we have just about depleted our savings at this point.. . We have a fragile system which is coming unglued.”
Estimates for the major overhaul needed to salvage the 50year-old system range from $125,000 to $175,000. A nugor leak somewhere in the main supply line between the well in Harris Hollow and the residential feeder lines is siphoning off 200,000 gallons each month, according to treasurer and water authority head Brad Fisher.
Kfr. Fisher said that the water system project has two focuses. Thd rehabilitation phase is necessary because the acidic nature of local soils is corroding the galvanized steel pipes from the outside. Also, the state has mandated a number of minimum standards for all water systems, including chlorinators, master meters, rights-of-way to the wellhead, improvements in the check valve system and improved fire hydrants to upgrade fire protection capabilities..
The second phase, a routine maintenance program, “would be relatively cheap,” he said, were it not for the fact that the system is already so decrepit. “The present budget is almost enough to cover it. The big expenditure at the moment is to get to the point of routine maintenance - in
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