News

Brightwater loan repayment plan to double water bills

By Bill Moss, Published: June 7, 2012

Some 80 residents of Brightwater Heights and 64 other households nearby will pay $27 more a month on their water bill if the Hendersonville City Council accepts a recommendation from the city utilities department.

The extra money on the water bill is the start of a 20-year plan to repay a $721,000 loan used to replace a failing water system that served Brightwater residents. They hooked onto the city water system in 2005.
"It was agreed upon in 2005 that the residents of Brightwater would repay the amount borrowed over the term of the loan on their monthly water bills," utilities director Lee Smith told the council in a memo last week. The council is scheduled to take up the recommendation on Thursday (June 7).
The monthly payments of $26.90 from 144 customers will repay the loan at 2.48 percent interest over 20 years. The city will also offer residents the option of making a one-time payment of $5,423. Making the monthly payment for 20 years comes out to $6,456.
The repayment would raise the monthly bill for residents to $56.68, based on average 5,000-gallons-a-month usage, the utilities department said.
Claudia Andrus, the president of the homeowners association, said she had heard no gripes about the repayment plan.
"That's how we got our water system," she said. "There couldn't be a water system without it. The city's doing a great job."
She said residents knew about the repayment plan seven years ago and when a home sells real estate agents are supposed to disclose the obligation. Residents who didn't want to participate in the switch to city water had the option of digging a well, she said, and some did.
"It's something we knew we had to do to pay for this system," said Brightwater resident Bill Traughber, a retiree who chaired the committee that worked on the waterline project. "It wasn't an option we had. It was great the city partnered with us in getting this thing rebuilt. It was really deteriorating, leaking all over the place. We were right on the edge of a potential crisis."
Residents have learned about the loan payment in homeowners' meeting.
"Nobody's going to pay for it for us. We're in the county so the city had no obligation, nor do they do that anyhow," he said. "When a subdivision is built a developer builds (the water distribution system) ahead of time and turns it over the city. We were just fortunate that the main line came through our area."
Total cost of the project was $1.38 million. Brightwater residents acquired a government loan for $561,000 and the city obtained a loan for $293,000. The new monthly bill will apply to 144 customers, 80 of which are in Brightwater, west of the city limits on U.S. 64. The others are in the Sunset, Sunrise and Turner road area.