COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

If south barrier island residents who believe they cannot survive without county water and sewer rates are wondering who is standing in their way, the answer is the Indian River County Commission.

In its negotiations with the city over who will provide water and sewer service to the unincorporated area of the south barrier island after 2017, the county has made an offer the city can and should refuse.

Having come to terms with the fact that the service territory agreement between the city and county signed 30 years ago is inviolate and in perpetuity, county leaders finally backed away from plans to force the city to give up service to the south barrier island in 2017, when a separate franchise agreement will expire.

If the county were to assume service to the south barrier island, it would either have to connect its mainland-based system the island by boring under the Indian River Lagoon, or by installing separate mains paralleling the city’s system across the Alma Lee Loy Bridge and down A1A.  Given that the city is already serving the area, such a public investment would accomplish nothing more than to satisfy the egos of county leaders who want to mark their territory.

In exchange for a new, 20-year agreement with a 10-year opt-out clause, the county proposes that city drops its 10 percent surcharge and agree to re-define ownership rights of water and sewer infrastructure installed and maintained by the city for some 30 years.  Quite simply, the county’s offer is so one sided and unfair to the city as to hardly warrant consideration.

For its part, the city has offered to give its 3,000 out-of-city south barrier customers the same deal it made last year with the Town of Indian River Shores.  Shores customers are now charged county rates as well as a 6 percent fee mirroring the equalization charge they would have paid had they become customers of the county.

Wanting to have its cake and eat is too, the County Commission, which now receives a 6 percent franchise fee on the city’s water and sewer charges to south barrier island customers, proposes to split that fee with the city, while at the same time forcing the city to drop its existing 10 percent surcharge.

Given that the city is on solid legal ground in asserting its right to continue serving the south barrier island, and given that it is wholly unreasonable to expect the city to cede its ownership of the south barrier island utility infrastructure, the county’s latest proposal sounds more like an insult than anything else.