The board authorized the county attorney and the county manager to negotiate a purchase agreement. The action was taken during a special meeting Monday afternoon.
Completion of the sale is subject to approval by Pinehurst voters.
The vote went along the expected lines, with Chairman Michael Holden, Colin McKenzie and Virginia Saunders in favor and Commissioners Bob Ewing and David Cummings against.
“This system belongs to all the people in Moore County,” Cummings said. “We don’t have to sell it.”
Ewing read a hand-written statement in which he expressed concern for the welfare of the county’s almost 80,000 residents, including the Pinehurst population of less than 10,000.
But McKenzie, who lives in Pinehurst, said the issue is time-sensitive and Pinehurst needs time to make arrangements for a loan and a referendum. McKenzie cited Tax Department statistics showing that Pinehurst represents about 10 percent of the county population but constitutes more than 26 percent of the county tax base.
“They should be allowed to control and profit from their own utilities just as the other municipalities [do],”McKenzie said. “I can think of no reason other than greed why Pinehurst should not own its water and sewer system.”
McKenzie also said that Pinehurst has expressed interest in participating in a regional system if other municipalities decide in the future to change their present views and enter into such an arrangement. So far, however, he said, other municipalities have indicated that they do not want to join the county system.
After McKenzie made the motion to accept the offer, Saunders made the second.
‘Right Thing To Do’
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Saunders said. “I know they can do a good job of supplying water.”
Holden said the utility system ownership by Pinehurst is an issue dating to the early 1980s.
“It gets kicked around and kicked around,” he said. “I’m comfortable that this is a pretty good deal for the county of Moore.”
Holden said he does not think the remaining customers in Moore County will be hurt by the sale. With the sale, he said, the county would then be running what is largely a rural water system.
“We can’t fight the municipality,” Holden said. “This is democracy. If they vote to buy, that’s good. If they vote it down, I’ll say ‘Great.’”
Ewing reiterated his concern about looking out for the welfare of the entire county, not just the interest of one municipality.
“What we have to look at is the big picture here in Moore County,” he said. “I frankly don’t care how much money they come up with.”
Cummings questioned the village’s response to the needs of other communities in the vicinity of Pinehurst and those already hooked up to the county system. He mentioned Pinewild, Olmsted Village, Seven Lakes, Vass and Hyland Hills.
“I personally can’t see the advantage to the citizens of Moore County to sell off this system,” Cummings said. “I think our rate is competitive.”
Hurts Countywide System
In his seven-page statement, Ewing said the county would be well on its way toward a countywide system once the East Moore district is fully operational and the West Moore Water District is established.
“Let’s be honest, the Pinehurst water system, acquired and developed by the county, represents the central linchpin of a countywide water system, that we have been working on for some time,” Ewing said.
He said that in recent years, the county has worked to improve the Pine-hurst system by drilling new wells, building another elevated water tower and making other improvements. Plans include the construction of a tower in Pinewild.
“The drought last year was a wake-up call that not only revealed our shortcomings, but also a spirit of cooperation, which was a joy to behold,” Ewing said. “I’m proud that in adversity, our varied interests could and did come together. I have no doubt that the same would happen if another shortage should come our way.”
Ewing took issue with several points in the village offer.
He called “offensive” a paragraph that asks the county not to interfere “with their hiring of all management employees and to those nonmanagement employees necessary to continue operating the systems.”
Ewing questioned the stipulation calling for the county to refrain from adding load to the system in the future, such as a response to a high-demand industrial customer, because it might prevent the county from fulfilling its obligations to the village.
“Any industry is going to go where there is water, if not for usage, but insurance purposes primarily, and this provision puts a crimp in future economic development issues,” Ewing said.
Ewing closed by saying that he is against the sale at this time but said he wanted to “assure the folks in Pinehurst that we are acutely aware of their problems and will continue to address them, as we have done, and are doing to correct them.”
The Pinehurst offer, made in February, is $1 million higher than the offer made last year, when the vote was 3-2 against the sale. The make-up of the Board of Commissioners has changed since the November general election.
The Pinehurst offer includes 13 provisions, ranging from the purchase of real property, easements and rights-of-way that are part of the county system serving the village and its extraterritorial jurisdiction. That offer provides for the purchase of such equipment as the sewer vacuum truck, office furniture and software.
Under another provision, the village is allowed to offer employment to county employees now serving the Pinehurst system whom the village wants to retain. The proposal calls for the village to deal directly with the town of Southern Pines about acquisition of the Country Club of North Carolina portion of the systems owned by the town.
The offer stipulates that the village will not use ownership of the Pinehurst utility assets “to frustrate the county’s obligation to transport water to the Seven Lakes water system” and that the village will reimburse the county for incremental cost required to increase the diameter of water transmission lines planned to run from the existing Phase I of the East Moore Water District to the U.S. 15-501-McCaskill Road intersection.
The village further agrees to extend its water line to an interconnection point at that intersection. The village also agrees to buy a minimum of a million gallons of water a day from the county when that interconnection is available.
County To Sell Water to Village
The county is to agree to sell this water to the village for 40 years at a rate equal to the rate that the town of Vass pays for water coming from the East Moore system.
One provision calls for the county to agree “to refrain from adding load to its system in the future, such as from high demand industrial customers, that will prevent the county from fulfilling its obligations to the village.”
Other details in the proposal cover such things as disclosure of possible lawsuits; the transfer of customer, engineering and other operating records; and the transfer to the village of cash equivalent to customer deposits by Pinehurst customers at the closing date.
Several Pinehurst residents attended the meeting but did not speak. Among them was Mayor Steve Smith.
