The Comprehensive Plan Has Passed, Now What?

At its last Executive Committee meeting SONs executive committee prioritized what we should concentrate on going forward. On the list were the usual suspects: education, litter, water and sewage services, groundwater management, fire and EMS, roads, police, economic development, and zoning ordinances, among others.

While these are all worthy causes, and while the SONs charter reads, “responsible growth and government”  which covers all of the above, SONs must focus its resources on a few targeted issues to remain effective. Getting ordinances passed to implement the Comprehensive Plan   has to take priority. That being said, the establishment of a water and sewer authority, called a public service authority, or “PSA”, looms large in our opinion, simply because of the fact that where infrastructure goes, development follows. Other issues that will surface in the months to come will be the preservation of aquifer recharge areas, storm water runoff, and the preservation of agriculture and aquaculture resources and jobs. Throughout this discussion, we will continually emphasize the interests of the citizens of the County who have, on so many occasions over the past several years supported, spoken about, and voted to preserve our rural environment and the unique set of jobs and lifestyles it affords us, living, as we do, so close to dense urban areas on the Northeast Coast.

Board Moves Forward on Public Service Authority (PSA)

At its June 2 work session in the Board Chambers in Accomack, the Board of Supervisors set wheels in motion to set up a PSA in Accomack to provide water and sewer services to the central part of the County. The Board was acting on a report recently completed by a citizen’s blue ribbon committee charged with recommending how to move forward to provide water and sewer infrastructure that growth in the central part of the county now requires. The committee recommended that a Public Service Authority be set up to take over complete responsibility for provision of water and sewer infrastructure in the central part of the County. The consensus of the board was unanimous that this was the way to proceed.

What is a Public Service Authority (PSA)?

A PSA is legal entity authorized by the State of Virginia which is guided by articles of incorporation and a Board of Directors appointed by the Board of Supervisors. It is supposed to operate as an independent non-profit business, outside the political arena, with full powers to build, own, and operate facilities, and enter into contractual and financing agreements. The PSA would be charged with determining the most cost effective means of providing services within its defined area of operation subject to all of the goals, constraints, and objectives of the County’s Comprehensive Plan and zoning ordinances. Importantly, the PSA is financially independent of the County, having its own sources of revenues from services provided and being solely responsible for its liabilities and any debt it incurs. Having said this, it is expected that the County would “loan” the PSA monies to start up operations.

In fact, the proposed PSA needs a wastewater treatment facility so that it can sell services. According to the report, “…the Town of Onancock’s water and wastewater treatment facilities [should] be transferred to the Accomack Regional Public Service Authority [the committee’s proposed name for the PSA] at the earliest possible date with the PSA and the Town of Onancock coming to a mutually agreed upon arrangement concerning the basis of the transfer. Included in the transfer in addition to the facilities would be the permits and grants which have been secured.”

The PSA must have its first directors decided upon prior to a required public hearing. The PSA would then be set in motion by the Board of Supervisors by adopting the PSA Articles of Incorporation by majority vote.

What is SONs Position on the PSA?

Beyond the simple recommendation that a PSA be created and that it take over the Onancock facilities, almost no details have been worked out. Not the least of which is any notion of the economics of the facility, how much the services would cost town residents, or even what towns and neighborhoods would be included in its service area. Indeed, as of June 2, the Board had not yet begun discussions with the Town of Onancock.

SONs believes that water and wastewater services in mid-County are absolutely necessary even to support the current residents of the towns of Onancock, Onley, Tasley, Accomack, and the IDA in Melfa. These areas are variously plagued by an increasing number of septic system failures, inability to grow and/or high costs of outdated inefficient water and wastewater services. We note that even “low impact” agri-tourism businesses (restaurants and B&B’s) are now finding it hard to locate and expand mid-county for lack of wastewater treatment capacity.

However, given the eventual autonomy, broad scope, and impact on the direction of growth that a PSA will have, SONs has several concerns that we believe should be ironed out before the PSA gets enacted into law. We have expressed these formally to the Board of Supervisors before its June 2 meeting in an open letter, which is attached here. While it seems that the County is in no mood to commission a study to work out the engineering-economic trade-offs before establishing the PSA, as we suggested, it is clear to us that this will eventually be essential.

The Board’s consensus direction is to form an initial Board of Directors for the PSA made up of highly competent business-oriented professionals and trust their judgment to make wise trade-offs. SONs recognizes that the quality of the PSA Board is critical – ultimately they must be trusted to make wise decisions. It will be their job. Realizing this, your executive committee has been active in helping the Board of Supervisors recruit the most competent individuals, County-wide, for these Director positions.

SONs persists in believing that one decision is so important that it should be written explicitly into the Articles of Incorporation, and this is the geographic scope of the PSA. We believe that the goals of the Comprehensive Plan, just adopted, should be supported by the PSA by providing services to existing towns clustered mid-county as opposed to extending lines out into farmland or aquifer recharge areas along Route 13. We will be watching the PSA with interest.

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