PITTSBORO — The town’s board of commissioners met Monday evening and addressed the funding of its water partnership with the city of Sanford, which resulted in the delay of a vote to finalize an agreement between the town and Chatham Park Investors.
The Sanford partnership would allow for Pittsboro — along with Chatham County, Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs — to utilize Sanford’s water facilities to provide drinking water for their own communities. Each of the entities would contribute money toward Sanford’s water capacity expansion project, which would increase its treatment plant’s capacity from 12 million gallons per day to 30 million gallons per day.
Town Manager Chris Kennedy said he has communicated with the prospective partners to decide the best course of action to move the project forward.
“Obviously, our water quality issues are much discussed here in Pittsboro, (but) probably the lesser known evil in that is our water capacity issues,” Kennedy said. “We are seeking to partner with the City of Sanford to assist with both of those.”
Pittsboro currently draws its water from the Haw River, which has repeatedly tested positive for potential human carcinogens, such as PFAS, PFOS and 1,4-Dioxane, following discharges of such slugs from an unknown source in Greensboro.
“The City of Sanford has provided that to us about the quality of theirs being better than the town of Pittsboro’s, certainly their capacity levels are better than Pittsboro’s,” Kennedy said.
The project expansion is estimated to cost $11.25 million among the partners, with Pittsboro expected to pay around $1.878 million for its share of the expansion, Kennedy said. The expansion would give Pittsboro three million gallons a day of additional capacity.
Kennedy said this agreement will allow for a more steady and dependable source of water for future residents as Pittsboro continues to grow.
“It is part of my commitment to you to continue to bring projects similar to this so we can bring generational capacities both on the water and sewer side to this board for decision points,” he told commissioners. “The town needs to identify its utility sources as we continue to grow, not only for our residents in the immediate future but for our far distant future as well.”
In order to pay the $1.878 million to complete the project, Kennedy and town staff have arranged an agreement with Chatham Park Investors calling for the investors to reimburse the town the total amount of $1.878 million to ensure they can make use of the expanded capacity.
Some commissioners were concerned with making a vote Monday evening on the last-minute agenda item. Commissioner John Bonitz said he wanted a chance to read over the agreement between Chatham Park investors and the town more thoroughly before voting.
“To be clear, I am completely convinced that we need this capacity for water, and we need it not only for the water itself, but for the kind of de facto inter-basin transfer that it will bring us and some additional capacity we hope on our sewer force main,” he said. “There are a lot of good reasons for this, but I do want to take a close look at it and make sure that I understand it completely.”
Town Attorney Paul Messick addressed Bonitz’s concerns by saying this would not be an unfamiliar arrangement for the town of Pittsboro. He said it’s similar to the one the town has in place with Chatham Park regarding sewage lines throughout the development.
“You’ve got to pay for it somewhere, and it’s either going to come from the fund balance that doesn’t have it, or you are going to have to make some other arrangements,” he said. “This is not debt in the sense that a local government commissioner would be interested in — the Chatham Park part of this is revenue; it’s income for the town.”
Commissioner Jay Farrell said he was ready to approve the agreement, adding that he was worried that postponing the vote could result in further delays in the project.
“I don’t know what two more weeks is going to make on us,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate enough to have Chatham Park to come in here and make this amount of money.”
Commissioner Pamela Baldwin acknowledged the desire of some board members to look over the contract’s specific terms, but ultimately said she was ready to move forward with the agreement.
“This is the only viable option we have in reference to obtaining that additional sewage, so basically we need to go forward with it,” she said.
Commissioner Kyle Shipp voiced his concerns about the board being on the same page, saying all commissioners should have more time to read over the terms fully so everyone can be in agreement.
“I think it is a necessary solution to where we are at,” Shipp said, “but I think it would be good to have that additional time to review after we got it.”
The board tabled the matter and will revisit in on Feb. 14.
Reporter Taylor Heeden can be reached at theeden@chathamnr.com