'At a Crossroads: The Future of the City of Fairfax Water System'
City continues to weigh deal with Fairfax Water.
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Fairfax City is continuing to weigh a new offer from the state's largest water utility that would put the city out of the water business, but potentially save it upwards of $45 million in upgrades, and in a few years, cut down on residents' water bills, to.
The City issued a new brochure late last week — 'At a Crossroads: The Future of the City of Fairfax Water System' — to answer residents' questions about the sale ahead of a public input meeting March 21.
See a copy of the PDF at right.
Currently, Fairfax City operates its own water and sewer services serving over 8,000 city customers and 3,000 county customers.
Some of those customers are within city limits; others are in Loudoun County, where the city's water facilities, Goose Creek Water Treatment Plant and Beaverdam Creek Reservoir, are located.
If the city goes all in, selling its water system piping and property within the city limits and opting for full service with Fairfax Water, residents and business owners could start to see savings in three years, the city says.
In fiscal year 2012, Fairfax City's water system generated about 17 million in revenue, according to the adopted 2012 budget. It spent just about as much.
Mayor Scott Silverthorne told Patch late last month there "is a sense of civic pride and emotional attachment to the city maintaining its own water system," but there were also other issues it could no longer ignore.
Residents can review some of those issues, including the $45 million upgrade, in the brochure.
The city will have to make a decision by April 9.
The public outreach process has been set as follows:
Public outreach meeting
7 pm March 21, Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center
City Council regular meeting and work session— public hearing
March 26, City Hall Annex (meeting begins at 7 pm; televised on Cityscreen-12)
Public outreach meeting
11 a.m. April 6, Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center
City Council regular meeting and work session — public hearing and consideration of approval of agreement framework
April 9, City Hall Annex (meeting begins at 7 pm; televised on Cityscreen-12)
See also:
Fairfax City Considers New Offer From Fairfax Water
Whitney Rhodes reported for this story.
zara pyatt
9:06 am on Monday, March 11, 2013
Please move us to the Fairfax County system. This is the fiscally right thing to do. Emotional attachment to a water treatment plant and civic pride - really? - have no place in this discussion.
Scott Silverthorne
11:27 am on Monday, March 11, 2013
Please understand the context of the comment - my point is that pride and emotional attachment is not the appropriate logic for keeping the water system. However, there is 60 years of history, investment and emotion that has went into the City establishing it's own water treatment facility that elected leaders must take into consideration. My comments have been clear - financial/technological factors are driving the city council's consideration of this matter. I urge the public to attend the outreach meetings and learn the details of a very complex issue.
- Mayor Scott Silverthorne
Joe shmo
8:23 pm on Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Maybe we should suggest the citizens tour the water treatment plant and see where the $17 million dollars in revenue HASN'T been going. Where has the money gone if absolutely not one repair has been done. A lot could have been accomplished in one year with such a large revenue. How is the city going to survive with a loss of $17 million? Where does the city plan to make up the difference? Are you raising taxes in a couple years and not telling anyone about that either!
Voiceless in the City
12:09 pm on Sunday, March 17, 2013
I have a great idea. Since we already port our school system to the County, and we are now being strong-armed in to porting out water system to the County, why don't we just go all in and close the City Parks and Rec. department, and forget about City Hall, and contract the Fairfax County police to keep us safe, and close the City public works department? Additionally, we can stop City refuse/recycle services and pay BFI and Waste Management, etc to take care of our garbage. Better yet, PLEASE take down the "Welcome to the City of Fairfax" signs and fold completely to the county and forget the whole idea of an independent city!
Kirk Randall
5:06 pm on Monday, March 18, 2013
As to the comment about how the city is going to survive without the $17 milliion. The water utility operates as an enterprise fund where no profit is supposed to be made. The water utility's operating and capital expenses are $17 million, so it collects $17 milllion through water rates. The net revenue to the city is zero. So, there is going to be no loss of revenues for the city, and there will be no need to raise taxes in the future if the water utility is shut down. The problem comes when the city spends many tens of millions of dollars to refurbish the aging facilities in Loudoun County, which is expected to have the consequence of 9-10% rate increases each year for many years to come. That is what is driving the doubling of water rates shown in the brochure that was recently mailed to all city and county water customers.