Greensboro pushes for Randleman water
Today's lead editorial.
It began raining heavily during Greensboro City Council's extended meeting Tuesday morning. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed. The timing couldn't have been better.
The stormy weather provided the perfect atmosphere for a discussion about speeding up the flow of water from Randleman Lake.
With encouragement from High Point officials in the audience, the City Council approved a four-point resolution related to the long-awaited water project. Notably, it reinforced an offer -- rejected two weeks ago by the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority -- for Greensboro and High Point to build a critical pump station, asking the authority to reconsider. And, it stated Greensboro intends to finance its own share -- $32 million -- of the $60 million cost of the Randleman water-treatment plant rather than participate in authority financing. High Point plans to do the same.
"The issue has to do with the cost of financing," City Manager Mitch Johnson said. Greensboro has the highest bond rating and can borrow money at less cost than the authority can. In fact, the city offered to finance the entire project on behalf of the authority, Johnson added, but was turned down.
As for the pump station, needed to push treated water from Randleman Lake to Greensboro and High Point, the cities "can expedite the project," High Point Mayor Becky Smothers said. The authority board's plan to proceed on its own timetable "doesn't make sense," she added.
Tom Phillips, a Greensboro representative on the authority board and former city councilman, didn't agree that High Point and Greensboro can save time but said he'd yield to direction from his council.
The entire board should grant the request, but the authority is an odd regional entity. Johnson pointedly noted that Greensboro has a majority interest in the Randleman project but is allotted only three out of 10 representatives on the authority board. And the authority itself has no direct water customers. Greensboro does. The city's current reservoirs have filled to nearly 80 percent of capacity, thanks largely to purchase agreements with neighboring cities and a tap on the Haw River, Water Resources Director Allan Williams told the council Tuesday. But if more dry weather lies ahead, "it's possible we could drop like a rock."
When he took the job in Greensboro in 1996, Williams recalled, water from Randleman was expected by 2000. Now the target date is late 2010. The sooner the better, and Greensboro should do everything it can to keep the project on pace.
Maybe it was just the welcome rain outside, but it felt as if a tap was turning Tuesday morning.
Comments (2)
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Completion of the Randleman Dam water pumpting and treatment should be made a top priority for all parties concerned. It might be helpful if all parties to the dam project make it a priority to sit down together and hash out disagreeements. High Point and Greensboro seem to be on the right path to a start.
Additional delays run the risk of higher costs and further postponements. Purchase of construction and piping components might be contracted at current prices and avoid the possibility of inflation driven price increases over the next couple of years.
It will be reassuring to see some realistic target dates established and agreement on the who's and how's of getting the job done.
Posted on February 27, 2008 6:07 PM
There's not much point in laying blame for past delays, but it's definitely time to reduce the chances of further delays. Together, Greensboro and High Point can help keep things moving.
Posted on February 28, 2008 9:25 AM