The Carroll County Public Service Authority (PSA) unanimously voted Dec. 8 to collect $750 connection fees for new water hook-ups.

In the past, the PSA has held sign-up periods for areas where large projects were getting ready to take place. The $750 fee was waived for citizens that applied during the sign-up period. But because of federal funding requirements, PSA Chairman David Hutchins said it is no longer feasible to waive those fees for new projects such as the one being considering in the Cliffview Road/Fries Road/Iron Ridge Road section of Carroll County.

“The board has made the decision that we have to charge the connection fee. Rural Development and the other funding agencies require it,” Hutchins said. “It is a part of the cost and they won’t fund that piece of the cost. So we have to collect it and then they will loan us whatever the cost of the project is less the cost of the connection fee.”

Waiving the $750 fee for 1,000 customers would hypothetically result in a loss of $750,000 for the PSA and the county, Hutchins said. It is one extra burden the authority didn’t want to spread across the tax base, he added.

“The county in the past I’m told had been somehow absorbing that. I don’t know how they did it,” Hutchins said. “But our belief is that each project should pay for itself. I have a hard time charging people who live in Cana or in Brush Creek for water going up Cliffview Road. I have a hard time adding a half a cent tax, one cent, two cents or three cents on the tax levy to people who aren’t benefiting from this specific service.”

There are times that the PSA needs to waive the connection fee, Hutchins said, such as to an industrial area for economic development that would bring enough taxes in to pay for itself. The PSA is no different than a filling station or cable company, Hutchins said, in that it is a business.

“It should not be a subsidized service. I cannot argue the fact that previous boards somehow found ways to fund things. I’m not sure how they did it,” Hutchins said. “Some of them funded a lot of self-serving projects and I don’t think this board is going to do that. We are trying to be fair to everyone.”

Hutchins said it may not seem fair that people on Cliffview Road will have to pay the connect fee when citizens on Hebron Road didn’t to pay the fee three years ago. That doesn’t mean it was right for the PSA to not charge those citizens three years ago, he said.

“It may not be fair, but it is like an attorney told me, the fact that you have been doing something wrong and it was condoned doesn’t mean you can continue to do it wrong. If it is wrong the first time it is wrong the second time,” Hutchins said. “And it was wrong for the county to subsidize it initially unless there was economic growth from it.”

Hutchins said the county is looking to help fund the Regional Water project, but the reasoning for that is because many citizens’ wells are going dry and Carroll is going to need water across the county for growth.

“It will take some county funds to help supplement it until we can get regional water up and going and until we can get it dispersed out to the regions in the areas that need it. I think that makes sense,” Hutchins said.

Citizens have been asked to put together business plans for other potential projects such as the Fancy Gap Water-Sewer project to show the PSA potential revenue streams that will offset project costs.