Hope tables water proposal

HOPE — An ordinance regulating the city's water service, amending water rates and billing procedures was tabled to give officials the chance clarify several items.

Based on public input, the council decided that clarifications needed to be made to the document before giving it final approval. City officials tabled the ordinance to give to allow clarifications to be made before the document receive final approval.

Most of the discussion centered around inactive service fees and providing hookups for commercial development. Wendel Bergman, a property owner, asked if a commercial property owner could purchase hookups on a speculative basis before the hook-up fees increase. Then if the hookups weren't needed, he said they could they be sold back to the city.

Rob Tate, the engineer on the project, suggested that a section be added to the ordinance to allow pre-selling connections. He said that this was not an issue with residential property, but a commercial developer could purchase more hookups than needed on a project and transfer the excess hookups to another project provided it was under the same ownership. The council would have the right to buy back any unused connections.

Councilman Bill Breen said that the city needs to protect the water system from being oversold.

"There is enough water to meet reasonable demands for the next 15 years," Tate said.

The current system has 69 connections and the new system will have the ability to service 100-120 hookups. In addition, Tate said the system is designed to allow expansion.

If a large multi-family or commercial development were to be planned in Hope, the council could require the developer to provide their own system, said Tate.

The vote on the amended ordinance will be at a town meeting on the water filtration system to be held at 6:30 p.m. on June 22 at the Hope City Hall. The meeting also will address metering water in the city which will aid in controlling water usage and leak detection.

In other business, cemetery committee representative, Fran Schuck, presented the council with a proposal to construct two seven-foot columns at the entrance of the cemetery. These columns will be 20 feet apart and will have a plaque designating the Hope Cemetery. The council unanimously approved the motion to build these stone columns.

Also passing unanimously was an ordinance making it illegal to set off firecrackers or fireworks within the boundaries of the city without a written public display permit. Violators of this ordinance can be fined, imprisoned or both.