The Monday morning quarterback always wins the big game.
That’s because hindsight gives him a clear view of what happened and easy access to a different play that would have turned things around. Just consider this year’s Super Bowl, which left thousands, if not millions, convinced they could have called the game better than the Seahawks’ coach, who called for a pass in the waning moments that lead to an interception that cost them the game.
Seeing what happened makes it easy to request a different play, but by then it’s too late.
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And unfortunately, it’s too late to call a different play on the North Bay Wastewater Treatment Facility. In 2008, the Bay County commission purchased the facility from Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative for $21 million. Although they were warned the purchase could lead to trouble, the commissioners believed they needed to be prepared for thousands of new homes that were proposed for areas near the facility. But after The Great Recession, only 19 homes were built.
The facility currently serves only 80 households.
Without the growth and the thousands of new customers, the burden of the $21 million facility has fallen on Bay County’s unincorporated retail service customers. These 5,281 customers have seen their water and sewer bills double so far this year.
For their part, county staff and commissioners recognize that this situation is fundamentally unfair and could lead to other problems.
“This is an untenable situation at this time,” Commissioner George Gainer told The News Herald’s John Henderson. “I certainly feel terrible about the people having their water bills double. We’ve got to respond to that. If we have to take money out of the general fund, then we’ll have to do that. We cannot allow a few people on this system to have to have the responsibility of the whole debt. That can’t happen.”
Gainer added, and we agree, that many people will decline to buy or build a home in the areas where their water rates will be doubled.
Unfortunately, while everyone recognizes the problem, there doesn’t appear to be a quick fix or an easy solution.
County officials have said they are looking at extending the life of the loan in order to lower the payments and give the county more time to get customers hooked up or forcing Southport residents (who are understandably opposed to the idea) to hook up to the facility. Commissioners also might lean on grants, BP money and the general fund to ease some of the pain.
Gainer even proposed radically changing the current water and sewer system in Bay County by forming a utility authority.
It seems that nothing is off the table, and that is as it should be.
However, residents will have to be patient as the commission works to solve this crisis.
“I don’t want you leaving here thinking that we’re going to be able to wave a magic wand” and rates are lowered “just like that,” County Commissioner Bill Dozer told some of the residents.
That is certainly true, and no one expects the commission to magically fix this problem overnight. However, the commission and county staff members owe it to their constituents to burn all the midnight oil available to find a solution that relieves them of this unfair burden.
It’s too late to for a do-over in much of this game, but the commission can still pull out a victory in overtime.
