The Cullman Times
CULLMAN — When two county commissioners showed up at The Cullman Times office Monday to propose a new long-term water plan for the county — taking water from Smith Lake instead of putting a dam on the Duck River — it came as a shock to us.
Imagine how it must have felt for the Cullman Utilities Board earlier that morning.
What these two commissioners, Doug Williams and Wayne Willingham, are proposing is a radical change from what the City of Cullman and the Utilities Board have wanted to do for two decades. The city has taken steps toward building a new reservoir on the Duck River — steps that have cost many thousands of dollars and countless hours of work over the past 20 years — but the two commissioners essentially asked the city to scrap those plans. They think they have a better option.
The commissioners raise some good points. They say building a water treatment plant at the existing Smith Lake would be cheaper than building a new lake and treatment facility to purify the water that’s extracted from it. And, they say, it will improve the quality of water in southern Cullman County.
More importantly — and we think this is what their whole proposal is really about — they want to create a new regional water authority to replace the city’s Utilities Board that has served the area well for decades. They want the county to have a seat at the table.
What they’re requesting is perfectly reasonable. The county is the biggest user, by far, in the local water system, so it makes sense for them to have some control over the decisions that are made about water in Cullman County.
There’s just one problem: The Utilities Board has done such a good job through the years of providing high-quality water at reasonable prices that it’s hard to justify upsetting the apple cart. If the Utilities Board had been generating Hanceville-style headlines with problems and controversies, we could be far more open about shaking things up with a whole new water board. But as things are, we’re skeptical.
Another point to consider: Willingham and Williams are the same commissioners who, as The Times reported this week, gave one county department head a $12,000-a-year raise at a time of slash-and-burn budgets across the board. What kind of message did they send to the other county employees? And more importantly, what kind of message did they send to us about their judgment?
Over the past 20 years, the city has provided a consistent voice of reason on water issues. The county, in contrast, has had upheaval with each election cycle and even outright rebellion over water decisions in the past. Given its track record, we’re skeptical about whether the county government has the steady hand needed to properly manage these vital, long-term decisions.
While the Smith Lake proposal does have some good points, we think the Duck River project would be the wiser alternative for the long range. Besides, we can imagine plenty of court battles facing the Smith Lake proposal. Residents living along the lake don’t take kindly to folks making changes to what goes on with and around the lake.
And the idea of starting a brand-new, built-from-scratch regional board — well — it just doesn’t hold water.
Whichever proposal gets the final nod, it would be a refreshing change to see county and city officials take off the gloves for a change and work together for the good of all county residents.
