Published June 13, 2006 01:02 pm - WEST POINT — The Vinemont-Anon-West Point Water Board decided not to accept a proposal to merge with the Cullman County Water Department, but made no official motion during a special meeting held Monday.
VAW rejects county offer
Rejection letter to be sent this week
Evan Belanger
WEST POINT — The Vinemont-Anon-West Point Water Board decided not to accept a proposal to merge with the Cullman County Water Department, but made no official motion during a special meeting held Monday.
According to Chairman James Graves, a letter rejecting the offer will be sent to the county sometime this week.
Graves also indicated the issue could come up again, but made no estimate as to when.
During the 90-minute meeting, he took a large portion of the time to explain how the offer came to be and why it was rejected.
According to Graves, the county asked to meet with members of VAW to discuss the system’s plans for the future.
During that meeting, he said he and board member Calvin Whittle presented an offer to provide the county with treated water, at a lesser rate than the county buys from the city of Cullman.
That water was reportedly to come from the West Morgan-East Lawrence Water Authority, which Graves said had made the offer to sell large volumes of water to VAW earlier.
Despite the cheaper rate and large water resource, he said County Commission Chairman Wiley Kitchens and the county water department director David Bussman rejected the offer from VAW.
Kitchens confirmed that in a previous interview.
While unsure of who brought the matter up, he said the idea of a merger was discussed then, and that he asked for a letter to present to the board for consideration.
“I expected a letter, and instead, what I received was this very limited agreement type thing,” Graves said, indicating the proposed agreement that was obtained by The Cullman Times more than a week ago.
Graves emphasized that the meeting was informal and that no obligations were made when explaining why he had not made the information public earlier.
Whittle also made a comment to the board about his involvement in the matter, saying while he originally thought a merger could be a positive move for the system, he had since reconsidered.
“Seemingly, the county wants to do one thing, but we’re in a different situation than they are,” he said, indicating VAW’s access to West Morgan-East Lawrence water, which he said could provide all of VAW’s water requirements if the need arose.
Currently, VAW gets approximately 30 percent of its water from the out-of-county source. At that rate, he said the system should not need to make changes for five to 10 years.