Rob Hardy
Fontana Dam – Water and money – two things not flowing ideally – was heavily discussed at Nov. 15’s Town of Fontana Dam council meeting.
In short, the town is still losing a lot of water.
“Last week, we pumped 1.48 million gallons of water. The plant ran 85.75 hours. I mean, that’s a lot,” said Town Administrator Zelerie Rogers.
Rogers deduced that the water is running out somewhere. Hardy added that determining usage versus leakage of water is also difficult.
It is unsure why so much water is being lost. Theories over the years include everything from leaking water heaters and running toilets, to aging lines and the inability to properly locate leaks.
The town is moving forward with upgrades toward the lines, though: bids are currently being accepted for the project.
Water meters
The town also has new water meters that have not been installed yet.
The council noted the town’s desire to make an updated map of where the current ones are. The council will also need to determine if valves and/or meters would be best and where they should be placed.
Mayor Rob Hardy suggested that mapping and planning can start immediately. Work could begin in December.
The plan is to install meters (or valves) in some key locations to start pinpointing what sections the town is losing a bunch of water from. Having meters or valves depend on which one is less intrusive on the pipes, the costs and additional factors.
“The problem is and why we haven’t gone there before, whether it be meters and/or valves, you start cracking into some really old pipes,” said Hardy.
Previous problems with pipes mentioned were water spraying out and the water flowing very fast through them.
Meters also need boxes around them to prevent busting in freezing in the winter.
Sources of revenue
Hardy brought up the concern of trying to diversify the town’s revenue.
Fontana Dam was incorporated in 2011 and is literally a one-horse town: the only industry is Fontana Village Resort and Marina.
Two solutions discussed are to move occupancy tax and to decrease user fees.
The council approved moving $16,587 from the Tourism Development Authority to the town for administrative town taxes. When looking for sources of revenue, the council noticed that they were not taking advantage of Section 1 (c) of House Bill 1087.
The $16,587 is 3 percent of the $552,894.88 of the occupancy tax collected from 2012, when the bill was created.
“Gross proceeds less the costs to the town of administrating and collecting the tax, as determined by the finance officer, not to exceed 3 percent of the first 500,000 of gross proceeds collected each year and 1 percent of the remaining gross proceeds collected each year,” a portion of the law reads.
Hardy proposed dropping the monthly user fee collected from Fontana Village Resort from $12,500 to $8,500. The town will work with the resort to get the temporary, offseason change approved.
Rogers pointed out that in the past, the town has decreased the fee from around November-March and then brought it back up in April.