Fontana Dam – After months of back and forth, the Town of Fontana Dam and Fontana Village Inc. have finally settled a past-due debt.
The former shareholders presented the town with a $40,000 check, a final offer on the $74,041.78 – or 54 percent – of the user, water and wastewater fees Fontana Village owed the town.
Mayor Rob Hardy attempted to negotiate a higher amount, but the town was practically presented with a “take it or leave it” mentality from Fontana Village, as the past-due amount was deemed an unsecured debt. The absence of a contract – something the town attempted to get signed for years, only to be met with refusal – ultimately cost $34,041.78.
“Basically, we were told that this was not a negotiation, and their offer was at $40,000,” Hardy said. “As it turns out, we essentially had the amount and the timeframe of the payments dictated to us once again. It’s been a recurring theme, but it is what it is.”
The resort had paid $21,464.22 of a $95,506 debt that was past due in November, when payment arrangements were set up as what Hardy called at the time “in good faith.”
“It’s the age-old, ‘Work with us, work with us,’ and in the end, you kind of feel like you were done wrong again and again,” Hardy said. “We had no recourse. Even though they had been paying the bills for years, and we had essentially a verbal agreement, it probably would not have held up in court. We provided services and we had to absorb those costs.”
BCS Fontana LLC – the current leaseholder, operated by Chad Baker of Baker Construction Services of Bluff City, Tenn. – is presenting a more-promising relationship.
“Has it been all bad? No. Has it been all good? No,” Hardy said of Fontana Village. “We all had the best interest at heart, and we’re still left cleaning up the mess.
“We are looking forward to working with Baker Construction Services in the short term and whoever the long-term lessee is going to be. We’re closing one chapter and starting another chapter.”
The mass payment brought the town’s balance to $162,769.82. Town Administrator Zelerie Rogers said thanks to the resort reopening, the town is hoping to adopt the prepared 2020-21 budget and move away from the interim budget they were forced to undertake due to the non-business activity in Fontana Dam.
Runnin’ on empty
With the town slowly returning to normal operations, filling the pool for resort guests is taking a toll on the town’s water supply.
Water operator Dennis Pilkington mapped out the losses being incurred thanks to the increased use, which can be traced to several small leaks in the two pools at the resort.
“Last month and the previous four months, we were losing basically a foot (of water) per hour. With the pool being introduced, we’re losing 1 ½ (feet),” Pilkington said. “With the way it is right now, they don’t know where all the leaks are (in the pools), so they just leave the pump running, whether anyone is in there or not.”
Hardy asked Pilkington to quantify the loss, which equates to 6,922 1/2 gallons lost per hour. Pilkington said because of the added usage, the town is averaging 11 hours a day of pump time, 15 hours of run time at the town treatment plant, or 205,000-208,000 gallons being pumped each day.
“That’s just pump water. That’s not the water we have to use to refill the plant,” Pilkington added.
It was later stated that the town is losing more water than it is gaining overall, pumping 1.4 feet per hour but losing 1.5. The council plans to contact Baker and inquire about how to solve the issue.
“We got a leak that we know about, that we can fix,” Hardy later said. “It’s not going to be an easy fix, but it is possible to resolve this problem.”
The council also discussed hiring a third water operator – as Pilkington is averaging 45 hours of work in a three-day span – but the town will have to look for applicants.