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Legislators Made Situation Worse |
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by Dr. Carl Mumpower
Letter to the Editor
Hendersonville Times-News
June 23, 2005
Firemen
often step into a burning building without knowing whats inside. This
metaphor offers insight into the complexities of water negotiations
between Asheville and Buncombe County.
The fires initial cause
was Ashevilles ongoing frustrations with owning a water system it
couldnt manage like almost every city in North Carolina does–including
Hendersonville, Black Mountain and Weaverville.
Asheville has no
wish to abuse its neighbors and has offered to assure fairness through
rate differential caps, restrictions on water as a land control tool
and limits on money siphoned from water revenues. Left alone, Asheville
and Buncombe County couldve put out this fire.
State
legislators from Buncombe and Henderson counties added an explosive,
toxic component to the blaze when they colluded with Buncombe County
attorneys to craft legislation that would create their desired outcome,
ending opportunity for sincere negotiations. Few of us have been able
to see through the resulting smoke and haze.
Were moving from negotiation to adjudication, not an outcome Asheville wanted.
Our
representatives in Raleigh have failed us. Now the good folks of our
region will have to spend a significant measure of water resources, tax
money and personal energies dousing a fire thatll burn for years.
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