Editor, Gazette-Journal:

If one looks around the country, you’ll see a lot of municipal utilities in financial troubles. Some locales have floated public bond issues in attempts to solve their money woes; but with questionable credit ratings and the buyers of these instruments rightly concerned about the ability to get their money back—let alone a return—these sales are not such a sure thing anymore.

So along comes Keith Hodges following his win in last November’s Delegate contest to carry water for Gloucester’s sewer and water utilities in an attempt to allow the county to go after residents who are not using nor needing the county’s water or sewage. That would be the scores of residents who have wells and septic systems, and the responsibility to maintain and repair and replace them on their own with their own—not taxpayers’—money.

The language of the bill HB760 for which Delegate Hodges is the "patron" uses the word "may" to describe what we as residents should fear will become "shall." That is the charging of non-users of sewage and public water systems a fee even though they are not subscribers to the utilities or connected physically.

HB760 is a way for the county to raise money to pay for sewer and water utilities that are not collecting from users the money sufficient to pay for their costs. Citizens should look at the county’s pending new authority like this. Wawa is allowed to charge you $20 a month even though you buy your gasoline from the Exxon station across the street. That’s it pure and simple. If it sounds like a bad plan, call Hodges and tell him so. And talk to your supervisor too!

"But there is another way," to paraphrase the country preacher. County utilities need to raise the fees charged to the users of the systems. Only in that way will the management of those systems get their customers’ true feeling about the matter and be urged to reduce costs and manage the system in a more efficient way. (That will likely include the examination of salaries and pension promises.)

And along the way, perhaps the county and some members of the board of supervisors will wake up to the fact that giving deals like fee waivers and tax relief to developers of housing and commercial properties as enticements to build is shortsighted, and blind to the looming financial burden on the rest of us who pay our way.

Ken Larson

Gloucester, Va.