Public Works Commission Supplies Additional Water to Hoke County

December 11, 2024

Article from the Hoke County News Journal

By Catharin Shepard • Editor • Contracts approved last week by the Hoke County Board of Commissioners showed that Hoke will be able to purchase up to an average of three million gallons a day from Fayetteville Public Works Commission, and an additional amount of up to 432,000 gallons of water a day from the City of Raeford’s system.

The commission approved an updated contract with Fayetteville PWC, and a new contract with the City of Raeford for access to provide more water to Hoke’s utilities customers. The county has for many years maintained a contract with the Fayetteville PWC to purchase water to supplement Hoke’s resources.

Under the new contract approved last week, titled “Interim Wholesale Water Agreement,” “PWC agrees to sell to the County and deliver at the Points of Delivery, and County agrees to purchase and take at the Points of Delivery, wholesale water within the Range on the terms and conditions set forth in this Agreement.”

The agreement with PWC set the maximum amount of wholesale water that Hoke is allowed to purchase each month, at 42 million gallons, with a stipulation that “the County may increase the Monthly Maximum Usage up to 51 million gallons per Month as set forth” in a section of the contract.

Under the terms of the agreement, the county will be required to purchase at least 4 million gallons of water every month from PWC.

The “points of delivery” are the points at which title to water sold by PWC is transferred to Hoke County. Those points are: the PWC meter located on U.S. Highway 401 (Fayetteville Road) near the Hoke/Cumberland county line; and the PWC meter located on Gillis Hill Road near the Hoke/Cumberland county line.

Under the terms of the agreement, the contract will be effective for two years from the start date, and will automatically renew for one-year terms. The agreement noted that “PWC is developing a Wholesale Water Tariff to establish uniform terms and conditions that will govern its sale of wholesale water.” Either PWC or Hoke County can terminate the agreement by providing at least 90 days’ prior notice to the other party before the end of the term or any renewal period.

Should the county be found in default in any of several ways listed in the contract, PWC “may suspend the furnishing of wholesale water to the County.” In the event of an emergency or to prevent harm to the county or PWC’s water system, “PWC may immediately suspend the furnishing of wholesale water to the County” according to the document.

Examples of a “default” event included failure of the county to pay when due all its monetary obligations under the agreement after the expiration of a 10 days written notice to the county; fraudulent or unauthorized use of consumption of water for PWC, failure to implement and enforce the Water Shortage Response Ordinance of the City of Fayetteville when applicable; or two or more times of the county exceeding the monthly maximum usage during any continuous six-month period; among other conditions noted in the contract.

The exact price of the water from PWC was not included in the contract. Instead, it stated that the rate would be based on the PWC rate schedule for wholesale water service in effect at the time water is delivered to the county. Should Hoke County go over the maximum amount of water, PWC will bill the county two and a half times the usual rate for the overage, according to the agreement.

As for the contract with the City of Raeford, the city agreed to sell water “furnished as a reasonably constant residual water pressure actually measured at not less than 40 psi from supply mains provided by the City at a point designated as Meter Point 1 located at or near the intersection of Highway 401 and Doc brown Road.”

The contract included information about metering equipment and maintenance, billing procedures and rates and payment.

The county will purchase water from the city at the rate of $4.62 per 1,000 gallons of water; the rate “may be modified from time to time as otherwise set out in this agreement.” The rate only applies to the water purchase, and doesn’t include costs related to installation of equipment necessary for the water system, such as water main extensions and meters.

Like Fayetteville PWC, the contract with the City of Raeford included notice of an overage charge, should Hoke go over the maximum allowed amount of water usage.

“If the County demand under this contract at any time exceeds the maximum allowance of 432,000 gallons per day, the County shall pay for any overage at the rate of $6.92 per 1,000 gallons of water.”

The contract is for a term of 10 years from the date of acceptance of the contract, and will automatically renew for successive two-year terms unless either party provides written notice at least 60 days prior to the end of the term, of intent to terminate the contract, the document stated.

The two agreements, along with activity to secure the McCain water system for Hoke County, are part of ongoing efforts to keep Hoke residents – and future development – supplied with water. In the past year, the county has several times pumped the brakes on housing developments due to limited water allocations.

The county commission spoke in October about a proposal that would require developers building new subdivisions to apply for water access in 50-lot increments.

At the moment, the county couldn’t provide water to a new, 500-lot subdivision no matter where in the county it was built, Commissioner Tony Hunt said during the commission meeting in October.

“We don’t have a zone anywhere that we could give 500 lots, we could answer that right now,” he said at the time. The county is divided up into five zones: the PWC/401 zone, McCain, Neil Sinclair Road, Arabia and Antioch.

“In some places, we may not even be able to give you 50 lots,” McQueen said during the discussions.

As initially proposed, the ordinance stated: “Amount of water and sewer which may be allocated: Amount which may be Allocated: Hoke County will not allow no more than 50 lots per given application. The amount of water or sewer available for allocation will be based on available capacity for the specified zone established for the County of Hoke. The County shall always reserve the right to keep at a minimum 30 percent of its available water and sewer capacity.”

“The 30 percent capacity provides a safeguard in the event of an unforeseen emergency. This 30 percent available water and sewer capacity will allow for continued development of commercial and single-family dwellings.”

The board did not take a vote on the matter, but planned to hold a meeting with developers to get more input. During public comment at the October meeting, developer Ralph Huff of H&H Homes raised concerns about the proposal.

“Fifty lots at a time does not work. Fifty lots, stop, start over again, does not work. We can’t wait another six months for y’all to get it right, so I’d like for you to go ahead and vote on it with the understanding that you’re going to sit down with people who understand how it does work, and draft an ordinance that makes sense and make it public for the citizens,” Huff said, addressing the commission in October.

Commissioner Hunt, other members of the county’s utilities board, and Hoke County Utilities Director James McQueen and his staff have been looking at ways to make sure the county can keep the water on for existing customers, while addressing the demands of providing water service to new houses built throughout the county. The contracts with PWC and the city, and the plans for McCain are part of those efforts.