By DAVID JAKUBIAK
Packet Staff Writer
BURKES BEACH, SC, Oct. 4, 2000 (Island Packet)—Hilton Head No. 1 Public Service District's board of commissioners Tuesday reluctantly approved assessments on a project to bring sewer service to Burkes Beach and Bradley Circle.
The assessments, $520 annually for 20 years, were approved unanimously despite the protests of three Chaplin residents who said they unknowingly were included in the sewer project and unfairly assessed the fee.
Lou Ethel Hill, Anna M. Bolden and Mary Ford all live along Burkes Beach Road. However, none of the women lives in the neighborhood represented by the Burkes Beach Property Owners Association.
Earlier this year, the utility set out to bring sewer service to the Burkes Beach neighborhood upon the association's request, said Glen McManus, general manager of the utility.
When engineering plans for the project were drawn, the Chaplin residents' properties were included in the project because they were next to the properties to be served, he said.
"If we didn't include those three lots now, it would have been economically (impossible) to bring sewer (service) to those lots in the future," McManus said.
On April 17, a letter informing residents about the project and assessments was sent to properties included in the project, he said.
Hill, Bolden and Ford said they never received that letter.
McManus agreed it is possible the letters were never delivered, although he said the letters were sent.
After the initial letter, the utility began the process under state law allowing utilities to levy assessments. Included in these requirements are public notices, postings of project plans at utility headquarters, and, if requested, public hearings on the project, McManus said.
Hill, Bolden and Ford said they did not know about the project until they woke up one morning to find district crews installing sewer lines in their yards. Shortly after Sept. 20, the women said they received notice they would be billed the annual assessment.
Hill, a retired nurse, said she lives on Social Security.
"I am a senior citizen. How am I going to afford another $500-plus a year?" Hill asked the commissioners. Bolden and Ford agreed.
In addition, they said they will not be tying onto the newly installed sewer lines.
To be linked to the new lines the residents must pay an additional $3,700 in tie-in and capacity fees. The total 20-year cost of receiving sewer service is $14,100.
"This is unfair," Hill said. "You should not put the burden on us this way."
However, Mike Olivetti, attorney for the utility, said state law requires every lot serviced by a sewer project to be assessed an equal portion of the bill.
There are only two exemptions to this law, he said. If land cannot be developed, it cannot be assessed; and if a lot already has access to sewer, it cannot be assessed.
Hill said her daughter, who lives on her lot, currently has sewer. Therefore, she said, she should not be levied an assessment.
However, McManus said the sewer line Hill's daughter is connected to is a "force main" not a "gravity main" like that being installed in the community.
In a force main, sewage is transported by a pump. In a gravity main the sewer is transported by gravity.
Because the capacity of a force main is reduced by each tie-in along the line, McManus said, the district requires lots on a force main to switch to a gravity main once such a line is available.
Therefore, he said, a utility amendment negates Hill's possible exemption.
After an extended debate in which members of the board repeatedly questioned Olivetti and the Chaplin residents, the commissioners briefly went behind closed doors to "seek legal advice."
After returning from executive session, the board voted to grant the assessments.
"I wish there is something that we could do. I know this is not going to make many people happy, but I must reluctantly vote for the motion," board chairman Henry Driessen said.
Board member Rick Marscher told Hill, Bolden and Ford there was nothing the board could do to exempt them from the assessment, but he said, the utility might be able to offer them financial aid in paying off their debt.
The utility's "Buck for a Better Island" program was developed to assist people who could not otherwise afford sewer service fees, he said.
McManus said the program could provide up to 100 percent coverage of the assessment, but added he is not a member of the panel that makes recommendations for that program.
That panel, Marscher said, is made up of three utility employees.
Despite the possibility of aid, Hill said she was upset by the decision.
"If I cannot pay that assessment they can place a lien on my property and take my land," she said. "That doesn't seem very American to me."
Staff writer David Jakubiak can be reached at 706-8142 or mailto:[email protected].
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