Ok have a question. Received a notice from TLine utilities yesterday and was wondering if any other Valley home owners could chime in and explain to me exactly what if any monthly bill impact this will have.

Thanks all. We will be at TLine this Thursday evening for opening weekend. Hope to see some of you there:)

Call ahead if you're 100% set on skiing.

From Timberline's Facebook yesterday: "We are re-evaluating our opening date of December 8 with a view to the weather. I will keep you posted. Regards, Fred"

Word on the street is that your new wastewater system is going to cost each homeowner about $90 per month.

Could you possibly post a copy, or at least the text, of the notice you received?

Thanks

Dunno if they can pass all that cost on to existing utility users since this does include new infrastructure for the water/sewer. T-line utilities tried to do that before but it was blocked. I'm not sure how the authority is set up but I thought it was to encompass the entire valley.

The new Canaan Valley Public Service District does have jurisdiction over the entire valley.

But that only consists of the two new wastewater facilities: the one at Timberline and the one at Beaver Ridge. They do not have purview over the existing facilities that have remained private, ie, the wastewater plant at Land of Canaan, for example, and the others.

The homeowners in the area served by these two new facilities must hook up to them, and must pay for them. Others who are on existing private systems do not have to hook up and do not have to bear the costs.

True, but not true. I'm a home owner in Woods End and received the same letter. I'm not overly familier with the entire legal case and what exactly the DEP has said, but essentially Timeberline would either have to meet the new DEP guidelines (Very expensive new system) or join with one of the other systems in the valley. Essentially the letter says, we cannot afford to do this on our own, so we are going to join with another system in the Valley. It is not specifically spelled out in the letter how much we are talking about on a monthly basis. The rumor of $90 per month seems high just like most rumors like this tend to be. However, the money has to come from somewhere. The DEP has forced their guidlines on the users in the valley, so some form of economic help from the state would be in order. I'm not saying the users in the valley won't receive an increase, we will. It would just nee to be done on a grandual basis.

Woods End, those homes are currently connected to the Timberline wastewater system, right?

Years ago, the DEP told the owners of the privately-owned Timberline wastewater system (as well as many other in the VAlley) that the system was not in compliance with discharge limits and told them they must remedy their system and bring it into compliance.

Timberline Utilities could have upgraded their system, at the sole expense of their customers; a very costly proposition, with no State or Federal financial assistance available.

Instead, they chose to relinquish their system and its operations to the newly formed Canaan Valley Public Service district. By doing so, the PSD would then be responsible for the upgrades, and could get some State and Federal grants towards the costs, which Timberline would not have been able to obtain as a private entity. The PSD moved ahead, got the grants from the State and the Fed, obtained the rest of the money by low-interest or no-interest State and Fed loans, and made the upgrades.

The newly upgraded Timberline wastewater system is now going into operation under the purview of the PSD, and is no longer privately owned. All homeowners on the old system must now go onto the new system.

And the loans mentioned above must now be paid off by these customers.

So was State or Federal economic help given? Yes, in the form of grants. Did the grants cover all the costs? No, the balance was covered by loans. Who must pay off the balance of these loans? The customers.

Is the figure of $90 per customer per month a rumor? Not exactly; it was estimated in the studies performed by the engineering consultants back when this scheme was formulated. Maybe the cost figures used for the studies were too high back then, and maybe more State and Federal grants were obtained than were predicted back then, both of which would result in lowering today's cost per customer to something less than the $90 per month.

Will it be $90 per customer per month? Perhaps not quite so high, but we shall see!

By the way, could you post the letter you received? Who was it from?

Thanks