Facing an uncertain future, the Benner Township Water Authority board is asking Pennsylvania American Water Co. to consider buying the nearly 300-customer municipal water system, StateCollege.com has learned.
But any bid from the private-sector company would face an uphill battle with the three-member township Board of Supervisors, which would vote on any sale. Two supervisors said they would oppose an acquisition by Pennsylvania American, the largest investor-owned utility in the state.
“If they’re privatizing this, that all comes at a cost,” township Supervisor Randy Moyer told StateCollege.com. Under a for-profit entity, he said, “who knows what would happen with the cost of service?”
He would prefer to see the Spring Benner Walker Joint Authority assume ownership of the Benner Township system, Moyer said. A work session to explore that idea is scheduled for May.
In the meantime, it wasn’t immediately clear what township residents might pay under Pennsylvania American, which charges many customers about $18.77 per thousand gallons, plus a monthly service charge of $18.80. Township water authority customers currently pay $120 per quarter for up to 12,000 gallons.
For about 18 years, the township water authority has contracted out billing functions and routine operations to the joint authority. In January, the joint authority alerted the township authority board that it would soon cancel that agreement. The township water authority hasn’t found another municipal partner to operate the system, according to township authority board Chairman Jerrold May.
“We feel that this is a very unfortunate situation, but believe (canceling the contract) is necessary to protect the integrity of our authority and its customers,” joint authority Executive Director N. Warren Miller wrote in a Jan. 16 letter to the township authority.
Specifically, Miller cited fragmentation on the township authority board, writing that “some members continue to follow their own personal agendas without open and public exposure to their intent of goals.”
Miller also referenced ongoing litigation in Benner Township, where Supervisor Kathy Evey has accused Moyer and Larry Lingle, the third supervisor, of violating the state Sunshine Law. The men are challenging her claims.
The joint authority does not “wish to be drug into litigation simply to satisfy any individual’s quest for power or recognition,” Miller wrote in the letter, obtained by StateCollege.com under the Pennsylvania open-records law.
Miller and Lingle were not immediately available for comment this week. May said he was not comfortable speaking to criticisms in Miller’s letter.
“What happens with the (Benner Township) Board of Supervisors should not be the business whatsoever of the joint authority,” Evey said. The joint authority, where the supervisors appoint some board members, should “have an allegiance to Benner Township and the residents here.”
She estimated the township water authority pays the joint authority around $70,000 a year. Evey also rejected criticisms of the township water authority board. She saw them as an attack on board member Thomas Eby’s work with Penn State to assist township residents affected by water contamination near the university-owned State College Regional Airport.
“I think Penn State is willing to do what they can, but there has to be cooperation on the other side of that,” Evey said. The university didn’t immediately comment this week on the status of those talks.
Eby said he participated in two informational meetings with Penn State but made “no commitments” on behalf of the township water authority. “I did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Through February and March, the township water authority looked for municipal entities to succeed the joint authority as a system operator, May wrote in an April 23 letter sent to the township supervisors and obtained by StateCollege.com. A request for proposals saw no positive replies, he noted.
But Eby told StateCollege.com that a private firm offered to handle most township water operations apart from billing and executive functions. An acquisition by the joint authority or Pennsylvania American wouldn’t be best for customers, he said.
“In my opinion, the best interest of the customers would be an agreement for a future with State College” Borough Water Authority, Eby said. The borough authority already serves the Continental Courts mobile-home park in the township.
Recently, the Spring Benner Walker Joint Authority signaled that it plans to withdraw some administrative services from the township authority after a meeting this month, according to May. Approaching Pennsylvania American — “to determine if they are willing to purchase the Benner system” — is a “last resort,” according to his letter to the township supervisors.
Pennsylvania American did not immediately comment on its interest. The company serves Centre County municipalities including Philipsburg borough and Boggs, Marion, Rush and Walker townships. It also recently took on interim management of the privately owned Rock Spring Water Company in western Ferguson Township.
“Without someone who can take care of everything we need, it’s just not viable” to keep the Benner Township Water Authority in operation, May told StateCollege.com. Its board members “are just volunteers who decide to do what the contractor recommends.”
It’s not clear precisely when the joint authority might withdraw more support from the township system, but the joint authority indicated “they’ll help as long as we’re moving forward,” May said.
At the request of Benner Township supervisors, the joint authority will hold a work session at 4 p.m. May 19 to discuss the idea of an outright takeover of the township water infrastructure, technically a collection of three separate systems. Moyer said “nothing would change” for ratepayers under the joint authority’s ownership.
“If Spring Benner Walker doesn’t take this over, I don’t know what would become of it,” he said. “I don’t think it can function as a privatized system, and I don’t think it can function without a full-time administration.”
Adam Smeltz is a StateCollege.com contributor. Reach him at asmeltz@gmail.com.
