EAST BEND, N.C. —
Nearly 70 people squeezed into the East Bend town hall Tuesday evening to hear what the city commissioners had to say about the past due balance of $38,251.39 in water bill debts that the city owes to the county. If the city doesn't pay the bill in the next 60 days, water for the town could be shut off by Christmas, potentially impacting the school, fire department and even residents.
The East Bend city commission said in the meeting Tuesday night that Yadkin County is breaching its contract with the city to provide subsidized water. The contract was for five years, that started in 2019, so it is up for renegotiation of rates as per the letter sent to the commission from the Yadkin County Manager Lisa Hughes. The subsidy of $1 million that they had from construction costs of the waterline has run out.
The letter said, "The $1,000,000 used to reduce the rate charged to the Town of East Bend has now been spent in behalf of the town, as the town was told in 2019 it would be by 2024. The County is required to charge all users of the waterline a rate that generates the needed revenue to pay for the expense of the waterline."
The finance manager for East Bend said the city has enough money in the budget to pay the bill, but the concern is that if they pay the bill, the rates will go up.
The mayor said he's been pushed out by the city commission and can't make decisions unless they authorize it. He said he only found out about this issue last week when he received the letter from the county and feels that the city has been hiding things.
"What should happen is the commissioners explain themselves, they should pay the bill, sign the agreement, get the preaudit for the agreement," Mayor James Dunn said. "Sign the agreement and get this town moving forward instead of trying to hide everything. They didn't expect this to come out before the election."
In East Bend, the mayor is subject to what the city commission allows him to speak on and is not a voting member of the commission.
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Chatter on the East Bend Community Facebook group brought out large crowds to the meeting where some people were forced into the hallway and residents told us it was hard to hear.
The issue dates back to 2015, when the city of East Bend asked for a water line that connected the town to the county after finding local wells were polluted. They entered an interlocal water services agreement the next year, meaning the town had a nonbinding agreement that it never paid the audit for, according to the letter sent from Yadkin County on Oct. 17.
The waterline was finally live in 2018 when the county provided water to East Bend at a rate based on Winston-Salem Forsyth County utility rates to cover the costs of operations and maintenance. In 2019, the Yadkin County and East Bend city commission boards met to share concerns about the ability to pay the rate. At that meeting, the county agreed to put in money leftover from the construction budget of the line to offset the costs and lower the rate the town had to pay for the water until it ran out in 2024.
WXII reached out to the city commissioners for comment on the matter before the meeting and they did not respond to our request for interviews or comment.
Watch the East Bend water meeting below