Price tag on the AV water takeover (March 13, 2017)
Enjoyed your piece on the price tag of the Apple Valley water take over.
However, I think you may be wrong about Apple Valley having to buy the Yermo system as part of the purchase.
Yermo is out of Apple Valley’s sphere of influence, so legally I don’t think there is any way that Apple Valley could purchase the Yermo system along with the Apple Valley portion.
What more likely would happen is that the Town of Apple Valley would have to pay whatever it cost to ensure that the Yermo system has everything it needs to stand alone. It gets a bit complicated in that Yermo benefits from the use of Liberty Utilities’ software system and on-call experts, but even aside from that there are no doubt bonding issues, repayment issues, employee issues, and equipment issues that would have to be addressed, because they are each being handled by Liberty Apple Valley or Liberty Utilities corporate.
In this way, it would be similar to the millions in penalty payments that the Town would have to make for prepayment of existing bonds.
At any rate, keep up the great work.
— Greg Raven is Co-Chair of Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, and is concerned about quality of life issues.