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Residents pushback on CCUA ‘non-offer’ for town water and sewer system

By Wesley LeBlanc
Posted 9/5/18

ORANGE PARK – Residents of Orange Park found themselves at odds with town council Tuesday night as they came forward to raise concerns about a letter town government received from the Clay County …

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Residents pushback on CCUA ‘non-offer’ for town water and sewer system


Posted

ORANGE PARK – Residents of Orange Park found themselves at odds with town council Tuesday night as they came forward to raise concerns about a letter town government received from the Clay County Utility Authority in June.

Clay Today published a story a few weeks ago that focused on a letter sent from CCUA Executive Director Tom Morris to Town Manager Sarah Campbell, and by proxy, the town council. In this three-page letter, Morris proposed that CCUA take over Orange Park’s water and sewer system. The letter also laid out the terms CCUA would set if Orange Park allowed the takeover. In the letter, CCUA said it would pay Orange Park $20 million, employ all current Orange Park water utility system employees, provide faster and more efficient service and more. While not an official legal offer, it is a letter detailing all the benefits CCUA can offer for the system takeover.

When Clay Today reported on the letter, both Campbell, Morris and Orange Park Mayor Gary Meeks commented on the matter.

At the time, Campbell, Morris and Meeks said the letter was simply the start of a discussion. Campbell said the town would have to come up with its own terms and appraisal of the system if the letter was acted upon. Morris said this potential transaction was in its first stages and is merely an offer – not a legal one, but a written on. Meeks said that before going any further with the discussion, it’s important that the council hear what the town has to say first.

“I don’t know whose idea it was to make this proposal and I don’t know whose idea it was to sit on this proposal from June to August,” Barbara Davidson said. “[Someone told her], ‘I want you to know, until I picked up the Clay Today, I had no idea that this was underway,’.”

Residents who spoke on the possible offer said they had no interest in seeing CCUA acquire the town’s water utility systems. Some went as far as to suggest that the council not even meet with CCUA, which is set to happen on Sept. 18 at 5:30 p.m.

While Davidson was speaking, Meeks jumped in and said that the town had received no offer at all and suggested the Clay Today story was ‘fake news.’

“Don’t read everything,” Meeks said. “That’s what they call today, ‘fake news,’.”

While no legal document proposing a purchase has been received by the town, the letter from Morris reads very similar to a written offer. In an August interview, Meeks called the an offer.

“We have just now decided to hold a joint meeting to learn about this and we really don’t know how this is going to pan out,” Meeks said in the cover story from Aug. 16. “Whether it’s worth it or not, we don’t really know yet. Before we take the offer, the main thing we have to do is hold the public hearings on it to figure out if the council wants to do it and the council will make that decision based on how the town feels about it.”

Shortly after referring to Clay Today as fake news, Meeks then said that no offer had been received.

“As of this morning, I talked to the town manager, and we have received no offer to purchase anything from this town,” Meeks said. “They did ask if we would listen to their interests and I don’t know if any interest will ever be developed out of it. I don’t know if [the town council] wants to do anything.”

Davidson then responded by telling the board if they have no interest in selling it, then they shouldn’t even bother meeting with them, which received bouts of applause from a portion of the audience.

Council member Ron Raymond agreed and later made a motion for the council to cancel the upcoming meeting with CCUA. Meeks and Raymond voted yes to cancel meeting while council members Connie Thomas, Roland Mastandrea and Alan Watt voted to keep the meeting on the calendar.

“I don’t see any problem with listening to it [what CCUA has to say],” Watt said.