| The Town of Grantsville will wait on a decision by the West Virginia Public Service Commission to return water operations early to the Mt. Zion Public Service District, says Mayor Curtis Garretson.
The town signed an operations and maintenance agreement in September, 2013, after the district ran out of money to continue operations and employees were not reporting to work.
The Mt. Zion PSD has hired Charleston law firm Bowles and Rice in a move to terminate the agreement and take back the operation, saying the PSD can better operate the system.
"The town's position is that we will continue to operate under the agreement through the duration of the contract, if that is what the West Virginia Public Service Commission wants us to do," said Garretson.
Garretson said he updated council members Monday night with a response issued by town attorney Loren Howley to the PSD's petition.
Garretson said Recorder Helen Johnson raised concerns at Monday's council meeting that she felt the town needed to look at raising the sewage and water rates because of dwindling accounts.
"We have been looking at raising the sewage rate for two years now, but it was suggested to us that we needed to wait until the towns next sewage project to raise the rates," said Garretson.
"We didn't get approved last fall for the $800,000 that we applied for to fund that project, so we may have to move forward with raising the rates without that project."
Regarding the town's financial resources, Garretson said, "We also need to look at limiting the overtime that we are currently paying out. Some of those overtimes are inevitable because of snow removal, and water leaks."
"We are not in a desperate situation, but we do need to look at those things that would assist us in allowing us to keep healthy accounts," he concluded.
See MT. ZION PSD MOVES TO TERMINATE ONE-YEAR "BAIL-OUT" AGREEMENT WITH TOWN OF GRANTSVILLE - Garretson Said Agreement Was To Assist PSD "Out Of Bind" | 
