TWSA action assures growth in Dillsboro, northern end of county

By Lisa Majors-Duff

TWSA's board took action last week (Nov. 17) after Dillsboro Crossing developers Jay Coward and Jim Dukes voiced concerns that a lack of water and sewer availability and the agency's executive director's handling of the situation were hindering their construction project.

Dillsboro Crossing, a multi-generational housing development, is under construction above the Jarrett House near the intersection of U.S. 441 and U.S. 23-74. Discussions with representatives from each of the utilities servicing the site have gone smoothly, Coward said, except those with TWSA.

"Mr. (Jerry) King has shut my project down," said Coward, who cited numerous incidences of misinformation he and his partners have received with regard to water and sewer availability. The final straw occurred, Coward said, when he attempted to obtain a county building permit for the development's first unit and was denied, he said, on King's orders.

King, who admitted to being unprepared during the meeting to address Coward's allegations, responded that details between TWSA and Dillsboro Water and Sewer Co., from which Dillsboro Crossing has contracted to obtain water and sewer, had not been finalized. As far as TWSA was concerned, King said, Dillsboro Water and Sewer Co. was not prepared to provide either of the services as of last week.

Dillsboro Water and Sewer has been permitted by state authorities to handle 59,000 gallons of water and sewer a day, according to its owner, Buddy Owen, who obtained the state permit when he made plans to build a gas station, hotel, restuarants and shopping complex just north of Dillsboro. To date, the gas station has been built and plans call for the new Holiday Inn Express to open this spring.

While Owen holds a water and sewer permit, TWSA, from which he plans to get his water, does not have the infrastructure in place to supply the water, King said. While King originally agreed to suppy Owen with water, he said he recently learned that many facts prevented this from happening, including TWSA's attempts over its 10 years of existance to combine several municipal systems.

As for sewer, it's Owen who is lacking an 800-foot line required to get wastewater to the former Dillsboro treatment facility, which has been transformed into a large pump station, King said.

To remedy the water problem, TWSA board members voted to build a pump station to supply a half-million gallon storage tank on Elm Street in Sylva that has previously not filled to capacity and been known to go dry in the summer months. Once water fills this tank, it can be used to supply Owen's system, King said.

Funds for the project will be taken from some $240,000 previously allocated to install standby power at the pump station that fills the tank supplying most of Sylva, including Harris Regional Hospital. Without cost estimates last week, King said he was unsure if these funds would cover the cost of the project, which will require the installation of about a mile of additional water line.

To solve the sewer problem in Dillsboro, TWSA board members voted to allow Owen's system to empty into a small pump station near the new Best Western motel until April. With this deadline in mind, Owen will have until the spring to construct the 800-foot line to bypass the smaller pump station in favor of the larger one, they agreed.

Back to Archive: 11/28/02.