A Mount Airy church is finding itself high and dry with plans to build in a new location that lacks all-important access to municipal water and sewer service.
At a recent council meeting, city Public Works Director Mitch Williams described that site along U.S. 52 at the southern edge of town as being in “No Man’s Land” for purposes of such utility availability.
However, Refuge City Church might at least take some solace in the fact it is not alone in being cut off from easy access to those services, based on an investigation by Williams into the situation surrounding the church and other property owners.
Williams displayed a map during his Dec. 16 presentation at a Mount Airy Board of Commissioners meeting showing sections all around town with either no public water or sewer access — including some without both.
Roughly 140 parcels lack sewer availability alone, he said.
Most cases involve open land being developed over the years with adjoining portions behind property lines left vacant and effectively cut off from access.
That is the predicament facing Refuge City Church, which owns 4.18 acres along the northbound portion of South Andy Griffith Parkway (U.S. 52) west of Newsome Street, about a quarter-mile north of the Chili Verdi restaurant.
“For whatever the reason that property was cut out,” Williams said of it being isolated from existing connection points. “It’s sort of a mystery.”
The church with about 100 members now rents space in a small shopping center on South Main Street. The triangular-shaped land along U.S. 52 was donated to Refuge Ministry Inc. and it has intended to construct a new facility there — until encountering the utility-access roadblock.
$300,000-plus price tag
Andrew Bullins, a co-pastor of Refuge City Church, had appeared at an earlier, Dec. 2 council meeting to request the city water/sewer service, which sparked the research by the public works director into the utility issue.
Williams reported back on Dec. 16 that the cost of extending a 1,300-foot 8-inch water line to the site from the Newsome Street intersection along the U.S. 52 right of way and an 8-inch sewer line would total $302,520.
City officials bristled at that sum.
“It’s a lot of money,” Mayor Ron Niland said of the cost to serve a relatively small user. Niland also gained an assurance from City Attorney Hugh Campbell that there is no legal requirement for the municipality to supply the lines under its policy or past precedent.
This counters the assumption by some that being inside the city limits guarantees utility access.
In pointing out that not funding the line extension would be consistent with actions of the past, Niland said the Refuge City Church request boils down to a board decision.
And the commissioners seemed unanimous in their objections to the project.
“I don’t think it’s our responsibility to do that,” the board’s Jon Cawley said of furnishing water and sewer service to a landlocked site. “Our responsibility was to get it to the property before it was divided — and we did.”
The city government must be able to justify such costs, according to Cawley, who said, for example, that if was a matter of serving a building that would hire 300 people, the municipality eventually would recoup its outlay.
“We are under oath up here to take care of city funds.”
”The economics don’t make it work,” Niland concurred regarding the prospects of serving the church.
“As it is now, I don’t see how we can fund it,” said Commissioner Marie Wood.
“I agree with Marie — $300,000 is just not feasible,” fellow board member Tom Koch remarked.
The request from the church essentially was denied by consensus.
“It sounds right now that it’s 5-0 not to do that,” Commissioner Steve Yokeley said of approval.
“I guess what I’m hearing is a reluctance by the city,” the mayor said in summarizing the discussion.
However, Mount Airy officials were sympathetic to the church’s plight.
“Sorry we couldn’t give you the answer you wanted,” Niland told Bullins, seated in the audience. “We know your heart’s in the right place.”
Alternate measures
Williams, the public works director, mentioned that Refuge City Church likely could address the sewer need by installing a septic tank on its property.
But the water service can’t be supplied through the usual alternative of digging a well, which would not provide enough pressure to suppress a fire in the building as would hydrants on the city system.
Suggestions including possibly getting a neighboring property owner to allow access for the extensions emerged during the meeting.
An extension project through nearby apartments was ruled out because of the major disruption Williams said this would cause there.
Mayor Niland also told Bullins that Refuge City Church might consider selling its parcel along U.S. 52 and using the proceeds to buy property elsewhere for the new facility.
The co-pastor replied that he believes it was God’s will for the church to have the land.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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