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Town of Oriental: In The Water Business

Mayor Bill Sage and Interim Town Manager Wyatt Cutler said they’d spoken with Walmart and while Sage said Walmart’s original intention was to “operate on county water,” Cutler added that Walmart has also “asked me about getting water from the Town.”

The land, now belonging to Chris Fulcher, on Hwy 55/Broad Street Extension, where Walmart says it plans to build a 12,000 square foot Walmart Express. It is outside the town limits where no zoning applies and where no Oriental taxes can be collected. Town officials say Walmart has enquired about tapping in to the Town’s water system, a cheaper alternative for the retail giant than going on to the county’s water system.

Cutler said that he viewed debate over Walmart coming and the water service as two separate matters that were not to be linked.

“From a water selling standpoint, it makes sense,” Cutler said, for the town to sell its water to Walmart. “We are in the water business. We make money when we sell water.”

In her brief comments, Commissioner Michelle Bessette echoed that view. With the town water plant, Bessette said, the Town is “running a business.” Her concern: “How can we increase our income from the water plant?”

Commissioner Michelle Bessette at the September 26 meeting.

Mayor Sage noted that if Walmart were to “get water elsewhere,” the Town would not get the $3,800 tap fee and the monthly water charge of $60-$70 a month.

From the audience, Dee Sage asked if selling the water to those outside of town would keep the cost of water down for the rest of the customers.

A resident of Oriental, Sage has been employed as Pamlico County’s Economic Development director since this summer. When Walmart’s Oriental plans first came to light, and residents raised concerns about the impact on local businesses in town, Dee Sage suggested that townspeople could chip in to buy an awning to improve the appearance of the existing Town-n-Country grocery.

Water Committee Chairman Jim Barton at the Town Board’s September 26 Agenda meeting. In background at left, Dee Sage, Economic Development Director for Pamlico County and in background at right, Interim Town Manager Wyatt Cutler.

Jim Barton, chair of the Town’s water committee said he wanted the town to get the extra revenue that Walmart would bring as a water customer.

Tainted Water Money?

Resident Lili Stern questioned the value of Walmart paying $3,800 to tap on and $720-$840 a year in water bills to the Town of Oriental’s water system.

“It’s tainted money as far as I’m concerned. It’s not worth it,” she told the Board. “Let them go get it from the county.”

Instead of readily providing Walmart with town water, which would be cheaper than Walmart could get from the county, Stern suggested the Board withhold the water service as “leverage” with what she noted was “the fifth largest corporation in the world.”

“They don’t need favors from our little town of Oriental,” said Stern.

Faced with several Town officials saying the Town should be concerned only for its water business, Bama Lutes Deal beseeched the Board to withhold the water out of empathy for the mom and pop businesses in town that would be hurt by Walmart. “Just as you are concerned about the bottom line,” Deal said. “That’s what we’re concerned with.”

“I don’t think people understand how difficult it is,” she added.

Dollar General, General Principle?

Commissioner Larry Summers challenged the Walmart opponents on Thursday, asking if they would want the town to not supply water to businesses other than Walmart that might one day want to open outside of town.

Summers’ initially opposed the Walmart plans because he was concerned Walmart delivery trucks would use an easement that ran next to Summers’ mother- and father-in-law’s home at Windward and Gilgo Drives. Walmart has since said it wouldn’t send its trucks down that residential street or the path to the lot. That turnaround was announced at the Board’s September 19 meeting, where Summers joked that that meant he’d still get homemade cookies from his mother-in-law.

At this week’s agenda meeting, Summers was laying the case for supplying water to Walmart. “We gave water to Dollar General,” Summers argued, referring to the 9,000 square foot retailer which opened half a decade ago on Hwy 55 almost across the road from where the Walmart Express store in planned.

Since the Town allowed Dollar General on the town’s water system, Summers said that if Walmart were not given access to Oriental’s water, the giant retailer “could sue us and they could win.”

Mayor Bill Sage and Commissioners Barbara Venturi and Larry Summers at the September 26 Agenda meeting.

Commissioner Warren Johnson said he was “struggling with the decision we have to make Tuesday.” He also raised the possibility of Walmart filing a lawsuit. Johnson noted that the town already was defending itself in another lawsuit (over the Board’s land-swap in which it gave up 13,000 square feet of waterfront right of way to Chris Fulcher, who is also the land seller to Walmart in this deal,)

Commissioner Barbara Venturi suggested a mistake may have been made when the Town let Dollar General tap on. She says she’s seen no evidence in the minutes that the Town Board at that time voted on the matter, something required by the town’s Water Ordinance. Since that Dollar General tap-on did not follow protocol and may have been a mistake, Venturi downplayed the prospect of a Walmart lawsuit.

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Posted Saturday September 28, 2013 by Melinda Penkava