Polk County Commissioners have received Inman-Campobello Water District’s (ICDW) revised contract to share water resources and will discuss the draft for the first time during a work session on Thursday, May 21 beginning at 6 a.m.

Commissioners set the work session in April after not being able to find a day and time in the evening to meet.

Thursday’s work session will not include public comments, but it is open to the public.

Commissioners will hold other work sessions regarding the proposed contract with ICWD. Work sessions are currently scheduled for Monday, June 29 at 6 p.m. and another following the commissioner meeting on July 20. The June 29 meeting will likely be to get public feedback regarding the contract.

Commissioner Chair Tom Pack said in April it is his intent to have three work sessions for the draft water agreement. The first work session is for commissioners to go over the contract draft, the second is to receive public comments and the third is to incorporate public comments into the contract.

Pack also said he expects Thursday’s initial meeting to take two-three hours.

Polk County and ICWD first announced a proposed partnership in September 2014.

On Jan. 8 this year, commissioners, ICWD and Polk staff attended a meeting in Raleigh with the N.C. Local Government Commission (LGC) after hearing that the state may not of approve of the first contract as written. During the meeting in Raleigh, the LGC made it clear that the proposed contract would not meet state standards because of the potential burden on Polk taxpayers if the county ever chose to get out of the contract. There was no way to put an exact figure on what Polk County could owe ICWD and the state suggested a contract that excluded monetary paybacks. The original contract draft included Polk County paying back ICWD any infrastructure ICWD financed in Polk County, with depreciation, if the contract was ever cancelled.

Thursday’s work session will be held in the second floor meeting room of the Womack building in downtown Columbus.