The Town of Tryon was left with the same frustrating answers last week to its question of what to do about its water system in the future.

Town council held a special meeting to hear from residents on April 21 about what they think the town should do with its water system, with options including selling the system, joining with Polk County and Inman-Campobello Water District (ICWD), keeping the system as it is or other options.

While the meeting room was full, only a handful of residents gave opinions with some having more questions than answers.

Tryon Mayor Jim Wright opened the meeting saying the town’s water/sewer system is something that’s always before council and since it’s budget season council wanted citizen comments.

Resident John Salmon said he doesn’t feel like he’s educated enough on the town’s system to determine if Tryon should sell or whom they should sell it to. He said he thinks a study needs to be done.

“I don’t have enough facts to make a decision,” Salmon said.

Commissioner George Baker said “neither do we.”

Baker said the town has had an offer to purchase in the past and has done a couple of studies that were all inconclusive.

“We know what it costs us to make it, know what the debt is and what amount we can make,” said Baker. “That’s why we invited y’all here tonight to help us. We don’t know.”

Commissioner Roy Miller said in 2005 Tryon started talking to Spartanburg Water Authority then began talking to Broad River about the town’s system. Miller said this year Mayor Wright has talked to ICWD. Tryon has had conversations with Polk County and the other municipalities about forming a water authority, Miller said, which in his opinion is the best idea to protect the water sources county-wide.

Miller mentioned an offer from NiAmerica, a company out of Texas, to purchase Tryon’s water system a few years ago.

“We just can’t find the right fit for the citizens of Tryon,” Miller said.

Tryon rehabilitated its water plant almost six years ago for $3.5-$5million, Miller said.

“The most logical in my mind is to form a water authority in the county,” said Miller.

Commissioner Bill Ingham said Tryon could actually furnish the entire county with water from its rehabbed water plant. Ingham mentioned Tryon owning Lake Lanier for its water reservoir and Baker added Tryon also has another water supply from its mountain water source.

Tryon Town Manager Joey Davis said the key idea for the town is to increase the customer base so the costs are spread out over more users.

“The costs of producing water have moved the price up more and more,” said Davis.

Davis said the heartburn with selling to NiAmerica, was the lack of local control. With Tryon owning its own system, if customers don’t like the rates, they can talk to town council, Davis said.

That’s why Tryon likes the idea of a county-wide system, because there is local control, Davis said. Another issue is other entities seem to just want to partner with Tryon on water, but Tryon also has a sewer system, Davis said.

Davis also reviewed the town’s budgets for water and sewer and said there is very little fund balance in terms of capital to replace water and sewer lines.

“The last time we did a study it would be $10 million if you fixed everything,” Davis said. “So you see why CDBG (Community Development Block Grants) for the sewer line are so crucial.”

Salon asked if the town should create a committee.

Wright said a consultant has been mentioned and at one point Tryon did have a public works citizen group. Wright said he was told nothing was ever done with the study that was done.

Miller said the committee consisted of himself, former mayor Alan Peoples, former commissioner Dennis Durham and resident Ty Martin. Miller said a 20-year study was done of the water rates, which council adopted but the rate structure fell off.

“We were supposed to increase rates every year minimal so we didn’t have large increases 10 years down the road,” said Miller.

Miller also addressed a question of Tryon partnering with ICWD. Miller said with a water authority, Tryon can control the water rates. With ICWD, Tryon wouldn’t have that localized service.

“And they (ICWD) are strictly money driven,” said Miller.

Miller said Tryon’s sewer plant is only 1/3 of its capacity with Tryon able to handle all of Columbus’ sewer.

“We should look within the county to form water authorities before going to Inman-Campbello or to NiAmerica,” said Miller.

The issue with forming a local water authority, commissioners kept saying, is Saluda is tied to Hendersonville and Columbus is dependent on its wells.

One resident asked how forming a county-wide system would be different now.

Ingham said the towns didn’t get along when they tried before.

Baker said one thing that is different now is the towns have the interconnect line, which means all the towns and the county are connected with water lines.

Residents who spoke made it clear the last option should be selling to a private sector. The fear is once the water system goes private there will be no local control.

One resident said the first option is to join with the other towns, but if Tryon can’t accomplish that in a timely fashion, it should partner with ICWD.

Kathy Wright said she hopes whatever happens, Tryon will not do anything that will mean the town no longer owns the water. Wright said Tryon needs to stay over capacity. She said she went to some of the county meetings last fall and, “we are far from having a county water system.”

She also suggested if Tryon partners with another entity to have a short-term management contract, so the town can get out of it when something better comes up.

Davis said when he came on as the town’s fire chief in 2007, Tryon had Grover Industries, which has since closed and Tryon was also talking about providing water service to the Bradley subdivision, which never occurred. Then the town experienced the drought, Davis said, and Tryon customers began using 25 percent less water and they never went back up.

Baker said the county is determined to make a deal with another water system for some reason and doesn’t want to work with the towns.

“In my mind the three towns have got to work together,” Baker said. “Inman-Campobello is not a water system. It’s a distribution system. Nothing against them but they’re not really a water system. My gut’s telling me they just want that water out of Lake Adger.”

Baker said the towns have to “leg up” and get together and that to him is how they start to have progress.

Wright reminded everyone that one of the things everyone needs to remember is Tryon has about $3 million in debt, while Columbus and Saluda have no debt for their water systems. Wright said when all the towns met were concerned about Tryon’s $3 million in debt service and they asked why their customers should be responsible for Tryon’s debt. One suggestion has been Tryon keeps its own debt, which Tryon can’t figure out how to do without revenues from the water system.

When talking about separating Tryon’s debt from Columbus and Saluda, Tryon officials said if they put that on taxpayers instead of through the enterprise system there would be issues with the general fund supplementing the enterprise fund. Plus, with $3 million in water system debt, one cent in property taxes only equals about $16,000.

Miller said in his 12 years on the board he’s heard these same conversations before.

He said in 2007 the towns and county entertained conversations about a water authority with a board comprised of one member from each town and two from the county.

“It didn’t work because elections come and people get voted out,” Miller said. “So we’re in a tight space right now. Tryon has no options if Saluda does not want to work with Tryon.”

Miller said Columbus doesn’t want to work with Tryon and the county is working with ICWD.

Miller said he truly believes if Tryon, Saluda, Columbus and the county sat down at the table they could protect all the citizens in the county.

“Everything we say we should do tonight, we’ve already done,” Miller said.

Ingham said Tryon’s water system is big enough to supply the entire county and the debt is how that’s possible. Ingham said he believes the other towns should take on some of Tryon’s debt if they joined together because that debt is what made the system what it is.

“Remember,” Miller said, “we don’t have to pay for the infrastructure of the lines being in the ground because they are already there.”

Baker said now that the interconnect line is close to being functional he thinks there are some other ways to go.

No clear conclusions or directions were established from Tryon’s special meeting. Miller thanked everyone for their input, but said with only five individuals participating it’s hard to come up with any solutions for Tryon’s system and its rates. He said council is trying to come up with some solution so the rates don’t drive citizens out of town.