By Eleni Himaras, Staff Writer

West Lake Hills has asked to buy its sewer from the Lower Colorado River Authority, and Rollingwood is thinking about buying theirs, too. The two local cities are part of a growing list that have either already bought or are attempting to buy their utilities.
“Our position is that we wanted to pay the remaining debt minus any reserves they are holding,” said West Lake Hills City Administrator Robert Wood after meeting with LCRA officials Tuesday morning. “They are going to want to try and recover some fees they’d get under the contract. It will end up somewhere between Point A and Point B.”
The LCRA will discuss the particulars of the Westlake deal at their upcoming board meeting in August and West Lake Hills officials plan to bring it up at their next Wastewater Commission meeting and regular Council meeting Aug. 12.
Wood said the city looked at likely costs of debt payment, maintenance and operation over the next 30 years, and he believes that WLH could do it for less than the city currently pays LCRA. He’s spoken with a few of the other entities that are in the process of buying a system or have already bought one to compare notes on the savings, including Smithville.
“We definitely saved money, probably $150,000-170,000 per year,” said Smithville City Administrator Tex Middlebrook, who orchestrated the purchasing of a local treatment plant from LCRA two years ago. “I would say that it wasn’t an issue with the way they were operating the plants. They do a fantastic job with anything they set out to do. It was strictly, for me, costs.”
At the time he proposed the idea nearly six years ago, Middlebrook said the LCRA was less than amenable to the notion. Smithville successfully bought the treatment plant in 2007. In 2008, the LCRA board passed a resolution to sell water or wastewater systems to willing municipalities when it would benefit both entities and the customers.
“LCRA should actively engage in an effort to divest itself of those water or wastewater utility systems or portions thereof where another public or non-profit entity is reasonably positioned to acquire such utility facilities and to provide utility services in an efficient and cost-effective manner,” the resolution reads. “Where no such entity or entities exist, LCRA should be prepared to assist in the process of creating such a public or non-profit entity if the customers to be served by the new entity seek such assistance.”
The transition, Middlebrook said, was easy and required the hiring of two additional employees. Smithville was required to pay off the debt left on the plant and some equity, but even with that and the additional cost of salaries, it has kept its water rates steady for the past two years and does not plan to raise them in 2010.
“I think it’s great for them,” he said of other cities looking to purchase their systems.
Rollingwood is in the earliest phase of the process, voting just this month to think about buying its system back.
“Let’s look into this and see what we can do,” Rollingwood Mayor Dale Dingley told the city council before they voted for the item at this month’s meeting.
So far, the LCRA has sold the Bridgepoint water system, is in the process of selling the systems in Harper and London, and is in negotiations to sell the Brushy Creek Regional Utility System in Williamson County and the system in Hutto.
“We are evaluating each system independently,” said Suzanne Zarling, manager of water services for LCRA. “We are focusing on Williamson County, and we’ve been approached by West Lake Hills and we’ll continue to look at them individually as we have opportunities to.”
Zarling said the main impetuses for the decision were increasing the financial stability of the LCRA and creating operations that work best for the customers.
“I think we have to provide some benefit to the customers that would be leaving LCRA as well as to the other customers of LCRA. It can’t create a financial burden on LCRA’s remaining customers,” she said.
Currently, the LCRA owns and operates about 35 systems, of varying type and size. Zarling could not predict how many they might sell or how long they will be working on this process.
“It could be that we don’t sell very many and this is a short term process,” she said. “I think it will be an ongoing process to make sure we are always evaluating and making sure our system is strategic.”