FLINT (WJRT) -
(03/18/13) - Climbing water rates have plagued the city of Flint for years, and city leaders are hoping joining a multi-county water pipeline project could provide some relief for residents.
They held a special meeting Monday afternoon to talk about their options. They decided to table the vote for a second time, and discuss it more during Wednesday's finance committee meeting.
"We need to have ownership over the system we're using," said Mayor Dayne Walling.
Right now, Flint gets its water from Detroit and costs have climbed for years.
One of the options on the table is a partnership with Genesee, Lapeer and Sanilac counties, as well as the city of Lapeer.
They've formed a board called the KWA, and plan to build a water pipeline to Lake Huron. The mayor says it would fix water rates and save millions of dollars.
"There's no better source of water than the great lakes and to have access to that is going to be a great benefit for our community over the long term," Walling said.
But not everyone here is so keen on the KWA just yet.
"The numbers have been elusive to us" said councilman Sheldon Neeley. "The council has been out of the loop for about a year and a half, the emergency manager found it necessary to keep us at bay when they came up with this resolution, they only brought it to us a week ago."
So the board decided to talk about this again at Wednesday's finance committee meeting. But councilman Josh Freeman says it's high time the council make a decision.
"Every study that's in front of us shows that the KWA is the best decision for the city of Flint, it's the cheapest choice for the city of Flint and it really boggles my mind why my colleagues can't read the information that's in front of them," Freeman said.
Emergency financial manager Ed Kurtz does still has final say on this decision. So the board will vote, but Kurtz will have the ultimate say on whether this is the best decision for the city.
