Correction: Lead Hill agreed to a monthly minimum charge of $5,199.26 and was ordered to pay $10,555.02 to the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority. This article incorrectly stated the amounts.
CONWAY -- A circuit judge postponed a verdict Thursday on whether a Searcy County city will have to pay a water authority $259,400 in late fees for a service contract it wants to terminate.
Twentieth Judicial Circuit Judge Charles Clawson granted Marshall more time to gather evidence against the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority but said he would issue a decision by Aug. 20.
"Something needs to happen with this case," Clawson said of the lawsuit, which began in December. "Water keeps flowing without payment."
The lawsuit is one of two that the water authority has filed against its members.
In June, a circuit judge ordered Lead Hill to pay the water authority $52,078 for the water that it had delivered to the city as of Oct. 21 and a minimum of $28,298.21 for every month after that.
Lead Hill had also voted to withdraw from the water authority because its residents saw water prices increase.
The water authority, established in 2004, spent more than two years and $72 million building a water-treatment facility plus 120 miles of pipeline to supply 18 member towns, cities and other water utilities with water from Bull Shoals Lake. The U.S. Department of Agriculture contributed $36.4 million in grants and a $19.37 million loan for the project.
Since the authority began supplying Marshall on Aug. 19, Mayor Jim Smithson said, residents saw their water prices nearly double. The city tried to pass a sales-tax increase to pay for it, but the proposal failed.
As a result, the city raised water rates from a minimum of $13.50 for the first 1,000 gallons to a minimum of $15.50 for the first 1,000 gallons.
Marshall had agreed to buy a minimum of 305,000 gallons per day. But that was too much, Smithson said.
Before Marshall switched water systems, it drew 250,000 gallons of a water a day from a local water source, Hughes Spring.
The former mayor agreed to the current terms, said Smithson, who wants to revert to the Hughes Spring system.
The state Department of Health required the city to hire a consultant to test the water's safety. Smithson said the city has hired three consultants since the December request but is still waiting on approval from the Health Department.
Lance Jones, chief engineer of the Health Department's Engineering Division, said he has not received any samples from Marshall.
In court, Marshall's attorney, Jerry Patterson, argued that the contract Marshall signed with the water authority in 2009 is invalid.
The water authority was not formed according to the procedures laid out by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, which requires a resolution from its members and board of directors, he said.
Andy Anderson, chairman of the water authority, said a circuit judge in the Lead Hill ruling upheld the organization's validity.
Anderson said the water authority will continue supplying Marshall water, even though some City Council members want to stop the service.
"All the citizens of Marshall would be affected," he said. "They are paying their water bills; the city is just not paying us."
Judge ...
Metro on 07/19/2014