Harford County's plans for a countywide water and sewer authority were put on hold after Aberdeen pulled out of the venture this week.
County Executive Barry Glassman said he is pulling the plug on the plan, at least for the time being, until the county can determine which of the county's municipal government is on board.
The Aberdeen City Council voted unanimously Monday night to opt out of participating in any such authority, after City Manager Doug Miller said the city can provide water to its residents, as well as, if not better, than some other organization over which the city has little control.
"We really don't have a water or sewer system that are broken," Miller told the council. "We are getting to the point where I don't believe this [authority] is a route we want to go."
Glassman said Tuesday morning he suspected the municipalities had deep concerns about the joint authority, as "they were starting to red-flag a bunch of issues."
"They were brought to the altar but I don't think they were ever really thrilled with the idea," he said regarding Havre de Grace's, Aberdeen's and Bel Air's participation in the plan.
He also speculated Havre de Grace might be next to drop out.
"I was not surprised [Aberdeen officials] were going to formally pull out of it," he added.
Mayor Mike Bennett, who along with Miller has been on a committee to studying the authority concept, said he had informed Glassman the city council planned to vote on opting out Monday.
Miller added: "I think it's fairly clear that if we weren't with this water and sewer authority, our taxes would have to go up. More than likely, our water and sewer rates would go up. I don't believe an authority can give better service than our employees can already give."
Miller said losing total control over Aberdeen's future growth and development, as dictated by water use, did not seem worth it.
He noted city officials did "take an honest look" at the idea of the authority.
Councilwoman Ruth Elliott gave "a big aye" in casting her vote on rejecting the authority.
"I am so relieved the council decided to drop out," Elliott said, adding the concept had come up years ago and died.
Bennett said city leaders feel they had in good faith been part of the project, "but we are still not getting the answers that we want to get out of this process."
Bennett made the "unusual" motion of calling for the vote to drop out, and Councilwoman Sandra Landbeck seconded the motion.
"It's been the consensus of most of us that we really didn't want to do it, but you convinced us that we do need to look at it," Landbeck told Miller. "Certainly we have a very educated motion to pass now."
New Councilman Stephen Smith, who was at his first city council meeting Monday, said he had "no hesitation about voting to withdraw our partnership
"I think there is some self-interest, as it were. I think our self-interest trumps that self-interest," Smith said about the county's intentions.
Former county executive David Craig, who left office in December, was the driving force in trying to set up a utility authority as a quasi-governmental agency to operate all local water and sewer systems in the county.
Last year, municipal officials, some more reluctantly than others, agreed to go along with a cost-sharing arrangement in hiring a consultant to study issues such as organization and control of facilities. The $831,000 study was split $640,701 county, $81,438 Aberdeen, $83,100 Havre de Grace and $25,761 Bel Air. The study is the second phase of what was expected to be a four-phased implementation process.
Among the municipalities, Aberdeen operates its own water and sewer systems and provides those services to Aberdeen Proving Ground under a contract with the Army. Havre de Grace also operates its own systems.
Bel Air only has a sewage collection system, relying on the county to treat the sewage. The town's water is supplied by the private Maryland American Water Company, whose officials to this point have neither expressed support or opposition to a countywide authority. Maryland American is, however, currently dependent on the county system for additional water during periods of drought. In December, the company and county reached a tentative agreement that will allow Maryland American to build a storage reservoir on county-owned property near the Maryland-American treatment plant just west of Bel Air.
Shortly before succeeding Craig, Glassman had said in late November the proposed authority would not be an immediate priority for his new administration and nothing would be done until the report from consultant GHB Inc. is received in February.
Glassman said Tuesday he would wait for the county law department to get an update on its memorandum of understanding with all the municipalities.
"I don't want to waste money, because there is a lot of money budgeted for this thing," he said.