The year was 2000 and it was a gentler time. The Taney County Commission, the county, the City of Branson, the city, and the Taney County Regional Sewer District, the district entered into a “Sewer Services and Exclusive Territorial Agreement” on Feb. 28. Surely there was excitement, love, and joy throughout the land.
The agreement stated the city’s concern about “the safe and adequate disposal of waste water and sewage, within close proximity of Branson” and protecting “the public health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the City of
“Look Seagull, the love and joy stuff aside, that’s about as exciting as having a root canal performed with a teaspoon.”
“It gets better, be patient.”
To an Ole Seagull, a sanitary sewer system has to perform two main functions if it is to be efficient. It has to collect sewage at its source and transport it to a treatment facility through sewers. The treatment facility must then treat the sewage so that it is no longer an environmental or health hazard.
The agreement provides that “the county will fund and the city will design and construct sewers in the Table Rock Acres subdivision, and in the Bee Creek and Emory Creek watersheds, to be owned operated and maintained by the City as part of its sanitary sewer system”
“Did the agreement provide for the building of any treatment plants to process the sewage?”
“No, but it did provide for the treatment of the sewage that was collected.”
It said, “The county and the district believe that Branson is the entity most qualified to act as regional provider of sewer services and that it is appropriate that Branson should be the sole provider of wastewater treatment in the Bee Creek and Emory Creek watersheds.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, especially since neither the county nor district operated municipal treatment facilities and Branson had, and was operating, state of the art facilities.”
And so the agreement was signed “for the mutual benefit of the parties” and everyone lived happily ever after. Well maybe not.
In 2005, more than five years after the Agreement was signed and became effective, the county and district suddenly had an epiphany. They decided, for whatever reason, that they didn’t like the agreement and wanted it changed whether or not the city did. In an Ole Seagulls opinion those changes, for all intents and purposes, would remove one of the strongest reasons for entering into the agreement, having the sewage treated on a regional basis by “the entity most qualified” to do so.
What is the rational for these changes? As near as an Ole Seagull can discern, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, there are two main reasons. One is that the county wants let people have the option of having their sewage treated by another provider if it is cheaper. The other is the allegation that the county and district were forced to sign the agreement because the city allegedly said that they would oppose the extension of the one half percent county wide sewer tax if they didn’t.
“Are you saying that the reason the agreement was signed by the county and district was because the city allegedly said that they would oppose the extension of the one half percent county wide sewer tax if they didn’t?”
“No, one of the members of the Taney County Regional Sewer Board said it at a public meeting held on May 5.”
“Seagull, do you believe that the city really did that?”
“It makes no difference what an Ole Seagull believes, what’s important, in his opinion, is the potential stench from the lack of professionalism and integrity involved in what the county and district did if they made their decision to sign the agreement, in any part, because they believed it was true.”
“But Seagull, if the city actually did what they allege isn’t there plenty of stench to go around?”
“Where’s a rose when you need one?”
