They don't have the infrastructure to measure the waste from each home,, so instead of installing a system that could,, long ago,, they just decided to charge according to water consumption via the water meters. It was a cheap way for them.
Of course,, here in Lake Lure,, they kept pushing off necessary work on a few other things,, or patching the problems then passing them to the next administration. All this happened once people who were not raised around here got elected to city council & mayor,, which started in the early 1970's. It didn't happen overnight,, but a gradual process.
Another good example of how this once nice little tourist town has been ruined. Our municipal golf course. Back in the 1920's, as the town was being built,, land was given to build a golf course. It was enough land to only do (9) holes. The gift has a catch. The town must use it for recreational purposes, with a golf course as the main idea. OTHERWISE,, the property would have to be returned to the original owner or their heirs. So the town built a 9 hole golf course,, and it was the only golf course until the 1960.s. And the town had a program in place to set aside money to eventually buy more land & increase the size to an 18 hole course. Over the decades,, that fund kept growing,,, but it wasn't enough to happen before an imported retiree know it all, (who also was later found to be very crooked,) got elected mayor. He got a large scale, gated community resort to get behind him for the election. (Part of his promises were to do all he could to make the lake more exclusive for the folks who only lived there.)
Once he got elected,, he "found" a large bank account of money. His words; "Found." When the prior mayor was asked about it,, he said is was known to be there all along,, and it was for the town to buy land for the additional 9 holes. Well, the upscale resort types didn't want competition as they were expanding and building a second 18 hole golf course. That money was spent & gone. Now,, the municipal golf course has been closed for about 5 years,, and the only "recreation" is the use of the old cart paths as "walking trails" so that the town doesn't have to give up the land. I've heard they were going to try to develop it until it was "discovered" that the land had the "return to ownership" clause in the deed.
Small town operations are no different than big city ones when it comes to them doing things to get money out of other people. Atlanta & their crap about water fees & such is no different than many other towns that have passed ordinances that cost the residents & property owners money when common sense should not have let such things happen.
runs downhill). This is all about to change in a very big way as this village is in the immediate headwaters drainage of what's supposed to be a new public water supply reservoir. No more raw sewage dumping. I've not seen the plans if there are any but this will require no less than a pump station or holding lagoon which would be pumped frequently.
