Randy Hintz, a senior project manager, and Dennie Martin, a managing partner with WR Martin, spoke at length and justified the considerable cost of such an expansion in various ways.

“In this situation [expanding the treatment plant], we would go from the current 1.5 MGD (million gallons per day) capacity up to a capacity of 3 MGD,” Hintz said in comments before Weaverville’s Town Council. The proposed plan would cost over $9 million in total.

A simpler, cheaper option would be to buy the additional capacity from nearby Asheville, Hintz said.

“There’s an existing interconnection that we have right now, with the City of Asheville,” he said. “We would simply take the additional capacity that we would need to reach that 3 MGD goal as a purchase from the City of Asheville.”

Hintz claimed that, after considering all possibilities for expanding Weaverville’s capacity to treat water, his recommendation was to expand the town’s existing water treatment plant. According to Hintz other options exist, too.

“In looking at this, there are several things that we discovered. There was a discussion about allowable withdrawal from the Ivy River that we currently take from the river and treat at the treatment plant,” Hintz explained.

“We discovered some documents … that identify the fact that the allowable withdrawal from the Ivy River … is 4 MGD. The expansion of the plant to 3 MGD would not require additional site work at that intake,” Hintz revealed.

This news surprised members of town council, especially Councilman Andrew Nagle. “That’s a big not-know,” Nagle exclaimed.

Despite the various cheaper alternatives, Hintz doubled down on his recommendation that the town lay out millions of dollars to expand its existing water treatment plant. He justify the outlay in terms of avoiding mixing well water with surface water, in addition to appealing to the town’s sense of autonomous. In the end, Hintz admitted the cheapest solution would be simply to buy the necessary water from Asheville. No motion was proffered, and the issue was tabled, to be dealt with another day.

In other news, Mayor Al Root presented a plaque to local businessman Shane Owenby, of Weaverville’s Piano Emporium.

According to Root, “Piano Emporium has, very generously, cooperated fully with the town and provided us equipment, at no cost to the town.” Root praised the local musician and piano technician, congratulating him on providing keyboards and other services to the town when needed.

Additionally, the Town of Weaverville has a new vice-mayor. Town Councilman Doug Jackson was nominated for - and won unanimously - the position of vice-mayor.

Weaverville’s legislative body talked about, what some residents might find a rather sad fact, as the town simply may not be able to provide fireworks for future events. Town Manager Selena Coffey cited troubles at the fireworks’ overseas production facility and lack of useable space from which to launch the rockets.

“We have, as you know, a new development down at Lakeshore Drive,” Coffey said, and “we have a continuing development [there also].”

“We have been, over the last couple of years, firing the fireworks from the Public Works parking lot.”

Laws dictate that a fireworks launch must take place, in addition to other factors, no closer than 500 feet away from the nearest inhabited building, according to Weaverville’s Fire Chief Ted Williams.

Coffey explained that the new projects being constructed on Lake Louise preclude the town from using the site as a launching area for fireworks.

After closing the public commentary section of the meeting, the board members ceded the floor to Joseph Martin, Woodfin Water Director, who spoke on this month’s district reports.

“We’re just beginning a new fiscal year,” Martin said, speaking to Water Board Trustees Ivo Ballentine, Don Haynes and Sarah Gassaway. “We missed our [projected] revenue of $1.8 million, we missed it buy a couple thousand [dollars]. Our expenses ended up about where they should [be].”

Martin brought up the board’s biggest upcoming project, an effort to replace pipes near the water main on Merrimon Ave. The project is not underway as of this writing, according to the director, who said “they haven’t begun installing pipe.” The outfit contracted to carry out the project has fewer than six months to complete it, according to members of the board.

Director Martin also mentioned the board would no longer transact business with First Citizen’s Bank, instead making deposits with HomeTrust Bank. No explanation was given for this change.

“We’ll slowly dwindle the First Citizen’s account down as we pay bills, until we’ve essentially moved all the money [from that account],” Martin stated, as opposed to withdrawing it all at once.

Doing so will save the district “a few thousand dollars,” according to Martin.

Citing recent rainfall as a contributing factor, Martin and Gassaway reported that Woodfin Water District’s reservoir is “still overflowing.”

There was no old business to discuss, but one item of new business needed to be sorted.

An amendment to “move funds for the Merrimon Ave project up to this fiscal year,” according to Gassaway, was proposed and voted into effect at Monday’s meeting.

Gassaway adjourned the meeting within thirty minutes of its start time, promising to meet next month as scheduled.