Residents of Hopewell Township and adjacent communities should not assume that a water rate hike is inevitable (“Water rate hike coming,” Dec. 27). The way to prevent a rate hike and guard against a water monopoly’s unreasonable rate hikes in future years is to form a Mercer Water Authority (MWA).
Several possibilities are open to the proposed MWA. Ideally, the MWA should include Trenton as one of the participants. If Trenton refuses to participate, then the communities affected by the sale of the water pipes would create MWA: Hopewell, Lawrence, Ewing and Hamilton townships. It would be to Trenton’s advantage to sell the entire system. Alternatively, MWA would buy just the water distribution pipes that are now up for sale.
As a governmental agency, MWA could issue tax-exempt bonds to pay for the distribution pipes or the entire system. As a nonprofit governmental agency, MWA could offer lower rates than a for-profit corporation would or could offer. MWA ownership of the water supply would prevent a monopoly imposing unreasonable water rates now and in the future.
ELSA (Ewing Lawrence Sewage Authority) shows that this is a feasible alternative to making residents of Hopewell, Lawrence, Ewing and Hamilton townships captive to a water monopoly.
Morton M. Rosenthal
Pennington
