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Lock Haven council authorizes legal steps to transfer water system from authority
Summary
The council approved a resolution authorizing legal action to effect transfer of the municipal water system from the regional authority to the City of Lock Haven after the authority failed to sign a previously directed transfer agreement.
Lock Haven City Council on Monday voted to authorize legal action to move forward with transferring the city’s water system from the regional water authority to the city after the authority did not return a previously directed transfer agreement.
Council members said the council adopted an earlier resolution in November directing the authority to sign a transfer agreement but the authority has not returned the signed agreement or held the required public meeting. In consultation with the city’s attorneys at Eckard Siemens, the council reviewed a resolution giving the city authority to take legal steps necessary to complete the transfer.
Supporters on the council said the resolution aims to end months of delay. A council member noted that the council had asked the authority to respond within 30 days after the November action and that no substantive reply had been received. Council members said they still hope to meet with the authority and the city’s committees to resolve outstanding items, but approved the legal-authority resolution when the authority did not respond.
The resolution text directed the city solicitor to take necessary legal steps; the council did not specify a litigation timeline in its discussion. Councilmembers voting in favor were recorded on the record as responding “yes” during the roll call.
The measure does not itself change operations of the water system; it authorizes staff and the solicitor to pursue legal mechanisms to complete the transfer if negotiations and meetings do not produce a signed agreement.
Council members said they will continue outreach to the authority and preferred to reach a negotiated transfer, but described the resolution as an enforcement tool because the authority had not acted on the November directive.
The council did not provide a specific effective date for any change of ownership, and any actual transfer would be subject to further legal steps and any approvals required by state law or by the authority’s own rules.
