Commissioners approve corrective action plan for Norcrest Water & Sewer District deficits

Cumberland County commissioners approved a corrective action plan to address fiscal performance indicators tied to the county’s water and sewer enterprise funds; the issue is driven primarily by the Norcrest Water and Sewer District.

Robin Coombs, the county’s finance director/CFO, told the board that when the five county water/sewer districts are combined they showed an operating loss of just over $85,000 in fiscal 2024 and that Norcrest alone accounted for roughly $416,000 of that shortfall. Coombs said part of the problem stems from a discrepancy between the sewer billing the county receives from PWC and the county’s water billing to customers: in FY24 PWC charged the county for about 65,000,000 gallons while the county billed customers for just over 30,000,000 gallons.

The corrective actions the county will pursue, Coombs said, include improving meter and data-collection coordination with PWC, installing weather-monitoring devices, conducting inflow-and-infiltration (I&I) investigations, renegotiating the maintenance contract with PWC with a proposed annual cap of $90,000 (down from about $197,000 in 2024), bringing certain services in-house (such as generator maintenance and monitoring), and recommending a 5% rate increase for residential customers that the county estimates would generate roughly $40,000 in additional annual revenue. Coombs also said the county plans a rate study to be completed in FY2026 by Freese and Nichols.

Commissioners asked whether the deficit would require drawing on fund balance. Coombs said the Norcrest fund balance is sufficient to cover the current shortfall and that the county has until March 9 to submit an action plan to the Local Government Commission; Commissioner Patel moved that the board approve submission of the corrective action plan to the LGC by the deadline. The motion was seconded and carried by voice vote.