CHURCH ASKS EDGERTON TO FORGIVE WATER FEE

An area church went before the Edger­ton Vil­lage Coun­cil Mon­day evening, to ask that some fees be waived.
The Rev. Rick Bar­nett, lead pas­tor of the Edger­ton United Methodist Church, said that after suf­fer­ing a dev­as­tat­ing fire in 2012, the North Michi­gan Street church is being rebuilt. Bar­nett talked about how a state-of-the-art fire sup­pres­sion sys­tem has been installed in the new build­ing. How­ever, because of that fire sup­pres­sion sys­tem, the church is being levied a $600 annual tax.
Accord­ing to the Bryan Times, the mayor quickly replied that the $600 was not a tax… it is a $50 per month up size fee on the water tap which had to increase from two inches to six inches. The mayor says it’s a stan­dard vil­lage fee.
Bar­nett asked that the fee be waived because it will never be used because of the fire sup­pres­sion sys­tem. He also said that had the church known the fee would be charged, they would have gone with a dif­fer­ent fire sup­pres­sion sys­tem.
Dis­cus­sion report­edly fol­lowed, and an agree­ment was reached in which the issue be explored fur­ther and the vil­lage will get back to the church with a final deci­sion on whether or not the fee will be waived.