About Us
BWC was incorporated in June 1982, by Robert Slater, Patrick Collins and Jack Andrews; "To acquire, construct, own, operate and maintain a central water supply and distribution system..."
At the time, there were about 435 customers on the
existing Long Beach/Calvert Beach system owned by Mr. Ken Gerard, and
he was in a "Catch 22" situation; He needed to raise rates to generate
income to improve the system, but was prohibited from raising rates
until the system was improved. There was a building moratorium, and Mr.
Gerard had to impose a water use
moratorium to maintain system pressure and supply.
Months of hard work laying the groundwork for BWC, by
Bob Slater and others, were followed by more months of incredible red
tape and tedious paperwork and mailings. Volunteers filled out forms,
made phone calls, discussed and planned. They were able to secure a
loan from Farmer's Home Adminstration after being turned down by two
banks, (which was a loan requirement).
BWC purchased the existing system from Mr. Gerard via a generous
interest-free loan and fair price.
The alternative would have been takeover of the system
by Calvert County. That plan would have involved hiring an operator,
maintaining the moratorium, and raising rates to $200/year (in 1982
dollars) to cover costs. Under that plan, the system would have been
maintained as status quo, but
allowed no improvements.
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