Our History |
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| Home About Us Contact Us People Rules & By-Laws Make a Payment Newsletters / CCRs Water Meters | Beaches Water Co-operative was incorporated in
June, 1982 as the "Beaches Water Company, Inc." by Robert Slater,
Patrick Collins and Jack Andrews. Their aim was "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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