EDITORIAL: It’s not working

One wonders when the situation between the Antrim Township Board of Supervisors and the Antrim Township Municipal Authority will finally come to a head. We dislike calling the entities two different sides because they should be just one. They are both charged with doing what’s best for Antrim Township.

However, the discontentment between the two has been brewing for awhile and current budget preparations are not doing anything to smooth the way. If fact, the apparent disregard for the authority’s  current financial situation may end up costing the townships’ water customers.

The supervisors have proposed an up to 3 percent pay raise for employees and the township will be paying up to 6 percent more for benefits. If you are proposing those kinds of increases in this economy, it just makes sense to listen to the people who are charged with arranging for that payroll to be met.

Authority members have balked at the proposed hikes and say they may have to raise water rates by as much as 12 percent to fund the increase in wages and benefits. The authority members’ concerns were met with no response from the board, other than one supervisor saying that it was “a broken record.”

Although the authority was set up to be more than an advisory board, it appears that it is now not even that. The situation has made the authority question its own existence. Indeed, if the board of supervisors is not going to accept a real role for the authority, what is the point? They need to take over administration of the township’s utilities or let the authority do its job. At any rate the current situation is sure not benefiting anyone, especially the water customers who will have to reach deeper into their pockets to pay that quarterly bill.