VIDEO: Lower MUA Commissioners Vow to Fight Dissolution

VILLAS — Before a standing room only crowd, Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) Commissioners vowed Jan. 2 not to vote for dissolution.
MUA Commissioner Charles Garrison brought with him a collection of news clippings from the past two months concerning the dissolution of the MUA. He read from a news story where Lower Township Mayor Walter Craig suggested closing the MUA plant and sending sewage to the county MUA.
“I think that’s been reversed so that’s a little bit of flopping around I guess,” said Garrison.
He read from a news clipping indicating township council believed dissolving the MUA could save $400,000 or more. Garrison noted council had not itemized that number.
“If you’re throwing numbers out, I think it’s incumbent upon them to state where these monies are going to be saved,” he said.
Garrison asked if the $400,000 savings would come from eliminating jobs, consolidating legal and engineering contracts with the township or raising water/sewer rates. He said MUA employees who lost their jobs would be forgotten.
“A year or two from now, you’ll be a nobody,” said Garrison. “You’ll be off the books, you’ll be gotten rid of, things will be quiet, now’s the time to speak up, request what you want and make sure you get it in writing.”
MUA Commissioner Bill Thomas, who worked 37 years in the water industry, said he expected he was attending his final meeting of the authority predicting he would be replaced by a vote on township council.
He said things began “going down hill” when talk surfaced of replacing MUA Executive Director Clifford Gall.
Thomas said the issue of replacing Gall should have never surfaced. He blamed that on “outside forces” that wanted the executive director replaced for political purposes.
Commissioners began a search for a new executive director, placing ads in newspapers and on water industry Web sites and received 55 applications, said Thomas. He said news stories about a possible dissolution of the MUA killed any chance of hiring a new executive director.
“There were outside forces maybe wanting one person to get this particular job,” said Thomas.
He theorized because that person was not selected for the executive director position, members of township council decided to shut down the MUA.
Thomas said MUA employees told him they were very concerned they would either be unemployed or riding on the back of a garbage truck.
He commented on a statement from a statement to the press from MUA Board of Commissioners Chairman Pete Bitting suggesting Lower Township Manager Joe Jackson be brought as MUA executive director.
Thomas said that required a vote of all five commissioners.
“There is no reason that this MUA should be dissolved, it’s solvent, it pays its bills,” he said.
For more details see the Jan. 9 edition of the Herald.