The Bermuda Run Town Council approved a resolution to support Davie County’s application to construct an Eastern Davie sewer area wastewater treatment facility in last

Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting at Town Hall.

“Behind the resolution is a reminder of what we have proposed as Bermuda Run’s sewer options as it relates to the town’s own wastewater treatment plan that serves a smaller portion of the community in general,” said Lee Rollins, town manager.

The Eastern Davie project is the county’s least costly option based on current information with a capital cost of $1 million and an initial capacity of 1 million gallons per day and future expansion potential up to 2 million gallons per day.

As part of the commitment to remove its discharge, the town agrees to have an agreement in place with the county that lays out terms to:

• Require an applicant within the town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction that seeks sewer allocation from the county to petition the town for voluntary annexation.

• Allow the town to have sewer allocation authority of sewer capacity to potential customers located or who plan to locate within the town’s limits and the town’s ETJ.

• Provide the town a clear pathway to convey its sewer assets and sewer customers to Davie County.

Mayor Ken Rethmeier said those three points in the resolution “are critical to what the town sees as a real long-term solution to the challenge.”

Council members agreed on the importance of moving forward with the sewer project during the council comments portion of the meeting.

“I’m glad to see that we are making progress on getting this sewer issue resolved and that I certainly want Davie County to know that we will collaborate with them in any way that we can to get it done as quickly as possible,” councilwoman Shirley Cagle said.

Rethmeier said later in the meeting that the county has acquired 200,000 gallons of additional capacity and seemed to be willing to work with the town on relaxing the current restriction to that allocation.

“The importance of that is it really fits nicely with what we’re hearing from developers and people we’re working with,” Rethmeier said. “In order for retail to come out to Bermuda Run, we need more rooftops. Having added capacity gives us an opportunity to hopefully bring in more multi-family housing, higher density housing and more rooftops, creating critical mass more attractive to the retail environment.”

He added that a number of great ideas were presented in a recent overall planning meeting for the upcoming year.

Rollins said that with some of the discussion from that session, he has already started working on the upcoming budget.

“As result of planning session, I’ve already beginning the budget process for 2014-15 based on your input,” Rollins said. “You’ll get a draft from me at the March agenda meeting with official submittal for April and a request to hold a public hearing in May.”

The town also had a special recognition to remember Jack Tutterow, who was a gate attendant for 22 years. His family was on hand to receive a certificate of appreciation for his years of service. A plaque will be affixed to the N.C. 801 gate house in memory of Tutterow, who passed away in 2011.

“He was a people person,” Rethmeier said. “It was always a pleasure to see his smiling face when you came through the gate. He always had a kind word when you stopped and spoke with him. I know many people miss seeing him.”

Rethmeier said that he also wanted to publicly thank Cecil Wood, the interim county manager for Davie County, for meeting recently with Rollins and planner Erin Burress to go over requirements for the replacement of the EMS station at current location.

He added that he recently sent letter to Robert Wisecarver, chairman of the Davie County commissioners, further emphasizing the town’s support of the county expediting the relocation of the EMS station back to Bermuda Run.