Carrollton cuts ties with Upper Trinity

Carrollton Leader
By Crystal Forester, Staff Writer
03/14/2006

The City of Carrollton has terminated its involvement with the Upper Trinity Regional Water District because of the city's lack of use with the district.

Carrollton has been a member of the regional water district since 1991 but hasn't used any services from the organization in years. The city currently purchases its water from Dallas Water Utilities.

" We don't have any services with them and we are paying money into Upper Trinity, it didn't make sense," said Carrollton Mayor Becky Miller.

The city was paying about $10,000 a year in membership dues but does not receive water or any other services from the district. Since the city doesn't receive services it was not indebted to Upper Trinity in any way, said City Manager Leonard Martin.

Carrollton originally joined Upper Trinity because of possible needs, Martin said. At the time there was talk of landfills filling up and composting of solid waste being handed by the state legislature.

"As time passed there was sufficient landfill space and the compost project was conducted and ended but we were still financially tied to the district," Martin said.

City officials also didn't want to be put into the position of making decisions that would obligate other cities.

"We didn't view it as appropriate role for us to determine the future of other cities," Martin said.

Carrollton Environmental Services Director Tony Romo was serving as the chairman of the organization when Carrollton decided to withdraw from the water district.

"We take no services but we have board people sitting there making decisions for other cities," Miller said. "It was just crazy to pay money to Upper Trinity."

Martin said Carrollton's involvement in the water district would be like the city council voting to raise or cut taxes in DeSoto where it wouldn't affect anyone in Carrollton at all.

"It wasn't appropriate for us to be in the organization anymore," Martin said.

In the future if Carrollton needs to go back and get water from Upper Trinity Miller says they should have no problems.

"They said we are always welcome to come back," she said. "I'm sure they would be willing to let us back in if we saw we needed to."