COLUMBIANA Officials explain benefits of proposed waterline

The new waterline would increase water volume.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
COLUMBIANA -- With the Dutch Village Inn in operation and development continuing in the area, more water is needed on the city's northeast side.
City Manager Keith Chamberlin said the solution is a new, looping waterline through the area, from state Route 164 and state Route 14 east and south to East Park Avenue. The proposed waterline will give residential and business customers more water volume, he said.
Council gave Chamberlin approval earlier this week to pursue funding the project through a tax increment funding (TIF) program.
Chamberlin estimated the cost of the new waterline at about $600,000.
Tax revenue: Finance Director Mary Louise Dicken said using TIF would mean 75 percent of any additional tax revenue collected from the Dutch Village Inn property and an adjacent vacant property would go toward paying for the waterline.
She said additional tax revenue will be generated because of increased property values based on improvements to the properties.
Dicken said with TIF in place, tax already being collected would still be divided as it is now, with most of the revenue going to the school district.
Dicken said city officials will work closely with school officials in planning the TIF program because with that program in place, the school district's share would be a portion of 25 percent rather than a portion of 100 percent of any new revenue collected from those properties.
She said the selling point for the TIF program is that improved infrastructure in general, and the waterline's providing more water volume in particular, should make the area more attractive for development.
Future development, in turn, would generate more tax revenue for the city and the schools, she said.