Published: November 11, 2009 03:01 pm      

Marshall speaks about East Parker County alliance

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of stories showing the various sides of the Deer Creek and Dyegard water system issues in East Parker County. This story only reflects the views of Aledo Mayor Kit Marshall. Previous stories have included the views of the mayors from Willow Park and Hudson Oaks. The Democrat is still waiting to hear from the mayor of Annetta.

Crystal Brown

cbrown@weatherforddemocrat.com

Showing the strength of their coalition, Aledo Mayor Kit Marshall reiterated many of the same comments regarding the Deer Creek water system expressed by Hudson Oaks Mayor Pat Deen.

“It’s called a coalition of cities for a reason,” Marshall said of the network between Aledo, the Annettas and Hudson Oaks. “We are a team. We all recognize right and wrong here. It’s about protecting the rights of residents because it’s the right thing to do. They are not our residents, but we are moving toward a regional perspective. For years it was every city to himself, but we began moving out of that a couple of years ago.”

She said taking on the Deer Creek issue and providing a voice for those residents is what really launched the East Parker County cities into embracing the regional idea.

“If you work together as a team you can accomplish great things,” she said. “The cities are not as big as Weatherford or Fort Worth, but together East Parker County is the new population center for Parker County. It only makes sense to work together on regional issues. The sad thing is while we would like to work with Willow Park, we can’t do that as long as this lawsuit is unresolved.”

Marshall was a member of the Aledo city council in 2005 when the issues with Deer Creek began to pop up. When Deer Creek put in a request to expand their control area from 600 acres to some 6,000 acres in East Parker County to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Aledo stepped in on the issue and sent a letter to Austin in protest

Marshall also said Doyle Handley never formally offered the Deer Creek water system to Aledo.

“There was casual conversation between he and [then] mayor Sue [Langley] at a social event, Marshall said. “That was the extent of ‘an offer.’ He never made a presentation to the council and never made an official offer in writing.”

She added, Aledo would not have purchased the system if he had.

“Aledo doesn’t believe that one city should own a water system in another city,” Marshall said. “The residents utilizing the services of that water system have no say in the water rates or anything else that might affect them by that elected body. It is clear that Deer Creek residents have absolutely no say. They can’t vote for who sits on the city council in Willow Park and have no say on the water rates. There is no say in the governance affecting them. That’s wrong. That’s very wrong.”

When Marshall took over the mayor’s seat in 2006, the topic went for mediation in Austin and she said the cities thought the issue had been resolved. Willow Park Mayor Kenneth Hawkins said the agreement in Austin was for the Parker County Utility District or the coalition of cities to purchase Deer Creek for a certain cash price by a certain day. The mayor of Hudson Oaks said the agreement was simply to meet by a certain date. A jury trial was held last year which found both sides in breech of the contract.

“We are here today because of decisions that Willow Park has made,” Marshall said. “Hopefully, Friday there will be a resolution that is equitable and right so we can actually all begin working together on those regional issues that impact all of us.”

But she said there have been multiple road blocks to resolving this issue, mainly Willow Park not producing documents. She hopes that an agreement is reached tomorrow that takes Willow Park out of the picture for the residents of Deer Creek. And while Dyegard is not part of the mediation, she said it would be great to resolve issues there as well.

“It’s basically the same situation,” Marshall said. “It just all needs to be resolved in a way that gives the residents a voice in that which impacts their pocket book.”

She wouldn’t discuss her thoughts on the sale of Deer Creek to the Parker County Utility District or further details about the mediation.

“I’m limited with what I can tell you,” she said. “Not because I don’t want to share, but we don’t need to mediated this in the newspaper.”

In response to Hawkins statements in the Sunday edition of the Democrat, Marshall disagreed with his comment about lawyers dragging out the dispute and his concern over the use of tax payer money to fight a battle for residents outside their city limits.

“I find that interesting since they own a water system in an area they don’t have jurisdiction over,” Marshall said. “This has all been a council-mayor decision. The mayors and the councils have made the decision to pursue this until a resolution is on the table. Frankly, our attorneys don’t run our cities. What has dragged it on so long? I would lay that at the feet of Willow Park.”