Some news from Aqua Pa. concerning Chester Water
I get asked all the time if I have time for a quick conversation.
That’s my problem.
I really don’t have any time. This 24-hour news cycle means business. And it is exhausting.
But I have to give credit to the good folks from Aqua Pennsylvania. They are a persistent bunch.
Last week I finally had a chance to sit down with chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chris Franklin and his Director of Marketing and Communications Stacey Hadjak.
I kind of knew why they were here. Their PR folks had been after me for weeks in attempts to set up a sit-down opportunity. Even after I offered my standard pitch for them to pen a guest column for our op-ed page, they made it clear that while they appreciated my offer, they still wanted a sitdown, face-to-face with me.
In this line of work, that can mean only one thing.
They wanted to register a complaint.
Everybody does. Actually, they could not have been more gracious. It took awhile, but they did have a message they wanted to deliver. And it is good news if you happen to be a big fan of the Chester Water Authority.
You might remember back in 2017 Aqua made some waves when they made a $320 million offer to buy the company.
It did not sit well with workers and customers of Chester Water Authority, who flooded a CWA board meeting urging their bosses to reject the offer.
They had a couple of specific concerns. Customers were worried that their rates would skyrocket, and employees feared job cuts.
Aqua officials indicate that one of the reasons the offer came as a surprise was because they had tried - and failed - to get a sitdown with the Chester Water Authority board. So they sent the letter with their offer. It didn’t take it long for it to hit the press. The backlash was quick, and fierce.
Keep in mind that this is not just another local water company. Chester Water is something of a local icon.
And I happen to have my own interest in this story.
That’s because I have a special connection with the CWA, which provides sparkling water for the city of Chester, as well as a slew of other municipalities in both Delaware and Chester counties.
So what’s my connection?
It’s a story I have told hundreds of times in my tenure here at the Daily Times. Every time I meet someone who gets their water from Chester Water Authority, I always ask them if they know where that lovely liquid actually comes from when they turn on their taps.
They usually seem a bit befuddled. I’m not surprised. I inform them that their water does not comes from Chester, or in fact from anywhere in Delaware County.
It comes from the Octoraro Reservoir, right outside the little town of Oxford where I grew up in southern Chester County. It actually forms part of the border of Chester and Lancaster counties. One end of the bridge is Chesco, the other side is Amish country.
The water from the Octoraro is piped all the way here to Delaware County, basically following a path alongside Baltimore Pike.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been chased out of that reservoir for doing things I should not have been doing as a kid. Pay no attention to those stories you might have heard about kids drag-racing across that bridge. Remember, I’m old. That was long before the internet. There is no video evidence. I have total deniability.
Chris Franklin could not have been nicer. But I knew eventually he had something he wanted to get off his chest.
At first the Aqua boss talked about how the offer for Chester Water came about and his company’s mission. It was a pretty effective pitch. When customers screamed about the potential takeover and their fear of rate hikes, Aqua actually countered with a pledge not to raise rates for 10 years. They also guaranteed all those CWA jobs.
All of this has a lot to do with the city of Chester and its seemingly perpetual fiscal problems.
The city is under a mandate to emerge from Act 47 distressed status, where they have resided for more than a decade.
The revenue from the possible sale of the water company was seen - in particular by the consulting firm hired by the state to oversee the city’s finances - as a possible way out.
When the Chester Water board rejected Aqua’s offer, the city talked about their legal right to sell. It sounded like all this was headed to court.
Then there was the suggestion that the company could be split, allowing the city to sell off their share, while the other municipalities could continue as usual.
The latest we’ve heard from the city is that the plan now is to use other revenue to get out of Act 47. They now believe they can do that without the sale or breaking up Chester Water.
I have my doubts. Interestingly enough, Econsult, the state overseer in charge of the Chester books, has not had all that much to say on the topic.
In the meantime, Franklin was here to deliver a message. Two of them, actually. First, he wondered why Aqua continued to get something of a black eye in our coverage of Chester Water. He pointed out the offer was made back in 2017. Then he delivered some news. Aqua, at least for right now, is no longer interested in purchasing Chester Water Authority. They’ve moved on. In fact, just in the past few weeks they’ve bought Peoples, a natural gas company near Pittsburgh.
They also recently filed for a rate hike, I reminded him, which prompted a very good explanation, detailing the dire need to update infrastructure in the state.
Aqua remain the colossus of Pa. water companies.
But last week I was able to put a face on that corporate front.
Chris Franklin is good at his job.
He delivered his message. What does the future hold for Chester Water Authority? I don’t know.
I just know that it - and the Octoraro Reservoir - will always hold a special place in my heart.