Doylestown Settles Lawsuit with BCWSA

Doylestown has settled a lawsuit with the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority.

Borough Council voted unanimously Monday night to accept an agreement with the county authority. The decision ends a cycle of litigation between the two entities that had lingered for years.

"This is a decision that they're happy, that we're happy with," council president Det Ansinn said after the vote.

The authority's board already had approved the settlement agreement, borough manager John Davis said. That means that the terms of the agreement can move ahead quickly.

As a result of the settlement, borough residents will receive two separate bills, a water bill from the borough and a sewer bill from the county authority.

The lawsuit, which dates to 2009, hinged on billing disputes between the two entities.

Borough customers received only one bill for both water services provided by the borough and sewer services provided by the authority. The borough issued the bills and collected the payments.

The authority questioned the accuracy of the borough's billing and filed a lawsuit; the borough disputed the authority's allegations.

As part of the settlement signed Monday, the authority and the borough will share the cost to install a state-of-the-art water meter system in Doylestown. The new meters will be outfitted with radio transmitters so the meters can be monitored electronically, rather than paying a person to come read the meter.

Doylestown expects to pay $550,000 toward its share of the cost of the new system.

The borough will continue to issue sewer bills and collect the payments from borough customers until the new system is up and running.

Once the agreement was signed by both parties, the authority said it would discontinue its lawsuit against the borough.

"Generally, this takes everything off the table," Davis said.