Frankford council accepts Artesian’s purchase proposal

FRANKFORD, Del. – After several weeks of debates, town officials in Frankford have decided to sell their decades-old water plant to the Artesian Water Plant Company.

“We could see that we weren’t heading in a positive direction and the opportunity that Artesian brought to us, it seemed like a good deal and I’m sure it will be,” said Greg Welch, the council vice president.

Artesian is buying the town’s water plant for 3.6 million dollars and they already have plans to update the town’s water meters and pipes.

Town officials say they spent years struggling to keep up with operational costs for this plant causing them to spend thousands of dollars on a dysfunctional system.

“It seems to be on all sides of our town in different places,” said Welch.

“I’ve got good water, but we still have bad episodes every now and then,” said Welch.

“One is the odor that it has and the other of course what it does to your clothes or anything else and hair,” said Bettygrace Eskridge, owner of Bailey’s Seafood.

“So, it has been an issue for many, many years,” said Eskridge.

Some residents say they have had discolored water coming out of their faucets and one local business owner tells us she had to hire a company to filter her business’ water.

“That can be a pain at times because they have to come once a month, they have to take tanks down and put new tanks in,” said Eskridge.

To keep up with operational costs town officials say they had to increase water rates, but thanks to this new deal those rates will drop, which is a step in the right direction for residents.

“We have had to jack our rates to compensate for the loss of production and for the capital improvements that we need to make,” said Welch.

“Their rate structure will be considerably less than what we are charging now,” said Welch.

According to Welch, it will take about a year for the town to connect to the Artesian’s Water Company new water treatment facility, which is currently under construction.

As a result of the town’s approval, Welch says they are considering hiring a second officer for their police department as well as hiring a town manager.