08/28/2026
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Residents and water customers absolutely have the right to question the Borough’s plans and express opposition. What they should also have is accurate information.
The latest material circulating about the Mount Penn Borough Municipal Authority contains speculation and conclusions presented as though they are established facts.
The claim that a 50-year lease would “bankrupt the water system” and force it to be sold is not an established fact. No financial analysis is cited demonstrating that result. A lease term does not, by itself, determine whether a water system is financially sustainable. Rates, operating expenses, capital needs, reserves, debt and the actual lease payment all matter.
The Borough’s own financial analysis is based on maintaining the financial health of the water system while providing a reasonable return to the Borough as owner. The Borough’s stated goal is to maintain below-market water rates while ensuring sufficient reserves and capital investment.
The Borough is not proposing to sell the water system to Pennsylvania American Water. Suggesting that the Borough’s plan inevitably ends in a private sale is speculation—not the Borough’s stated plan.
The Borough’s current direction is to pursue conveyance of the water system, dissolution of the existing Authority, creation of a new public authority, and a leaseback of the publicly owned system to that new authority. The water system would remain a public asset.
The suggestion that Mount Penn suddenly decided to use the water system because it simply wants money also ignores years of financial planning. Mount Penn participated in the Commonwealth’s Strategic Management Planning process and has been pursuing recommendations intended to address the Borough’s long-term financial sustainability. Council has an obligation to look for sustainable alternatives rather than continually placing additional burdens on Mount Penn taxpayers.
The Borough has also been transparent about why additional revenue is being considered. Its five-year forecast shows expenditures growing faster than existing revenues, and the Borough’s position is that repeatedly increasing taxes addresses the symptom rather than the underlying structural problem.
There is also nothing improper about Mount Penn receiving reasonable compensation for the use of a public asset it owns. Under the contemplated structure, customers would continue paying water rates for water service. Those revenues support the complete cost of operating and maintaining the system, which can include reasonable compensation to the public owner for use of that system.
The Borough also recognizes that customers in Lower Alsace, St. Lawrence and Exeter have legitimate concerns. They are customers of the water system and deserve reliable service and reasonable rates. But being a customer of a Mount Penn-created water authority is not the same thing as being a Mount Penn taxpayer. Mount Penn Borough Council has a legal responsibility to the residents and taxpayers who elected it while also protecting the interests of the water system and its customers.
Calling this a “farce,” a “hostile takeover,” or claiming that the Borough “could destroy” the water system does not establish any of those things as facts.
There can be legitimate disagreement over whether the Borough’s plan is the best policy. There can be legitimate questions about lease payments, rates, governance and the future structure of the system. Those questions should be asked.
But predictions that the system will be bankrupted, will have to be sold, or is being deliberately destroyed should not be presented to residents as established facts without evidence supporting them.
Mount Penn Borough Council has spent years examining the Borough’s financial future. The objective is not to destroy the water system. The objective is to preserve public ownership of the water system, maintain reliable and affordable water service, and put Mount Penn Borough itself on a sustainable long-term financial path without simply taxing its residents more and more every year.
Residents and water customers should attend the September 2 public hearing concerning the proposed dissolution of the existing Mount Penn Borough Municipal Authority. This is the hearing being held before Council considers dissolution; it is not simply a question-and-answer meeting. The public should have the opportunity to be heard, and that discussion should be based on accurate information about what the Borough is proposing and what has actually occurred throughout this process.
