Somerset county officials have taken out a loan of $177-thousand in an effort to keep local residents from having to face a 50 percent increase in their sewer bills.
Those fees were set to rise from $564 to $832 a year.
But the Salisbury Daily Times reports that there was an outcry by local residents at the potential hike so for now the county decided to take out the loan.
The county will not have to pay the loan for up to three years nor will it face any interest on the financial obligation.
Randy Laird, president of the Somerset County Commissioners, told the paper that the county has only “kicked the can down the road for another year.”
The cause of the hike is the failure of a tomato packing business with a migrant labor camp owing the sanitation district just over $200-thousand.