A land swap between Burlington and West Burlington is in jeopardy because of what West Burlington City Manager Dan Gifford calls a lack of cooperation from Burlington Water Works in installing water meters on the annexed property.
A developer is looking to purchase around 2.5 acres of land near the Great River Medical Center in West Burlington, right next to a section of land, the Westbrook Estates subdivision, that belongs to Burlington. The developer asked for the land swap, and to encourage it, offered to move a West Burlington Sewer Main from a hard-to-access area to a better location.
“We get a lot of infiltration on this line. Where it sits right now, we have very little access to it,” said West Burlington Public Works Director Randy Fry “It’s going to be relocated to where we can get to the manholes…and it’s going to be [PVC pipe] instead of old clay tile.”
However, Burlington Water Works says that they will not install water meters on the new properties annexed by West Burlington in order for West Burlington to determine exactly how much to charge Burlington Water Works for Sewer Service. That could kill the deal entirely.
Burlington will recieve an similar amount of land from West Burlington as part of the deal.
