An ROC Facebook member named Sharon A. Curtiss posted a message containing what she said was an email from Worcester County Commissioner Eric Fiori about the fiscal fiasco in the County's sewer and water service areas.

The Fiori email, unfortunately, does not even address the issue currently before the County Commissioners - Should Worcester County force ratepayers in Ocean Pines to pay for many millions in operational losses in sewer service areas within Fiori's district? Instead, he dissembles.

Fiori's email does make crystal clear his goal is to combine the current 11 or so service areas into a single area. He wrote, "Combining the districts overtime will not only create sustainability, but will stabilize rates in the upcoming years and into the future."

Fiori's email provides no facts to support his claim. The email contains only misinformation and speculation.

Fiori writes, "The Ocean Pines wastewater treatment plant was taken over by the county in the early 90s because it was in disrepair and had multiple drainage ditches with raw sewage present. The county spent millions on bringing the plant back up to operating standards."

What actually happened is the County bought the Ocean Pines water and wastewater facility, lock, stock, and barrel, for about the sum of $1.5 million back in the late 1980s. The Ocean Pines Association, contrary to what many believe, never owned the facility. As Boise Cascade set up Ocean Pines, the water and sewer treatment facilities were owned by a private company named Maryland Marine Utilities (MMU).

MMU was quickly underwater financially. Somehow or another it was involved in the Merritt Savings & Loan debacle around 1985. Merritt went under, the FDIC or possibly the State of Maryland stepped in, and, when the dust settled, Chase Bank ended up in control of many assets in the Ocean Pines subdivision, including the water and sewage treatment facilities.

Chase operated those facilities from sometime in 1985 until 1988, according to Ed Moran, the individual Chase hired to sort out what was a major mess. Moran's efforts resulted in Chase Bank advancing funds to replace leaking sewage holding tanks, and other major pump maintenance. A moratorium was imposed prior to Chase ownership on any new connections to the Ocean Pines sewage treatment plant, leaving owners of undeveloped lots in limbo.

Moran finally worked out a deal with Worcester County to purchase the Ocean Pines water and wastewater facilities for $1.5 million. Chase had previously advanced the funds to cover $160,000 for an unpaid bill from an engineering company for plans related to an expansion of the plant's sewage treatment capacity from 500,000 gallons per day to one million per day,  allowing new connections to continue.

Contrary to what Fiori writes, in his continuing efforts to denigrate folks in Ocean Pines, about the County spending "millions" to take over the Ocean Pines facilities, it seems all monies spent by the County were paid in full by Ocean Pines ratepayers via various bonds taken out by the County.

By 1989 the moratorium was lifted and over the next decade there were years when 400 new homes were built in Ocean Pines.

Commissioner Fiori should get his facts straight - the ratepayers of Ocean Pines paid the bills, not Worcester County.

In his email, Fiori then dissembles further, writing, "I’ve been involved with improving the water and sewer system within the county since I was elected. I’ve been at nearly every county meeting that involves waste water and lead the wastewater task force."

One can only wonder if Commissioner Fiori ever attended a meeting of the County's Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee. The committee was created decades ago when Commissioner Sonny Bloxom from Pocomoke was Commissioners president. The committee's sole purpose was to protect the interests of Ocean Pines ratepayers. This happened after a lawsuit was filed over misuse of funds by the Worcester County Sanitary Commission who ran the plant after the initial County purchase. The Sanitary Commission settled out of court and agreed to refund about $1 million to the ratepayers of Ocean Pines. The other main fallout of the lawsuit was the County government took full ownership and operation of the plant, essentially disbanding the Sanitary Commission.

Perhaps there are more to be found, but a rather extensive search of the Worcester County website reveals the last meeting minutes of the County committee to protect the interests of Ocean Pines ratepayers are from 2020.

Then there is this tidbit in Fiori's email regarding the failure of the Glen Riddle sewage treatment plant due to County mismanagement and years of hauling raw sewage from there to the Ocean Pines plant in tanker trucks. Fiori wrote, "This created a revenue stream for the Ocean Pines district over a half million dollars annually." Incredibly, Fiori calls it a "revenue stream" for Ocean Pines and claims its loss and some other unsupported issue will result in an increase of $85 per year in the bills of Oceans Pines ratepayers.

This is pure nonsense. Is Fiori actually suggesting that the Ocean Pines service area has made an operational profit of $500,000 a year by treating raw sewage from Glen Riddle?

Finally, Fiori's email throws out the fear or scare factor to make his case for one centralized water and sewer system.

He writes, "If the Ocean Pines District has a major failure like the aging discharge pipe to the Saint Martin’s River or a large failure involving one of the concrete holding tanks just to name a few things the results could be financially a heavy burden on the 10,000 users of the Ocean Pines sewer district."

Fiori then suggests his plan would mean other service areas would help cover those Ocean Pines costs. Sort of unbelievable in that most other areas cannot cover the cost of their own operations now, and will be unable to do so for years to come, unless their rates are increased dramatically.

Is that likely to happen? Fiori said a few weeks ago he would not vote to raise rates for the ratepayers in his Commissioner district. Why do so, when he and three other County Commissioners are intent on making the ratepayers in election districts represented by Commissioners Bertino and Bunting, the location of the Ocean Pines plant, pay for their losses.

It is difficult to say how all this will play out. In the dispute over the budget of the Worcester school system a couple of years ago, Fiori was initially supportive of budget reductions. Then supporters of giving the school system whatever it requested threatened to boycott his business operations.