Rural water district should be approved

Voters in rural Scott County will get a chance next week to approve the formation of a rural water district and though the issue may be less than glamorous, it will mark a substantial improvement in the water quality and availability for those residents. A positive vote will approve bonds to pay for the project and user fees from those joining the district will then retire those bonds.

Since only those county residents interested in participating will be asked to retire the bonds, there should be no opposition. If a resident is not interested in joining the district, he will not bear any of the cost of the project.

It will take a minimum of 1,000 county residents to justify the cost of the new water district. Thus far, half of that amount has already indicated their support. That should make the remainder of the sign-ups relatively easy.

Reliable and safe water is essential for every household. The cost of this project is a small price to pay for the assurance of that reliability and quality. It will be another year before the project could get under way but the end result will be a major improvement for those living in the rural area of our county.

We urge voters to approve the bond issue next Tuesday.