News 12 @ 6 o'clock -- November 9, 2009

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. -- It's the letter Brian Joiner says he's been dreading for months. The notice telling him his July water bill from Avondale Mills is now due.

"It was $300 for the first big bill we received. It about blew us out the water. It pretty much shocked a lot of people, water all of a sudden jumped up," said Brian Joiner who lives in Graniteville.

Back in August, Aiken County Circuit Judge Jack Early granted a temporary restraining order stopping Avondale Mills from collecting the money due on the July water bills saying the company didn't give it's customers prior notice to the rate increase.
The increase caused some bills to go up as much as 700 percent. But the South Carolina Supreme Court says they found the Circuit Court did not have the jurisdiction to issue the injunction and therefore have to vacate the order on appeal. In other words, the water bills have to be paid.

"I guess we're going to have to accept it, there's really nothing we can do as far as moving it in a different direction," said Joiner.

Brian says now that the injunction has been lifted, the next step for him and his family is tapping into their own reserve so they can pay their water bill. "It's going to hurt a lot of people around here because a lot of people on fixed incomes just like us. A lot of other people have a certain amount of money coming in every month and it's going to be hard but you have to do what you have to do," said Joiner.

And now that the balance is due and the bills have to be paid, Brian says there's nothing left that he and his neighbors can do.

"I'm pretty upset about it. A lot of other people as well, but what do you do?" asked Joiner.

The bills are due November 30th. The Valley Public Service Authority (VPSA) signed an intent to purchase the water system from Avondale Mills. They'll have a special meeting Tuesday night at 5 p.m. about the 10 million dollars in federal funding needed to repair the water system. If they can't get the funding, they plan to return to service to Avondale Mills.