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Altoona, PA may sell
water system
The mere proposal to sell the
city's water and sewer systems could be Altoona's ticket to
financial relief, a former city mayor hopes.
Actually, selling the systems could
mean a billion-dollar payday that in trust could earn $50 million
per year - long-term security for the city but higher rates
without government windfall for residents of outlying
municipalities, Allan Hancock told the city's privatization task
force Thursday.
Agreeing not to sell, however,
could give Altoona leverage to nudge those municipalities toward
the kind of deep cooperation the city needs to shrink its service
responsibilities, such as fire, police, code enforcement and
street maintenance, Hancock and task force members agreed.
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