Wendell commissioners retreated from the first hot potato of the new board's term.
At issue was a request by Central Baptist Church to hook onto a water line that has been extended to the edge of its property.
Raleigh, however, requires that such water lines must reach further than that. In fact, they must go to the farthest point on the property. The idea is you leave the water line at the next guy's doorstep so he can develop his property when the time comes.
But in Central Baptist's case, they've extended their finances about as far as they can and the added cost of extending the line - more than $100,000, is more than they can manage.
Complicating matters is the fact that the church embarked on this development project before Wendell gave its water and sewer system away to Raleigh. City leaders asked the Wendell town board to explain how it would have ruled if the request had come before Raleigh took over the system.
But town commissioners punted. They went behind closed doors to talk about their options and then agreed to repeat to Raleigh what the town's policy was at the time with no indication how they would have dealt with this particular matter.
And because they spent some 25 minutes or so behind closed doors, the public doesn't know what options they considered.
And Central Baptist Church has a nice new building with no water and no relief in sight.
