Appeals panel upholds Charlestown water utility sale

A southern Indiana community’s sale of its water utility was affirmed Monday after a challenge by a nonprofit group opposed to the deal.

The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s approval of a transaction in which the City of Charlestown sold its water utility to Greenwood-based Indiana-American Water Company, Inc.

Charlestown’s appraisers valued the water utility’s property at about $13.5 million, and Indiana-American agreed to pay about $13.4 million — the appraised price minus the value of wells and pumps the city would retain and lease to Indiana-American.

The Charlestown City Council approved the deal after requisite hearings on July 6, 2017, but a nonprofit group opposed to the sale, NOW!, Inc., sued to block the transaction. NOW also opposed the deal before the IURC, and the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Council also asked the IURC to reject the sale.  IURC approved the transaction after hearings and rejected NOW’s motion for summary judgment, resulting in the instant case, NOW!, Inc. v. Indiana-American Water Company, Inc., and the City of Charlestown, Indiana, and Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, 18A-EX-844.

Senior Judge John Sharpnack wrote for the COA panel that affirmed the IURC’s ruling in a 27-page opinion. The panel concluded that the sale price was reasonable; that appraisal information had been made available to the public; and that Charlestown’s public hearings on the proposed sale were timely.

“NOW argues Charlestown’s citizens were harmed by the recertification (of the utility appraisal) because the appraisal was ‘stale’ by six months when Charlestown held its public hearing,” Sharpnack wrote. “We have already determined the IURC properly ruled that the calculations in the appraisal are not to be second-guessed, because the purchase price was reasonable by statute. Thus, alleged staleness does not change the result. We find no reversible error.”