The Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors and Farmville's Town Council will get together at lunch Monday for one of their communication-building joint meetings that have no specific agenda.

There may be no printed agenda but there will certainly be a 5,000-pound gorilla in the room on Monday and everybody ought to give it a banana, rather than pretend it isn't there.

Prince Edward County has just received its price estimate on a proposed County water system, with total costs topping $25 million. The price will remain in place through May. So the Board of Supervisors hasn't very long to make a huge decision. And there may not be another joint Board of Supervisors-Town Council meeting between Monday and when the County's decision is made.

So Monday may be the last best opportunity for County and Town officials to sit down together and talk about making a really wise decision for the people of Farmville and Prince Edward-a decision to build a pipeline from the Sandy River Reservoir to the Town of Farmville, instead.

Undoubtedly this has occurred to members of Town Council and the Board of Supervisors. They probably have some good suggestions for ways in which the Town and County can jointly, cooperatively-and for significantly less than the $25 million-plus cost of Prince Edward County building its own water system-get the reservoir water to Farmville, which already has a first class water system.

One idea that's already been suggested publicly (see today's front page) is piping the water-after some basic pre-treatment-to Wilck's Lake for subsequent pumping to the Town's water treatment plant via an interceptor line the Town already plans to locate on Buffalo Creek, downstream from Wilck's Lake just beyond the West Third Street bridge. Mixing the reservoir water in Wilck's Lake would also be quite helpful in the Town's treatment process. The state health department has already told the Town it should mix the reservoir water with Appomattox River water were the Town to use water from the Sandy River Reservoir.

So, no, there is no set agenda Monday. But that's a very good thing. The lack of an agenda frees up the Town and County to informally and good-naturedly talk about the biggest issue of all-securing the Sandy River Reservoir's water for this community and in the most cost-effective fashion. If things go well Monday, begin talking formally.

The Town has the water treatment plant-an award-winning plant-the experience and the expertise of operating a water system. We do not need to reinvent that wheel, or pay for a second one. Getting Farmville's plant access to the Sandy River Reservoir's water will provide all the water the Town and County will ever need. Mixing the reservoir's water with that in Wilck's Lake and the Appomattox River will meet the water needs of any and all future development for Prince Edward and Farmville.

And, yes, time does matter. The County's Sandy River Reservoir withdrawal permit is going to expire in the not-too-distant-future and you can bet if this community has not claimed the reservoir's water the state will listen to any and all downstream communities. Chesterfield, perhaps, might be a good speculative guess as a potentially interested party.

Monday's joint meeting may well be the bottom of the ninth inning as far as the Town of Farmville and Prince Edward County working together to accomplish the goal of securing an absolute drought-proof water source and in the most common sense, effective and affordable way. Sharing the costs and sharing the rewards.

I believe every member of the Board of Supervisors and Town Council, along with Town Manager Gerald Spates and County Administrator Wade Bartlett, are fully capable of seizing this moment in their own wise and unique way and making it a gift to the future generations of residents who will call this place home.

If they do, the history of this community will forever recall and honor their names for having had the wisdom, creativity, and courage to make that future possible for Farmville and Prince Edward County by securing enough water for every conceivable future need in the town and in the county.

So there is no agenda on Monday, but yes, there really and truly is.

The most important agenda item imaginable.

This is your moment, ladies and gentleman, and the future of this community is on the line and watching to record your decision, and that future's fate.

-JKW-