ADAMS TWP — Frustration boiled over on Monday night regarding the ongoing issue of a monthly $35 debt service fee being charged to residents along a waterline extension.

“I resign as board chairman right now,” shouted supervisors chairman Donald Aiken. “Someone else is going to have to run the meeting.”

Township solicitor Mike Gallagher suggested the board recess for five minutes. When the board returned, Gallagher reminded the board of Aiken’s motion to resign and asked for a second.

With none forthcoming, the motion — and Aiken’s resignation as chairman — died.

The eruption was the result of complaints about the fee from a group of residents from Cloverdale Drive, who told supervisors the Water Authority of Adams Township board recommended they come to supervisors to voice their opposition to the fee.

“This is awful, just terrible,” Aiken said of the fee issue. “It’s the worst in my 40-some years on the board.”

Residents of Sturbridge Lane in August came to supervisors because of failing or dry wells. The residents asked supervisors to intervene on their behalf to have the water authority extend a nearby water line to the neighborhood.

Supervisors and the authority board met to discuss the issue in September, and it was decided that the $400,000 extension project line would begin immediately. But the authority in May decided to continue the line into Callery at a cost of approximately $1 million.

The authority then added the fee to help pay for the project, as all other line extensions have been paid by developers who wanted public water for their residential or commercial plans.

The residents on the extension have attended several authority and supervisors meetings to complain about the fee. If 70 of the 72 homes on the extension would tap into the line, the fee would be eliminated because the taps would pay for the project.

But Sturbridge residents feel they are being singled out as the only authority customers who will be charged the fee, which would be in place during the 15-year term of the construction loan.

They suggested the authority charge all 3,000 water customers a nominal fee to spread the cost of the extension among all customers.

While supervisor Russ Ford, who was absent from Monday night’s meeting, has taken the authority to task for adding the fee, Aiken has remained largely silent.

But Monday night the longtime public servant had had enough, and reminded the residents that the supervisors cannot make decisions for the authority.

Aiken also said the project was put on a fast track because of the desperate situation on Sturbridge Lane, and now residents are complaining about the fee.

“If you need water that bad, I would think $35 a month would be cheap,” Aiken said.

He chastised the authority for sending residents to supervisors regarding the issue, but authority board member Larry Kaufman, who attended Monday night’s meeting, said the authority is waiting for the supervisors’ recommendation on whether to charge the extension customers the fee or spread it out over the entire customer base.

Aiken said the supervisors will hear complaints no matter which option they recommend.

“We are the ones who will look like the bad guys, but we have no say so whatever (regarding the authority’s ultimate decision,)” Aiken said.

The board later unanimously approved a motion to send a letter to the authority board requesting that they cease sending residents to the supervisors meetings to complain about the fee.

Supervisors vice chairman, Tom Franceschina, told the residents that supervisors could recommend that tapping into the extension be mandatory, which would eliminate the fee.

It was revealed on Monday that Ford sent the authority a registered letter last week that included 16 questions about the fee. Kaufman said the authority is working on the questions, which Ford requested be answered at the July 23 supervisors meeting.

The residents along the extension would pay the $35 fee in addition to the $15 base water rate, their water usage, and a $2,650 tap-in fee.