County Attorney Ron Aycock reported during the regular February session of the Person Board of County Commissioners Monday night on the recent meeting among managers and attorneys for the Town of Yanceyville, Caswell County, the City of Roxboro and Person County toward bringing Caswell County into the fold with the agreement that the other three entities had crafted much earlier. Until recently, however, Caswell County commissioners had steadfastly opposed the joint plan for tapping the Dan River as a future supply of water to serve their respective needs. The Jan. 28 managers/attorneys meeting was directed after elected officials from each of the four local governments met in Yanceyville to renew discussion about the regional pact. Caswell officials signaled at that session that their opposition heretofore has since softened, but that they wanted more precise details about Caswell’s role in the agreement.

Aycock told Person commissioners Monday night that during the Jan. 28 meeting, the managers and attorneys worked through the language of the contract agreement. He said the offshoot of the session was that the Caswell County manager and attorney are now ready to recommend that Caswell commissioners approve participation in the Dan River agreement.

Aycock noted, however, that it was agreed that Yanceyville and Caswell also would have a “side agreement as to the allocation of responsibilities between those two jurisdictions.”

Depending on how that works out, he indicated, Roxboro and Person would have either a relationship with Yanceyville or a shared relationship with Caswell and Yanceyville together.

Noting that he was not Person County’s attorney and therefore not party to the series of negotiations that date back nearly eight years, Aycock said, however, that he was “very encouraged that there has been a change in attitude” on the part of the Caswell commissioners toward the Dan River pact, and he opined that “we are likely to get an agreement.”

County Manager Steve Carpenter observed that the Jan. 28 meeting did not produce significant changes in the contract pertaining to Person County but that it was agreed that Caswell and Yanceyville officials should discuss the matter further before taking the next step.

Despite Caswell’s earlier opposition and unsuccessful legal effort to block the regional agreement, the other three governments consistently have said they preferred to have Caswell on board.

Even without Caswell, however, the other three were positioned and agreeable to moving forward with efforts to gain the state permits necessary to draw water from the Dan, even though there are no immediate plans to build the infrastructure that would be required to begin taking and distributing water from the river.

The original regional arrangement, however, projected construction of an intake structure on the Dan at Milton in Caswell County.