The Laurinburg City Council this week unanimously approved transferring $25,000 from Water/Sewer Fund to pay for a study of the WestPoint Stevens water and sewer plants.

City Manager Ed Burchins said that Moore County plans to pay the other $25,000 needed for the study.

Councilman Curtis Leak took exception to Moore County stepping up when he said Scotland County should pay the bill.

“Let [Moore County] pay our $25,000?” Leak said. “We are doing this study for [Scotland] County.”

Burchins explained that Laurinburg would be taking the lead with the WestPoint Stevens facility, including designing the renovations and selling the water.

This did not sway the District 1 councilman.

"The city of Laurinburg controls the water in Scotland County,” Leak said. “We don’t pay them, they pay us."

In other business, Council members unanimously approved making changes to its billing-adjustment policy to allow customers and city to go back as far as three years in the case of a billing error.

The change allows customers to go back three years to fix issues such as over billing, but also allows the city to look back three years for problems such as under payment.