WENDELL - The Wendell Board of Commissioners is holding off on deciding how to catch up on water and sewer bills it owes the city of Raleigh.

Commissioner Carol Hinnant said the board needed answers to a number of questions, including how much water Wendell needs.

At issue is how to cover a revenue shortfall. The drought of 2007 and slower-than-expected growth in Wendell have cut consumption by 25 percent.

Another factor is that Raleigh's water rates have increased because of the drought and Wendell's have, until a rate hike approved June 22, remained the same. The difference between Wendell and Raleigh rates is part of the funding source to pay the merger buy-in schedule.

"We bought a pig in a poke," said Commissioner Sid Baynes, calling the merger agreement a "bait and switch" deal. He said Wendell was being held responsible for conditions that changed and could not be anticipated at the time of merger negotiations.

Town Manager David Bone told commissioners Monday that Raleigh will consider extending up to eight years on the original 12-year terms of the merger buy out if Wendell specifies the amount of time for the extension, agrees to an amended capital improvement plan and renegotiates its water and sewer capacity from Raleigh.

Bone presented an option for commissioners to trim $5.3 million of the $20 million in capital improvements projects to the water and sewer system, projects Raleigh was to have completed for the town under the conditions of the merger.

City of Raleigh Public Utilities Assistant Director Kenny Waldroup told commissioners Wendell could buy more water from Raleigh in the future if the Raleigh city council agreed, but at rates double the existing ones.

Commissioners were given a list of five sewer projects to be deleted from the plan including the U.S. 64 West Bypass Wastewater Service, the Buffalo Creek Basin Sewer Improvements, the Wendell Park Sewer Extension, the Marshburn Road Sewer Improvements, the Lizard Lick Interchange Sewer Service, Old Zebulon Road Sewer Service, and N.C. Highway 97 Gravity Sewer Extension.

The proposal also eliminates the extension of a six-inch water line along the north side of U.S. 64 Business near Three Sisters Road.

Baynes asked why the $3 million cost share for a Wendell Falls pump station and 13,200 feet of a 16-inch force main segment from Lake Myra to Popular Creek along Poole Road along with other sewer improvements in the area were still on the drawing board. He said development in the area may or may not come through and was based on former plans.

Funding for the Wendell Falls subdivision, which was to more than double the size of Wendell, has fallen through due to the economy.