Three months before he was to rotate off the Vinemont-Anon-West Point Water System’s Board of Directors, member Zane Hill unexpectedly resigned this week, effective immediately.

Hill, who represents Vinemont, district 1 on the board, turned in his resignation Tuesday, during the entity’s regular meeting. He was replaced on the board by local accountant Scotty Segrove.

Segrove, who has worked as a certified public accountant for more than 20 years, also serves as vice chairman for the Cullman County Industrial Development Board.

He said Thursday he plans to run for re-election on the VAW board at the system’s annual membership meeting in the spring.

Earlier this week, Hill endorsed Segrove as his replacement. He said by resigning early, he hoped to give the new board member a chance to gain some experience before the annual meeting.

“There wasn’t but three months left on my term, and I wanted to step aside and give someone else a chance to serve,” Hill said Wednesday.

Hill has served on the VAW water board continuously for the past six years.

Looking back over his tenure, he said he is proud to have assisted in many of the improvements instated during that time, including upgrades to more than 30,000 feet of water line to provide better fire protection for residents.

He also said he is proud to have helped the system pay off two loans and refinance another, saving more than $1 million. Other accomplishments listed by Hill included designing and instituting a new rate structure that he said is more fair to all the system’s members and establishing a secondary water source to purchase water from the East Lawrence-West Morgan Water Authority.

“I’m proud of my work on the board,” he said. “We’ve provided service to people who were getting their drinking water from ponds before.”

A topic of debate, the water board instituted its new rate structure in the summer of 2005. Since its introduction, the rate change has been criticized by at least 12 water-system members.

After months of heated debate, the 12 individuals — who call themselves the Concerned Citizens of VAW — started a petition, ultimately seeking to remove all five board members. They eventually gathered more than 900 signatures on that petition.

When the board declined to recognize the petition, the CCVAW filed a lawsuit against the entity earlier this year. That case was tried in a Blount County circuit court this November.

According to the judge’s ruling, four of the current board members could be subject to removal from office during the board’s next annual membership meeting March 19.

During that meeting, trustees Calvin Whittle and Segrove will be up for re-election. In addition, the membership will also consider removing board members James Graves, chairman, and Cleo Patterson.

If Graves and Patterson are removed, their seats will be left vacant until the next annual meeting in 2008.

Trustee Keith Williams, who was elected as the CCVAW-backed candidate at this year’s annual meeting, will not be subject to removal by the voting body.

Hill, who would have fulfilled his two-term limit by the time of the annual meeting, was not eligible for re-election.

Now retired, Hill said he plans to take some time to travel, including a trip to Australia in the spring.