Last Night's Association Meeting

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting last night.  It was quite a bit of information!  The county's public works director was there to remind us that we are still on water restrictions, because well 3 is still having Arsenic treatment problems. They are ramping up their citation efforts. If there is any good news, it would be they did get well 3 back online Thursday at just under ½ its rated output.  At the meeting we also learned from Eric more about the Budget and the many problems of unexplained expenses, increased operating costs, and unaudited financials.  John also presented some options with Tri-County Bank to pay off your bond debt early and save money.

 

At the meeting we presented 3 options to the association:  Calwater, Create Our Own Water Company, or stay with the County.  The members present were unanimously in favor of pursuing an agreement with Calwater.   Bill from Calwater spoke about his Corporation and how they operate.  He said they are regulated by the PUC and can only set rates, so they can see a profit of approximately 9% above their capital expenditures.  This means 9% above what they spend on our water system infrastructure.  Not, 9% on top of the routine maintenance.  Calwater has the resources and deep pockets to come in and make the capital improvements we need.   Bill from Calwater mentioned when making capital improvements they are generally less expensive than cost of a county project.  Bill states, when their is a problem, they fix it.  Its cheaper for them to fix it, then to have complaints and fines from the PUC.  Plus they have their reputation to protect, they do not want to devalue their stock.

Members spoke about their dissatisfaction with our current conditions, dead yards, devalued and ugly streets, their kids cant play outside because its full of stickers!  Many members are disgusted and fed-up with us having water restrictions; especially in a record rainfall, and surrounded by others who have the water to build new homes and water their crops.  Members say, they just cant understand what is happening to their once beautiful neighborhood. Other members spoke of their experience with Calwater and their relatives who have Calwater, as a water company, and their satisfaction.  Other members spoke of their extreme dissatisfaction with the county.  Not one person voted to stay with the county.  

I am in frequent communication with Bill at Calwater, Mr Frazier, and the Public Works Folks, and we will work on this tirelessly to get us a proposal within the next 6 to 8 weeks.  Bill says he needs that long to get his engineers out here to write up the analysis of our system and prepare an acquisition package.  Once we have this, your board members will let the association members know more details.  A realistic goal would be to get Calwater on our system correcting mistakes of the county by September and getting off restrictions by next spring.

PS  Some members expressed concern regarding the ones who pre-paid the bond.  Just to clarify,  Bill did answer on that.  There will be an equitable settlement for the ones that prepaid.  Most likely the 50 will get a refund, or some equitable credit.  Not to worry.  

Update: Monday 5/22/17 Bill tells me hes setting up a small team of engineers to come out within the next 2 weeks; ill keep you posted.

Continued Water Restrictions

On my last post, in early April, we were hearing we would soon get our, 2 days a week, watering allowance; as the Ranchos did.  In that post, I emphasized it would not be for sure, until we all received our letter in the mail from public works.  Apparently, we are not getting off stage 3.5 No outdoor watering, unless on drip.

I periodically inquired into when we would receive this notice, and I kept hearing.  It should be soon, they were in the process of doing some fine tuning or adjustments on well 3 and the Arsenic treatment plant, and as soon as that was done we should get our notice; approximately 2 weeks.

However, today I received news from Frazier’s staff.  They are having trouble getting the Arsenic treatment plant to work properly and the levels are too high to meet state requirements, therefore they cannot put well 3 back online. 

This means we are running our water system on just 1 well (well #2), and now they are panicked, because we had a low water alert on our storage tank, this Monday; we were down to 8 ½ feet of water on the storage tank.  Apparently, they claim that pump 2 is pumping 24/7 and was not keeping up with demand earlier this week.

I personally drove over to the tank this morning, and it appears the tank is full again.  However we are pushing the 1 well and pump we have online, hard; and we need to be aware of that. 

This is very upsetting.  There is a breakdown in communication between the people we pay to manage our water system and us.  These are issues that were not revealed, until now.  Once again, when we can’t keep up with demand and are experiencing a problem.  Now they are driving the streets in the morning to see water in the streets and finding people watering their yards.  They want to remind us that we are still on water restrictions, and they are doing everything they can to get water.

Please plan to attend tomorrow night’s Association meeting, to hear more about these issues.  Brett will not be there, due to meetings in Sacramento.   However Ahmad from public works will be there to answer questions.  In addition, we will be sharing committee research information.