I have a real problem with this. City, county, state and federal governments are having furloughs and other cuts. Unemployment is the highest in years and here goes a rate hike. STPUD has no employee furloughs or budget cuts. They do provide really good service to the public but is a rate increase really nessary right now??? STPUD have a heart.

These are some response’s to other articles about the STPUD rate increase and water study. I guarantee that even if everybody shows up to protest this rate hike it will still pass they have their own agenda and that is to please their friends, the Union. The only way to get anything done is to convince the Union to stop influencing the boards decisions.

In the county, specifically Xmas Valley area, I had to get a water softener(Culligan) to help remove the calcium in my water. My shower floor (tile) had 1/4 inch buildup of deposits. I had several plumbers over and they all said it was the water but of course STPUD said nothing was wrong when I approached them. My computer would always go out like a power surge or brown out but not my lights. I had the power company over and they installed a special meter to try and find out why. I had to get a $500 surge protector to protect my comp from losing everything I was working on. After a year of study it was determined that when the STPUD pump station located on Grass Lake Road fired up it would give a little draw on the system, just enough to affect comp only. My surge protector goes off 8-10 times a day, it’s recorded and STPUD says nothing when confronted. I even had the phone and cable people look at my situation and same results. I was also able to prove that rates will double when the metering goes into effect as it stands right now.

There is no coffee / water fund, it is paid out of taxpayer money. The Board is trying to change this but they are running into opposition with the union. The only reason the board is doing anything is because it was brought to light in one of my articles, otherwise it would have been business as usual. I did have my water tested and it came back high in Calcium but was told nothing was wrong with the Calcium level. They are having a BOD meeting soon to discuss a 4% rate increase which we were told last year, election year, that we would not get but now it seems we / they need it. Automatic benefit increase 2% matched by us is 4% which lo and behold is the same as the rate increase. The rate increase is not going to infrastructure it is going to benefits. Get a copy of their financial report, it’s our right to see this, and you will see it all. $2.2 Million in cost overruns with $1.7 Million of that going to employee benefits.

Gotta have a rate increase. Who do you think is gonna pay for the gourmet Alpen Sierra coffee that is delivered to STPUD? The employees?

Besides, serving gourmet coffee befits the grand Taj Mahal type of architectural design. And the ratepayers have nowhere else to turn.

Gotcha.