|
Lafayette residents have heard all the lies about our water supply from Mayor Chris Heisler and his cohorts -- Councilors Leah Harper and Marie Sproul and his slate candidates Trevor Higby and Al LeMay.
There is no water crisis.
We don't need a new, larger reservoir.
The water system has just been poorly managed.
There's plenty of water in Dayton to meet our needs, too.
Our water rates are too high.
We're being overcharged by $600,000 a year.
The truth finally started percolating to the surface at the Monday, Oct. 25, Water Resources Committee meeting and the Johnny-come-lately water "expert" -- Leah Harper's husband, Chris, who chairs the committee -- was taken to school by the real experts who know the real truth of Lafayette's precarious water supply situation.
At the meeting, longtime city engineer Denny Muchmore told the committee that Lafayette needs a new, larger 2.2 million gallon reservoir because he is not sure that the city is meeting the state minimum fireflow capacity or storage for emergencies on site in the city.
He also told the committee that the 1.2 million gallons of water in Dayton DOES NOT play into the fire flow equation for Lafayette. The systems, he said, were never designed with fire flows in mind for Lafayette.
Interim City Manager Joe Wrabek explained, yet again, that the reservoir that was planned in the early 1990s was abandoned when costs skyrocketed and city leaders at that time decided to concentrate on the joint water system instead of a new reservoir.
You see, Lafayette's water situation IS NOT a political issue; it's a PUBLIC SAFETY issue. With only one 500,000 gallon reservoir, there is not enough water on hand to ensure we can fight fires during the parched summer months, especially with residents trying to keep their grass green.
But there is no water crisis, according to Heisler, Harper, LeMay, Sproul and Higby in their recent recall campaign that unseated myself and Bob Cullen.
But it gets better.
Muchmore also told "expert" Chris Harper that his firm would quit Lafayette if it was asked to alter the Dayton fireflows coming to Lafayette. Why? Because water out of the Dayton wellfields is supposed to be a supplemental source for Lafayette; not a main source. Our water right there is regulated by the state of Oregon.
Our main source of water comes from springs in the watershed northeast of town where we bypass millions and millions of gallons of water annually because we have nowhere to store it. A new, larger reservoir would capture more of that water.
In addition, longtime Public Works Foreman Jim Anderson told Harper that he was not going to stop talking just because Harper did not agree with him. Anderson has been warning the new "regime" about the city's water situation since they took office in January 2009, but they've ignored it because Mr. Anderson is a Diane Rinks employee; someone not to be trusted in their eyes.
And what about that $600,000? Chris Heisler had a specific amount citizens were being overcharged when he distributed a pro-recall flier in June of this year. That, to me, means he knew exactly where that "overcharge" money was in the budget despite the fact that he and Higby, who sit on the Budget Committee, did not point it out during budget hearings in April!
It has been almost four full months since the recall election that was supposed to "bring sanity back to our water rates." And, yet, Mr. Heisler and his handpicked water committee can't find the $600,000, which would require a more than $30 decrease in everyone's water rates on a monthly basis.
Why? Was Chris Heisler lying just to get two responsible City Councilors who disagreed with him recalled? I think you know the answer to that question.
Here's an indication of the effect of Monday's meeting: Sproul reportedly turned to another person in the audience and said, "We need a reservoir!" I wonder if the irony of her supporting the recall of two City Councilors who supported a new reservoir being built in a fiscally responsible manner has kicked in yet?
Time is running out, residents of Lafayette! Election ballots are due on Tuesday, Nov. 2. Do you want this kind of lying leadership for the next two years to be in charge of something as important as our water supply? How happy will you be if your house catches on fire in August and there isn't enough water to fight it while the Harpers and Heislers have lush, green lawns? Because, you know, there is no water crisis!
The Heislers may be great at putting on pumpkin carving contests and installing planters downtown, but my analogy is this: On a cruise ship, they'd be great entertainment directors, but I would not want them on the bridge, guiding the ship in and out of harbors!
The video of this meeting will be posted Wednesday on www.lafayetteoregon.org. Check it out. Vote informed and stop believing the biased, slanted lies coming from newlafayette.org, which is written and supervised by Mary Heisler, Chris Heisler's wife, and is the most "INACCURATE" place to find information out about what is really going on in Lafayette.
|