Dear editor,
On May 29, during a scheduled Iola city council meeting with all members present, they voted 6-2 to not raise water rates in two steps. This vote reversed an earlier vote in April in favor of raising the rates with the mayor voting yes to break a 3-3 tie. The state law stipulates that to pass an ordinance, a majority of the eight-member council, or five members of the governing body, must vote for the raise; thus the necessary re-vote.
The city manager must now decide what needs to be cut out of the budget as this no vote will cause a $280,000 water fund deficit by the end of 2018. This is after the annual $600,000 bond payment has been made for our water plant. Mr. Fleming asked for the council members future support as he makes hard and probably unpopular cuts to make up for the shortfall caused by their decision to not raise the water rates.
The water plant was voted in prior to 2005 by our then-city commissioners and went into operation about that time. The bond indebtedness was $10 million plus interest and will be paid for in eight years. The plant was built to handle another customer such as Yates Center or Humboldt. It is now operating at 26 percent of its capacity. This idea was never pursued. I do not know why. We have a resource with our water plant that is being paid for but not used.
I was reading in the Register on Tuesday that Humboldt has a water problem as reported to the city of Humboldt by BG Consultants of Manhattan. The second most begging attention was the water purification plant, at $2.8 million.
Is anyone following me on this article? Doesnt it seem like a natural solution to Humboldts water plant? Just build a 10-mile pipeline to Humboldt and sell part of our excess capacity to Humboldt and solve Iolas money problem and Humboldts water plant problem in one big project. It will not be easy, but most things worth doing are not easy.
Paul L. Zirjacks,
Iola, Kan.
