INC NEWS - more on water...

[RW Pickle]

Our neighbors to the Southwest (Chapel Hill) are currently dealing with
their lost revenues from the current conservation mode. Their shortfall is
somewhere between $1.9 and $2.5 million dollars. So they are looking for
ways to make up that difference. Like Durham, their infrastructure is paid
for by revenue bonds that have to be repaid. And with the less use (and
less revenue due to it), income has seen a plunge. No idea what our losses
in Durham are at this point. Perhaps a City Administrator could help us
out.

Now is the time to implement a new revenue model that includes
conservation (as if we have a choice...). Up till now, it's been use as
much as you want, pay for it (in a sliding scale I believe, with the more
you use, the cheaper it gets). It has to be the other way around. Reward
conservation, rain barrel use and other methods of saving water. Make
those pay who waste water. Otherwise we'll be back in this same boat again
and again; throwing off planned revenues yearly because we're in a
conservation mode. As I read today in the Herald Sun, next year is looking
dry as well. The revenue deficit has to come from somewhere. Guess who'll
end up paying for it...

RWP
27 Beverly