I applaud this new board for immediately addressing infrastructure that has been put on the back burner too long by previous directors who were recently voted out in a landslide election. Let’s also applaud our new Directors for standing strong against those looking for big handouts of free money from SLVWD ratepayers and for ratepayers’ rights to keep costs down. SLVWD is already noticeably working more efficiently under new leadership.
As a parent and environmentalist, I am very pro-education, almost all ratepayers are. However, education falls clearly under the purview of the school districts. In recent letters to the Press Banner, Valley Women’s Club members appear upset at being denied more free money from SLVWD. Since the Valley Women’s Club is stopping their recycling programs that the public loved, perhaps they could offer local children some ecological field trips, and could choose to spend, on this, a tiny bit of the free grants they get from us taxpayers.
In my experiences from Board meetings, Margaret Bruce put infrastructure and maintenance as a rather low priority, while she was giving tens of thousands of ratepayer dollars away, for free, to various groups. This was while she persistently voted to raise rates, a combination which most ratepayers didn‘t appreciate.
I wondered while reading Bruce’s words in the Press-Banner if she believes the Road Maintenance Dept should become an educational institution too? SLVWD is a Water District, not a school district, and not a bank. Water District ratepayers should only be billed for costs related to providing them water, that’s so simple to understand.
Nick Naccari
Ben Lomond