Water district consolidation to appear on ballot again

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

A measure to consolidate Public Water Supply District No. 5 of Vernon County and Consolidated Public Water Supply District No. 1 of Vernon County will again appear on the ballot for voters in those districts.

The measure first appeared on the ballot in August, and appeared to pass overwhelmingly, but a problem with tallying which votes came from each district negated the outcome. The measure must be approved by a simple majority in both districts, and votes cast apparently could not be identified by individual district, said Perry Grizzle, president of District 1's board of directors.

Vernon County Clerk Tammi Beach was out of town at a meeting Tuesday morning and could not be contacted for comment on the ballot administration issue.

District 1's board of directors said in a press release that the procedural problem has been corrected, and another vote is required.

The proposal voters will consider on Nov. 2 is the same issue on which votes were cast in August.

"There's nothing negative about it. We've (District 1) always supplied them (District 5) with water. It won't change delivery of the water, or cost anyone any more money. In fact, it will cost the ones in District 5 less money," Grizzle told the Daily Mail in July.

This proposal is the result of the Board of Directors of PWSD No. 5 requesting to consolidate their district with the district of CPWSD No. 1. Both boards of directors agree with the notion.

District 5 currently serves about 100 customers in the Ketterman area of Vernon County. Their current source of water is from CPWSD No. 1, which has been their source since 1967.

Advantages of this consolidation will be the standardization of rates between the two districts, PWSD No. 5 rates will be reduced to CPWSD No. 1 rates, PWSD No. 5 will have access to a full time maintenance crew for waterline repair and upgrade, the consolidation will result in one board of directors for the new consolidated district and PWSD No. 5 is debt-free, so no additional burden will be absorbed by CPWSD No. l.

CPWSD No. 1 currently serves 2,770 customers in Vernon County, maintaining approximately 850 miles of pipe, three wells and three treatment plants.

A full time staff of 9 employees is available for maintenance, customer service, new line construction or any other concern that may arise.

CPWSD No. 1 Representation:

Sub-district 1-Jeff Parrish

Sub-district 2-Van Lechman

Sub-district 3-Robert Wilison

Sub-district 4-Perry Grizzle

Sub-district 5-Ed Thomas

PWSD#5 Representation

Sub-district 1-Scotty Pritchett

Sub-district 2-Dan Eaton

Sub-district 3-Cecil Caldwell

Sub-district 4-Kurt Wilson

Sub-district 5-Tom Bloesser.

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