It is with considerable amusement, anger and frustration that I read Kelly Randall's remarks in Tuesday's Times related to the need to raise water rates to cover utility costs.
He stated that because conservation practices have been effective in reducing water usage, the Gainesville Utility Department has lost revenue and must make up the shortfall with a rate increase. His comments are typical of his counterparts throughout the region.
Where is the effort to think outside the box at ideas for reducing, postponing or eliminating costs? This mentality does not exist in our municipal department.
Here are some suggestions to get at this crisis. First, why not eliminate monthly reading of the meters and go to a bimonthly or quarterly reading? The interim months between readings could be billed on some estimated basis, with an adjustment done when the meters would actually be read. This should be done on a rotational basis so that only a certain amount of meter-readers and their related automobile costs would be required. The others could be eliminated.
Secondly, an independent group with authority to review all aspects of the department's budget should be formed, with the intent of reducing, postponing or eliminating costs. Surely, within our population, we have some people who are very good at this sort of thing and would volunteer to use their talents.
No "sacred cows" should be permitted. This group should report to some authority higher than the municipal director and their findings be published for all to see.
Lastly, if after best efforts, a deficit still exists, then an increase on surcharge basis should be authorized. We should not authorize a rate increase.
We all know that rates become permanent and hidden over time. This surcharge should be reviewed annually and make it mandatory to eliminate or reduce it when water usage increases as restrictions are eliminated when we have recovered from the current crisis.
Bart Toomey
Gainesville
Change the way water is managed, not rates
I heard Public Utilities Director Kelly Randall explaining to the public why he's got to raise the water rates. It went something like this:
Dang it, y'all have been doing too much of a good job conserving water. Government is here to serve you in these upside down droughty recessionary times and to serve you even better, we have devised a very simple, upside-down droughty inverse relation formula for water costs: The less you use, the more it costs. The reason for this increase is we still have to read all the meters, each and every one of them, plus we have our salaries and raises and our own building renovations and cell phones and we gotta protect our turf and grow, you know.
Get with it Mr. Randall. As have we, it's time your department got its head out of yesterday and changed its business model to meet today's needs. Stop reading the meters and we'll save millions. Let the people read their own meters and you bill them for their uses.
Stop using company furnished cars, equipment and supplies for nonessential business. Start monitoring drought, identify drought vulnerabilities and work with us to develop drought mitigation measures. Develop innovative cost-cutting measures that reduces, not increases, the water bill. Less doesn't have to mean more.
Pigs belching and snorting; that's what government becomes if the people it serves don't. Stop feeding it.
Kent Schneider
Gainesville
Why are Georgia gas prices so much higher?
Fellow Georgians, we are being ripped off by gasoline distributors and retailers. My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Louisiana and bought gas in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Prices were 3-5 cents per gallon higher in Georgia than any of the other three states.
Now you might think our state tax on gasoline is higher. Not so: Our tax is much less than the others (actually the lowest in the U.S.). So you'd expect our prices to be significantly lower. Why aren't they?
Who's pocketing the extra 10-15 cents per gallon? Let's ask our legislators for an answer!
W.A. Van Valkenburgh
Gainesville