Money Down the Drain???

The other night, the board decided to pay membership dues to join the Mississippi Rural Water Association. They're doing so in an attempt to gain access to a $450,000 grant to assist with the sewer system. When the grant writer was speaking about the water feasibility or water viability study that needed to be conducted in order for the City of Lumberton to receive the grant, public works supervisor, Ben Barrett, barked that "$450,000 is a drop in the bucket. . and it's probably not worth all the trouble." At first, I was thinking that a match-free grant in any amount was worth the paperwork that's associated with getting the grant. Well, that was my feeling until the grant writer went into more details about the grant. It seems that the grant will require a lot of paper work and documentation and the water system must be deemed viable in order for the City of Lumberton to obtain the grant. Glenn Powell, grant writer, stated that citizens of Lumberton should also submit letters regarding the boil-water notices, issues with the water system, including but not limited to leaks, etc. This is where I started pumping the brakes. The citizens of Lumberton have been given second-rate services when it comes to the water department, and now they want to dupe the citizens into submitting supporting documentation to help obtain a grant that could possibly lead to another increase in water rates.
When more details of the grant emerged, and the board was informed that the grant could result in an increase in water rates if the review board determined that the City of Lumberton's water department is not a self-sustaining entity, Bobby Gibson said "we have no other choice." Well, I beg to differ Mr. Gibson. From the time they took the oath of office, they've had a choice in every decision they've made. When a salon owner told the board about certain businesses/individuals not being billed for water services and Timothy Johnson initiated his pseudo-investigation, the board made the choice to look the other way. When it was discovered that certain public works employees were not paying their water bills, the board looked the other way. Instead of putting an end to the matter, they made sure the mayor was not involved in the process and gave the city clerk complete autonomy in deciding who can make payment arrangements to pay their water bills. There are more things I could discuss, but I just wanted to outline a few. Every year, the board votes to pay over $35,000 for an audit and the audit outlines a set of guidelines that are recommended by the auditor in order to show fiduciary responsibility in management of the city's finances, but as you may or may not know, those recommendations have yet to be implemented. But they're more than willing to pay membership fees to a rural water association in order to get a $450,000 grant that's, according to Ben Barrett, a drop in the bucket. The board knows that Lumberton's water department is not viable, but they have no problem passing the cost on to the citizens of Lumberton instead of implementing the plans and practices recommended by the auditors. How many more years are they planning on blaming the closure of Cooper Industries for the deficits in water department? How many more rates increases will the citizens of Lumberton have to endure before they realize that it's not necessary to have three clerks in a city that has no industry. They like comparing apples to apples, so let's take a look at Purvis. They have over fifteen eateries, 4 medical clinics/with doctors on staff, 2 car dealerships, and 4 companies with more than 40 employees but they seem to operated efficiently and effectively with two clerks. It's been proven time and time again that this board is not punctilious in regards to the finances of the City of Lumberton,if they were, we would have a system of checks and balance in place per the recommendation of the auditor. But I guess the bigger question should be how many rate hikes will it take before the citizens of Lumberton to become concerned? Elections have consequences and if this plan goes forth, the citizens of Lumberton will be asked again to throw out a life jacket to the water departmet because this board does not want to execute a business plan that was clearly laid out by an auditor that was paid handsomely for her advice and solutions.