IS IT TRUE May 28, 2012
IS IT TRUE there is much wailing and whining about the recently announced increases in the water rates in the City of Evansville?…even the guy who is in charge of the utility has gotten into the act of marketing the coming increases saying they are “neededâ€?…â€needed†is the understatement of the decade when it comes to the services provided by the City of Evansville when it comes to sewer and water?…that those who read between the lines on the recent press release regarding looming increased noticed that 600 miles of cast iron pipes are in need of replacement and that a well run water provider in a city the size of Evansville “should†have been replacing 10 miles of the old pipes per year at a cost in today’s dollars of $750,000 per mile or a budget of $7.5 Million per year?…the total immediate needs seem to be 60 years of deferred maintenance that will cost an estimated $450 Million in 2012 dollars?…that this is not something that can be blamed on Mayor Winnecke, Mayor Weinzapfel, even Mayor Russ Lloyd Jr.?…this is a collective failure of all of the people who have worn the hat of Mayor of Evansville and all of the people who have been citizens of Evansville since the 1950’s?…the condition of the infrastructure of Evansville and some other cities is absolutely appalling and the chickens are coming home to roost?…that this is just the tip of the iceberg?
IS IT TRUE that City of Evansville is under order of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do improvements required to stop dumping raw sewage into the Ohio River and the yards of the citizens of some Southside neighborhoods every time it rains more than an inch an hour?…that this cost has been estimated to be between $500 Million and $700 Million in 2008 dollars?…that the mounting cost to do two simple things that will enable the City of Evansville to deliver good potable water to its citizens and avoid fines from the EPA over Calcutta type conditions in the sewer system is now well over $1 Billion?…that rather than do the things that we need our City government has invested $127 Million in a temple to sport and is planning to dump another $80 Million so that they can read the water meters through the internet?…facility after facility from Roberts Stadium, to the parks, to the recently disclosed failure to spend a paltry $100,000 to paint and bleach Mesker Amphitheatre has fallen into disrepair as the sewers and water pipes have?… the state of the infrastructure in the City of Evansville has the appearance of willful and intentional neglect?
IS IT TRUE if Evansville is to even purport to be a city at all well over $1 Billion in deferred or neglected maintenance will have to be done in the relatively near future?…the EPA has roughly a 20 year window in which this can be done to avoid fines?…a fixed rate bond over 30 years for $1 Billion will add roughly $150 per month to the water and sewer burden of every house in the City of Evansville?…as much as the CCO feels for the household budgets and business budgets of Evansville this must be done and the people who choose to live here will have to pay for it?…the only real way to reduce the monthly burden is to increase the number of households substantially to spread the cost over more housing units?…that unless there is a commitment to get this done, jobs will not be prone to come here, educated professionals will not choose to live here, and the decline of the last 60 years shall continue?…it is crunch time when it comes to Evansville infrastructure?
