October 23, 2001

By Gail Binkly
Journal Managing Editor

Now in his 15th year on the board, Bridgewater does not believe the district has made any major mistakes other than cutting the sewer line of a local woman in March. The incident drew statewide attention because she had paid about half of her delinquent account and explained that she’d fallen behind after her husband had a stroke. The board refused to refund her the $500 reconnection fee.

"The one valid criticism is the lady that got her sewer cut off, which was unfortunate," he said. "But she did have the opportunity to stop that from happening" by requesting a hearing with the board.

The rest of the purported reasons for the recall, Bridgewater said, "are not justifiable in any way, shape or form."

The board has since tried putting liens on delinquent properties instead of cutting sewer lines, but the number of delinquent accounts has jumped since that policy change. Bridgewater said the same thing happened years ago when the district tried liens.

Even though the district is repaid within one or two years, with interest, he said it hurts to have so much money in accounts receivable.

"Our receivables got in the $25,000 range. You don’t have operating funds and you’re providing a service for free. You’re running two years behind. The people that do pay their bills are going to end up paying more for the other people."

He said perhaps the board should reinstitute reconnections, but require an automatic hearing in every case. If the delinquent owners don’t show up, then the cut-off would proceed.

"Before, it was kind of a shotgun approach," he said. "There was a list, we mailed them a letter, if they didn’t respond, you just started disconnection. I think this might be a solution."

The board recently took some flak over another situation, that of Aileen Maxwell, an 85-year-old woman who owns land surrounding the district’s southwestern plant on the city’s border. In order to expand and build a new plant, the board is seeking 4.67 acres of her land. She doesn’t want to sell it for the price offered, and the board is seeking to start condemnation proceedings.

Bridgewater said the situation is regrettable, but he believes the board has been fair. "Unfortunately for Mrs. Maxwell, she lives at the lowest point in Cortez, Colorado, and that property is where the sewer plant needs to go." To move the plant somewhere else now would delay the project one or two years and cost a considerable amount, he said.

Bridgewater said Maxwell wants three times as much for the land as the board offered, "and that’s not reasonable. The people of this community are buying that property, not the board, and they need a fair deal."

Another complaint frequently leveled against the district is that, when a property owner seeks a sewer tap, only the sanitation district’s workers can make the tap into the main line — not even a licensed plumber. But Bridgewater said that policy was implemented a year ago at the specific request of the local Home Builders Association, because they didn’t want liability for possibly damaging the line.

"Every one of the plumbers wanted us to do the taps," he said.

The district recently upped its estimate of the number of taps available at its southern plant. It had put strict limits on the number of taps that could be sold, saying the plant was near capacity, but then revised its estimates, leading critics to say the district had been manipulating the numbers. Bridgewater said the new estimate only raised the number by 70 or 80 taps, and the original estimate had been close to the mark.

"I think the board has done a very good job of taking caring of the sanitation district," he said. "We received compliments from the state when we filed our 201 (a request for a new plant) and they told us we were two years ahead of the other districts."

He said he believes the recall’s organizers were disingenuous in the reasons they listed on the recall petitions, which included lack of appropriate planning, unreasonable requirements, and poor relations with other governmental entities. They didn’t list their real motivation, which was to get rid of District Manager Bill Smith, Bridgewater said.

"I don’t think anything on the petitions is true," he said. "They didn’t put the one question on that they asked, which was to fire Bill Smith."

The manager has improved his personnel skills, Bridgewater said, and is quite competent. "I don’t know a manager of any school or utility that is perfect."

SAM JARVIS

Jarvis, a nine-year member of the board, likewise believes the district has been run efficiently and well. He defends the district’s former practice of disconnecting sewer lines on delinquent accounts.

"Other utilities have the ability to turn people off, and in fact they do," he said. "They can flip a switch or turn a valve. We don’t have that capability." Installing some sort of plug for every one of the district’s 4,000 customers would be impractical, he said.

He said the board will have to see what happens with the newly adopted lien policy before deciding whether to go back to disconnections.

"If there were $1,500 hanging out there (owed to the district), we wouldn’t have a problem, but once it gets to $14,000, as it is now and then maybe higher, it does affect our income stream."

He said he is comfortable that the district has planned well for its future needs and that it has done everything possible to negotiate with Maxwell over acquisition of 4.67 acres of her land. "We engaged an engineer and did an in-depth look at alternatives," he said. "We looked at retrofitting our existing plants, bringing them up to date, but it would have been very costly.

"We looked at a new site and even tried to go out and find suitable locations, but that particular option was discounted because of the cost of having to pump everything from our existing collection points to a new site. The alternative we selected was expanding our site" at the southwest plant, which means acquiring more land from Maxwell.

The district offered her full appraised value for the acreage, he said, but she refused.

"People don’t want to give up their land. I can certainly understand that, but I also understand what the district needs."

Jarvis spoke highly of Smith and the job he has done as manager, saying that Smith is only enforcing policies the board makes, although he does have input into those policies. "The district has rules and regulations and his job is to see that those are followed," he said. "He’s very strict about the rules and regulations."

"I’ve only seen two managers (while on the board), but I can tell you that Bill is highly qualified, very intelligent, and has been a real benefit to the district. He has been instrumental in getting grants for us."

Like Bridgewater, he said criticism of the district’s policy of not allowing licensed plumbers to make taps into the main lines is unfounded.

"We started making those taps at the request of the plumbers," he said. "We have some very brittle lines, and if they damaged them, they were responsible. We did this at the request of the Home Builders Association and the plumbers because they didn’t want the liability. That’s what’s so frustrating to me. It was absolutely at their request."

He said he also finds it frustrating that the recall’s organizers were not willing to wait six more months, when he and Bridgewater come up for re-election normally. (Pierce’s term is up in May 2004.) "The recall is going to cost the district’s citizens well over $20,000," he said. "This was money that didn’t have to be spent. But I don’t think the two drivers of the recall effort cared a lick about the cost because they’re not having to pay it."

He accused them of having personal agendas rather than the public’s interest in mind. "In my opinion, they used the emotional issue of severing the woman’s sewer line for their own personal reasons," Jarvis said.

"It’s the right of the people to recall, but it seems to me it should be used for gross misconduct or violations of laws."

Pierce, who is board chairman and has been on the board for 33 years, was out of town and not available for an interview. His term will end in 2 1/2 years.

Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal. All rights reserved.
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