By Liz McMahan
WEBBERS FALLS — Polly Turley saw nothing funny Tuesday night about a remark from Mayor Robert Ogg that if the town didn’t raise its water rates, they could have to start handing out five-gallon buckets for people to carry their own water.
That’s exactly what Turley has been doing since early last month. She’s been fighting Town Hall for a water meter to a mobile home she had had set in late December.
She put up a $900 meter deposit and a $75 permit fee. Yet, she and her son still have to carry water from her sister’s house that sits behind hers.
Town officials said she also was too close to a 12-inch water line on her property. When it was proven there was no such line, they told her that her mobile home doesn’t meet the town’s requirements for distance from the home to the property lines, Turley said.
The town has returned her meter deposit.
Ogg’s remark about buckets came after Turley had objected to a proposal for water and sewer rate increases.
Water service to in-town customers would go from $14.65 for the first 1,000 gallons to $20.50 for the first 2,000 gallons, according to a proposal by Ogg. Sewer rates would go from $6.50 per month to $7.50.
Out-of-town customers would see their minimum water bill go from $18.15 to $24.50.
“That’s too much,” Turley responded from the back of the room.
Then came Ogg’s remark about the buckets. Tears streamed down her face as Turley shook her finger at the Board of Trustees, saying Ogg purposely made the remark to make fun of her.
“There’s nothing funny about it,” she said.
Turley said she feels the town has found excuses to deny her water service in retaliation for her family’s efforts to clean up town government.
Acting as members of the Water Authority, trustees voted to approve the water and sewer rate increases and have paperwork drafted to present at a special board meeting at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 17.
In other action, the board voted to take bids on three used cars sold last month to Mark Shamblin without bids having been received.
At first, Ogg said the cars had not been sold, that the titles had not been signed over to Shamblin.
Town Clerk Susan Dwyer said, however, that she had receipts for the money the town received from selling the cars. She said the town was returning $1,000 that Shamblin had paid for a 1995 Ford Ranger and two 1993 Chevrolets.
The board voted to sell those three cars by taking bids on them at a later date.
Trustee Sonny Tipken asked what happened to two other vehicles purchased at the same time by Shamblin. Those cars have been sold as scrap metal, he said.
Ogg said those cars were declared surplus several months ago but had never been disposed of by the town, and there was nothing wrong with selling them to Shamblin without sealed bids. Shamblin paid $100 each for those vehicles, and the only other offer the town had on them was $75 each.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Ogg announced Trustee Loren Dwyer submitted his resignation Tuesday. It is to become effective today.
