-----Original Message----- From: Ched Gaglardi [mailto:ched@beelineweb.com] Sent: March 6, 2004 2:53 PM To: Ched Subject: Parcel Tax Responses And March 9,2004 Council meeting ADOPTION
of Parcel Tax Importance: High
Hi Fellow Property Owners,
Thank you to those of you who have responded to me
regarding The District of Lake Country wishing to charge us for the study they
did.
I was just
told earlier today that the Parcel tax which has received third reading is up
for adoption at the Council meeting on March 9th 2004. I would
encourage any of you that have something to say on this draft up an email to the
people I have noted below, and if possible attend the council meeting on
Tuesday. Although I do not think public input will be aloud during discussion by
Council on the parcel tax, Council does allow people to make comments at the
beginning on any topics they wish. This will likely be your only chance to
address in person Lake Country Council on this.
I have put
in point form below some of the comments I got back from people.
Property owners agreed
to pay for a water system and should only pay when one is put in.
The District of Lake
Country drew up the petition, helped us come up with the numbers, and approved
every step to make sure everything was done properly so we would get water at
the end of the process. If we are not getting water The District of Lake
Country is the primary party at fault, as we relied on their expertise and
direction during the whole process.
The District of Lake
Country has told us they do not want to do any water line extensions in Carr’s
Landing until a master water plan is done. So why did they go ahead and do the
study if they had no intention of putting in the water line at this time?
We were told in a
council meeting the initial study would cost $10,000, yet The District of Lake
Country wants to charge us $16,634.69. Did they go this far over budget?
The study was not to our
benefit:
a. The way that the study was designed does not provide proper water flow
to many of the properties, requiring property owners to install additional
pumps to get water to their properties .
b. Why was the reservoir location put at the North end of Barkley rather
than some of the locations we suggested?
c. A full study and modeling was done of East Side Utilities. Why are we
paying for this?
d. The additional costing of 1.1 million is not accurate to what Lake
Country’s original terms of reference included. Costs for upgrading the road,
rock work, and upgrading the North end of existing East Side Utilities’
piping, including fire hydrants, was not an anticipated cost to account for.
The District of Lake
Country sent us a letter on September 23, 2003 asking us if we wanted to
repetition for $1.07 Million, yet at a public meeting a few weeks afterwards,
they would not even stand behind that number, nor have they been willing to
give us a accurate number. The comment by a Lake Country staff person was if
you want a firm number we will just inflate it so much you cannot afford it.
What is the real number?
Has our October 23rd
letter ever been answered? Have they done any work on this since then?
How can they think they
can just go ahead and charge us for something we did not want?
Once you take all the
additional costs out of the $1.07 million number you get back to our original
estimate that The District of Lake Country helped us come up with. Are the
additional costs all valid or are we being taken advantage of.
Why has The District of
Lake Country not applied for provincial funding to help offset the cost?
I cannot see a judge
siding with The District of Lake Country on this once he hears how we have
been treated. We should seek legal council.
Considering the high
forest fire risk in this area, surely a little water would be better than
none. Could they not put the basic system in now without full fire flow and
over time bring the whole area up to standard?
By pushing through the
parcel tax without even telling us they were doing so, the District of Lake
Country obviously has no interest in keeping us informed. I thought they were
working with us and in the process of following up on our October letter, plus
doing the master water plan. What are they doing?
Why we were not involved
in the engineering? Why were the engineers instructed not to talk to us?
Can we just do this
ourselves and bypass The District of Lake Country? There are several very
successful co-ops around.
What were the terms of
reference given to the engineers to come up with the $1.07 million cost?
I understood the study
was authorized by Council to confirm costs. Considering we were quoted $5,000
to do a full costing by Mould Engineering how could it possible cost
$16,634.69 for The District of Lake Country to do it? Or did they just merely
spend money thinking somebody else would pay for it and see how much of their
master water plan they could get done at our cost?
Considering the overall
benefit to supplying water to this area, is The District of Lake Country not
willing to share in the cost?
Let's pay the money into
trust with a lawyer and when we get water The District of Lake Country can get
the money.
How is it possible for
The District of Lake Country to accept the $670,000 number a few years ago and
now come up with 1.07 million based on the same fire flow requirements?
I
have no faith in any of The District of Lake County's numbers or processes.
The costing went from $670,000 to 1.07 million. The cost to do a written cost
estimate went from $5,000 to a new budget of $10,000, and then came in at
$16,634.49. The District of Lake Country wrote to all of us with three options
and a few weeks later in our public meeting, they would not even stand behind
their recent letter of options. A full audit needs to be done on the District
of Lake Country's handling of this.
I
would suggest at the very least, that people who have a concern with any of this
should write a letter to The District of Lake Country people below expressing
their specific concerns. The contact information for The District of Lake
Country is:
I am not sure what steps
we should take at this time as a group or if we leave it up to each of us to
deal with The District of Lake Country, the press, lawyers, etc as one wishes.
