County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja appealed to the Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for a waiver of the $1,300 fee to hook up water to a fountain near the tennis courts in Grand Marais, on property formerly owned by the school but now owned by the county. The water could be piped from the school, but after the land trade that left the tennis courts in county hands, the school refused to remain involved in supplying the water.
“I don’t advocate giving it away,” said Water/ Wastewater Superintendent Tom Nelson. He said even the Grand Marais Recreation Area is charged for its water use.
“We’ve been trying to get everybody to pay for what they use,” said PUC Commissioner Bob Spry, “whether they’re a private entity or a public entity.”
Commissioner Sobanja asked why it costs $1,300 to hook up the water. Nelson replied that it pays for water supply infrastructure. “I don’t think we need Mrs. Joe Elderly to subsidize the county,” Nelson said. “We’re a revenuegenerating entity.”
The Cook County High School class of 1940, at the initiative of John Lindell, is paying to water the football field this summer, PUC Commissioner Hal Greenwood said. The city only recently started charging the school for watering the fields and the Community Center for flooding its ice rinks.
Greenwood didn’t downplay the importance of the tennis courts to the community. “The tennis courts are a great asset for this community,” he said. “That’s obvious.”
“It legitimately is a community water fountain,” Sobanja said.
Greenwood said he didn’t know how they could be fair if they gave their services away to just one entity like the county. Sobanja responded by saying the county could choose not to plow Broadway, a city street plowed by the county in the winter.
City Administrator Mike Roth suggested the Sobanja bring the matter up with the city council.
“We have to operate our system on the revenue we generate,” Greenwood said. “We have no way of getting an infusion of money from the taxpayers.”
Big water bill
The very large water bill Beth and Tim Kennedy hoped they wouldn’t be charged for an exorbitant amount of water use one month in one of their rental houses is coming their way. ThePUC board agreed to have the meter tested to make sure the reading – 120,000 gallons— wasn’t faulty. Themeter passed the test.
City worker Steve DuChien notified the Kennedys when he read the meter. Theylooked for leaks or signs that water had flooded somewhere inside or outside the house, but found nothing. “It had to go down the sewer,” PUC Commissioner Bob Spry said. “I don’t know what else we can do. We’ll have to send them a bill for it.”
“We don’t really know what happened,” said City Administrator Mike Roth, “but absent any evidence to the contrary, the only logical explanation is that it went down the sewer.”
Tim Kennedy is one of the three people on the PUC. TheKennedy’s bill is about $1,800.
Leave a Reply