December 11, 2007
JCWSA MEETINGS
PROVIDE ENTERTAINMENT
Tuesday, December 11, at 6:00PM in the Bank of Monticello
Annex, there will be another meeting of the JCWSA board. The last few meetings have been entertaining
and enlightening.
At the October meeting there was the “Ethics Code”
discussion where two members seemed to want a good code that meant something,
while others went with the “toothless” code adopted by the Commissioners. One member even said that no one would serve
if they went with a code that had real issues of conflict outlined. The November meeting was much more lively.
Member Ken McMichael started the
November meeting talking
about the drought and saying that reservoirs are not the answer because
you
can't take all the water out of the rivers, put it in a reservoir just
to let it evaporate. Chairman Pound had other ideas and
reprimanded Mr. Michael for speaking against reservoirs and making
“higher ups”
in Newton County unhappy. (Remember, Newton County
supplies JCWSA with all their water and have applied for the permits for Bear
Creek Reservoir again.)
Listen to this exchange here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHa88IJH5j0
After informing Chairman Pound that he had no intention to
stop speaking out against reservoirs, Mr. Michael went on to say that
"people have to be motivated to conserve water." His proposal to conserve water would be to attach a
"large tax" on homeowners with septic tanks because they
do "not return water from the stream." He also said people
should be required by law to have water-saving shower heads and toilets,
etc.
Listen to Mr. Michael’s proposal here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DOtGxsFBmA
A few months ago Mr. McMichael lashed out at the TWG
chairman for reporting what was said at a BOC meeting. Mr. McMichael wanted parts of the County
designated as a “water anomaly” in the Comprehensive Plan and on the Land Use
Maps. At the BOC meeting he used the
term WE several times implying that the JCWSA was in agreement with his
statements. When that was reported by
TWG, he wrote an editorial saying you couldn’t believe anything the TWG and its chairman, Mary Patrick, had to say.
Now it appears as if the JCWSA members are not in agreement
with Mr. McMichael on several issues.
After outlining his proposal to tax homeowners with septic tanks, member
Tate Turner said, "I don't agree with anything you just said. You
can't enforce any of that." Then Chairman
Pound said, "Ken, you have got to stop going places and telling people you
represent this Water Authority when you speak about your own opinions. Nobody here agrees with you, but you
got on TV and said all this as if you were representing us. Then it gets
us all in trouble." He continued, “You've done this before.”
Chairman Brack Pound went on to say, "We buy our water
from Newton County, and they are moving forward with
Bear Creek Reservoir, and we cannot make a public statement against what they are doing. I got calls from important Newton County
people on the Water Authority, and they are not happy with us speaking against their plans on TV."
The JCWSA board adjourned the regular meeting to go into Executive
Session to discuss "future land acquisition." A scary thought indeed with Bear Creek
Reservoir back on the radar screen.
Read more here: http://www.taxdogs.com/090207bear.htm
http://www.taxdogs.com/090707cedarcreek.htm
