Concerns abound over Cathlamet water

To The Eagle:

On May 21 an article appeared on the front page of The Eagle reporting a water outage to a couple of residences on the Elochoman Valley Road. The residences were served by a meter across the road. A town policy states that the customer is responsible for all repairs beyond the meter. The town officials, (public works director, town council and mayor) had this handy little policy to hide behind and absolve them of any further responsiblity to provide good water to these families.

What they passed over was the fact that it was the result of gross negligence on the part of the town that this meter was placed somewhere that the customer could not access it. Granted, this negligence was the act of their predecessors, but they are still responsible to fulfill the duties of their public utility, namely supplying potable water to their clients.

This situation so upset a private citizen that the following day he contracted with a horizontal boring service from Clark County to punch a hole under the road to re-supply these people with water. The public works director was notified and when the boring crew showed up in a few hours, he was nowhere to be found. The mayor was unaware of his absence. Fortunately, Terry Vik stepped up to the plate as usual, facilitated the project and worked late to insure that the folks got their water hooked up that day.

The irony is that a private citizen got something done in eight hours that the entire town government and administration couldn’t get done in three weeks. They can spend $60,000 for new street lights, $300,000 for a community center (that sits mostly idle) and $6,000,000 for a new sewer plant (with no more capacity than the old one) but shy away from $800 to maintain a service that is their responsibility.

I’d like to see every town councilperson’s water shut off for three weeks. This would give them some perspective of the serious responsiblity they undertake to provide a public utility.

The “tip of the iceberg” issue is that there are probably hundreds of meters in their system that are improperly installed like this one, where the customer has no realistic access to them but is still “responsible” for them.

For many years anyone whom has dealt with the city of Cathlamet reference water issues is that there is no water department without Terry Vik. If he retires, the Cathlamet water department will virtually cease operation.

Is this the kind of organization you want to have control over your water?

Mike Mouliot

Cathlamet