To the Editor:
Several years ago, the City of Clinton borrowed a million dollars to renovate Clinton’s sewers. The City issued a bond, a debt that must be repaid. Acting on the advice of their PADD representative, Clinton’s City Council increased sewer rates from a base rate to 133% of water usage.
Clinton residents saw their sewer rates skyrocket. When the bills came in, there were complaints to the City Council. To no avail.
Kentucky’s Governor was listening. On August 12, 2009, Governor Beshear came to Clinton and brought a check for $730,000 to help defray the cost of Clinton’s sewer renovation project.
Many of us who knew about the Governor’s check thought the City would immediately apply the funds to reduce the debt and lower sewer rates.
That was over six months ago. As I write this, the money sits in a bank somewhere. The bond indebtedness has not been reduced. The reason? The sewer renovation project is not complete. A generator needs to be purchased to operate the sewer plant if there is another power outage like the one caused by the ice storm of 2009. There are technical problems at the sewer plant. And on.. and on.. and on…
In October, I vowed that if nothing was done to reduce the rates that I would picket the March 1st City Council meeting. The City’s inaction has caused real hardship. People are doing without to pay their combined water and sewer bills. City government seems deaf to the suffering that the increased sewer rates have caused.
So, come Monday, March 1st, before the six o’clock meeting. I will be on the sidewalk outside of City Hall holding a sign. I invite residents unhappy with their bills to join me in silent witness. We will witness the fact that the City has not used the Governor’s money as he intended it to be used.
We have a right to redress grievances with our government. The money Governor Beshear brought was not meant for a big shopping trip by the City. It was meant to reduce our sewer bills. Someone needs to remind the Clinton City Council of that fact.
Mary Potter
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