Impact of ‘correct’ water rates
To the Editor:
We all knew the water rates were being raised by the City of Goldendale, but no one informed the citizens as to how much the rates would increase.
In The Sentinel dated Feb. 25, 2010, there was an article titled “New water rates encourage conservation.” This was in reference to the Java Talk meeting on the previous Friday.
At that meeting, the water rates were discussed, and City Administrator Larry Bellamy answered a question on the cost, stating “It used to be that the flat rate you paid was $26.17 a month, something like that. That included 1,000 cubic feet of water. So now the base rate is reduced, because the base rate no longer includes 1,000 cubic feet of water. Now we charge from the first drop of water you use on up. It starts at 75 cents per hundred cubic feet up to the first 750 cubic feet of water. From 751 to 1,500 (cubic feet) it’s 80 cents. And up from there”.
Mr. Bellamy was wrong.
According to Ordinance No. 1391, the base rate of $25 per month is for your meter. Your water usage will be based on cubic feet used. From one to 750 cubic feet will be 85 cents per cubic foot, and from 751 to 1,500 cubic feet will be $1 per cubic foot. One cubic foot equals 7.48 gallons.
According to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, the average water usage is 70 gallons per person per day.
Every year through 2015, the base rate for the meter and the water usage rate will increase. By 2015, it will be 27.60 for your meter and 95 cents per 100 cubic foot.
Jane Alford
Goldendale
Responsible profit is what we need
To the Editor:
In response to Dan C. Brunnell and his column in the March 4 Goldendale Sentinel, I agree with most of what he writes. I say hurrah for the small and large businesses alike that make a profit. Where would we be without them? However, the article, “When did Profit become a Dirty Word,” is not about the aforementioned, but about greed and not caring about what an individual or his company leaves in its wake.
It has been reported recently that in 1989, 90 percent of the nation’s wealth was in the hands of 10 percent of its population. Of that 10 percent, one percent possessed most of that wealth and averaged 27 times more income than the average working man. Today that same group earns 275 times more income than the average working man.
We know that going to college will allow us to make a better living to support our families, but if you’re pursuing a teaching career, or a host of other careers, you’ll be lucky to pay off your student loans and take the family out to a movie and pizza once a month.
Profit is not a dirty word here, but greed is. Profit is about being a reputable business person, big or small. It means going to work every day doing as good a job as you can without the admiration that a rock band gets. It means serving your country and community and family and knowing that in a small way you made the world a little better place to live.
I don’t think I’m disagreeing with Mr. Brunnell, but I thought it needed more clarification because those of us who also matter are left out of the equation and deserve to know what’s going on.
Curtis Belford
Goldendale
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