May 23, 2013
It wasn't "for free." SLVWD paid $1.5 million in cash and assumed $2.9 million in debt to pay for the Cal Am water system in Felton. Here's the memo from the SLVWD district manager dated May 30, 2008: http://www.slvwd.com/agendas/Full/2008/06-05-2008/Item 8a.pdf That was a $4.4 million gift from the old ratepayers to new ones in Felton, on top of the $11 million approved by Felton voters. Present ratepayers continue to pay $186,798/year on the Kirby Street loan until 2027. Under existing water rights, not a drop of Felton water will ever go to the original ratepayers in Ben Lomond, Brookdale, and Boulder Creek.
May 23, 2013
I would caution attributing too much credit to FLOW. The water takeover effort was primarily run by the county of Santa Cruz bureaucracy with the willing partner San Lorenzo Valley Water District who, of course, was looking to get a $12 million water system for free...on the backs of Felton taxpayers. FLOW were just the useful idiots who parroted anti-corporate slogans and pretended to be grassroots just to rile up uneducated voters.
May 22, 2013
The California Alliance to Protect Private Property, California's leading private property rights organization, has been following the Felton case and others like it for years. These FLOW groups, located throughout the state, promise the world and more to residents in local communities if they take over their private water company by eminent domain. They promise that water rates will go down and residents will have a greater say in the application of rate hikes. They promise immediate savings to residents. But where are they when these promises don't materialize? Where are they when their public water companies raise rates exorbitant amounts? The political agenda of these FLOW groups is NOT lower water costs. The political agenda of these FLOW groups is public ownership of water NO MATTER THE COST to individuals or small businesses. The worst type of eminent domain abuse is when taxpayers get fleeced. Felton taxpayers now know all too well what that feels like. - California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights www.CalPropertyRights.com
May 21, 2013
2pm in Boulder Creek on a weekday seems like a fair time to hold a meeting to draw public opinion...NOT. Hey, some of us have to work for a living, and driving all the way down to BC is not exactly a convenience. But maybe they want it that way. Then they can claim no one showed up in opposition. We should remember, they work for us.
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