PUBLIC VIEWPOINT: West Fork Voters Will Return, Won’t Forget

The West Fork City Council has delayed dissolving the water and sewer commission in West Fork. Sixty-seven percent of voters approved the initiative that simply, clearly, plainly, asks our council to do whatever is necessary and expedient to dissolve the commission and create a public water/wastewater department. Voter turnout in November was the highest we have ever had.

The City Council is stuck on the technicality that the ballot did not have an ordinance but was a voter

initiative. Three council meetings have passed and the city attorney said that there is no problem doing as the voters approved but it will cost money to properly complete the transfer. I have to state, one more time, before the Feb. 12 council meeting, we did not want to tell our council members how to do their jobs, crafting ordinances. Sixty-seven percent of the voters approved the initiative, which tells the council we don’t want the private water commission in charge. We want our town to be in full, complete control of our water/sewer. We all need fresh water and most of us want to have sewer service.

The commission has had 45 Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality violations; has never, in 40 years, dredged the lagoons;

has not planned ahead for paying for this project to hook up to Fayetteville; has had zero standard operating procedures; has salaries exceeding normal percentage of overhead; has taken from the city treasury then afterwards said “sorry”; and has transferred an employee to the city budget without council consent. ADEQ didn’teven have the correct GPS location of the sewer plant’s discharge into the West Fork of the White River.

All we want is a clean slate, a fresh start, especially since the sewer plant will be shut down.

I hope a West Fork City Council member will make a motion to dissolve the water and sewer commission and create a public water/ wastewater department at February’s meeting. Then this excruciatingly slow downward spiral can end.

SUSAN COONEY

West Fork

Opinion, Pages 5 on 02/11/2013

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