By Sharon Gee, Stevensville
There is a half-page ad in last week’s Star stating that Mayor Dewey shut off the water at the home of a paraplegic recovering from a gunshot wound and his pregnant wife and refused to credit the $50 reconnection fee.
This is a lie on several levels.
Our town was faced with a water crisis which occurred when two wells failed. As a result, water restrictions were imposed on June 20, 2019. Those restrictions were not lifted until July 2, 2019. Citizens were notified about the restrictions in several ways. It was on the town site. It was on Facebook. It was all over the news. It was in the newspaper. In this specific situation, it turns out that the landlord was notified of the water restrictions but did not notify this family (who were his tenants).
Town policy adopted by Council allows for disconnection of services in a situation where somebody is watering when they should not be and continues to do so after being warned or advised.
Mayor Dewey did not make the call in this circumstance and was only made aware of it after the fact.
Town policy states that a $50 reconnection fee will be charged when service is reconnected. During public comment at a town meeting a citizen suggested that the $50 reconnection fee be waived in this instance. Public comment is not intended as a time to discuss, consider or make a decision on an issue. It is a time for the public to voice their opinions. Council heard the comment and yet took no action to waive Council’s policy and refund the fee (and if Mayor Dewey had made the decision to waive that charge, some Council members would have found fault with his decision).
I do certainly feel for this family and the circumstances they were dealing with. However, with no adopted rules in place, how can waiving a fee for one family and not another be justified?
Mayor Dewey did explain the situation eloquently and in great detail in a video posted on Facebook. Here is the link to that video: https://www.facebook.com/togetherforstevensville/videos/829958751108411/?vh=e&extid=0
The citizens who voiced the concern could have covered that charge or appealed to others in the community to make sure that it was covered but instead they used it as a reason to attack our Mayor again.
We need to look for ways to bring our community back together again. Lying and twisting the truth is not the way to do it.
Nancy Lowell says
During my time working at the town, we never shut water off in the middle of the night. It was always turned off during regular business hours so that the client had the opportunity to come in and pay.
Sharon Gee says
That may be the case with just regular disconnect for non-payment or water use outside normal hours.
This was a different circumstance with well failures temporarily but severely limiting the amount of available water resources for town residents.
Nancy Lowell says
During my time at the city, water was never shut off at night. It was always done during working hours so that the customer had the opportunity to come in and pay their bill.
Leanna Rodabaugh says
The water shut off was in June
The water shortage was in July. You need to get your FACTS straight
Sharon Gee says
Perhaps you need to get your facts straight.
I’ll throw you a bone and enlighten you:
It is a FACT that water restrictions went into affect on June 20, 2019 and were not lifted until July 2, 2019.
All of the local news agencies covered this story.
Two local newspapers (one of them being my personal favorite The Bitterroot Star) reported on it.
The restrictions were posted on Facebook.
The information was also reported on our Town site verifying the dates.
By sticking with your story, you’re calling several local news reporting outlets and our town site all liars.
You may want to do a little more research.
Susan Devlin says
FACTS are FACTS. LIES are LIES. Thank you for straightening out this situation. The landlord WAS notified, he failed to tell the tenant….the water was turned off in the middle of the night – the person had no idea who lived in this house – nor any of the other houses that had water turned off.