Wouldn’t it be so much better if an evil corporation with shareholders and customer service metrics were in charge of this? Then we could be truly outraged by poor service, higher rates and water restrictions. Now we have to take the blame ourselves because we elect people that can’t run a utility, because, well, they have never run a utility and we’re all left feeling a little ashamed of ourselves because this water company is us. Not to mention the communal joy of being sued by every town around us when we try to get paid fair value for the water we provide them. We should all back any candidate that promises to sell the water company no matter what else they support. It would be the single greatest improvement in the village’s finances we could make with the stroke of a pen, it would eliminate untold patronage and waste and then we could demand better service. If we do it before any of the shovels go in the ground we can even complain about the increased demand cause by new apartment dwellers.
It’s a good start
I don’t know why this question so taboo, we keep on asking how much is the water utility worth in today’s dollars. Why is this such a problem to find out this answer. It’s like someone’s trying to cover something up. Just answer the question is it worth 25 million maybe 40 million I don’t know we don’t know . Are we going to invest millions top of millions for upgrades. Or we can wait for the federal government to step in and give us 5 million 10 million for improvements. Think about it those pipes in the ground are very very old.
Thank you
Stan
I’m not sure if this post is intended to be satiric or serious. If the latter, let’s hasten to point out the obvious: a water utility is a utility, i.e. a monopoly, whether it is in public or private hands.
Ever try “demanding” better service from a monopoly? Going private would further reduce accountability and transparency. At least we now have some say over the operation of the utility via our elected representatives.
There are reasons why the vast majority of water systems are publicly managed (88% of Americans use public water). The biggest reason is that privately owned utilities charge an average of 59 percent more for water service than local government utilities.
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/insight/water-privatization-facts-and-figures
The sad thing is when it’s eventually sold our taxes will still go up.
Cesspool of incompetence, greed and corruption
I’m surprised the Mayor hasn’t appointed a family member to run it. Maybe that’s for her next term?
The question is how do we get an acceptable level of service for the least money. Why not get an RFP out in the market to see what the real financial impact would be? Also, it’s probably best to consider the source before quoting some radical anti-fracking site as an objective source of the truth. Suez won’t do anything to contribute to “undermining our human right to water.” And their two solutions can be summarized as “Create something like Ridgewood Water serving other local towns” (we are there already with the legal bills to prove it), and nationalizing access to water through a water trust in Washington (if you like your water you get to keep your water?). No thanks. These positions certainly call into question whatever they quote, with no attribution, as statistics on price changes.
Not surprised that some of us are willing to except sub-par performance from our agencies and village despite high costs.
How can we tolerate an agency (public or private) that can not provide at least minimal services? We should be demanding that our water, roads, infrastructure, and schools are the absolute best. This village municipal tax, parking rates, and school taxes are so high that the village should be shining. How can we possibly allow new housing and not have enough water for existing homes? Oh wait, I know it is the previous councils fault. How can we allow our schools to be dropping in performance with a $110M budget? Walk into the high school and see how many teachers on any given day are out, the kids sit in a a large room with no instruction Oh wait it is dart wars issues.
The water department needs to really have a leader and meets its responsibility. My taxes are almost 50K a year and I can’t water my lawn, would be funny if not true. There are no droughts, no water shortages, just mismanagement and weak leaders. New building ? new software? Who is making tough decisions?
Surely the mayor has a relative that can lead this agency
10.38. My taxes are much less than yours but I still feel I am being robbed. Just like you say, with this amount of taxes everything should be shining, instead RW looks like just another Bronx neighborhood and it will turn into a real one once population increases by 10-20%. And just wait once the warm weather arrives. This year we will probably be given water quotas per family.
I know some people won’t like the comparison because they “love” Ridgewood but they need to open their eyes and realize that this reality combined with the dubious people (Aronsohn etc. on one side. I accuse Susan/Sedon of MIA though) that are being elected is turning into a real sh!thole.