"The Sky Is Falling, The Sky Is Falling"

The citizens of Monroe County are constantly being bombarded with major concerns that affect the quality of life in our community. The most recent concern that has been raised by the City of Bloomington involves the capacity of our water treatment facility on Lake Monroe. Information was released last week that indicated that our plant was operating at near capacity with an equivalent of a 23.5 million gallon per day demand over a four-hour period. The plants capacity is 24 million gallons per day. Obviously this summer’s heat index has taken its toll on water usage as we have experienced an unusual number of days above 90 degrees. In January of 2003 a report provided by the brain trust at the City of Bloomington Utilities Department indicated that Bloomington’s capacity would be surpassed by consumption in the year 2010. These are the same people that have been in charge of the recent $14 million upgrade that has been plagued with cost overruns.

Systematically we have heard from the City of Bloomington that we are lacking in various fundamental infrastructures including both sewer and water capacity. This message goes hand in glove with the Democrat’s strategy to limit growth in Monroe County. The City Utilities Board has requested capacity and usage documents to determine the actual limitations of our utilities capacity but to date no reports of any significance have been produced. It is questionable why the Utilities Board would approve a $14 million upgrade and improvement plan for the Lake Monroe water treatment facility without at least considering the need for increased capacity. The only rational could be they didn’t have sufficient information to make the decision, which has historically been the case.

With so many serious concerns facing our elected officials the least of which is being able to provide adequate sanitary sewer and water treatment capacity, why do they continually flirt with disaster by wasting time on less important and sometimes even foolish projects. A 2003 study provided by the consulting company of Black & Veatch indicated that a project to add additional water treatment capacity should be underway by 2006, going online in 2008. Why have they ignored this information? It simply does not make sense that we can allocate and spend tens of millions of dollars for the purchase of land and development of projects like rails to trails and yet not be able to provide an adequate supply of clean drinking water to our community. Coining and old line from the movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” If we had rational thinking individuals on the City Council they would be incensed by the mere thought of not being able to provide adequate utilities to their constituents. A simple and yet basic requirement of any governmental entity is to provide these most fundamental necessities.

Do we really have a sewer treatment capacity problem? Do we really have a water treatment capacity problem? Where is the documentation to support these claims? If we really do have these problems our elected officials are not doing their job in properly anticipating the needs of the community. The citizens of Monroe County should be demanding an independent audit of the City of Bloomington Utilities Department. Secondly, it’s never to early for the citizens of Monroe County to be gearing up to raise the money to clean house in the 2007 city elections, if not, just expect more of the same.