Absarokee water board forgetting the people it serves

The Absarokee Water Board, mainly the two members returning from the past board, are quickly forgetting people they serve and their wallets.
The end of 2015 the previous board was considering a rate increase to have enough revenue to pay bills and $12.00 a month per customer to build an emergency fund. This increase matched the previous bills and the tank fund. All’s well and good.
Then, the previous board discussed a rate increase for those using over 4,000 gallons monthly. The current rate is about $1.60 per gallon over 4,000 gallons. The cost to pump 1,000 gallons is about $3.75 or about $2.15 loss for every 1000 gallons over 4,000 gallons. Mike Reynolds, president, stated he thought the board should “kick the can down the road” and do nothing to fix this loss of revenue.
Now he springs on the community this engineer whose fee is in excess of $40,000.00 (some of which was covered by a grant) to increase monthly rates to exceed $50.00 a month with the “hope” of getting a grant to pay for updating the Absarokee water system.
Reynolds presented no other option at the Jan. 20 meeting. Many of the citizens of Absarokee cannot afford such a large increase. He has come from a career of taxing citizens for higher expenses with no alternative.
This “hope and change” sounds like someone else like him who got the country into financial trouble. There are always other options that need to be explored. I hope this board studies all their options before moving and not just fellow Reynolds.

Bill Kampfer
Absarokee