SCOTT CITY COUNCIL TRIES TO SORT OUT DISPUTE CONCERNING WATER COMPANY

SCOTT CITY -- The Scott City Council has become embroiled in a dispute involving a non-profit water company that serves 13 customers south of the city.

Monday night, a couple who has recently purchased the last of 12-plats under the original Citizens Development Co. (CDC) asked the council for permission to hook into the line.

But Ralph and Delores Bergen were forced to leave the meeting without an answer to their question.

The council first brought up the CDC at its last meeting, but were tightlipped about the whole thing, calling for a closed meeting Monday.

As the Bergens presented their case to the council, with the help of resident Janice Landewee, Mayor Larry Forhan sat silent, deferring any serious questions by council members to the executive session out of earshot of the media and the landholders.

The agreement is more than two decades old and, as Ward 2 Councilman John Rogers Jr. told the couple, "We're a new council and don't know much about it."

Landewee explained to the council that the Bergens must be hooked to the water main to honor the original agreement between the CDC and the city.

But about 20 years ago, the council approved two adjacent properties to hook into the lines, making the total number of customers using the water currently 13, when the original agreement technically only called for 12.

"There is a clause in the agreement saying that people can come before the council and ask to hook into the line," said Landewee. "But we're asking tonight that you honor the original contract and allow these people who are rightfully the 12th plat holders to hook into the water line."

The Bergens have already paid their $1,690 to join the CDC. The water main runs right through their back yard; all they need is the city's go-ahead to tap in.

"It will cost you nothing," Landewee said. "All we want is the right to fulfill the initial agreement of the CDC."

The council offered no words of encouragement to the Bergens and promptly went into closed session to discuss the matter.

In other business, a local landlord confronted the council about one of his properties being condemned without his knowledge, and without giving him a chance to fix the home.

James Arnold, a former councilman himself, recently chased some non-paying tenants out of a trailer at 820 First St., who all but destroyed the place.

"They broke out the windows, damaged the doors and even broke holes in the floors," Arnold told the council. "When I saw the mayor today, he told me that the place had been condemned. I hadn't even been sent a notice."

As it turned out, the tenants had called the county after they trashed the place, telling inspectors the trailer was unfit to live in, Arnold said. Scott County officials then notified the city inspector, who condemned the place because of the extremely bad condition.

The council assured Arnold that he had at least 60 days, perhaps as many as 81 days, to restore the property.