WATER, SEWER ISSUES BEFORE SC COUNCIL

SCOTT CITY -- The Scott City Council was up to its elbows in water and sewer problems Monday night.

Orley and Betty Jackson, representing a group called the Urban Water Users, presented a list of questions to the board about a problem they are having with the city's water system.

According to Betty Jackson the City Council is claiming more than 100 water users outside the city limits have signed new contracts that allow the city to raise their rates 175 percent. The new contracts also call for rural water users to install a master meter at the junction where the city's line ends and the rural lines begin, at a cost of $2,500 per meter.

Jackson's group is claiming they never signed new contracts and the city has been unable to produce the originals of these contracts, claiming they sent them back to the landowners. None of the 100 represented by the group has a contract signed later than 1989, Jackson said.

The questions the people want answered included: Where are the new contracts? Why have their rates gone up 175 percent when the city-user fees have not risen at all? Why is the city now requiring a $2,500 hookup fee for new water service and a $2,500 for new sewer service? And why has the city paid for one landowner's master meter and not everyone's?

Jackson's questions received no answers. Scott City Mayor Jerry Cummins did admit that it was not good business to send the original contracts back to the landowners through the mail, if that is what the city did. Other than that, his original reply was to declare the matter settled without answering the group's questions, saying, "I'm inclined to leave it just the way it is."

The matter was temporarily resolved later when Cummins agreed to work the legal issues out with city attorney Frank Siebert and attempt to have some answers by the next meeting.

The board was then thrown into a discussion about liability when Donna Lutes asked the council to pay the damages that were caused to her basement when her sewer backed up due to a clog in the city's line.

Lutes said her $1,800 claim to the city's insurance company was denied when it was determined the city was not liable for the clogged line.

Council member Marsha Zimmerman explained that the city cannot be held liable, according to the insurance company, unless the city knew of the problem in advance and did nothing to fix it. The backup was caused when concrete was dumped into the line.

Council member Brenda Moyers was the first to object to this, saying despite the legal liability, "the city has a responsibility to its citizens."

Zimmerman suggested the board contact the insurance company and try to work out an arrangement. Cummins said the council would have an answer for Lutes by the next meeting.