Some of this is repetitious after attending three Pequot Lakes council meetings since April 2021. One question was why anyone wanting to move into the city and build had to pay a connection fee of $2,000 each for water and sewer.
To me, it left little incentive to build in Pequot.
At the June 6 council meeting, I suggested summer city sewer rates be based on winter sewer rates, as with outside faucets 100% of summer outside water goes into the ground, lawns, gardens, swimming pools, car washing, etc.
They said they'd try to get back to me. I heard nothing.
I asked and received from the city water and sewer department a total water flow printout and attended the council meeting Dec. 7 where I shared this information.
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January-February-March: Total water flow was 10,419,000 gallons.
June-July-August: Total water flow was 18,970,000 gallons.
This is a difference of 8,551,000 gallons.
As I've said before, this is groundwater. I'm sure the city will try to paint this up in a different picture only to try to justify that the users pick this up as a sewer bill that the city has depended on.
To sum it up, 8,551,000 - the medium water user in town uses 3,000 gallons a month. This 3,000 gallons divides into 8,551,000 gallons 2,850 times.
The sewer portion only on a 3,000-gallon bill is $36.04 a month. So 2,850 gallons of water times $36.04 sewer is $102,714 paid for by residents for services not received. This in only three months.
These figures I presented to the council at the Dec. 7 meeting. This never got in the paper for the residents to be aware of as they paid the bill.
Jack Schmidt,
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Pequot Lakes
