Letters: Lake Lease Response

Editor, The Friday Flyer:

Regarding Ben Novell’s letter regarding the Lake Lease, here are some facts:

He said it “only cost us .83 per day.” That is $302.95 annually – not so cheap. He said EVMWD only “projects” an increase to $1.08 per day or .04 cents per year by 2022. First of all “Projects” is not a commitment and, if you do the math, 365 days x $1.08 = $394.20 – an increase of .25 cents/day. So much for Ben’s “projected minimal increase!”

Realtors know the lake is their “bread and butter” in selling property. I say, if we continue the lease cost increases, the cost per lot will make it significantly more difficult to sell property when people realize how high POA dues could increase.

The Lake Lease cost, as currently computed, would be unsustainable for the POA by 2022. The formula used isn’t reasonable nor is there a logical explanation how it came to be. They spent “our money” to put out a fancy flier, giving false information about how hard they tried to make a fair offer to settle the lawsuit.

Their offer demanded we indemnify (remove) them from any legal obligation, which our attorneys said we cannot do. They also demanded we take on the cost to purchase any water needed for lake level maintenance. These offers were not acceptable and this “big brother” utility has been and is playing political games with us. They have no cost other than water replacement. The millions we pay goes into their “profit” column.

We pay to maintain the lake and then they sell the water back to us for additional income. Something’s wrong with that picture when the law states, “No public entity can charge the public more than the cost to produce the product.”

Dawn Haggerty