20061222Comment.pdf

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Jean Jewell
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ggj987 ~verizon. net
Thursday, December 21 , 2006 11 :57 AM
Tonya Clark; Jean Jewell; Gene Fadness
PUC Comment/Inquiry Form
A Comment from Gail Johnson follows:
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Case Number: SPL-W-06-01
Name: Gail Johnson
Address: 16354 W. CdA Drive
City: Spirit Lake
State: ID
Zip: 83869
Home Telephone: [phone]
Contact E-Mail: ggj987~verizon.net
Name of Utility Company: Spirit Lake
Add to Mailing List:
East Water Company
Please describe your question or comment briefly:
During the storm last weekend (December 14-2006), like many others, we lost power and
water. However, for us the outage was part of a pattern of incompetent management and an
unwillingness to invest in the company. Our water went out immediately due to the failure
of the back up generator and the charger for the backup batteries--which should have
worked well since both are less than a year old. I have to wonder about the quality of the
equipment that was purchased and whether the company chose to save money at the expense of
the customer, again.
Also, the decision was made to allow the generator to stay off because there was no backup
generator on the well pump and the reservoir would have emptied before power was restored.
The company chose not to put a backup generator on the well. They justified it by saying
that the power was never out long enough to justify the purchase. Since the generator was
put in, we have had two outages of 11 and 52 hours respectively. Again, money was put
ahead of the safety and well-being of the water users. Being without power is one thing.
Being in the dark and having no water is much worse.
The company should be required to bring the system up to a decent quality before they are
allowed to collect a higher fee for their so called service.
The form submited on http://www.puc.idaho.gov/forms/ipuc/ipuc.html
IP address is 70.110.63.
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