20101126Comments.pdf

Jean Jewell
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cdamitch1 (§frontier.com
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 5:27 AM
Jean Jewell; Beverly Barker; Gene Fadness
PUC Comment Form
A Comment from Cindy Mitchell follows:
Case Number: TRH-W~0'-01
Name: Cindy Mitchell
Address: 905 Day Road
City: Coeur d i Alene
State: ID
Zip: 83815
Daytime Telephone: [phone]
Contact E-Mail: cdamitch1~rontier.com
Name of Utility Company: Troy Hoffman Water
Acknowledge: acknowledge
Please describe your comment briefly:
It is absurd for a utility company to ask for a 142% increase on a small water system with a
small customer base, especially when there has been a poor attempt to inform its customers.
When James Magnuson bought Hoffman Water, he was hoping to hook his development, Bentwood
Park, located across the street of Hoffman Water boundaries, onto our water system. Coeur
d' Alene City denied it, and just recently we find out our system was sold to Dalton Square
LLC for $65,000 when the system was valued at $16,000. Apparently, the pump and/or other
maintenance has been performed either before or after the new owner took possession, who
happens to be the water master when Magnuson owned it. It's interesting now that the increase
being asked by the new owner, Dalton Square, appears to be the difference of the selling
price minus the value of the system. There seems to be some discrepancy on when the actual
sale was and when the new owner was declared to the Commission. Regardless of how the
business transaction occurred, the purchase price of $65,000 cannot be included in customer
rates, and this rate increase appears to be just that.
A small article in the Coeur d i Alene Press about a workshop with the Commission to discuss
any issues and provide public comment is ridiculous. Not everyone gets the Press. Not
everyone knew about any meetings or anything being available via the internet. Nor is there a
Hoffman Water office available . Dalton Square consists of rental warehouse buildings. There
is only a drop box for customer payments. There is no one physically available during
business hours.
I understand there are costs associated with maintaining a water system and are passed onto
customers. However, increases should not be blatantly higher than the City of Coeur d' Alene
water customers.
I am probably too late to submit comment. My husband attended the workshop on Nov 9th to a
group of 9 people, 2 of which were not even on the system and were from Bentwood Park. He did
place calls to the Commission with questions and comments. I see the Commission has posted
their comments to their audit as of Nov. 23rd. I have not read them thoroughly.
The form submitted on http://www . puc. idaho. gov Iforms/ipuc1/ipuc . html
IP address is 68.238.139.88
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Jean Jewell
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jhowell(§snowpeakforest.com
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 8:41 AM
Jean Jewell; Beverly Barker; Gene Fadness
PUC Comment Form
A Comment from Jon Howell follows:
Case Number: TRH-W-10-01
Name: Jon Howell
Address: 5105 N. Ezy St
City: Coeur d Alene
State: ID
Zip: 83815
Daytime Telephone: [phone]
Contact E-Mail: jhowell~snowpeakforest.com Name of utility Company: Troy Hoffman Water Corp
Acknowledge: acknowledge
Please describe your comment briefly:
We bought our home in 1986 partially due to the water rates being so attractive & the fact
of being on a community well . We realize that our rates have been very stable for quite some
time now & that at some point we would be faced with an increase but 142% ... all at once
seems rather drastic... ? i understand that the new owners have the right to have their rates
reviewed by the commission and ask for a hike. But at this point if approved as is proposed
our rates will be elevated to a point where it will bring some hardships on some of the
users. It would appear to me that some sort of a gradual increase in rate would be more
appropriate and therefore allow the users to gradually accept the higher rate. Especially
during these economic times. Am I correct in assuming that even with a rate hike that the
system will still have no emergency back up power supply to prevent the users from
experiencing the entire system going down during power outages ? As was the case during the
1996 Ice Storm when all of us users went without any domestic water for several days . No
toilets, no water at all. I i d like to think that if the rate gets elevated to where it is
proposed and would make it about as high as the city of CDA then we should be getting the
same dependability of supply as the cities users receive. As it stands I do not believe that
is the case however. I appreciate you taking the time to review these comments.
The form submitted on http://www . puc. idaho. gov Iforms/ipuc1/ipuc. html
IP address is 74.87.143.219
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