Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout20080911Vol I Island Park.pdfORrGINAL .BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION OF ISLAND PARK WATER COMPANY, INC. FOR AUTHORITY TO INCREASE ITS RATES AND CHARGES FOR WATER SERVICE CASE NO. ISL-W-08-01 BEFORE COMMISSIONER MACK REDFORD (Presiding) COMMISSIONER MARSHA SMITH . PLACE:Ponds Lodge 3570 North Highway 20 Island Park, Idaho s ~_ llr- __ .- "":'0 rt tnrñš: -0 ("(/0 :: rn("-0 :2°e'šp: ~ rn;:r- _ 0~~ --(fO ..22 i;o CPZ DATE:September 9, 2008 VOLUME I ~ Pages 1 - 26 . CSB REPORTING Constance S. Bucy, CSR No. 187 23876 Applewood Way * Wilder, Idaho 83676 (208) 890-5198 * (208) 337-4807 Email csb~heritagewifi.com . 10 11 12.13 14 15 16 17 18 20 . 25 1 APPEARANCES 2 3 For the Staff:Scott Woodbury, Esq. Deputy Attorney General 472 West Washington Boise, Idaho 83720-0074 4 5 6 7 For Island Park Water Company, Inc.: Mr. David E. Benton Manager Post Office Box 2521 Idaho Falls, Idaho 83403-25218 9 19 21 22 23 24 CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 APPEARANCES .1 I N D E X 2 3 WITNESS EXAMINATION BY PAGE 4 Randy Miller Statement 3 (Public)Mr.Woodbury (Cross)6 5 LuRae Davids Statement 8 6 (Public)Mr.Woodbury (Cross)9 Commissioner Smith 10 7 CR Dick Russell Statement 11 8 (Public)Mr.Woodbury (Cross)14 9 Wendell Winegar Statement 15 (Public)Mr.Woodbury (Cross)20 10 Commissioner Redford 21 11 Art Kreps Statement 22 (Public)Mr.Woodbury (Cross)24 12.13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24.25 CSB REPORTING INDEX Wilder,Idaho 83676 .1 ISLAND PARK, IDAHO, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2008, 7:00 P.M. 2 3 4 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Just to introduce 5 us, my name is Mack Redford and I'm a member of the Idaho 6 Public Utili ties Commission, and seated to my right is 7 Marsha Smith. She's another Public Utili ties 8 Commissioner. The purpose for the meeting tonight is to 9 hold a hearing in the matter of the application of Island 10 Park Water Company for authority to increase its rates 11 and charges for water service. Island Park, as you 12 probably all know, filed an application for an increase.13 in its rates and charges on March 26th of this year. 14 The Company contends that an increase is 15 necessary to meet increased operating expenses, including 16 the higher cost of electricity, lab fees for testing, 17 labor and materials, et cetera, and rates have not been 18 adjusted since the Company's last rate case in 1992. 19 This case is also Case No. ISL-W-08-1, and this is a 20 public hearing. There have previously been workshops, a 21 workshop conducted by the Public Utilities Staff earlier 22 this summer. This hearing is simply and strictly for the 23 purpose of taking public testimony as to the application 24 and the requested rates. It will not be a hearing where.25 we will be answering any questions. It's simply for the CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 1 COLLOQUY . . . 1 purpose of taking your testimony, whoever wants to 2 testify, and let me tell you a little bit about the 3 procedure. 4 When you come up to testify, you can stand 5 right here at the podium and our Deputy Attorney General, 6 Scott Woodbury, who is seated to my right will take your 7 oath and he will ask you your name and your address and 8 so forth and he may at the conclusion of your testimony 9 ask you some questions. I'm sure they'll be short and to 10 the point, but I think we can move right ahead. There's 11 been three, four people that have signed up to testify, 12 or there have been five people to testify, excuse me, and 13 if during the course of the hearing anyone else wants to 14 testify, well, that will be perfectly all right as well, 15 but we have a court reporter and the court reporter will 16 be taking down your statements verbatim. They'll be 17 transcribed and they'll be made a part of the record in 18 this rate application case, so I'll go ahead right now 19 and ask the first witness if they would step forward and 20 that is Randy Miller. 21 22 23 24 25 CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 2 COLLOQUY .1 RANDY MILLER, 2 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn, 3 was examined and testified as follows: 4 5 EXAMINATION 6 7 BY MR. WOODBURY: 8 Q Would you please state your full name, 9 spell your last name? 15 A Randall E.Miller,M-i-l-l-e-r. Q And do you reside here in Island Park? A Yes,I do. Q You may give your statement. A Pardon? Q You may give your statement. A Oh.This is my sixth year up here and 10 11 12.13 14 16 17 when I moved to here and purchased my home, the comedy of 18 errors, I think, started and that is that the Real tor 19 indicated to me that the well water, community water, was 20 free and so we went with that assumption and, of course, 21 that was an error on his part. As we had an association 22 meeting, we became aware that in fact there was a fee and 23 I found out who the Island Park Water Department was. 24 I contacted them, let them know that I did.25 move into the place, that I found out that I did owe them CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 3 MILLER Public .1 money, and that was in my second year, and that I would 2 be happy to send them a check and they also wanted me to 3 pay for the prior year and I said I had no problem paying 4 the portion that I lived there pro rata and they agreed 5 with that, and then I asked about the people that lived 6 in the house for the nine years before me, why they did 7 not pay and why they did not know, and they asked me if I 8 would be willing to pay and I said no, of course not and 9 they wanted to know if I knew who the people were that 10 lived there, and I said yes, I did. I've never met them, 11 but I'm sure that they could find that information on 12 their own..13 During the course of events, our water was 14 turned off several times. That was because of the 15 construction that was going on and other people were 16 hooking up their well and they did not notify the 17 appropriate Island Park Water and it's my understanding 18 they made the connection, so the bottom line is I'm not 19 necessarily opposed to an increase. I certainly am to 20 the amount that's been requested and I would like to, if 21 there is an increase which seems like it's going to 22 occur, I would like it to be over a period of time; X 23 amount of percent maybe in the first year, another 24 percentage in the following year, and that would give us.25 the opportunity to see if in fact the Island Park Water CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 4 MILLER Public . . . 25 1 Department is going to step up, do the repairs that are 2 necessary, notify the people when repairs are being made, 3 notify the people when the repairs are completed, notify 4 the people when a well goes down instead of vice versa. 5 It's always hello, Marilyn, hello, so and 6 so, hello, so and so, are you without water? Yes, I am. 7 Has anybody said anything to you? No, they haven't. 8 Okay, I'll call the Island Park Water Department. Hello, 9 do you know that the well is off again? No, we don't, 10 and we're going through this repeatedly and my thought is 11 if they knew who the people were that were on the water 12 now and if they went back and collected money that was 13 owed to them that this amount of increase would not be 14 necessary, and if I'm going to give them more money, I 15 would like to see the improved service. 16 I'd like notice in advance when you're 17 going to turn the water off, how long is it going to be 18 off and why are you turning it off and will you notify us 19 when it comes back on. This has never happened in the 20 six years that I've been here. 21 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you. 22 23 24 CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 5 MILLER Public .1 EXAMINATION 2 3 BY MR. WOODBURY: 4 Q Mr. Miller, what subdivision do you live 5 in? 6 A I live in the Aspen Ridge. 7 Q Okay, and what was your address there? 8 A 4771 Antelope Drive. 9 Q Okay, and did you pick up a copy -- Staff 10 filed, Commission Staff filed, a report and 11 recommendations in this case and summarized those 12 recommendations on a sheet that's on the front table.13 A I did. 14 Q -- did you get a copy of that? 15 A I did. 16 Q Did you look through the Staff 17 recommendations for changes in operations? 18 A I appreciate some of the recommendations 19 that are made. I note that some of them are along the 20 line that I have talked, but I don't know if there's 21 anything in there talking about giving advance notice, 22 going back and collecting money that is due to them from 23 the past from the people that owe it to them. I see that 24 wi thin here you guys recommend that they find out who's.25 on the water. Why wasn't this done years ago? Why am I CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 6 MILLER (X) Public . . . 1 being considered for a 100 and some percent increase when 2 there's tons of money that is sitting there if they would 3 just simply go back and find out who's on the water, how 4 much they owe them, collect it and then come back to me 5 and say, okay, now we're going to redefine how much we 6 think the increase is based on the amount of money that 7 we've got in. 8 Well, do you understand that the amountQ 9 the Company is asking for is to recover its operating 10 expenses on a going forward basis and not to recover 11 amounts that may have been uncollected? 12 Why should I pay that much money inA 13 advance when I have nothing that has improved service in 14 the past six years, and that's why I say if you want to 15 do it proportionately, I'll give you a little bit of 16 money, you prove to me that you're going to give me the 17 service that I deserve. You prove to me that you're 18 going to give me the attention that I deserve, and if you 19 do that and you take care of me, I'll be willing to pay 20 you a little bit more money. 21 MR. WOODBURY: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you very 23 much. 24 (The witness left the stand.) 25 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: The next person on CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 7 MILLER (X)Public .1 the list is LuRae Davids. 2 MS. DAVIDS: LuRae. 3 4 LURAE DAVIDS, 5 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn, 6 was examined and testified as follows: 7 8 EXAMINATION 9 10 BY MR. WOODBURY: 11 Q Please state your full name, spell your 12 last name..13 A My name is LuRae, middle initial S, 14 Davids, D-a-v-i-d-s. 15 Q And what is your address? 16 A We are on the corner of Poncah and 17 Cherokee. I don't remember the number. 18 Q And what subdivision is that? 19 A We're in Shotgun. 20 Q All right, you may give your comments. 21 A We don't have any problem to the rate that 22 they want to raise it to if we're going to get water that 23 we're able to drink, if we're going to have water 12 24 months of the year. We don' t live up here, so we just.25 come up periodically, but when we've come, quite CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 8 DAVIDS Public .1 frequently we don't have water, and I feel that probably 2 we might have this prorated. 3 Q Okay. The water company hasn't been very nice to 5 all of us. We aren't feeling very nice towards them. 4 A 6 That's all I have to say. 7 8 9 EXAMINATION 10 BY MR. WOODBURY: 11 Q Thank you. You have, you use your 12 property on a seasonal basis?.13 A Yes. And when do you come up usually? Mostly in the winter. MR. WOODBURY: Okay, thank you. COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Commissioner Smith 18 would like to ask you a question. . 25 14 Q THE WITNESS: Okay. 15 A 16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 9 DAVIDS (X) Public .1 EXAMINATION 2 3 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH: 4 Q I was just curious about the problems 5 you're having with the water quality and could you be 6 more specific of what is actually wrong with the water? 7 A Well, our water freezes a lot in the 8 winter when we come up. 9 Q And do you have meters? 10 A No, we do not have meters. 11 Q Do you think it's because of the depth 12 that the pipes that come from the main line into your.13 house -- 14 A Yes. 15 Q -~ is not buried deep enough? 16 A Yes. 17 Q Do you think that's the water's company's 18 responsibility? 19 MR. DAVIDS: Actually, it's the main line. 20 It's not the water to our house. 21 THE WITNESS: It's not the water coming 22 into the house because we have had that line fixed. It's 23 the main line. 24 Q BY COMMISSIONER SMITH: Okay; so the water.25 company's main line -- CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 10 DAVIDS (Com) Public .1 A Yes. 2 Q -- is not buried deep enough? 3 A Right, and I don't feel that's my 4 responsibility. 5 Q When you have water, is ita good 6 quality? 7 A Yes. In the winter it's wonderful, but I 8 don't know about the summer. 9 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Okay, thank you. 10 (The witness left the stand.) 11 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: The next person is 12 CR "Dick" Russell..13 14 CR DICK RUSSELL, 15 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn, 16 was examined and testified as follows: 17 18 EXAMINATION 19 20 BY MR. WOODBURY: 21 Q Please state your full name, spell your 22 last name. 23 A C. Richard "Dick" Russell, R-u-s-s-e-l ~ 1. 24 Q And what is your address, sir?.25 A 4047 Cherokee Road, Island Park, Idaho, CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 11 RUSSELL Public . . . 1 83429. 2 And what subdivision is that in?Q 3 A Shotgun. 4 Okay, you may give your comments.Q 5 Reference to Mrs. Davids, she's just belowA 6 me, so when my water is froze, hers is froze. I was 7 wi thout water for three months last winter. Nobody gave 8 a damn, pardon me. I called Dave and they said well, I 9 guess you'll have water in April or so. This is the 10 early part of February. In regards to having decent 11 water in the wintertime, if we leave Davids' frost free 12 faucet on the water doesn't freeze. If I leave my water 13 on basically continually in the summer, my water is 14 drinkable. I flushed out my system. When I came to the 15 last meeting, I brought in a bottle of yellow water. It 16 came out of my kitchen faucet. If I will leave the 17 outside frost free run continually, I have water you can 18 drink. The minute you close it off, I'm back to the 19 yellow stuff. 20 They need, and I see you guys are 21 addressing this, they needed to come up in June or July 22 and do an assessment of the number of people that are in 23 Shotgun. I mean, they're building like crazy in there. 24 Some people in the subdivision have at least four acres 25 they water. They have beautiful grass. Well, I don't CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 12 RUSSELL Public .1 want to pay for their water. I mean, there are several 2 people in there that have multi lots that they water. 3 They have beautiful yards. Mine is a i natural, except 4 for when I have to leave the water run, then you have 5 great big weeds. 6 Some of the summer people will come up. 7 They might have five units on one lot. You know, I mean, 8 it's just been an absolute, what shall we say, error 9 after error.I'm not opposed to an increase. Everybody 10 needs an increase, but I'm opposed to the big increase 11 because we really probably won't see any improvements at 12 all. I mean, if it's like it's been, I know several.13 people have had a breakage. Some of them will just get 14 tired and call and have it fixed and pay for it 15 themselves, so, you know, I mean, if I had guaranteed 16 drinking water -- I mean, I'm still ticked off because I 17 didn't pay my bill, I was going to wait three months and 18 I finally decided well, I better not.I figured if I can 19 go three months without water, they can gone three months 20 without my money, so it 's just we need responsible 21 people. 22 One other thing that I would like to 23 assess and perhaps Dave will get up and answer us, what i s 24 going on with the Stevens well? I know it's ready to be.25 turned on and pump water.It's not on and that's the CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 13 RUSSELL Public .1 well that's at the east end of Poncah, and I think pretty 2 much that probably takes care of it. We do need a system 3 put in where you can flush the lines. You know, I mean, 4 here we're trying to conserve water, but in the 5 wintertime we have to leave it run all the time or we 6 freeze. 7 What I did this winter, I had a short hose 8 and I turned on the water like we always do and if we 9 leave that on, then the Davids' water doesn i t freeze. 10 The main line is what froze, it i S not our lines to our 11 house, and so if we leave their frost free on, we can 12 alleviate the frozen problem, but somebody turned off the.13 water and stole the hose and I didn't know it until we 14 were froze up. With that, I'm through. 15 16 EXAMINATION 17 18 BY MR. WOODBURY: 19 Q Thank you. Do I understand that you live 20 here year-round? 21 A Yes. 22 Q And how long have you lived in Island 23 Park? 24 A I believe I've had where I'm at since.25 1975. CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 14 RUSSELL (X) Public .1 Q And what did you do for water for the 2 three months that you were without this past winter? 3 A Shower at the condos and haul the water 4 from across the street. My friend Steve Opha has a lot 5 there and his water wasn't froze. His is in front of 6 ours. He's about 300 feet away from me. 7 Q Okay, and Mr. Benton is here, so maybe 8 afterwards you could talk to him about the Stevens well. 9 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you very 10 much. 11 THE WITNESS: You're very welcome. 12 (The witness left the stand.).13 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Wendell Winegar. 14 15 WENDELL WINEGAR, 16 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn, 17 was examined and testified as follows: 18 THE WITNESS: Wendell Winegar, Lot 96, IP 19 Bills, Island Park, Idaho, and 5190 West 2700 North, 20 Plain City, Utah. 21 22 EXAMINATION 23 24 BY MR. WOODBURY:.25 Q And your Island park property is in what CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 15 WINEGAR Public .1 subdivision? 2 A I have one near Henry's Lake and another 3 one -- I own Valley View RV Park and it's the Lakeview 4 Subdivision * (wi tness later corrected his testimony to 5 indicate he meant Valley View Subdivision) * right behind 6 there that I have points of concern on. 7 Q Okay, and does Island Park Water provide 8 water to all of your residences? 9 A They provide water only to, on my part 10 only to, the one that is located near Henry's Lake; 11 however, they were billing people that have hooked on to 12 my well temporarily because they cannot get palatable.13 water out of your wells. 14 Q Okay, you may give your comments. 15 A And that bothers me and they're being 16 billed for it. I think it would be an interesting 17 situation to look over the last two years of what's 18 happened to the water company to see where the money is 19 being spent, what the staff income is, what the expenses 20 are that are going out for actual repair and maintenance 21 of these wells. 22 There have been numerous calls on a well 23 located in Lakeview Subdivision which is just behind 24 Valley View RV Park, Lakeview No.1. The first well.25 going up the road there on Valley Drive has been CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 16 WINEGAR Public .1 requested to be tested. It comes out, you know, about 2 the same color as urine, rusty, yellow, not palatable. 3 Requests have been made for it to be tested and results, 4 to this date I have seen no tests. The people that are 5 hooked on to that well, Kreps, have seen no tests and it 6 is still yellow and not palatable. 7 As I said a moment ago, two of the people 8 on there are being billed for that particular well hookup 9 which they are temporarily hooked to my well for our 10 subdivision that we have and for the Henry's Lake station 11 because it's good water. I don't know why the water 12 association is not required to test the water. We're.13 forced to by action every quarter test for the bacteria, 14 as well as once a year to test for nitrates and ni tri tes. 15 I know those tests have been requested and to date have 16 not been seen by some of the people in that subdivision. 17 Some of the deeds in that subdivision call 18 for the water main to be to their property line or where 19 they can do a hookup. Just recently this last year there 20 was one of the tenants up there in that subdivision, one 21 of the owners in that subdivision, that the water was not 22 there. They paid for the main line, $ 6,000 plus, to get 23 it there. In addition, when the water was turned off, it 24 burned up their pump on the existing well which they are.25 still paying for. CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 17 WINEGAR Public .1 These are people from Florida and they're 2 not able to be here tonight and they asked me if I would 3 voice their concerns. They're located up in the Lakeview 4 Subdivision, again, towards the top. They're near an 5 area where I just sold a lot that a well was recently 6 drilled in this year. That well was drilled 90 feet out 7 of the right of way and away from where it should have 8 been drilled. Somebody screwed up. 9 As far as meters, I would implore that you 10 do not put meters on the lines unless you have five-foot 11 deep meters with remote reading or if you think you've 12 got a problem now with water freezing, hang on. You'll.13 have broken meters because freezing level down here is as 14 deep as four feet and our water lines are buried five 15 feet down, and two years ago when we had a shallow snow 16 and it got real cold, we had, even that depth we had, a 17 couple of lines freeze on us, so before you start putting 18 money into meters which are surface read meters, you have 19 to see right at the surface, they're only about two to 20 two-and-a-half feet below the ground, I would look 21 seriously at that expense. 22 I don't know what has to be done to 23 request or require the water association to provide tests 24 without doing it yourself. I think it's the.25 responsibili ty of the association. We have to provide it CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 18 WINEGAR Public .1 on our wells because it's a public well and I think they 2 should be required, also. If they can't provide 3 palatable water, then you shouldn't be billed for it. 4 You've heard two people here prior to this testify they 5 can't drink the water that's being provided. They might 6 be able to use it to shower. They might be able to use 7 it to water with, but to drink, unless you're going to go 8 to chlorination and put on a chlorinator and a water 9 fil ter purifier to get your micron filtration, it's not 10 there, ladies and gentlemen, and I'm speaking from the 11 standpoint of kind of an outsider looking in where people 12 want to hook on my well temporarily because the well that.13 you currently have in that subdivision is not palatable, 14 not usable for anything other than basically irrigation 15 at this point or toilet flushing, so I would implore you 16 to look seriously before you jump into increasing 17 expenses or increase assessments, because I openly admit, 18 I have not paid mine on the property down by Henry's Lake 19 because I wasn't billed for a year after the property we 20 purchased because we were told by the former owner that 21 that property, you know, we would be billed when the 22 water was used and we've been down there twice during the 23 last year-and-a-half to turn the water on just to let it 24 run and -- well, actually five times and twice during the.25 last year-and-a-half there was no water at the faucet, so CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 19 WINEGAR Public .1 I don't know what the status was, but I know that it's 2 something -- so I can't testify to say how long it was 3 off, how long it was on, when it came back on. All I 4 know is some of the times it is not there and I think 5 that something needs to be done about the, what do I want 6 to say, staff of the association to make sure that the 7 people that are paying the money get what they're paying 8 for, and if that's the case, then I'm sure, as they have 9 stated, they wouldn't mind an increase, but a huge 10 increase, you know, just is not in the cards as I can see 11 it right now, and I think there's a lot of not being 12 properly taken care of, so that's all I have..13 14 EXAMINATION 15 16 BY MR. WOODBURY: 17 Q I have a question regarding Lakeview 18 Subdivision. The Company, the systems that were, that 19 Island Park presently serves are Shotgun North and South, 20 Aspen Ridge, Goose Bay and Valley View. 21 A Shotgun, I have nothing to do with 22 Shotgun. 23 Q Pardon? 24 A I have nothing to do with Shotgun. I.25 didn't state Shotgun. CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 20 WINEGAR (X) Public .1 Q No, I said Lakeview. You were talking 2 about friends of yours that live in Lakeview Subdivision? 3 A Yes. 4 Q And I'm saying they're served by -- do 5 they fall wi thin any of those other subdivisions, Shotgun 6 or Aspen Ridge, Goose Bay or Valley View? So I'm 7 wondering whether they're presently served by Island 8 Park. 9 A Shotgun, I don't know about Shotgun, but 10 Lakeview, as I understand, was served by Island Park 11 Water Association. 12 Q Okay..13 A When they phoned to get Mr. Benton to 14 provide the line from the new well, they was told that 15 they had to provide the main line. 16 MR. WOODBURY: All right. Maybe I can 17 clear that up afterwards. 18 19 EXAMINATION 20 21 BY COMMISSIONER REDFORD: 22 Q I had one question. As far as the quality 23 of the water, have you contacted the Department of 24 Environmental Quality, DEQ?.25 A I work with DEQ every quarter on my water. CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 21 WINEGAR (Com) Public .1 Being the fact that I was not a resident or didn't have 2 that, I will be sending to them on my next sample testing 3 a well water test on that first well as you go up the 4 'hill right behind us there. 5 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you very much 6 for your testimony, sir. 7 8 (The witness left the stand.) COMMISSIONER REDFORD: The next witness we 9 have is Art Kreps. 10 11 ART KREPS, 12 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn,. . 13 was examined and testified as follows: 14 15 16 1 7 BY MR. WOODBURY: 19 Q last name. A Q A live? Q A EXAMINATION Arthur Kreps, K-r-e-p-s. And what is your address, sir? The one up here or my home address where I The one here in Island Park. Okay, I live here at 4130 Howell Drive. 20 21 22 23 24 25 CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 22 KREPS Public .1 Q Okay, and what subdivision is that in? 2 A That's Valley View Subdivision 1, lot 3 No.2. 4 Q Okay, you may give your comments. 5 A Okay, well, my comments is my water is not 6 drinkable. My toilet, my showers, my sinks are all 7 yellow and I did call Benton, I don't know who you are, 8 but I talked to Benton two years ago and asked for 9 information on who do I pay, how do I pay and where do I 10 pay. Well, I received nothing. Last year I called him 11 and I talked to Mrs. Benton. I asked for the same thing. 12 She said I'll send them out to you, and I still haven't.13 got a thing on it, so consequently, I haven't paid 14 anything and I don't feel I should pay for something that 15 is not drinkable. We drink bottled water and last year I 16 put in a reverse osmosis so I could at least get 17 something to drink to make my coffee with and my water 18 smells. 19 It turns everything yellow and brown and I 20 hooked on to the well, the one that Wendell said they 21 don't have hooked up, that's what they're going to have 22 to hook up into, so I complained and you're going to get 23 a lot more complaints, but I still don't know who to pay 24 and where..25 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Well, we're the CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 23 KREPS Public .1 Commission, so don't pay us. 2 THE WITNESS: Don't worry about that. 3 4 EXAMINATION 5 6 BY MR. WOODBURY: 7 Q My understanding is that Valley View has 8 just 13 customers or connections. 9 A I have no idea. I have no information on 10 anything. 11 Q Okay. 12 A I understand that water was supposed to be.13 put to my lot, but I spent $2,000 getting water to it, so 14 if they're supposed to put it on, they kind of owe me 15 money, I don't owe them money. 16 MR. WOODBURY: Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you very 18 much. 19 (The witness left the stand.) 20 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Is there anyone 21 else that would like to testify? We've gone through the 22 names. Sure, would you like to -- 23 MR. WINEGAR: This is Wendell Winegar. I 24 would just like to make a correction. I said Lakeview,.25 it should have been Valley View Subdivision. I apologize CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 24 KREPS (X) Public .1 on that. 2 MR. WOODBURY: Oh, all right. 3 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Well, if there's no 4 other statements, why, I just want, to let you know that I 5 thank you for coming here and please believe me that the 6 Commission and the Commission Staff will take your 7 comments into consideration, and we certainly believe 8 that if you're going to receive and pay for a utility, 9 you deserve to receive the service that you're paying 10 for, and if you're not being billed, why, that certainly 11 is something that the water company should be handling, 12 and if they're not, it's just not good business.13 practices, so I would like to thank you again for coming 14 here and, again, as I said, your statements will be 15 transcribed and they will be put into the record and we 16 insist that when the Staff makes its recommendations that 17 it address some of these difficulties and thank you very 18 much. 19 (The Hearing adjourned at 7:35 p.m.) 20 21 22 23 24 . 25 CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 25 COLLOQUY . . . 25 1 AUTHENTICATION 2 3 4 This is to certify that the foregoing 5 proceedings held in the matter of Island Park Water 6 Company, Inc. for authority to increase its rates and 7 charges for water service, commencing at 7: 00 p.m., on 8 Tuesday, September 9, 2008, at Ponds Lodge, 3570 North 9 Highway 20, 'Island Park, Idaho, is a true and correct 10 transcript of said proceedings and the original thereof 11 for the file of the Commission. 12 13 14 rjf't~+ ~tß _~ ~"'J v- CONSTANCE S. BUCY '- / Certified Shorthand Reporter #18~ --15 16 17 18 19 ",\1\lllltii,\\' t: S "i,,\~,-Ci; . /1/.'" ..,'..~ \,-\\\"ll'"1, V" /....'" .I T ,"'~' Air ""i ~'~ ~ .. .., ..' 1..''1 ". ..2 '" ~""O. r"~ ~". ~:: ~-:: 0 IZ %:: ~ (. \ ..0 ff 0 ~ -: ,l(jß\. " ¡ -, ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~. ,~~ "'ILIIl ,........'.. ~ .; ;.. "11.\\\\\\\\ ~ .... "".11 $., A. TE O~ "",-1llll'l)t l\\\\\\\\ 20 21 22 23 24 CSB REPORTING (208) 890-5198 26 AUTHENTICATION