UWI122NT.docx

1 BOISE, IDAHO, MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1996, 7:00 P.M.
2
3
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Good evening, ladies
5 and gentlemen. Welcome. This is the public hearing in
6 Idaho Public Utilities Commission Case UWI-W-95-2. This
7 is an application by United Water of Idaho to exchange
8 certain territories with Garden City Water Company, which
9 I'm sure you're aware.
10 My name is Marsha Smith. I'm a
11 Commissioner and I'm going to be Chairman of tonight's
12 hearing. On my right is Commissioner Ralph Nelson, who
13 is also president of the Commission, and on my left is
14 Commissioner Dennis Hansen. The three of us are the
15 entire Public Utilities Commission for the state and are
16 here tonight to listen to the people who live in the
17 affected areas about their concerns.
18 We spent most of the day today hearing
19 testimony from witnesses from Boise Water and from the
20 Homeowners Association and from our Staff and that
21 coupled with the testimony that we hear from you tonight
22 will be the basis upon which we make our decision.
23 You will note that we have a court reporter
24 up front. That's because all of our decisions must be
25 based on evidence that is presented to us and that is
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1 contained in the record, so she will take down everything
2 that is said tonight. Because of that, it is not
3 possible for more than one person to speak at once and
4 because our cases are appealed directly to the Supreme
5 Court, when we sit in a case like this, we're like the
6 District Court, so it's not appropriate to clap or cheer
7 or boo or any of those things we might be tempted to do.
8 We will take the names in the order people
9 have signed in to testify. There's a little prompt up on
10 our board. In order to properly identify you for the
11 record, we need you to state your name and spell your
12 last name so we get it right, tell us your address and
13 then give some indication of where you live, whether you
14 live maybe in the North State Area or whether you live
15 maybe in the Millstream Area, and what your interest is,
16 and then you may go ahead and make your statement, and
17 don't worry, if you forget any of that, we'll remind
18 you.
19 Before you make any statement,
20 Commissioner Nelson will ask you to raise your right hand
21 and give you an oath, because all of our testimony is
22 taken under oath. With that, we'll take the first brave
23 person who is Irene Victory.
24
25
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1 IRENE VICTORY,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Irene Victory,
6 V-i-c-t-o-r-y. I live at 6809 Baron Avenue in Boise.
7 Baron Avenue runs east off of Gary lane. I'm a long-time
8 resident of the area north of State Street, the
9 particular area being between Pierce Park Lane and Gary
10 Lane. I wanted to give you a little background on that
11 area's search for water.
12 In the early 1970s and early 1980s, the
13 residents of that area appealed to what was then Boise
14 Water, now known as United Water, to furnish municipal
15 water to that area of town. It was needed for the
16 domestic wells, and at that time United/Boise Water had
17 absolutely no interest in serving any of that area.
18 Without much hope, but faith, we then began
19 to ask Garden City Water to help us and Garden City
20 responded in the early 1980s. I don't have the exact
21 dates very well. Garden City officials at that time not
22 only said we'll help you, they developed lines, wells,
23 reservoirs. Some of the Garden City officials at that
24 time, some names I remember, Mr. Smith, Mr. Davis,
25 Mr. Briggs, really went out of their way to help us in
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1 the sense that they just didn't push paper, they brought
2 equipment over, they brought shovels. The residents in
3 the area helped them with directing traffic.
4 Garden City really responded to our
5 requests. I'm disappointed now that United/Boise Water
6 wants to come in and take over what Garden City so
7 helpfully provided when we needed help so badly.
8 The other thing that I am concerned about
9 is I read in the paper that United/Boise Water has
10 problems with good water and are having to pay to treat
11 the Boise River water which is very expensive. If that
12 continues and becomes a part of the rate that we north of
13 State Street now pay, that's really unfair to us. The
14 other thing is if United/Boise Water continues to take
15 over water district areas, such as Eagle or that area
16 north of State Street and other water districts in the
17 area, there will be a real lack of competition.
18 United/Boise Water has to charge high rates
19 because they have shareholders that expect dividends,
20 where Garden City Municipal does not have those
21 shareholders. They keep their rates in line with their
22 costs. I feel, Commissioners, that ratepayers in the
23 area north of State Street will suffer and I respectfully
24 request that the PUC not allow the exchange.
25 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Just sit tight for a
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1 second and we'll see if there are any questions for you.
2 Mr. Bergquist? Oh, I guess I neglected one
3 part of what I should have done at the beginning and that
4 is to introduce the formal parties to the case.
5 Mr. Bergquist, would you like to introduce
6 yourself and Mr. Booe?
7 MR. BERGQUIST: Yes. I'm Mr. Bergquist and
8 this is Mr. Booe, the president of United Water, and
9 Mr. Healy who is the engineer for United Water.
10 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Woodbury.
11 MR. WOODBURY: Yes. My name is Scott
12 Woodbury and I'm a Deputy Attorney General and I
13 represent Commission Staff in this proceeding, and next
14 to me is Judy Stokes and she's from the consumer
15 assistance division here at the Commission.
16 COMMISSIONER SMITH: And Mr. Kline.
17 MR. KLINE: My name is Bart Kline. I'm the
18 attorney that's been hired by the Coventry Neighborhood
19 Association, the Pierce Park Meadows Neighborhood
20 Association and Gary Lane Neighborhood Association to
21 represent the Associations in this proceeding. David
22 Patterson in the back is the president of the Coventry
23 Neighborhood Association and he testified today on behalf
24 of the Neighborhood Associations.
25 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Those are the
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1 attorneys representing the formal parties in this case
2 and they have the opportunity to ask questions, so,
3 Mr. Bergquist, do you have any questions?
4 MR. BERGQUIST: I have no questions for
5 Mrs. Victory.
6 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Woodbury.
7 MR. WOODBURY: I have no questions either.
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Kline.
9 MR. KLINE: No, I have no questions.
10 COMMISSIONER SMITH: From the Commission.
11 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I have one.
12 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Commissioner Hansen.
13
14 EXAMINATION
15
16 BY COMMISSIONER HANSEN:
17 Q Mrs. Victory, how do you feel about the
18 quality of water you now receive? How would you rate the
19 quality?
20 A I have commercial property on State Street
21 and the people in those properties have never complained
22 to me about their water.
23 Q Have you ever had a service problem where
24 you had to call on Garden City?
25 A Yes, I have.
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1 Q What kind of service did you receive?
2 A Excellent response, excellent response.
3 Q One last question, what kind of water
4 pressure do you now have? Do you feel it's adequate?
5 A Yes, it is. Garden City -- and I'm sorry,
6 I don't know the gallons per minute, I just don't know.
7 Q You don't have any problem taking a shower
8 or anything like that?
9 A No. When I do have a pressure problem and
10 I had one this last summer, I called Garden City Water,
11 went out to look and see if I could see what was
12 happening, saw a fire hydrant down the street erupting,
13 ran back in to call them, please don't come, the fire
14 engine is there taking care of the eruption, but they
15 were already on their way.
16 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Well, thank you very
17 much.
18 COMMISSIONER NELSON: No questions. Thank
19 you.
20 COMMISSIONER SMITH: We thank you very much
21 for your testimony.
22 (The witness left the stand.)
23 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mary Hunter.
24
25
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1 MARY HUNTER,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Mary Hunter,
6 H-u-n-t-e-r. I live at 6561 West Wintergard. That's in
7 the Summerhill Subdivision. It's across Hill Road off of
8 Pierce Park. I just wanted to come and express my
9 concerns about this transfer of the service areas,
10 putting us into the United Water area. My concern about
11 that is, of course, the fact that the rates are going to
12 go significantly higher than what we have experienced.
13 I bought my lot and built a house in this
14 subdivision in 1991, knowing full well that it had Garden
15 City water. I had lived down off of Marigold prior to
16 that and had Garden City water at that time and I knew
17 the rates were certainly better than what Boise City
18 people are subject to, so that was something that was
19 important to me when I bought into that.
20 Also, up where we live, the soil coming off
21 the hillsides tends to be really granitic soil that
22 doesn't seem to hold water all that well, so in order to
23 maintain nice lawns, it seems like you have to use quite
24 a bit of water. I don't feel that it's altogether fair
25 to subject us to significantly higher rates when in fact
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1 we're going to continue to receive Garden City water.
2 The service for Garden City has been fine,
3 but I feel like maybe the quality of the water isn't as
4 good as it could have been and if we're going to continue
5 to receive this kind of water, then we only continue to
6 pay the same rates, so I would request that the PUC not
7 allow this agreement as it stands to proceed. Thank you.
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: All right, any
9 questions?
10 MR. BERGQUIST: I have no questions. Thank
11 you.
12 MR. WOODBURY: No questions.
13 MR. KLINE: No.
14 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I have one.
15 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Commissioner Hansen.
16
17 EXAMINATION
18
19 BY COMMISSIONER HANSEN:
20 Q Ms. Hunter, you talked about the higher
21 rates and based on the amount of water you use in a year,
22 how much additional cost do you think it would cost you
23 if you were to be switched over to United Water? Do you
24 have an idea?
25 A I don't have it for the year, but in the
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1 summertime, my rates run about, maybe $50.00, so I expect
2 it would go somewhere around $75.00 a month or so for the
3 summertime, and then in the wintertime, it would go up,
4 what was it like, 33 percent, so in the wintertime it's
5 not that expensive because you're not watering your lawn.
6 Q So it's mainly just the summer that you
7 would be worried about the higher rate?
8 A Well, I mean, I'm going to be ending up
9 paying a higher rate for the same quality of water that
10 I'm currently receiving and I don't think that's
11 equitable for anybody in this room that's living in that
12 subject area.
13 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you.
14 COMMISSIONER NELSON: I have no questions.
15 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you,
16 Ms. Hunter.
17 (The witness left the stand.)
18 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Roger D. Erb.
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
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1 ROGER D. ERB,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: Roger D. Erb. The last name
6 is E-r-b, 6572 West Wintergard, North State Area. For
7 many of the same reasons that Mary and probably the
8 majority of the people in here have expressed, I've come
9 to protest this proposed exchange in its current
10 configuration. To allow United Water to recover the
11 amount of funds in a double recovery of which your Staff
12 pointed out I think would be unfair to the ratepayers and
13 be a pretty darn good bonus to the stockholders of United
14 Water.
15 I think the major concern that you will
16 find expressed is the fact that we're paying the same --
17 we're paying more money for the same water, whether you
18 call the water quality good, bad or indifferent or the
19 service, whatever, we're paying more for the same thing
20 and I think that would be extremely objectionable as far
21 as I'm concerned.
22 The benefits, there's none that have been
23 shown, at least in things that I've read as far as this
24 exchange goes. We could have two years of the same water
25 at higher rates and that could be extended for as much
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1 as, I think it's, 10 years, depending on an agreement
2 between United Water and Garden City, and I think if that
3 should run that way and there's no change in the water
4 quality, I think that would be a travesty in that sense,
5 so for those reasons and the reasons cited, in addition,
6 in your fact sheet here which is very good as far as some
7 of the summaries in here, I object to this exchange going
8 forward as configured.
9 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Let's see if there are
10 any questions.
11 MR. BERGQUIST: I have no questions.
12 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Kline.
13 MR. KLINE: He did fine.
14
15 EXAMINATION
16
17 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
18 Q I guess I just had one and it was brought
19 out in the testimony today that United Water did not seek
20 to serve this area, but rather was approached jointly by
21 the cities of Boise and Garden City who sometime in the
22 last year or so reached an agreement on where the areas
23 of impact ought to be and where the city boundary lines
24 ought to be drawn, and when they reached that agreement
25 this, what we're calling the North State Area, of course,
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1 fell within the Boise City area of impact but was being
2 served by Garden City water and another little area
3 called Millstream ended up in the Garden City area of
4 impact but was being served by Boise Water, so they
5 approached Boise Water and said can't we make some
6 changes here so that Garden City serves within the Garden
7 City boundaries and United Water serves within the Boise
8 City boundaries, and with that in mind, they sat down and
9 negotiated and came out with the agreement that's before
10 us now, and I was just wondering if you keep up on city
11 events, either government city or Boise, and if you see
12 any benefits to the cities who, obviously, saw some or
13 wouldn't have approached it and we wouldn't be here now.
14 A Well, you keep up as best you can given the
15 hurried life-style we're into now. I guess what I would
16 say, had the two cities had a concern, they might have
17 wanted to contact the people who are paying the bills and
18 I don't see that happening. I didn't see anything in the
19 paper originally about this thing. A neighbor told me
20 about it, and there was nothing in any bill, that I
21 recall, there could have been, that this was even
22 proposed, somebody told me about it, so I guess if the
23 two cities saw a problem, they probably should have
24 contacted the constituents in those cities and asked them
25 about it, whether they saw a problem or not.
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1 Q We did receive in evidence an exhibit that
2 was a, I guess it's Exhibit 301, that was a public notice
3 from the City of Garden City that allegedly was sent on
4 September 7th that talks about the transfer, so you're
5 not aware of whether you received that at your house?
6 A No, I'm not.
7 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you for your
8 time.
9 THE WITNESS: Did that come in my water
10 bill or what?
11 COMMISSIONER SMITH: I have no idea whether
12 it came in a water bill or not. Thanks very much.
13 (The witness left the stand.)
14 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Grant R. Walden.
15
16 GRANT R. WALDEN,
17 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
18 sworn, testified as follows:
19
20 THE WITNESS: My name is Grant Walden.
21 Walden is spelled W-a-l-d-e-n. I live on 7071 West
22 Belhaven Drive and that's in the North State Area. My
23 concern, I did get that document in the mail and I called
24 the City of Garden City to ask what was going on and I
25 was told it was a done deal. I asked was there any
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1 public comment and they said there wasn't going to be.
2 They said the decision has been made and you just need to
3 go with it.
4 I just think the winners in this are Garden
5 City, because more or less they're going to sell part of
6 their infrastructure for $700,000 and they've got a
7 guaranteed water rate for two to ten years. United Water
8 wins because they've more or less got a water supply and
9 customers where they can charge a higher rate and so they
10 have a margin built in there, and common people, like you
11 and I, we're going to lose because we're going to pay
12 higher rates for the same exact water.
13 My other concern is that the
14 infrastructure, we've already paid for it. When we
15 purchased our houses, people, you know, hook up and they
16 pay an incremental fee. We're, like, paying for that
17 again with this $700,000. My concern is that we're
18 paying that again because our rates are going to go up,
19 so I'm just here to oppose the sale and I just hope that
20 the PUC would deny the motion.
21 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Let's see if there are
22 any questions.
23 MR. BERGQUIST: No questions.
24 MR. WOODBURY: No, thanks.
25 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Kline.
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1 MR. KLINE: No.
2 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Commissioner Nelson.
3 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
4
5 EXAMINATION
6
7 BY COMMISSIONER NELSON:
8 Q Mr. Walden, during the hearing today, it
9 was mentioned that some people thought that the City of
10 Garden City had held a public hearing, so I want to ask
11 you again, you said you called the city after you
12 received this notice and they didn't mention anything
13 about there being a public hearing?
14 A No, they did not.
15 Q And you're not aware of one that may have
16 been --
17 A No, because I pay my bill very promptly.
18 I'm an accountant for a profession and I mailed it and I
19 called within the next day and I think I called, like, at
20 5:30 and I was surprised that someone was still there
21 answering the phone.
22 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, thank you.
23
24
25
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1 EXAMINATION
2
3 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
4 Q And have you ever had any service problems
5 or are you concerned with the water quality, the water
6 you receive?
7 A I'm not concerned with the water quality at
8 all. Compared to the other natural utilities that I
9 have, the water has been one of the best we've got going
10 right now.
11 COMMISSIONER SMITH: We won't ask what
12 other utilities you have. Thank you very much.
13 (The witness left the stand.)
14 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Phil Boysen.
15
16 PHIL BOYSEN,
17 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
18 sworn, testified as follows:
19
20 THE WITNESS: My name is Phil Boysen. I
21 live at 6368 North Portsmith, which is North State Area
22 between Pierce Park and Gary Lane.
23 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Could you please spell
24 your last name, Mr. Boysen?
25 THE WITNESS: B-o-y-s-e-n. I guess
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1 everyone else ahead of me has done a very good job, so I
2 won't be redundant in my concern about this switching of
3 our water supply, but I guess I want to make an analogy.
4 If we move to this area and we want phone service or long
5 distance service, we have three carriers, Sprint, MCI and
6 AT&T, and we can choose from whichever one we want that
7 offers us a lower rate, but with water being served to
8 our home, we have no competition, so we're stuck with
9 whatever comes through our faucet, so we're charged by
10 whatever rates they see fit to charge us, and I guess to
11 make a long story short, I don't have any problems with
12 Garden City water, their service, their quality, and I'm
13 here to speak for the rest of my area who didn't make it,
14 that you as a Utility Commission are charged with
15 protecting our rights in these matters, so I'd appreciate
16 your help. Thank you.
17 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Are there any
18 questions?
19 MR. BERGQUIST: I might have a question.
20 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Bergquist.
21
22
23
24
25
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1 CROSS-EXAMINATION
2
3 BY MR. BERGQUIST:
4 Q Are you familiar with the operation of the
5 Commission over rates, authorizing rates to a utility
6 like United Water?
7 A No, I'm not.
8 Q Have you ever had any -- well, how long
9 have you been a customer of Garden City?
10 A It will be three years in the first of
11 February.
12 Q Have your rates changed all during that
13 period of time?
14 A No, they haven't. I used to live in the
15 north end and the rates were a lot higher.
16 Q In Boise Water's territory?
17 A Yes.
18 MR. BERGQUIST: Okay, thank you.
19 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you, sir.
20 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
21 (The witness left the stand.)
22 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mary Gambee.
23
24
25
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1 MARY GAMBEE,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: I'm Mary Gambee. We live at
6 6674 West Foggy Bottom and that's in Coventry Manor north
7 of State Street.
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Could you please spell
9 your last name?
10 THE WITNESS: G-a-m-b-e-e. I agree with
11 everything that has been said by the others. We've lived
12 in Garden City, I've lived in Garden City, for a number
13 of years. The water is always, I've never had a problem
14 with it when I lived in Garden City proper. Then when we
15 moved over to Foggy Bottom, we haven't had any problem.
16 The reason we had Garden City Water there
17 was because Boise Water did not come out that far and
18 they didn't want to extend it and Garden City said we
19 have plenty of water, you can hook up to the well right
20 behind the shopping area. I think it's No. 10 well, I'm
21 not sure, so I'm like everybody else. Garden City is
22 going through this urban renewal thing and so naturally,
23 when they do that, why, they're wanting to build more
24 projects and so forth and so on, so maybe they think
25 they're not going to have enough water. I don't know,
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1 this is my supposition, and I was curious, I was
2 wondering how much money changed hands, too, in this
3 whole transaction.
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: None yet.
5 THE WITNESS: None yet? Well, you know,
6 you get very speculative about these things and not too
7 trusting sometimes, but anyway, we've had no problem with
8 Garden City Water and I can't see if we're going to
9 receive the same kind of water why we have to pay more
10 for it and that's the reason I know everybody is here
11 tonight is the price of everything just keeps going up,
12 up, up, up, and as far as that goes, like Mr. Walden said
13 a while ago or someone else mentioned, we're paying
14 impact fees again. When you have to build another
15 treatment plant or something like this, then that's
16 passed on to the customers, I do believe. That's the
17 only way it can be if you've got shareholders. That's
18 it.
19 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Are there any
20 questions for Mrs. Gambee?
21 MR. BERGQUIST: Yes.
22
23
24
25
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1 CROSS-EXAMINATION
2
3 BY MR. BERGQUIST:
4 Q Mrs. Gambee, there was a letter introduced
5 in the hearing today written by a Mr. and Mrs. Gambee.
6 Was that you and your husband?
7 A Yes, it was.
8 Q I don't have a copy of it in front of me,
9 are you familiar with the figures that were used in the
10 comparison?
11 A Yes, ours were the Garden City Water and
12 then I had called Boise Water twice and gotten figures
13 from them and then I called them a third time and then
14 somebody told me out there again the third time that
15 wasn't right, so then I didn't circulate any more
16 petitions like that. I just circulated a petition
17 against the waiver to be transferred from Garden City to
18 Boise Water or to United Water.
19 Q I just wanted to point out one mistake that
20 you had in there. You used for United Water a $12.00
21 monthly charge. Do you recall that?
22 A Yeah, that was per year, then, I guess.
23 Q Well, it's a bimonthly, every two months.
24 Boise Water or United Water bills every two months,
25 Garden City bills every month, so you used a $12.00
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Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 figure in your comparison when it only should have been a
2 $6.00 charge.
3 A I remember that. That was why I only
4 circulated a certain number of them and then I just wrote
5 up this petition and passed it around.
6 MR. BERGQUIST: Fine. Thank you very much.
7 THE WITNESS: You're welcome.
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Any other questions?
9 MR. WOODBURY: No questions. Thank you.
10 COMMISSIONER NELSON: None for me.
11 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you very much,
12 Mrs. Gambee.
13 (The witness left the stand.)
14 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Jack Gambee. Do you
15 want to add anything?
16 MR. GAMBEE: No, my wife expressed it very,
17 very well. Thank you.
18 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Okay. The next person
19 is Barb --
20 MS. SVETICH: -- Svetich.
21 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you very much.
22
23
24
25
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1 BARB SVETICH,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Barb Svetich.
6 That's S-v-e-t-i-c-h. I live at 6683 West Toby. That's
7 in Pierce Park Meadows Subdivision north of State. I am
8 the outgoing secretary of the Pierce Park Meadows
9 Homeowners Association. I am a housewife and we're a one
10 income family and as a way of stretching our budget and
11 earning a little extra money, I grow organic fruits and
12 vegetables, so naturally, the summer irrigation costs are
13 pretty important to me.
14 As a homeowner and as a representative of
15 my homeowners association, we feel that this process has
16 not been fair to us, partly because, as has already been
17 mentioned, the idea of our having to pay for the same
18 water through the same delivery system and being charged
19 more. We don't feel that that is fair. We also feel
20 that in making this agreement, we, the homeowners, were
21 kind of overlooked and underrepresented and we don't feel
22 that was fair either.
23 When the idea of swapping the areas of
24 impact or determining the areas of impact was first kind
25 of floating around, it had been our impression that,
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1 okay, from then on the water system would be from Boise
2 Water in the Boise area of impact, but there had not been
3 any suggestion that we who were already on the Garden
4 City Water would be taken off of it and so this came as
5 rather a shock and a surprise to us.
6 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Is that it?
7 THE WITNESS: Uh-huh.
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Are there any
9 questions?
10 MR. BERGQUIST: I have no questions.
11 MR. KLINE: I have a question.
12 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Kline.
13
14 CROSS-EXAMINATION
15
16 BY MR. KLINE:
17 Q Ms. Svetich, if you have to -- if your cost
18 of obtaining water to irrigate your vegetables goes up,
19 say, 30 or 35 percent, are you going to have to raise the
20 price that you charge for your vegetables and fruits?
21 A Well, what I grow is mainly parsley,
22 lettuce and Jerusalem artichokes and there is only so
23 much you can charge for those things, so, in effect, I'll
24 be growing them pretty much free, just for the joy of
25 growing, I guess, because I make a very small profit now.
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1 MR. KLINE: Thank you.
2 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you very much.
3 (The witness left the stand.)
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Don Brennan.
5
6 DON BRENNAN,
7 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
8 sworn, testified as follows:
9
10 THE WITNESS: Members of the Commission, my
11 name is Don Brennan, B-r-e-n-n-a-n. I live at 5260
12 Liverpool in Coventry Manor, along with many of the other
13 people that are out here tonight. I feel the reason we
14 bought our home in 1993 was knowing that we were in the
15 Garden City Water District and, of course, myself being
16 acquainted with water rates throughout the community, I
17 realized that the rates in Garden City were substantially
18 lower than they were in Boise City.
19 Also, prior to purchasing our home, we were
20 on the Capitol, I believe it's Capitol, Water Development
21 Corporation -- Mr. Booe, is that correct -- and
22 consequently --
23 MR. BOOE: Yes, it is.
24 COMMISSIONER SMITH: There is a Capitol
25 Water Company.
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1 THE WITNESS: That's the one we were on --
2 and consequently, our rates, of course, as most people
3 know, were only $8.00 in the winter and $16.00 in the
4 summer, so they were even lower than the Garden City
5 rates and we were, again, aware of that and certainly,
6 water rates have a lot to do with the expense of home
7 owning, as I imagine everyone here knows.
8 I felt, first of all, as a former city
9 official that the homeowners should have been informed
10 about the area of impact and the changes and I can't
11 remember being informed. I do remember something coming
12 from Garden City indicating that they were interested in
13 this area and that there was going to -- I'm not sure
14 what it was, I don't know whether it was a hearing or
15 not, but there was going to be something relative to
16 this.
17 I'm like the other gentleman who spoke, I
18 didn't know at that time, I thought it would have to come
19 to this Commission, again, knowing a little bit about the
20 law, so I didn't go down to whatever it was at Garden
21 City, but anyway, I feel a 34 percent increase is not
22 small and that is what I noticed in your material that
23 was handed out and, of course, I think it could have
24 changed some of the people in this room's plans about
25 perhaps purchasing their homes had they known that this
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1 was immediately going to happen, and I say immediately
2 because only owning my home three years, that's fairly
3 immediate.
4 As for fairness, as others have said, I
5 don't think it's fair to suddenly change, at least to
6 change on paper, and not to change the water system
7 itself, and I understand this could take as long as 10
8 years and I don't feel as long as we're on the Garden
9 City Water system, really, that a change on paper should
10 be mandated here. I don't think that's right in Boise
11 City and I don't think that's right in Garden City.
12 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Let's see if there are
13 any questions.
14 MR. BERGQUIST: I have no questions, Don.
15 MR. KLINE: No.
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Yeah.
17 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Commissioner Nelson.
18
19 EXAMINATION
20
21 BY COMMISSIONER NELSON:
22 Q Mr. Brennan, being a former city councilman
23 in a roomful of concerned citizens up in front of them
24 like this must bring back some memories.
25 A It does. I said to someone that I remember
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1 the last time we had a hearing like this in Boise City
2 and, consequently, it was Smith's Food King wanting to
3 put a store in a particular place in town, I think
4 Mr. Booe was there, and that was the hardest thing I had
5 to do was turn that decision down. Now I understand
6 they're coming back in, but, anyway, I think any time
7 you're talking about the economy and you're talking about
8 rates increasing, I think it's going to stir up quite a
9 few people and I think it's got to really be fair and I
10 think there needs to be more study given to this and if
11 it takes two years or ten years, there should be.
12 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
13 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you, sir.
14 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
15 (The witness left the stand. )
16 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mildred Jacobs.
17 MS. JACOBS: I would just say what
18 everybody else has, so I'm going to give my turn to
19 somebody else.
20 COMMISSIONER SMITH: All right, thank you.
21 Gary Allison.
22 MR. ALLISON: I will withdraw my name. I
23 think everything has been covered that I was going to
24 say.
25 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you, sir.
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1 B. Frances Allen.
2 MS. ALLEN: I'll go along with the rest of
3 them, the same thing as the rest of them said.
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Jerry Man --
5 MR. MANVILLE: I'll help you out, Manville.
6 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you. It looks
7 like our pencil lost its sharpness.
8
9 GERRY MANVILLE,
10 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
11 sworn, testified as follows:
12
13 THE WITNESS: I'm Gerry Manville,
14 M-a-n-v-i-l-l-e. I live at 7021 Belhaven Drive, which is
15 in the Gary Lane Meadows Association. I agree with most
16 everything that's been said tonight, but I wanted to ask
17 one question. I don't know actually how much we are
18 talking about. I've seen it in the paper from six to
19 eight percent for low and up to 50 percent for high and I
20 suppose that these gentlemen cannot tell me any more
21 about it now than they could, but I do ask them, does the
22 outcome of this hearing that you are going to have, is
23 that contingent or is your buying contingent upon that
24 answer or is it already bought and what would you do if
25 it isn't granted?
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1 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Manville, our
2 format doesn't allow for a question and answer
3 type-scenario, but I can tell you that in Mr. Booe's
4 rebuttal testimony, which we heard earlier today, he
5 stated, and correct me if I'm wrong, that if the
6 Commission chose the Staff accounting adjustments, which
7 essentially would not allow any of the premium to be
8 recovered by the Company, they would not go forward.
9 THE WITNESS: Well, one other question that
10 I wanted to ask you is our homeowners association is
11 controlled by law to not raise their rates or their
12 assessments more than five percent in any one year, and
13 if we get our rates raised for our water, which is a big
14 share of our budget, we can only raise our rates five
15 percent and if somebody else is allowed to raise it 10,
16 15, 20 percent, whatever, it's going to present a problem
17 to us to stay in business and I was just kind of
18 wondering, we're not under the same set of laws?
19 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Well, I'll just say
20 that happily the Commission has no jurisdiction over your
21 homeowners agreement.
22 THE WITNESS: Well, it was drawn up under
23 the State of Idaho laws.
24 COMMISSIONER SMITH: I'm certain that there
25 must be provisions in there in how you would have to go
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1 about amending it if it became such a problem that your
2 homeowners association couldn't operate.
3 THE WITNESS: Well, the only other thing
4 that I would like to agree with is the gentleman that
5 spoke ahead of me that a 34 percent or 35 percent
6 increase sounds like an awful lot. If they can go along
7 for years at what they're doing and they take over the
8 same operation and so on and so forth, other than paying
9 their past debts or recovering whatever they want to
10 recover, it doesn't seem to me like it should be -- they
11 should be allowed to charge that much and I have no idea
12 how much it's going to be yet, but if you're going to the
13 maximum of 34 or 39 percent, it seems to me like it's out
14 of reason, but that's been brought up before, so I won't
15 be repetitious.
16 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Okay, do we have any
17 questions?
18 MR. BERGQUIST: I have no questions.
19 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you, sir.
20 (The witness left the stand.)
21 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Clifford Adams.
22
23
24
25
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1 CLIFFORD ADAMS,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Clifford Adams,
6 A-d-a-m-s. I'm from Glenbrier Mobile Home, 5374 North
7 Glencrest Lane. I'm the manager of the Glenbrier Mobile
8 Home Park and if this increase goes in, the management
9 will have to increase the prices. We have 105 mobile
10 homes in the park. By raising these rents, why, most of
11 the people in there are on fixed income which puts quite
12 a pressure on them.
13 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Are there any
14 questions?
15 MR. BERGQUIST: No questions.
16
17 EXAMINATION
18
19 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
20 Q I guess I had one, and so, Mr. Adams, this
21 mobile home park is what we call master metered, there's
22 just one meter?
23 A One meter, yes.
24 Q And it serves the whole park?
25 A Management handles it, yes.
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CSB REPORTING ADAMS (Com)
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1 Q And then your charge --
2 A They're charged for rent.
3 Q -- includes water?
4 A Yes.
5 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Okay, I understand.
6 Thank you very much for your testimony.
7 (The witness left the stand.)
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Elizabeth Benham.
9
10 ELIZABETH BENHAM,
11 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
12 sworn, testified as follows:
13
14 THE WITNESS: My name is Elizabeth Benham,
15 B-e-n-h-a-m. I live at 6513 West Wintergard in the
16 Summerhill Subdivision and I'm a little nervous,
17 I've never testified at a public hearing before.
18 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Excuse me, could you
19 move your mike? Thank you.
20 THE WITNESS: The reason that I came
21 tonight was I had a need to understand why this
22 transaction was being done and I must confess that I
23 didn't really feel that the answer in the newspaper
24 addressed everything, so as near as I can understand from
25 what I've heard tonight, the why is we need to tidy up
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CSB REPORTING BENHAM
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 the boundaries between Boise/Garden City and just make
2 that look right, even if it's only on paper. It's not to
3 improve service, it's not to improve a product, and the
4 best interest of the consumer I don't believe is being
5 met with this transaction.
6 As near as I can tell from everything, the
7 only benefits will be to United Water in that they will
8 receive more profit and at the expense of the people who
9 are paying more money for the exact same service and
10 that's all I have say.
11 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Okay, Mr. Bergquist.
12 MR. BERGQUIST: No questions.
13 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you very much
14 for your testimony.
15 (The witness left the stand.)
16 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Do we have another
17 list? That brings me to the end of the people who had
18 signed up to testify when you came in. If there is
19 anyone now who believes they'd like to make a point that
20 was missed, we could hear from you now. Yes, sir, please
21 come up.
22
23
24
25
338
CSB REPORTING BENHAM
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 ART JETKE,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Art Jetke,
6 J-e-t-k-e. I live at 5480 Glencrest, Glenbrier Trailer
7 Park, Boise. Something that hasn't been brought out that
8 I'm sure that a lot of people feel the same thing, I'm a
9 senior and I'm on a fixed income. I just got a measly
10 increase in my social security and this gentleman wants
11 to take it away from me. I don't like it and I don't
12 know how you people feel, but I can't go on and keep
13 paying. I just had an increase in the sense of garbage I
14 have to pay now. If you don't give me anything more,
15 you're not doing anything more for me, then don't charge
16 me know more. Thank you. That's all.
17 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Okay, do we have any
18 questions?
19 MR. BERGQUIST: No questions.
20 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you, sir, for
21 your testimony.
22 (The witness left the stand.)
23 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Yes, ma'am.
24
25
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Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 DIANA JENSEN,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Diana Jensen. I
6 live at 6620 West Lamplighter Court, which is in the
7 Pierce Park Meadows.
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Please spell your
9 name, Ms. Jensen.
10 THE WITNESS: I'm sorry, it's Diana
11 J-e-n-s-e-n.
12 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you.
13 THE WITNESS: I have a real problem with
14 this exchange. First of all I'm a single homeowner. I'm
15 very limited with my income as this gentleman just stated
16 with his. I think it's very unfair for this exchange.
17 My water bills given that I have property that's probably
18 about a quarter of an acre already in the summer months
19 exceed anywhere from 70-$80.00. There is no way that I
20 can afford 25-$35.00 more per month depending on the
21 increase.
22 I'm tapped out as it is and I don't want to
23 lose my house and I think this is very unfair and I'm
24 trying to understand what the reason for all this is, but
25 a lot of us out here have talked about how we're already
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CSB REPORTING JENSEN
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 tapped out as it is and I simply cannot afford 25-$35.00
2 more per month. Thanks.
3 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you.
4 (The witness left the stand.)
5 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Yes, sir.
6
7 ROBERT UNRAU,
8 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
9 sworn, testified as follows:
10
11 THE WITNESS: My name is Robert Unrau,
12 U-n-r-a-u. I live at 6550 West Limelight Drive in the
13 Pierce Park Subdivision. The question has been brought
14 up tonight as to why this came about and it seems to be
15 that it was all tied with the agreement between the City
16 of Boise and the City of Garden City as to boundaries and
17 areas of impact. I have problems accepting this as a
18 reason because United Water is a private company, it's
19 not a city company. It has nothing to do politically
20 with the City of Boise. I don't understand why it has a
21 right to operate exclusively in the City of Boise and the
22 City of Garden City as a provider of a utility can't
23 operate within the same boundaries and that's my problem
24 with this whole deal and why it's been put together.
25 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Are there any
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1 questions?
2 MR. BERGQUIST: No questions.
3 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you, sir.
4 (The witness left the stand.)
5 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Well, I want to thank
6 you all for attending tonight and -- yes, ma'am.
7 AUDIENCE: May I?
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Yes, if you think
9 something has been left out.
10
11 KAREN SMITH,
12 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
13 sworn, testified as follows:
14
15 THE WITNESS: My name is Karen Smith, easy
16 spelling. I live at 6739 North Glenbrier. That's in
17 Gary Lane Meadows Subdivision and I also serve on the
18 board for Gary Lane Meadows, and I just want to say that
19 we have a lot of seniors and a lot of people in our
20 subdivision that do have a fixed income. We are really
21 concerned over the rate increase. It affects all of us
22 and, you know, when we try to write a letter, I'm kind of
23 nervous here, we try to write a letter asking somebody to
24 take care of their yard or their yard is browning or they
25 don't seem to be keeping up their yard, we can't send
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Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 them a letter and ask them to water their lawn when these
2 people can't afford to do it, and it's a shame for the
3 subdivisions because I feel it's really going to take the
4 quality of life away from our subdivision. The lawns are
5 going to start browning.
6 We do have a large common area, about four
7 acres. We have a really hard time keeping that green as
8 it is. With the water increase, I don't see how we're
9 going to be able to maintain that park and it will just
10 have to brown and that is a shame. Our neighborhood is a
11 quiet place, a really nice place to live. The people
12 that surround the park enjoy the green park. It's part
13 of their back yard. I think it will make the value of
14 our homes go down and I really would like to see that
15 this doesn't go through.
16 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Let's see if there are
17 any questions for you.
18 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I have just one.
19 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Commissioner Hansen
20 has a question.
21
22
23
24
25
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Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 EXAMINATION
2
3 BY COMMISSIONER HANSEN:
4 Q Ms. Smith, I'd like to ask you, are you
5 satisfied with the quality of water that you receive
6 there with Garden City?
7 A We've had some problems, I know, in our
8 cul-de-sac there. Every year we experience, I mean, it's
9 about the color of this desk, a really bad water quality
10 in the summer. We get it quite frequently. I don't know
11 if it's because the wells get low or what happens, but I
12 do have a problem with the water.
13 Q If you knew that you could get a -- you
14 were guaranteed a better quality of water, would you be
15 willing to pay more?
16 A Not a whole bunch more, no. I'm actually
17 very satisfied with what we get, other than we experience
18 the bad problems in the summertime. I can't afford any
19 more. Me and my husband work and we have two children
20 and we barely make it through what we have and I don't
21 know how we're going to do it with a water increase. We
22 try to have a nice front and back yard and our water
23 bills in the summertime are close to $100, if not more,
24 so we have a fairly good-sized back yard and a lot of
25 trees.
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Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Thank you very much.
2 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Ms. Smith, thank you
3 for your testimony.
4 (The witness left the stand.)
5 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Yes, ma'am.
6 AUDIENCE: I just had one comment. There's
7 an awful lot of --
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Wait, stop. You
9 previously testified; is that correct?
10 AUDIENCE: I did. I just have one comment.
11 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Would you please
12 identify yourself?
13 MS. HUNTER: My name is Mary Hunter.
14 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you.
15 MS. HUNTER: There's a lot of people here,
16 not all of whom have testified, would it be appropriate
17 to have a show of hands of how many are here in
18 opposition?
19 COMMISSIONER SMITH: I assume that everyone
20 who is in attendance is not in favor of the proposal
21 since I think I saw all of you come off the same bus, so,
22 no, I don't think a show of hands would be helpful and
23 I'm assuming anyone who had an opposite opinion of the
24 testimony tonight would have already come forward.
25 Yes, ma'am.
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CSB REPORTING SMITH (Com)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 BONNIE MERRITT,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
3 sworn, testified as follows:
4
5 THE WITNESS: My name is Bonnie Merritt,
6 M-e-r-r-i-t-t. I serve on the board, also, of Gary Lane
7 Meadows. My address is 6962 West Belhaven Drive. One of
8 the concerns that we have is a large park that we have
9 that we are required as part of our homeowners
10 association to maintain. That is a four-acre parcel.
11 Now, granted, one can say, well, you moved into this area
12 knowing this. Well, yes, we did -- well, actually we
13 didn't know about this four-acre parcel because it's
14 behind some houses, but the point is that as 140 houses
15 are part of this homeowners association, as part of our
16 upkeep, we are required to keep this park up.
17 I talked to the original developer and he
18 told me that the city required the development of this
19 subdivision to include a park, so going into the
20 subdivision some dozen years ago, Max Boesiger and his
21 group were required to place the park. This was the
22 planning commission at the time that required this. The
23 homeowners association was set up as part of this to
24 maintain the park.
25 The costs of paying for that park and the
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CSB REPORTING MERRITT
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 other -- we have a lot that's at the entrance, those two
2 areas cost us only $1,500 in water this year alone, but
3 the previous year cost us over 3,500. This may have been
4 information that was presented today, but it's a
5 substantial amount of difference. When we have a hot
6 summer, we have a very needy park area and we are
7 required to keep it up. It's a double entendre. It's a
8 double-edged sword that we're facing.
9 In order to keep up our park, we have to
10 pay, we have to keep the water coming; on the other hand,
11 as Karen mentioned, we have a lot of seniors in our
12 park. We have a lot of people that have bought homes in
13 our area because these are small lots. These are little
14 homes. It's a nice subdivision, we're very proud of it,
15 but we're having a dickens of a time trying to keep it up
16 at this point.
17 As someone else mentioned, we're restricted
18 as to increasing our rates. If United Water comes in, it
19 completely sabotages us. It throws our homeowners
20 association in a whirl and we have enough trouble trying
21 to get people to come forward anyway and we're just going
22 to have more problems and, you know, the trouble is it's
23 arbitrary, it appears arbitrary and capricious, so
24 consequently, we're the ones being sabotaged and I ask
25 the Commission, please consider this and we ask for a
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CSB REPORTING MERRITT
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 fair decision, because if you take us and allow United
2 Water to come in just like this and arbitrarily raise us
3 without advancing our rates slowly over the years, then
4 we are going to be in a crisis this year. There is no
5 way around it, it will be a crisis, and it will be one
6 that we can't turn to any commission and ask for help,
7 because we are, as was mentioned before, this was a
8 homeowners association that was developed way before we
9 came in and we are held by its rules and regulations, so,
10 consequently, I'm appealing to the Commission to please
11 take this into consideration because we're strapped, too.
12 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Are there any
13 questions?
14 MR. BERGQUIST: I have a couple.
15 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Bergquist.
16
17 CROSS-EXAMINATION
18
19 BY MR. BERGQUIST:
20 Q Ms. Merritt, this common area, do you have
21 sprinklers, automatic sprinklers?
22 A Yes, we do.
23 Q Has the association ever considered
24 drilling a well for irrigation purposes?
25 A I don't know that we can drill a well. We
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CSB REPORTING MERRITT (X)
Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 are now within city limits. I'm not sure that a well is
2 available to us to drill.
3 Q We're talking about a shallow well just for
4 the irrigation.
5 A May I ask for help from other homeowners
6 associations?
7 COMMISSIONER SMITH: If they have other
8 information, they should come forward.
9 THE WITNESS: Themselves separately?
10 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Yes.
11 THE WITNESS: Because I don't have the
12 answer to that. I didn't think that we had the
13 capability of drilling a well, and I don't know even know
14 what the water level is in that area.
15 Q BY MR. BERGQUIST: To your knowledge,
16 though, this hasn't been investigated?
17 A That's accurate. To my knowledge, it
18 hasn't been.
19 MR. BERGQUIST: Fine, thank you.
20 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Are there other
21 questions?
22 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Yes.
23 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Commissioner Nelson.
24 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you.
25
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Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 EXAMINATION
2
3 BY COMMISSIONER NELSON:
4 Q Ms. Merritt, I assume this park is all in
5 grass?
6 A Yes.
7 Q Has your association investigated
8 replanting it with a different grass?
9 A Yes, we have and everything we investigated
10 proved to be much more expensive than what we can
11 afford. In other words, we went through the horticulture
12 department of BSU and we talked to some private concerns
13 and anything that we could do to change it would be more
14 expensive, that the least expensive way to keep that
15 property is to leave it in grass, leave it grassed.
16 COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay. That's all I
17 had.
18
19 EXAMINATION
20
21 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
22 Q And I was just curious if you know when
23 your subdivision was first developed.
24 A I think it was 1982, I think, the original
25 homeowners association came together and I think that was
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Wilder, Idaho 83676 Public
1 it.
2 Q When you said that Mr. Boesiger said the
3 city required this park --
4 A Yes.
5 Q -- I was curious because I wasn't sure of
6 the timing of -- first of all, which city? I'm assuming
7 it was Boise and then I wasn't sure when that was
8 actually placed into the city limits.
9 A When I spoke with him, he told me just the
10 city. That's a good question and I don't have the answer
11 to that either, because he said it was a requirement and
12 then when we talked, because we've been pursuing, and we
13 will have our homeowners association annual meeting next
14 Monday at 7:00 p.m., that we've been investigating other
15 options, including selling that parcel, and so I spoke
16 with him to get his response to it and it was in that
17 conversation that he told me that they were required to
18 place that park there, so when he said the city, I made
19 the same assumption that it was Boise.
20 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you for your
21 help tonight.
22 THE WITNESS: You're welcome.
23 (The witness left the stand.)
24 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Yes, sir.
25 AUDIENCE: I might add a little bit to
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1 that. When this was formed --
2 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Sir, you need to state
3 your name. I know you were here before, but you need to
4 tell it.
5 MR. MANVILLE: Gerry Manville. When this
6 was formed, it was before I bought in there in 1986, it
7 was formed under county rules and it went into the city
8 in '82, I believe it was, and the county rules says if
9 there's any -- that's right, it was '89, two years after
10 we came, she's right, but the county rules, if you have a
11 subdivision with 6,000 square feet in some of the lots,
12 you have to provide that common area and that was taken
13 over by the city in '89, I think it was; is that right?
14 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you for that
15 clarification, we think.
16 MR. MANVILLE: It was established
17 originally under the Ada County rules.
18 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you for that
19 clarification. I appreciate all of you taking time to
20 come here tonight. What the public has to say is very
21 important to the Commission in its deliberations and
22 we're very pleased with the turnout and pleased that
23 you've given your statements in such a thoughtful manner
24 and we do appreciate your attendance.
25 We will consider the record in this case to
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Wilder, Idaho 83676
1 be closed at this time and the Commission will deliberate
2 and issue an order as quickly as we can. Thank you all
3 for attending.
4 (The Hearing adjourned at 8:08 p.m.)
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1 AUTHENTICATION
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4 This is to certify that the foregoing
5 proceedings held in the matter of the application of
6 United Water Idaho, Inc. for approval of an agreement to
7 exchange service areas and to amend and revise
8 certificate of convenience and necessity No. 143,
9 commencing at 9:30 a.m., on Monday, January 22, 1996, at
10 the Commission Hearing Room, 472 West Washington, Boise,
11 Idaho, is a true and correct transcript of said
12 proceedings and the original thereof for the file of the
13 Commission.
14 Accuracy of all prefiled testimony as
15 originally submitted to the Reporter and incorporated
16 herein at the direction of the Commission is the sole
17 responsibility of the submitting parties.
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CONSTANCE S. BUCY
22 Certified Shorthand Reporter #187
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