Instead of throwing good money after bad and approving one endless tax after the next in a never-ending series of Kansas City politics . . . The topic of Water Dept. privatization is an alternative that most politicos don't want to discuss.
Thankfully, Jack Cashill's latest column delves deep into this controversy that most politicos want to keep out of the news:
Neither business development nor the lure of home ownership will improve when water bills in Kansas City quad-ruple in the years ahead. So tell me again why privatization is a bad thing.
One way or another water rates will continue to skyrocket . . . Supporters of more money for Water/Sewer repair can only play upon fears while asking for more money but promising to change nothing.
Cashill makes many decent points but the dead tree column doesn't report that American Water has already given up on Kansas City and this town's water dept. options are now very limited thanks to the tax and spend leadership of Mayor Sly.
Not going to happen.
ReplyDeleteMr Tony!,
ReplyDeleteI thought we had a good thing going. Now why on earth would you set out to thoroughly piss me off with Jack Cashill?
Haven't you learned how to separate the chicken from the shit?
As for the Water Dept. Too bad Local 500 has no go about it. They will drown. No saving those that will not heed the Cassandra call. It's not as if they haven't singed their hineys before and barely escaped. Local 42 will not intercede on their behalf unless there is something in it for them. Old 42 in new sheep's clothing.
My water bill went up from $50 lst month to $80 this month because of the sanitary sewer increase.
ReplyDeleteNew hotness?
ReplyDeleteBurns & Mac doesn't want it to happen, and they run City Hall and Chamber of Commerce. Real eyes on these projects would mean big reductions in fees going to Burns & Mac!!
ReplyDeleteJack solved the mystery of Flight 800 being downed by a U.S. based missle, so now he can solve the water dept woes.
ReplyDeleteCashill has an endless list of bad ideas for just about everything and has never been responsible for anything.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy standing on the outside critcizing, and heaven knows, the water department has been a disaster for many years.
What Cashill's take on the streetcar?
Why not hire a former council member to run the water department?
ReplyDeleteHe's got no credibility--he's a birther. He believes Obama was born in Kenya, so we know he's not real bright when it comes to critical thinking and facts.
ReplyDeleteHe was born in kenya you douche bag.
DeleteJesus, this guy is the biggest waste of a human
ReplyDeleteCashill is correct once again.
ReplyDeleteWho is this Cashill guy? I like the cut of his jib!
ReplyDeletewhat the fuck is a "quad-ruple?"
ReplyDeleteJack you ignorant slut. Why would you turn over control of a substance you need to live to a for profit company which can deny access to the substance on a whim?
ReplyDeleteYou are a goddamn moron.
So, by the time that whoever buys the water department , which includes the pollution control department & pays off all of their debts from that purchase, how much do you think that they will have to pay to buy it, plus pay off interest on that purchase debt & who is going to pay for all of that extra expense ( YOU ARE!!!!!!! on your water & sewer bills ) before another pipe is fixed, replaced or the combined sewers are separated as should be in KCMO, you will start getting the bill for thousands of miles of pipe, pumping stations & treatment plants & i guarantee you that you won't get anywhere near the cities investment in $ cash in this, for your troubles of selling it to them!
ReplyDeleteKC faces the same fresh water distribution problems as other midwest cities of similar age. It has aging pit cast pipe, aging spin cast pipe that wears out faster than pit cast pipe & a product called Leadite, a sulfur based joint cement used to replace the standard use of lead in pipe joints which doesn't expand & contract at the same rate as cast iron joints, causing breaks at the joints on pipes where it was used.
Running away from it won't make it any cheaper but will actually raise the cost of this to all.
KC also acquired allot of 2'' Galvanized pipe as they annexed everything in sight back in the 40s to 60s expanding it's in size by 5X ( but it is not called urban sprawl if it's KCMO doing it
Worse, because the water department & pollution control department were consolidated into Water Services, it makes it harder for the public to understand what is what & why it is being done.
The public deosn't understand much of what KCMO government is doing because trhe public is looked at as a cash cow which is simply supposed to feed the gang at 12th and Oak and be kept in the dark until each election when they are then supposed to be scared and snowed by the usual consultants into voting to keep the money coming.
ReplyDeleteKCMO doesn't have a city government. There is a little band of insiders running the place for their own benefit and then there is everyone else, including the city employees.
So there's no vision, strategy, or priorities, no leadershhip, no management, and certainly no real involvement with the public.
And the names at the top just change and the machine just cranks on and on.
Sly started his administration with a picnic for city employees and that's about the last time he's given them a second thought. And what goes on at city hall or the police board has absolutely nothing to do with what actually happens every day throughout the city.
A city that works.
Just not for you.
if you had to go out and build a complete water system for KC from scratch, you'd be well into the billions.
ReplyDeleteKCs fresh water pipeline system will require allot of rebuilding in the next 40 to 60 years, for multiple reasons.
these people who want to buy the fresh water & sewer business of KCMO want to get a cash cow at a lowball price that they can leverage with debt............. And then the poor me/poor us will start when you ask them to fix or replace the unfixable things!
The pit cast pipe in Wornall Rd between 50th St & 61st was installed around 1912-it is 100 years old now. It has a projected life of 140 years of service. Part of it is 16' pipe & part is 12" pipe. Both sizes can obliterate a street in no time at all.
Pipes were being laid back then as far south as 75th St, & east to Prospect Ave.
How old do you think that some of the mains downtown really are? Like back to 1895?
Jack should get a job robbing little old ladies or the mentally ill on the streets.
Like allot of KC Media he is clueless & full of political
nonsense when it comes to utility stuff.
They are all very confident that fixing water mains will just be a snap which is complete nonsense.
Excuse me, but wasn't the e-tax going to take car of all these problems?
ReplyDeleteAs a lifelong resident of KCMO I think I finally have it figured out. In any budget process there must be priorities. In KC they are:
ReplyDeleteUnions - Fire, Police, city workers
Developers
City Council
Shiny distractions for the populace
Maintaining the first 4
Parks
Services to the citizens
Basically for every tax dollar you pay, you get about a nickles worth of services.
If you had an investment that paid that you would dump it.