What do Cal Water and the Kern Valley Healthcare District have in common: your money

Cal Water and KVHD

I was just perusing the comments and published one that had a very good point regarding the rate increases obtained by Cal Water over the last five years.

The point of the comment was that the state, Public Utilities Commission, or PUC, after much public input decided that we, meaning the public, had to absorb the costs to make our water "safe."

The writer of the comment made the point that after several increases, the water is not any better than it was before. This person, and most of us who have to use this water, think it tastes like a "sewer."

But over the last four years, we have put out more money to use this water, but it's quality did not increase, just the cost. Maybe there is less uranium, fluoride, arsenic and chlorine, though I think that is speculation, however, it tastes and feels like the same water that makes my hair look like I sprayed it with AuqaNet hairspray, sticky and brittle.

I not only don't drink it, I don't give it to my animals either. www.krvpetcorner.blogspot.com/

As a citizen of the valley, I attended two of the meetings regarding this issue. Most people did not want to talk they wanted to yell.

One point I made was the fire hazard situation. People cannot afford to pay for the extra water costs and continue to try and grow fruit trees, lawns, vegetable gardens without shorting themselves.

So, much like when gas prices rose and put a grip on us all, people curtailed their out of town trips.

Water goes up and the plants get thirsty. Thirsty plants and trees are dry and fire prone, more likely to quickly spread to a structure.

This community is a fire area, but nobody took that into consideration when they allowed Cal Water to up the price of it's mediocre product

Cal Water representatives said at the first meeting when they announced their company stocks were up but they need us to pay the extra because the government lowered the levels of arsenic allowed in drinking water, and it was going to cost a lot of money to create a better filtration system.

How sad. Well, we're now paying, and it's the same old water.

The Kern Valley Healthcare District is now in cahoots with the state trying to drag more money out of us here in "high price, no service" valley, to save them from...themselves probably.

They have been in trouble for years, and now with emails proving the situation to be both a problem with our hospital finances and the state, they want the community to bail them out.

But, like Cal Water, they made sure their stockholders were secure, much like we made sure our hospital CEO, got a raise, and then promised raises for the employees "sometime" this year.

If they can barely make payroll, are being sued by many, quickly threw together architectural plans, then how can they say they can give a raise? So many people have complained to me about the raise and the survey, that the bond measure is lost in the other issues.

Unfortunately, the reasoning given at the last KVHD board meeting by the chairwoman of the
board for this raise, was quite odd. She basically told us all that since the finance manager, Chet Beedle, had overpaid companies such as Sycamore and Tracy Brown, as well as the massive amount of registry nurses, that our new CEO should get the same...

Same what? Overpayment?

Now, at least the state office came up with an idea to help seniors and low income residents by creating a crafty plan to pass along the cost to other Cal Water customers outside the valley, thereby allowing for a reduction of $20 to those hit the hardest by the increases.

The hospital wants to raise property taxes (next we will be discussing the cost of these taxes, as Exhibit A, notes what I tried to get an answer to at the last meeting, that these are ESTIMATES, yes, that's right they didn't want to answer) but it has not allowed enough time and input to consider the ramifications.

There is no hardship relief on the KVHD (Measure "G" for "Gee, we forgot to plan this out") ballot and the state cut a program last year that allowed senior and disabled homeowners to get help paying property taxes.

So, seniors and disabled will have no alternatives if this hastily planned GOB comes through.

But you need to know this too, this is only the first bond. Oh, did they forget to tell you, well, I'll be talking about it soon, as it is on video.

22.7 million dollars also could potentially build a "new hospital" maybe in Lake Isabella. That doesn't mean we would have to get rid of the old one. Keep the nursing center open and use the rest of the space for administration or other things. Then take your 22 million and build a structure with a brand new ER, small acute care, out patient surgery center, specialist offices, or any of the various items NEEDED to be licensed as a hospital.

These are just some of the ideas that were not considered as the hospital has apparently all the information it needs. We the people of the valley have been treated like interlopers rather than voters whose taxes already go to support the hospital.

Point: Will throwing money at the hospital make it taste any better? Or will you still be going to Bakersfield and Ridgecrest to get the healthcare that doesn't cloud up when you pour it in a glass?