Eban defends decisions as trustee of Mellen water district

Dear editor:

In Mr. Art Vagt's letter last week, "tell the truth," he states that I had said in a letter I wrote last May in this paper, "I had resigned before my term was up." Yes, I did say this. He then went on to state that I had resigned in November, my term was up in December and that there wasn't enough time left for him to have gotten on the ballot.

Wrong!

I never did say the end of my term was in December. The terms run from the time the elections are held, and my term was to end in August (according to the bookkeeper) of the following year. To begin with, there are NO elections for the taxing districts in the month of December. There are four election cycles each year (Idaho Title 42, chapter 32) -- February, May, August and November. Why didn't Mr. Vagt choose one of these cycles? He had almost two years to run for his seat but chose not to be bothered with being legally elected.

At the beginning of a board meeting that spring, Judy (the bookkeeper) had said, "Ron, your term will end in August, and Bart, yours will end next year."

I then told her to do whatever she needed to do as I did not know what was required for an election. This was the job of the bookkeeper, not the board members. She said she would, and that was the end of the subject (she didn't).

As far as the subject of the $2,900 bill that I failed to collect on behalf of the water district is concerned, I inherited this when I was appointed to the board. I did try as hard as I could to collect this, and yes maybe I was too soft on him. But my question is why was this dumped on my lap? Why hadn't the board dealt with this before? This had been going on for years.

I finally did work out an agreement with this person. He agreed to sell a dump truck and to have the buyer directly pay the whole amount to the water district. He even brought the prospective buyer to my house, who agreed to this. I will be glad to prove this (I knew the prospective buyer).

However, the buyer backed out at the last minute, so no deal was completed. I probably made at least 20 to 30 trips to his house that year. I finally did padlock all six of his renters' meters.

At the next board meeting, they all showed up, pleading to get their water turned back on. They agreed to pay their bill themselves. However, the land owners' total bill was a problem, as the full amount was supposed to be paid in full. Now there are five members on this board. I had done what I felt was necessary by padlocking the meters, so I put it up to the full board to make this decision (I would vote only if there was a tie). They unanimously agreed to allow the water to be turned back on and allow the renters to pay their own bills.

The problem was it took away any leverage to force full payment of the debt. Yes, I could have been hard-nosed about this, but it has always been my nature to try to work out problems without going to court.

Now for the well chlorinator problem.

Art, what you did was trade a "Cadillac" chlorinator for a "Ford Pinto" chlorinator system. Anyone that knows anything at all knows that chlorine GAS is by far and away superior to sodium-hypochlorite or calcium-hypochlorite. They are, at best, 12 to 15 percent chlorine that starts to lose its effectiveness as soon as it's made. In one year, it has lost fully half of that or about eight percent chlorine.

On the other hand, bottled chlorine gas will retain 95 percent of its effective value for many years as it's kept under pressure. Chlorine is the only part of the disinfectant added to your water that makes it safe to drink. Calcium is the what makes most of those ugly stains in your toilet and faucets and has no other purpose other than to carry its small amount of chlorine into the water, as it has a solid compound. It can and will settle anywhere in your plumbing system.

But gas has little to no residue. Like a can of carbonated pop, when left open to atmospheric pressure, it soon aspirates back to the atmosphere, leaving almost no residue. (This) is why a gas chlorinator will give you better tasting water.

Only months previous to your taking over the board, I met with Mr. Brandon Lauder from DEQ. We went over to the water plant. He inspected the chlorinator closet and equipment and had nothing to say about it.

Excuse me, Art, but the chlorinator closet has NO east wall. The east side of this closet it two large doors. NO WALL! When opened it is nothing but a two-foot deep closet sealed from the rest of the well house.

Chlorine gas is a "ground hugging" gas. You would have to get on your belly or knees to be in any danger as these doors open to the outside of the building. Therefore, there is no way that you could be in any serious danger. Yes, you could get a "sniff" of gas no way to get enough to hurt you.

I've been exposed to chlorine gas, and there is NO way that you would not be aware of its existence. The first thing that does through your mind is to get the hell away from it -- long before you got a lethal dose.

A far more lethal gas is carbon monoxide, like your gas furnace generates. You cannot smell it and therefore is harder to detect, making it far more dangerous (want to get rid of your gas heater?)

When I first became in charge of this plant, I opened our safety equipment kit for gas and found it worthless. I paid a visit to Mr. Phil Gridley, your fire chief, and told him of our problem. He informed me that they had all of the necessary equipment to deal with any chlorine problem that we would have should the chlorine warning light come on.

Our well house is at least 200 yards from the closest residence, so it was not a threat to anyone. So again, I ask why was this dumb move made?

Art stated that the chlorinator was old and could no longer get repairs for it. Bull! I installed this system about four or five years ago, made by Regal Chlorinators out of Stuart, Fla., (still in business). I spoke to them on Wednesday, and told them that the system they had sold me was already "too old" and couldn't get parts for it. He just about came unglued.

Art, why don't you call him and tell him what you printed in the paper? This unit is made of the most impervious-to-chlorine plastics available with an expected life of at least 15 to 20 years. There is no part is in that is not available.

So, now what is your excuse?

I really laughed out loud at your story about asking your operator why their well houses did not have a "danger chlorine" sign. The answer is really simple. They use chlorine in a very diluted form, 12 to 15 percent. We used it in a 95 percent gas form. Yes, it can be dangerous if handled by clod hoppers that just fell off a turnip truck, but we are supposed to have certified water plant operators, aren't we?

I checked around this area as far as Nampa and only found two wells that still use a tablet system. Mountain Home is the only town what uses this outdated system, and you say (it's) "high tech?"

Again, I ask you why did you buy this system? And to think, we paid you and your board to make this decision.

A wise man once wrote, "Tis wise to remain silent and thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

And you want to be the president again?

Bart Eben