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Volume 2, Issue 35
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
www.southpointsun.ca
FREE
Weekend Weather Thursday
H 20º L 13º
Friday
H 16º L 11º
Saturday
H 12º L 7º
Sunday
H 16º L 6º
As reported from Environment Canada www.weatheroffice.gc.ca Harrow AAFC
DIABETES CLINIC Wednesday, September 28 9 am - 12 pm Call for appointment
It’s apple season!
197 Talbot St. W. Leamington
519.322.2121
Evan and Elliott Taylor come to Thiessen’s Pick Your Own Apples every year to walk the orchard and enjoy the variety of activities on the farm, located just east of Leamington on Talbot Road (Highway #3). Apple farms in the area are all reporting quality yields this fall. (SUN photo)
Leamington water rates to rise By Bill Chaplin, Municipal Correspondent
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As inevitable as death and taxes, so too are increases in utility bills. Historically, rates were kept unrealistically low. That is what brought about the demise of Ontario Hydro. Accumulation of huge debt combined with failure to financially plan for expansion and replacement of infrastructure necessitated a sweeping restructuring of what, in the private sector, would have been called a bankrupt entity. Now, your hydro bill may be almost unreadable with all the little charges and add-ons that add up to an unpleasant cost, but at least the idea is that all aspects of the provision of electricity are being funded. With the passing of the Water Opportunities and Water Conservation Act in November of 2010, the death knell of bargain priced drinking water began to be sounded. A key provision in the act requires all municipalities to prepare sustainability plans for water, wastewater and storm water services. Translated into simple words, enough money must be collected to pay for
the past, present and future infrastructure associated with all aspects of water use: enough to pay off debt, enough to maintain existing service, enough to replace worn or outdated pipes and sewers, and enough to supply service to new customers as population expands. Watson and Associates Economists, Ltd. are the consultants who have been hired to study all of the information available and to come up with that plan. More about this in a moment. As far as drinking water goes, the Baird Street problem underscores the problem nicely. Rust being shed from the cast iron water line serving that street is staining the water, regularly rendering it unusable for laundry and undesirable for any other use. But in spite of doubling the budget for water main replacement from its former $600,000 per year to its current $1,200,000 per year, municipal council had to tell the people that their turn for a new water line (and clear, colourless, safe drinking water) was not until 2015 because of a backlog of projects, essentially identical in nature, eating up that money every year until then. (Continued on Page 2)
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