GVW's Infrastructure Failures

Here comes the preamble to more rate gouging from the North Okanagan's water utility:  Greater Vernon Water.

This was sent to Vernon customers.
Coldstream residents didn't receive a list of what's failed in Coldstream/Lavington; officials presumably haven't compiled it yet, or little has failed, or bureaucrats are sending out only one volley at a time.
Maybe all three.

(click to enlarge)

And there are scads of infrastructure problems in Vernon.
Scads and scads.
Many involve residents whose connection to city services have failed at their property line.
And Vernon--like many other cities--is quick to reject liability, placing blame on the homeowner.

One such complaint--from Tony and Kay Stamboulieh--actually made it into the local newspaper as a Letter to the Editor.

Mr. Stamboulieh summed up what many people feel:

"...an arrogance that does not have a place

 in the function of elected council people,

 including the mayor or the administration

 that taxpayer dollars pay for.

Taxpayers should not be

 treated with such utter disrespect."

We know of one other case that involves a sewer connection at a resident's property line--which has been reported to City of Vernon administration twice in three years...all with no action by the City despite two horrible and dangerous-to-health sewer backups into the residence.

The plumber who was hired--twice--states the problem is with the City's connected/roadside pipe as his "pipe camera" showed both times! 
But nothing's been corrected by the city...presumably because the homeowner can't afford to hire a lawyer.  Interestingly enough, around the corner of the property, an entire street had been dug up by the city, some work had taken place, and then the street was repaved with no contact made to the complaining homeowner not 200 feet away!

"As a consultant has warned, this could happen again and to other taxpayers unless the city upgrades its maintenance practices because we were hooked again in exactly the same way which was again approved by the city. In short, had we not stood up to them, the city would have completely ignored us in terms of their responsibility to assist or to examine their own part in the spill," confirms Mr. Stamboulieh.

"Big Brother is a bully," Kia would've said.

We all know how difficult it is to fight a big brother.