Letter to the Editor: Grinder pumps tough on property owners

Letter to the Editor,

I totally agree with Lynda Bradshaw about the mess with our Libby water system and billing. I own the trailer park on the top of Bowen Hill by the golf course. We were forced to go into the City of Libby and also forced to put in sewers.

Everybody knows that liquid stuff flows downhill, but we were also forced to put in grinder pumps to grind up the stuff so it would flow into the sewers which we also gave up lots of timber so the sewer could go down the hill into the city sewers.

These grinder pumps are costing us so much a month to provide electricity and if they fail, it is our expense to fix them or replace them. If our tenants decide not to pay their water bill, it comes back on us to pay.

Recently we have had to evict several tenants because of no rent payments and we got stuck with their water bills. One of them was over $750. Others have been in the vicinity of $450.

We are trying to keep our heads above water like everyone else in Libby, but this is just ridiculous. When we go to City Hall to complain, all we hear is “deal with it” or my favorite, “you’ll just have to pay it in your taxes.”

I have several vacant spaces up at The View and still pay $26.63 a month on them even though there are no services used. Now $26.63 doesn’t sound like much until you multiply it by two years and 12 months.

I’d like to know when is this system going to be repaired? We would like an answer to this baloney. While I am at it, whatever happened to the beautification of the city? What about the mess in back of the old high school and the further mess at the end of Mineral Avenue where the old bowling alley was located?

How come our good friend, whose name is not mentioned, was fined for grass over 3-1/2 inches tall when these people can get by with these eyesores?

— M.J. Thompson