Homeowners sign letter seeking consolidation

Two-thirds of the homeowners in Sunrise Estates have signed an open letter to Douglas County commissioners asking for consolidation with the East Valley Water System in an effort to save their homes.

County commissioners are considering a resolution to consolidate the two water systems after residents of the 34-unit subdivision in the East Valley said increasing water rates may drive them from their homes.

"Many of us in this subdivision are retired, living on fixed incomes," resident Carol Brundige said in an opinion appearing in today's edition of The Record-Courier and signed by owners of 22 of the subdivision's homes. "To impose and collect such incredulous rates will literally bankrupt all of us and send us into foreclosure."

Brundige said the prospect of paying $1,019 a month for water would force residents to leave, increasing the cost to those remaining still further.

"There won't be a single resident living here at the end of five years," she said. "Many of us won't make it past one year let alone two or three."

Brundige said it would fall to the county's other ratepayers or taxpayers to make up the loss of revenue and property tax.

Unlike an earlier attempt to consolidate bookkeeping for all of the county's water systems, which included three at Lake Tahoe and two in southwest Carson Valley, the East Valley and Sunrise Estates water systems will actually be connected.

In September, the county increased the rates for Sunrise customers by 319 percent to an average of $189 a month.

Residents said that until August, their bills said they were in the East Valley Water Utility.

The consolidation of the Valley's largest and smallest systems means East Valley customers' rates will go up about $7 a month.

Driving the rate increase for the Sunrise Estates-Fairgrounds water system is an arsenic problem that will require a $2.5 million pipeline.

While the county plans to use grants and cash reserves to build the pipeline, there's a possibility that bond proceeds might be used.