Bart Eben says his efforts to seek reform are working

Dear editor:

...I do not think it was right that this paper printed all the editorials about me, with all the outrageous false accusations, without the opportunity for me to be able to respond. Surely you were aware the election would be held before this paper came out again. People that know nothing about me had their letter printed (a friend of Ms. Donohue), it was 4 against 1. Of course my letter would longer. In the letter that I submitted, I clarified every false accusation they made against me, and I challenge this newspaper to put it on their internet site.

I am aware that the election is over with, but I feel the truth still should be heard. I am not in the habit of "tooting my own horn," but it was I that worked for months to get this water system for this subdivision 17 years ago, even though I had a 550-foot deep well and had allowed several neighbors to hook up to it. Then certain greedy people decided to use the Mellen Sub Water district funds for their personal "cash cow" by giving themselves a $100 paycheck for a 15-20 minute meeting. That infuriated me! I cannot stand greedy people!

I then decided to expose what they were doing to the people in this low-income area, as there are many people in this community that don't make $100 in two days, and they are entitled to this much in 15-20 minutes? Oh! Please, give me a break!

And I might add, not one of these board members had any special qualifications that would be of value to this board. We needed to bring about change, well, we did get three new members elected that will advocate new changes, including lower board fees and certain unfair rules they had made in order to raise money to pay their outrageous fees.

There were many elections that were never held that are required by law, that the previous members refused to have. I was accused of not having an election while on this board (only one member's term was open while I was on this board). I did instruct the bookkeeper to "do what you need to do when she informed one of the board members that his term was up, (this is the bookkeeper's job not the board chairman's) that he needed to make out a application to be on the ballot. He did not! (Ron Hazuka).

Then I was told that my term would be up next year, (I resigned in November). This term was up 9 months later. Yes, it was me that caused this election to be held, had I not done what I did they still wouldn't have had these elections, and this goes for the West Side Sewer District as well, and for this, I have been called a "trouble maker." This is like calling someone that turns a child molester into the law a troublemaker (wouldn't you be causing the child molester a lot of trouble?). What kind of thinking is this?

I am very proud of the people that I have helped get elected. I sincerely believe that they will bring about changes that will be good for this subdivision.

The Westside Sewer District is another can of worms. They put a campaign flyer in with their billing statement advocating their own re-election. Not one name of a challenger was on this flyer and is why their election is being investigated. They were using a legal document to advocate their own election, even though not one of these people was ever elected and were serving illegally! Now isn't that a good one?

The people over in the Foster, Smith, Bradford, Garrett Street area flocked to the voting place to vote for these candidates even though these same people voted to raise their sewer bill from $36 to $120 per hook up. Why? Because Whitney Little went from door to door and informed them that their challengers would be advocating to annex them into the city (and this made them shake in their boots). I still find it hard to believe that anyone would fall for this, but they did! (Talk about hitting yourself in the wallet!)

To begin with, the sewer board does NOT have this power! But they believed it. Whitney Little's trick worked. THE REAL TRUTH! Not one of the challengers ever advocated this. NO ONE! Does this give you some clue about what these people are willing to say or do in order to get re-elected so they can collect their easy $100 paycheck?

If these people like giving their money to Whitney and his friends, that's their business, but I, for one, do not support paying anyone $100 for a 15-to 20-minute meeting. My attorney doesn't charge this much! And all of them are getting sewer service, too.

Bart Eben