Editor:

I have been asking, month after month for the Pine Cove Water District board to change, with the same message they still refuse to hear. Please act now to ensure water security in the future. Don’t refuse to hear years of warnings from experts, scientists and state engineers. Anyone who’s lived here any length of time knows this fact; expect less snow. Count on rain, but don’t count on snowmelt.

This board sits and does nothing, hoping for snow; patching an out-of-date water system that depends exclusively on snowmelt.

Last month was a perfect example. We’re living in an extreme weather pattern. Expect less snow. Expect quick and heavy rain. May brought lots of needed precipitation. May would have solved much of the so-called water emergency. May was the wettest in decades. More is forecast, perhaps not until fall.

The rain simply streamed down our mountain while the minimal amount of wet snow quickly melted. The antiquated Pine Cove Water system, designed ages ago, was little helped. Rain-gathering systems that mimic how snow melts into groundwater are now being used around the state. But our directors could do nothing more but hope for snow.

Oh, there’s something else the board does — making it harder for families of children to live here in Pine Cove. It raises the cost of a necessity, water, by 20 percent while raising salaries and benefits by 15 percent. (How much of this was for retirement? How much a boost in wages? We’re still waiting for the board to disclose). We retired folk forget how hard it is for families. Clothes get dirty faster. Everything must be kept clean and spotless. With each emergency stage downward, families are being asked to make the biggest sacrifice.

I’ve been asking this board for over a year to make a simple change that is only fair and reasonable. What’s the sense of having a public meeting, when most of the public is at work? Every board meeting, every special meeting, is right in the middle of the workweek, in the middle of the workday. The ones most affected by price hikes in water, the ones most affected by tightening are the ones locked out of the meetings, because they are at work. A concerned citizen with a family can’t go to meetings. They must work to provide for their family.

Sharon Cassen
Pine Cove