Is Government Leveling the Playing field or . . . ?

            Former Anamosa City Administrator Pat Callahan appeared at a Cascade budget work session in mid-December and told council the city has some of the lowest sewer rates in the area; Anamosa's are nearly 3x.

            The Critical Eye called Callahan and asked him why Cascade Citizens on fixed incomes and unemployed shouldn't shine up their scimitars and machetes and go after him.

            He responded, “because rates are extremely low & you're very lucky,” asserting that he would live here if his wife “didn't insist on being closer to the grand kids.”

            “It may be equally true that Anamosa's are too high, but you did not point that out.’

            He insisted you really can't compare—“every town is different.”

            When the Eye pressured him for why, he surmised that a previous sewer plant operator managed skillfully (Full disclosure: that would be Paul McDermott, CIQ's brother.) and established a high standard that the current operators have maintained: very low effluent BOD rates.

            (This of course raises the question: Are/were they paid well for this service?}

            Mr. Callahan cautioned that the city was going to have to upgrade or build a new sewer plant because “The Environment Protection Agency and Dept. of Natural Resources have new mandates for the removal of ammonia.”

            “But it's the farmers—field applications of ammonia and animal waste . . ”

            Be that as it may, there will have to be new infrastructure projects.

            Tell me, are some of these infrastructure costs being occasioned by development?

            Mr. Callahan did not to know.

            Is government doing its job leveling the playing field? Or just facilitating earning for the 10% who are pulling 90% of the wealth in this country?

            He did not know that either.

           

            Keep your scimitar sharp and a Critical Eye peeled for evidence!