To ALL Genoa Township Democrats and Republicans against wasting public money.
Sign the petition. Stop the waste of money for the wastewater pipeline bond. Help me defeat this bond.
A better, cheaper alternative exists. Here are the numbers:
The Bond Numbers:
$300 a year or more: $4,300 total cost per household for the $6 million wastewater pipeline bond.
VS the cheaper alternative:
$ 240 a year for township provided soft water plus (for 1,000 homes in Northshore and Oakpoint Subs.)
$ 88 a year for Oak Point wastewater plant improvements.
$ 328 subtotal
-60 a year savings in salt costs, and you NEVER have to BUY SALT AGAIN!
$268 TOTAL a year - $32 a year cheaper than the wasteful pipeline bond.
for household on wells: (400 households in the Tri-lakes area)
$ 240 a year for potassium chloride ($20 a bag at Costco).
$ 88 a year for Oak Point wastewater plant improvements.
$ 6 a year for inspection for salt at grinder pumps.
$ 334 a year subtotal.
-60 a year savings in salt cost - you are buying potassium instead
$ 274 TOTAL a year - $26 a year cheaper than the wasteful pipeline bond.
In addition to the cost savings, we get getter water in the deal. No unhealthy salt in our household water or in the Oak Point wastewater plant effluent.
All democrats and all Republicans against wasting money help me defeat this bond buy signing and circulating in Genoa Township the petition so that a vote of the people will be required to issue this bond. We need 1,600 signatures or 10% of the registered voters on the petition to STOP THIS BOND!
Jim Delcamp
jrdel@att.net
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
NO PIPELINE BOND!
To all Genoa Township Democrats and to all Republicans who oppose wasting money:
The Genoa Township board voted (on February 18th) for a $5 million (really $6 million ) wastewater pipeline bond. But we can still stop it by signing a petition requiring a vote before the bond is issued. 10 percent of voters (1,600 of 16,000) must sign the petition to stop the bond.
We should spend our money for improved water quality, not on the wastewater pipeline!
This bond is for a $5 million dollar pipeline plus $1 million in improvements to the Genoa Oceola wastewater plant ($6 million total) to handle the new inflow from the Oak Point wastewater plant - which is slated to be shut down (but can be saved and improved). Salt from household softeners is going into the plant settling pond and then into groundwater causing a plume of salted groundwater south of the plant. The State has a standard that the plant wastewater must be below 150mg/l. The township wants a 5 mile pipeline to redirect the wastewater all the way to the Genoa Oceola plant.
Better, and cheaper is to provide households connected to the OakPoint water delivery system (1,000 households) with softened water so they do not need to use water softeners thus saving all of the cost and difficulty of using salt and reducing the salt flow into the wastewater plant to within State limits.
Households connected to the wastewater system in the Tri lakes area who are on wells (400 residents) can use potassium or switch (when their system gets old) to the new no-salt water conditioning systems. (No more salt or potassium bags to buy and lug home!). Buying potassium is still cheaper than the cost of the pipeline bond ($240 a year vs $360 a year - $300 for the bond plus $60 for salt) and the no salt systems at $2,400 are way cheaper than the $4,300 full cost of the 5 mile pipeline! (1,400 residents paying $6 million dollars).
No Pipeline Bond!
Use our money for better water, not a wasteful wastewater pipeline!
Cut the salt, improve our water quality!
Save the Oak Point wastewater plant!
The township has petitions, or I have petitions you can sign and pass around calling for a vote on this before the bond can be approved.
If you have questions or want to sign or circulate petitions, contact me for details
Jim Delcamp
jrdel@att.net
The Genoa Township board voted (on February 18th) for a $5 million (really $6 million ) wastewater pipeline bond. But we can still stop it by signing a petition requiring a vote before the bond is issued. 10 percent of voters (1,600 of 16,000) must sign the petition to stop the bond.
We should spend our money for improved water quality, not on the wastewater pipeline!
This bond is for a $5 million dollar pipeline plus $1 million in improvements to the Genoa Oceola wastewater plant ($6 million total) to handle the new inflow from the Oak Point wastewater plant - which is slated to be shut down (but can be saved and improved). Salt from household softeners is going into the plant settling pond and then into groundwater causing a plume of salted groundwater south of the plant. The State has a standard that the plant wastewater must be below 150mg/l. The township wants a 5 mile pipeline to redirect the wastewater all the way to the Genoa Oceola plant.
Better, and cheaper is to provide households connected to the OakPoint water delivery system (1,000 households) with softened water so they do not need to use water softeners thus saving all of the cost and difficulty of using salt and reducing the salt flow into the wastewater plant to within State limits.
Households connected to the wastewater system in the Tri lakes area who are on wells (400 residents) can use potassium or switch (when their system gets old) to the new no-salt water conditioning systems. (No more salt or potassium bags to buy and lug home!). Buying potassium is still cheaper than the cost of the pipeline bond ($240 a year vs $360 a year - $300 for the bond plus $60 for salt) and the no salt systems at $2,400 are way cheaper than the $4,300 full cost of the 5 mile pipeline! (1,400 residents paying $6 million dollars).
No Pipeline Bond!
Use our money for better water, not a wasteful wastewater pipeline!
Cut the salt, improve our water quality!
Save the Oak Point wastewater plant!
The township has petitions, or I have petitions you can sign and pass around calling for a vote on this before the bond can be approved.
If you have questions or want to sign or circulate petitions, contact me for details
Jim Delcamp
jrdel@att.net
Friday, January 11, 2013
Tell Genoa Township Trustees to vote NO on the Sewer Bond!
To anyone reading this blog living in Oak Point, Tri Lakes or North Shore (in Genoa Township) who are served by the Oak Point wastewater treatment plant, tell your township trustees to vote NO on the sewer bond. The bond will stick us with a 5 million dollar five mile pipeline to the Genoa / Oceola treatment plant - a cost of $3571 per household for the 1,400 households served by the Oak Point plant. The bond will likely be voted on in late January or early February by the Board.
Township officials are pushing this bond and pipeline because groundwater below the Oak Point plant is being contaminated by salt from the water softeners of households connected to the plant. The Plant does not treat for salt, but lets it seep in settling ponds into the ground and groundwater. By connecting to the Genoa Oceola plant 5 miles away this salty water is directed there. The Genoa Oceola plant then discharges into surface water, namely the Shiawassee River system.
There is a better and potentially cheaper alternative. Ban the salt. Hamburg Township has already successfully done so, and we can to. Hamburg Township allows the use of potassium chloride or any of a number of systems that use no salt or potassium chloride (thus saving the cost of buying salt or potassium chloride). These no salt systems can cost less than the $3571per household the bond issue costs (and you need never buy salt or potassium chloride again).
Plus, many folks like myself have medical conditions like high blood pressure so we need to restrict salt in our diets. ( Our household does not use a softener at all, and this method works too. We filter our drinking water with a Brita - other filters are available for greater cost. We add washing soda to water for laundry and dishwater to soften it.)
And, in the future environmental laws may ban discharge of salty water (brine from water softeners)
into surface water. This is already the case in the Los Angeles County Sanitation District. Google their web site and read the facts.
The future belongs to the no salt alternatives.
(By the way, the cheapest place to buy potassium chloride is a Costco at $19 per bag. Also, though potassium chloride prices spiked several years ago they have declined since and should continue to decline).
Jim Delcamp
former candidate for Genoa Township Trustee
To anyone reading this blog living in Oak Point, Tri Lakes or North Shore (in Genoa Township) who are served by the Oak Point wastewater treatment plant, tell your township trustees to vote NO on the sewer bond. The bond will stick us with a 5 million dollar five mile pipeline to the Genoa / Oceola treatment plant - a cost of $3571 per household for the 1,400 households served by the Oak Point plant. The bond will likely be voted on in late January or early February by the Board.
Township officials are pushing this bond and pipeline because groundwater below the Oak Point plant is being contaminated by salt from the water softeners of households connected to the plant. The Plant does not treat for salt, but lets it seep in settling ponds into the ground and groundwater. By connecting to the Genoa Oceola plant 5 miles away this salty water is directed there. The Genoa Oceola plant then discharges into surface water, namely the Shiawassee River system.
There is a better and potentially cheaper alternative. Ban the salt. Hamburg Township has already successfully done so, and we can to. Hamburg Township allows the use of potassium chloride or any of a number of systems that use no salt or potassium chloride (thus saving the cost of buying salt or potassium chloride). These no salt systems can cost less than the $3571per household the bond issue costs (and you need never buy salt or potassium chloride again).
Plus, many folks like myself have medical conditions like high blood pressure so we need to restrict salt in our diets. ( Our household does not use a softener at all, and this method works too. We filter our drinking water with a Brita - other filters are available for greater cost. We add washing soda to water for laundry and dishwater to soften it.)
And, in the future environmental laws may ban discharge of salty water (brine from water softeners)
into surface water. This is already the case in the Los Angeles County Sanitation District. Google their web site and read the facts.
The future belongs to the no salt alternatives.
(By the way, the cheapest place to buy potassium chloride is a Costco at $19 per bag. Also, though potassium chloride prices spiked several years ago they have declined since and should continue to decline).
Jim Delcamp
former candidate for Genoa Township Trustee
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Hope There's More To It Than This
So Rick Snyder is planning to recommend a plan for dealing with Michigan's crumbling roads and bridges. That's long overdue, as anyone who drives in the state understands.
According to the Livingston Press and Argus, the plan to be unveiled in Snyder's State of the State message next week could include switching from a flat 19-cents a gallon tax on gasoline (15 cents for diesel) to a tax that is a percentage of the pump price. Theoretically, this would help road revenues keep pace with inflation, since collections would go up when the price of fuel went up or go down when the price of fuel went down.
Inflation, though, isn't the state's main problem with road revenues. For proof, look at what happened to the price of the Latson Road interchange in Livingston County. The big problem, one that will get even bigger in the future, is that people are buying less fuel. Vehicles are more fuel-efficient. Some, such as electric cars, use little gasoline or diesel at all.
That's why Snyder's plan, as laid out in the media, is disappointing. It doesn't ask drivers of alternatively-fueled vehicles to pay more towards roads. That is the real challenge for the future -- how to make sure everyone using the roads pays towards their construction and upkeep. There should be no free- or nearly free-riders.
But as Snyder showed with his signing of right-to-work-for-less legislation, he thinks free-riders are just fine.
According to the Livingston Press and Argus, the plan to be unveiled in Snyder's State of the State message next week could include switching from a flat 19-cents a gallon tax on gasoline (15 cents for diesel) to a tax that is a percentage of the pump price. Theoretically, this would help road revenues keep pace with inflation, since collections would go up when the price of fuel went up or go down when the price of fuel went down.
Inflation, though, isn't the state's main problem with road revenues. For proof, look at what happened to the price of the Latson Road interchange in Livingston County. The big problem, one that will get even bigger in the future, is that people are buying less fuel. Vehicles are more fuel-efficient. Some, such as electric cars, use little gasoline or diesel at all.
That's why Snyder's plan, as laid out in the media, is disappointing. It doesn't ask drivers of alternatively-fueled vehicles to pay more towards roads. That is the real challenge for the future -- how to make sure everyone using the roads pays towards their construction and upkeep. There should be no free- or nearly free-riders.
But as Snyder showed with his signing of right-to-work-for-less legislation, he thinks free-riders are just fine.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
This Would Be a Nice Trend If It Continues
A reporter is only as good as his or her sources.
Anyone who has read about Woodward and Bernstein knows that. The two Washington Post reporters would never have been able to break open Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal without their sources.
One thing that has bothered me about the Livingston Press and Argus in recent months is the heavy reliance on the far-right Mackinac Center as sources for stories. Any report issued by the Mackinac Center usually shows up immediately as the basis for a story or editorial in the newspaper.
It's not that the stories aren't "balanced." The stories generally feature comments from opposing points of view. It's that the stories always start with whatever premise the Mackinac Center report or study or news release is based on and everyone else is asked to react or rebut, as if the Mackinac Center was the exclusive possessor of the truth or their framing of the issue is the only way to view it.
So it was refreshing Wednesday (Jan. 9, 2013) to see the Livingston Press and Argus base one of its editorials on a report from the centrist Center for Michigan's Bridge Report.The editorial encourages Republican Rick Snyder to stick to facts when making decisions, as he promised to do when elected, and takes him to task for relying on phony claims about Indiana's supposed economic successes after it passed anti-union legislation.
As the editorial notes, the Bridge report revealed that claims of businesses relocating to Indiana due to the anti-worker "right to work" legislation were vastly exaggerated.
This approach is refreshing -- and useful for readers interested in multiple points of view
Anyone who has read about Woodward and Bernstein knows that. The two Washington Post reporters would never have been able to break open Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal without their sources.
One thing that has bothered me about the Livingston Press and Argus in recent months is the heavy reliance on the far-right Mackinac Center as sources for stories. Any report issued by the Mackinac Center usually shows up immediately as the basis for a story or editorial in the newspaper.
It's not that the stories aren't "balanced." The stories generally feature comments from opposing points of view. It's that the stories always start with whatever premise the Mackinac Center report or study or news release is based on and everyone else is asked to react or rebut, as if the Mackinac Center was the exclusive possessor of the truth or their framing of the issue is the only way to view it.
So it was refreshing Wednesday (Jan. 9, 2013) to see the Livingston Press and Argus base one of its editorials on a report from the centrist Center for Michigan's Bridge Report.The editorial encourages Republican Rick Snyder to stick to facts when making decisions, as he promised to do when elected, and takes him to task for relying on phony claims about Indiana's supposed economic successes after it passed anti-union legislation.
As the editorial notes, the Bridge report revealed that claims of businesses relocating to Indiana due to the anti-worker "right to work" legislation were vastly exaggerated.
This approach is refreshing -- and useful for readers interested in multiple points of view
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Snyder's Abortion Signing Dispels Last of 'Moderate' Pretense
If there was any doubt after Rick Snyder's about face on anti-working family legislation, Snyder has totally thrown in his lot with the far-right fringe of Michigan Republicans.
The latest piece of evidence was Snyder's signing of a bill Friday that make it almost impossible to obtain an abortion in Michigan. The bill would impose operating room regulations on abortion clinics, require doctors to screen women for coercion, ban tele-conferencing between doctors and patients for prescribing medication abortions, and regulate the disposal of fetal remains.
Those regulations will make it much more difficult to obtain an abortion in Michigan because facilities will end of closing. But Snyder vetoed another bill that would have barred Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Michigan from offering abortion coverage in its standard health insurance plans.
So with one stroke of a pen, Snyder makes it nearly impossible to obtain an abortion in Michigan. And with another stroke of his pen, Snyder says insurance companies have to cover the procedure. And this is supposed to make sense?
Snyder may have been trying to salvage some of his "moderate" credentials by claiming that the insurance coverage bill would have penalized women who were victims of rape or incest, but that doesn't undo the damage that his signing of the other bill does.
There's no fooling anyone anymore. Snyder has shed whatever moderate trappings he put on in order to win the votes of independents in 2010. He now is strictly a puppet of the far-right wing of the Michigan Republican Party.
And people need to be reminded of it day in and day out until 2014.
The latest piece of evidence was Snyder's signing of a bill Friday that make it almost impossible to obtain an abortion in Michigan. The bill would impose operating room regulations on abortion clinics, require doctors to screen women for coercion, ban tele-conferencing between doctors and patients for prescribing medication abortions, and regulate the disposal of fetal remains.
Those regulations will make it much more difficult to obtain an abortion in Michigan because facilities will end of closing. But Snyder vetoed another bill that would have barred Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Michigan from offering abortion coverage in its standard health insurance plans.
So with one stroke of a pen, Snyder makes it nearly impossible to obtain an abortion in Michigan. And with another stroke of his pen, Snyder says insurance companies have to cover the procedure. And this is supposed to make sense?
Snyder may have been trying to salvage some of his "moderate" credentials by claiming that the insurance coverage bill would have penalized women who were victims of rape or incest, but that doesn't undo the damage that his signing of the other bill does.
There's no fooling anyone anymore. Snyder has shed whatever moderate trappings he put on in order to win the votes of independents in 2010. He now is strictly a puppet of the far-right wing of the Michigan Republican Party.
And people need to be reminded of it day in and day out until 2014.
Friday, December 28, 2012
What Has Livingston Gotten for SPARK Investment?
The one-year anniversary of the deal between Ann Arbor SPARK and Livingston County is coming up. Isn't it time for the Livingston County Board of Commissioners to ask what the results have been so far?
The county last winter approved a three-year deal to pay Ann Arbor SPARK $333,880 annually to promote economic development in Livingston County. That' on top of thousandsmore chipped in by a dozen townships and cities. With almost a third of that spent, what have taxpayers gotten for their money?
It doesn't sound like too much, based on this story in the Livingston Press and Argus, especially this quote:
"We're just really looking forward to ramping up our retention and economic work within the county," said Mike Kennedy, chairman of the EDC board. "We're extremely excited."
Almost a third of the contract is up and the staff is still "looking forward to ramping up" work? I would think the "ramping up" would have been done in the first few months and that by now things would be in "full swing" mode."
This is disappointing and not a sign that taxpayer dollars have been well-spent so far.
The county last winter approved a three-year deal to pay Ann Arbor SPARK $333,880 annually to promote economic development in Livingston County. That' on top of thousandsmore chipped in by a dozen townships and cities. With almost a third of that spent, what have taxpayers gotten for their money?
It doesn't sound like too much, based on this story in the Livingston Press and Argus, especially this quote:
"We're just really looking forward to ramping up our retention and economic work within the county," said Mike Kennedy, chairman of the EDC board. "We're extremely excited."
Almost a third of the contract is up and the staff is still "looking forward to ramping up" work? I would think the "ramping up" would have been done in the first few months and that by now things would be in "full swing" mode."
This is disappointing and not a sign that taxpayer dollars have been well-spent so far.
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