Is there anywhere on the City website or on Facebook that shows what the water level is on a daily or weekly basis? Wouldn’t that help the publicity?
City Beat: It’s posted on the City’s Facebook page, City of Bartlesville GOV, when new statistics become available. You can also find information on the City’s website here: www.cityofbartlesville.org. (In addition, search “water conservation” on the City’s website for previously published information.)
Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen: We have been and continue communicating through TV, radio, newspaper, City Council meetings, social media, the schools (through their notification system), email (through City Beat), City’s website, billboards and putting notes in the water bill the last several months. We don’t have the ability to robo-call or send out mass emails to the customers, but I believe we have hit almost every viable communication tool that we have available. We’ll continue to communicate in all of these forums and appreciate any assistance citizens can provide in interactions with neighbors.
Some people have no idea water restrictions are even in place. I don’t ever see anything in my water bill, both through email notification and hard copy reminding people of the shortages and to conserve. It seems like if the City was serious it would be promoting the heck out of it to their customers, not just on Facebook.
City Beat: It is posted on your utility bill and has been for several months, and flyers are being included in future bills. It’s tough to provide up to date information via this format because City utility customers are billed in four billing cycles, each cycle one week apart. So customers in the fourth billing cycle are receiving information that is quite outdated. Or, if the information is updated in between, customers in the first billing cycle will have outdated information. That said, you should receive something in your next bill.
Is there any data of who uses more water in terms or demographics? Is it people that have more money or less money? It seems to me that a 5-10 percent increase in water rates at the lower use levels will not do much to curb water usage. If the penalties were more like 15 percent to 25 percent at the lower tier and increased from there, I think you would get people’s attention.
Lauritsen: For water use versus demographics, we do not track this information. The emergency water rates were something the City Council debated considerably in March and April, when these rates were adopted. The intent of the emergency rates is to get people’s attention to conserve water without creating a financial hardship. I believe the majority of people are engaged and actively conserving water. We’re monitoring the effectiveness of the current restrictions and will likely pursue options that will close some of the loopholes in the near future.
I heard that the City approved renovating the greens at Adams. Doesn’t that take even more water than maintaining them? Hopefully that will be done after the drought restrictions are lifted.
Lauritsen: For the greens renovations, the water use will be about the same. This project is still a year away from starting construction. If we are still in a drought at that time, construction will most likely be postponed.
Who came up with the 2,000 gallons for the average family? What size of family? Also, what percentage of customers use 2,000 gallons a month normally?
Lauritsen: This is the volume of water included in the water meter charge. In April, 52 percent of our residential customers used less than 2,000 gallons for the month.
What’s going in there?
Have you heard what is going into the old Ocean China building?
The Community Development Department is attempting to make contact with whoever is making changes at the former Ocean China property. And yes, we’ve heard the rumors and seen the social media chatter on it. However, the CDD has no permit applications on file at this time.