The following is a letter to the editor that I just sent our local newspaper, the Times Record News of Wichita Falls. The audience is the city of Wichita Falls. I woke this morning it a great mood. It was Friday. I had a good, solid workout bike ride the night before. I cooked myself some eggs - with extra garlic. Then I went to the bathroom to get ready for work and everything turned sour. I turned on the water in the shower and nothing happened. I went to the sink and tried the faucet there. Still nothing. I went to the utility closet to make sure the water heater hadnt sprung a leak. All was dry. I went out front of the house and looked down both sides of the street. No city workers digging any holes. I checked the manhole over the water meter. It was undisturbed. No one had shut our water off. So I called the City of Wichita Falls Public Works department. The lady on the other end informed me that there was some utility work going on and that the water was shut off to my street and another. I asked the nice lady why the city didnt inform us that the water was going to be turned off and she said that the city doesnt have the manpower/personnel to do it. I countered with, How many people does it take to call the three TV news stations and one newspaper in town? Her retort, Even when we contact the media, we still get calls from people who did not get the word. I expressed my dissatisfaction, thanked her for the information and hung up. I was lucky. Due to the drought, I place a five gallon bucket in the shower to catch the water while I am waiting for it to warm up. I use that water to flush the toilet and/or water the houseplants. Today, though, I used that cold bucket of water to give myself a sponge bath so I wouldnt stink. I am sure my coworkers appreciate that. However, I am quite certain that many others didnt have clean water sitting in a bucket to bathe with this morning. How many families couldnt bathe? Couldnt brush their teeth. Couldnt water their animals on a day that is supposed to reach the triple digits? All of these issues can be remedied. Had I been informed of the water outage, I, and the rest of the affected families, could have planned accordingly. The city needs to do a better job of disseminating critical information like water outages. We all received a robo-call when we went to Stage Five: Catastrophe water restrictions. Why cant the city utilize this for water main breaks/repairs? Stage Five was not a news flash. Anyone who had picked up a newspaper, watched the local news or listed to a local radio station within the previous month knew when we were going to enter Stage Five. Yet the city still called every one of us with a recording informing us of this news. I think the city government needs a reminder of who they serve. Of who funds it. To whom they report. We, their constituents, need to do a better job of holding them accountable. Respectfully, Shannon R. Brown
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:20:32 +0000
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