Trenching through oak roots

[Sara]

Another letter to the Water Co (critiques welcome)

Dear Mr. General Manager,

With the enclosed check, you will find that we have taken full advantage of the opportunity Water Co gave us to preserve our trees. You personally helped forge the agreement in which we have now paid your company the full $2405.30 it needed to keep from digging trenches in the roots of our large trees. We are still enjoying those trees today, thanks to your efforts, those of Water Co and, most importantly, to God, who helped us come up with the necessary funds. For if we had failed to do this, Water Co would have been within its legal rights to cut off our water supply for nonpayment.

You may know that, despite your assurances to the contrary, the charge for the water line has consistently appeared on our water bill for the last year. On August 3, 2006, we handed you our first payment for the water line. At that time, you personally assured us, in the presence of an employee, that the remaining balance (to be paid in monthly installments) would not appear on our monthly water bill. You determined that, since we already had water and the **** Road Project did not interfere with our service, the charge for the water line was therefore unrelated to the charge for our water use. In light of this, you assured us, we would be billed separately for the water line. Still, the charge for the water line has been added to each and every water bill, implying the threat to cut off our water supply if we failed to make payments for the water line. We have come to feel that this implied threat is so ethically challenging, we simply can’t let it go unacknowledged.

By the way, we haven’t received a receipt for the portion of the **** Road Project that cost us $2405.30. Please mail us an itemized receipt for all the actual expenses incurred by Water Co in the laying of this portion of this water line.

While we’re at it, kindly send us a report on the total cost of the entire **** Road Project which, I believe, extended from **** Road south to our house.

We'd like to receive the above items in a timely fashion. Say, before the board meeting of August 28. Thanks again.

Looking forward to hearing from you, we remain

Yours Sincerely,
D & S

 

[Ekka]

Nothing worse than dealing with big bureaucracy's. Well written letter.

If they dont co-operate you'll be back down to town hall.

 

[Sara]

From my most recent post:

"In light of this, you assured us, we would be billed separately for the water line. Still, the charge for the water line has been added to each and every water bill, implying the threat to cut off our water supply if we failed to make payments for the water line."

From Webster's Dictionary:

extort - 1. To obtain from a person by violence, threat, oppression, or abuse of authority; wring; wrest. See synonyms under STEAL.

extortion - 3. Law The offense, committed by an official, of taking money under color of his office, with the consent of the victim, either where none is due, in excess of what is due, or before it is due.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Sara, Sara, Sara...you are so naive to the ways of the world. You could have saved yourself so much trouble, had you just followed standard government protocol for variances.
When you first met with the official from the utility, and he held out his hand, you were not supposed to shake it!
Your failure to discretely hand him a neatly folded wad of hundred dollar bills, has now caused him the need to extort the money from you, like any good criminal would.

 

[sperho]

Thanks for posting again Sara - I had not seen this thread before and your efforts were heroic and sound. Sometimes, (most of the time) humans have little respect for what's not theirs, especially if it's "just a tree". Kudos for standing up for your property rights. I hope the extortion billing goes away soon...

 

[Sara]

Your failure to discretely hand him a neatly folded wad of hundred dollar bills, has now caused him the need to extort the money from you, like any good criminal would.

Yes, my naivete really backed him into a corner, left him no choice but to do what he did, hm?

Kudos for standing up for your property rights. I hope the extortion billing goes away soon...

Thanks for your encouraging words.

...you'll be back down to town hall.

Now that the water line is safely in the ground off our property, and the water co is paid off for it; and now that they think we've allowed them to get away with abuse of power (if they think about us at all), we intend to surprise them with the fact that we are not victims.

We probably won't send that letter I posted, which was really just an effort to gear up for a small claims law suit against them. The element of surprise is crucial for that, so I don't think we'll give them the heads up.... :jester:

We have hard evidence against them, including proof of the lies they told about rights-of-way; video of them trespassing on our property and refusing to leave when they were told to do so; copies of an expired health department permit, and more....

Though their practices smack of extortion, I'm not sure we can prove it. But we're gonna try.

 

[treeseer]

It sounds like you are not getting mad but just trying to get even.



Power to you! and water too...