Mailbag: Smart meters were a dumb move
Regarding the proposed water rate increase, yes, Glendale Water & Power will have to raise rates because the cost of water from our supplier is going up and water resources are going down.
What Glendale Water & Power should not have done is spend our revenues on so-called smart meters. Somehow this has to be paid, and it will come from our rates.
We will always be obligated to our water supply source, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. However, we can control our own capital costs, and the smart water meters were a bad decision during this poor economy.
Glendale Water & Power received $20 million from the Obama administration for the electric side of the smart meters only, but they have to spend our own money for the water side.
What the rate payers need is a very good citizen oversight committee to oversee activities at Glendale Water & Power and to prevent these foolish projects. Don’t look for the utility’s commission to do anything. They rubber-stamp everything that officials bring before them and appear to have very little knowledge of what it takes to run a utility efficiently.
Larry Moorehouse
Glendale
Too much whine comes from the South
I wish to respond to the constant whining by Michael Teahan and others about the “neglect” of south Glendale (“Tropico Perspective: South Glendale losing its political voice,” Sept. 8).
According to my recent memory, south Glendale has had millions upon millions of dollars poured into the Adams Hill area, the Pacific project and the new Adult Recreation Center. I, on the other hand, live above the freeway, and my major street, North Brand, is a wasteland of asphalt, dirt, weeds and trash.
There is not any median landscaping at all on North Brand between Glenoaks Boulevard and Mountain Street. I, living in north Glendale, do not have a clear view of the Verdugo Mountains. I have a clear view of neglect.
How did this blatant oversight take place when all of the elected officials are located north of the freeway where this blight exits? According to Teahan, 60% of the residents live above the freeway, yet here I sit with my major street looking like an abandoned industrial site. No one has accused me of not having a “voice.”
Yet, the blight remains. What should I do? Oh, I know — whine. Whine about — 1) the electoral process, 2) the inequity of making more money than the poverty level, 3) go down to City Hall and complain week after week hinting that the City Council is prejudiced against north Glendale, 4) and complain that all of the elected officials are living in north Glendale and demand a change of elected officials to the South so the North can get some attention.
For the view from north Glendale, which is paying for the vast majority of the improvements in south Glendale, I can see a small group of professional complainers that will never be satisfied. This group does not care about the imbalance of improvements the city has showered upon south Glendale at the expense and neglect of even minimal improvements for north Glendale.
The whiners are a bottomless pit.
Carole Weling
Glendale
Reverend’s voice serves a purpose
I would not like to see the Glendale News-Press stop publishing the Rev. Bryan Griem as suggested by David Gubser (“Had enough of reverend’s opinions,” Aug. 30).
We need to know there are people in our midst who believe as he does. And, in his case, he has a whole congregation that probably agrees with him!
Most of us would like to believe we live in a tolerant, loving society, but we need to know there are those among us who have other ideas.
Esther Norbut
La Crescenta