By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
A water bill of $2,000 was mitigated by Mona City Council.
Maddi Liebing, representing the leadership of the Journey Boys Home, met with the council seeking help for the enormous bill.
"We hadn't noticed that we had a water leak because there was not a loss of water pressure," said Liebing. "The water did not surface until after we had received the bill."
She said the break was past where the old cottonwood tree is located.
"We would like to negotiate the cost of the overage," said Liebing.
The boys home has proved to be a benefit to Mona with the boys who are residents there assisting the community by performing service projects.
"Why don't we take an average of your use for April, May and June for 2013 and then drop the rest?" asked Jeff Hearty, council member.
She told them that they do not use much culinary water at the home at any rate. They are only connected with one spigot which comes from the house on the outside but is not used often.
They have another connection in the kitchen and one in the staff bathroom.
"The rest of the water we use comes from our well," she said.
The staff had been wondering if they should just disconnect from the city culinary water and use only well water or, if for backup to the well, they should keep the connection.
Liebing said that the boys home had water rights.
They did not connect to the sewer system because, even though they are inside city limits, they are too far away from the closest sewer line. Therefore, she said, the facility was still on the septic system.
"When the bunkhouse was built it was done so that there could be two systems and the proper valves were used," she said.
When the permit was granted to use both systems, valves were installed so that no backfeed could occur.
Allen Pay, city water master, said that the water could be shut off at the meter but once that was done, the boys home would not be able to reconnect without paying the current impact fee.
It was good, he said, in his opinion, to have the two water sources. That way, if one was down, the other could still serve the home.
The line to the boys home comes from a two-inch galvanized line to two-inch poly. The original line had "gone bad" on the previous owner, said Pay, and had been replaced.
He said he was not certain how it would work if the boys home just dropped the use. He did know that it would take more to be reconnected than the boys home would want to pay and do if the culinary connection was wanted in the future.
Mike Stringer said he thought that the city could just take the meter entirely out if that was what was wanted.
Pay said the meter was quite a way away from the home and had been moved there years ago. The water meter had been moved long ago.
Wells have been drying up all through the valley, said Greg Newton, mayor.
"It would be good to have redundant water," he said. "It would be worth $19 a month just to have the service."
The culinary connection had been there since the 1930s, said Pay. The well is an artesian well.
"We have 16 boys at the home plus the staff," said Liebing.
The council agreed that the average of the affected months during 2013 would come to $150 and Liebing said that would be fine. She would be more than willing to pay that rather than the $2,000 bill.
She said that she really appreciated the council's action.
"My advice is to get the line repaired but stay with the culinary connection so that it would be there if something happened," said Newton.
"I am sorry that we lost a bunch of water for the city," said Liebing. "If we had known about it sooner, we would have taken care of it."
