Former Malta City Pool manager takes issue with Malta City Council following hearings

At the most recent Malta public hearing things became so unclear I finally just asked, “So your basically saying the landfill will close if we don’t accept these increases?” “Yes,” said Mayor Jones after a long pause.

“So we just need to accept these increases and there’s pretty much nothing we can do about it?” No answer. I cannot help but remember the last time I attended a public hearing in 2007 as city pool manager.

The public hearing that year was about residents’ properties causing blind spots at intersections. People who had to remove their decorations or trim bushes near intersections were upset. After a back and forth, neither side wanted to change their opinion on how to fix this. Looking to help both sides I raised my hand and said, “I’m not from here but from an outside view I have never lived in a town with so many unmarked intersections, maybe we could just put in a couple yield or stop signs at the intersections.” The reply I received was, “Well no one would stop at them anyway.” I wanted to say well then tell the law enforcement to do their job, but stopped myself. It was clear the city cared enough to tell the residents to fix the problem, but didn’t care enough to do any work themselves.

Now the latest public hearing was about trash, landfill, and water rate increases. From the start everyone was welcomed by hearing from the mayor that we are going to be here awhile, maybe until midnight depending on how things go. Nothing says welcome like knowing your town leader expects this to be a drawn out mess (unless we behave). After the hand raising method of speaking was explained to us, I was reminded of 2007 again.

The city pool leaked over a quarter-million gallons of water each of the four straight summers I was monitoring the pool (give or take ~23,000 per week of being filled and not open). I brought this up and was told every returning summer it was fixed. Every year it was attempted, but not fixed, and I would turn on the one-inch water pipe to keep the pool from dropping at least 2 inches a day. You can all calculate that volume yourselves with some measurements.

This is not just water being wasted. Money is spent on extra chemicals like acid and chlorine to treat the new water being added. It also takes man hours to apply over two or three times the normal amount of chemicals that should be necessary in a summer, and to perform extra tests to keep up. A June 22, 2016 article in the PCN also covered that the pool’s boiler failed inspection from a state inspector. The boiler’s heat exchanger is being eaten away due to the, “extreme use of chemicals to keep the pool clean,” said Mayor Jones. No, sorry, not to keep the pool clean. A huge amount of acid is required to keep the pool clear also. The huge amount of new, hard water being constantly added requires acid to be added also or it will be cloudy all the time. Mayor Jones also said in this article, “last Monday was the first time swimmers have been able to swim in the deep end of the pool because of clarity issues.” Last I checked muriatic (aka hydrochloric) acid is corrosive to copper if the PH of the pool gets into a certain danger zone. The heat exchanger in the boiler and piping to it is made of copper. The city uses muriatic acid for our pool, and all the facts line up.

I was told by the mayor that my statements about the pool would not be heard as they have nothing to do with the current water rate increases. Really? Wait, what?! How? The city wasting water, money, and time has nothing to do with putting restrictions on residential water usage and increasing how much water costs? A new boiler, which has been ruined from acid, costs $4,300. I realize most who were there wanted to talk about raising prices to unused lots, but to not even hear something that is a direct cause to raising prices for us all is ludacris to me. At this meeting I was told the pool was fixed two years ago to which I replied yes they said that every year I worked also. I would like to see myself it does not leak. Then I was told it is “just old,” and “what 60-year-old things don’t have some problems”; they were thinking of shutting it down next year anyway. “Really,” I said, “if it was fixed two years ago then why shut it down?” No response from a city official and I was again told it has nothing to do with water rate increases and I won’t be heard anymore. That is when I left. I explained as I was leaving that the amount of water being wasted by the city would cover 25 homes for one month (11,000 gallons allowed per home). Shouldn’t the city fix their own problems first instead of passing the problems on to the people? This seems all too familiar to a stop sign intersection situation, and I have a feeling that all the rates will increase and the pool will still close. Anyone want to place a friendly wager?

Within the first twenty minutes of the hearing involving landfill and trash, the talk was already going in circles. I suggested it would be comforting for the public to hear how much extra money the city plans to accrue and where the money will go. Nothing was prepared by the city for what would be done with this extra money in the future. It was a round a bout of hearing how running things costs money and things break down and, “Do you want us to just shut down the landfill and you can take garbage somewhere yourself?” One $6,000 garbage truck repair was cited by the mayor as a reason for increasing rates at least three times. I asked if this breakdown only happens in Malta or in other cities as well. I was told with a laugh of course breakdowns happen in all towns. Totally missed my point. Maybe every town increases rates every time a breakdown happens? I also wonder if this $6,000 repair was caused by the same sort of negligence as the $4,300 (without labor) for a new boiler at the pool. The public also had the pleasure of being scolded by city officials about how they had been advertising these meetings for increases many times in the past and no one showed up.

Considering how unprepared the city appeared I do not at all see how they could be upset with the public for our last minute complaints. It was as though they figured no one would show up at this public hearing either. Does that really mean we should not have a voice though? As one prepared citizen said at the hearing, “Would you be listening to what we have to say if there were 1,000 of us here?” A great point. I also definitely feel the 8.8% of Malta citizens over the age of 65 who live below the poverty line would like to say no to these increases. That 8.8% is from census data in the year 2000, but everyone in Malta knows someone personally who this applies to now. People on a fixed income will be hurt the most.

The city needs to realize no decision should be made until the people who elected you are heard and taken into real consideration. Even if it is just one concerned citizen outnumbered by multiple city officials. They should not just be heard as a formality with a quick already decided vote after. By the way, the mayor said that they don’t advertise these hearings by choice. This fact was revealed when she cited being forced by the state to spend money advertising these meetings as one of many reasons to increase rates.

The people need to realize the city does actually work while you aren’t looking, but maybe more residents should peek their head in on a regular basis to make sure nothing crazy is happening. Resolution #1176 was passed two summers ago for a 2 percent pay raise for all city workers while some specific city officials received an additional 25 cent per hour raise (they already had a 5 cent per year raise system in place before this resolution). I have no comment on the necessity of this, but were any residents there for that? Sadly as a current (but not future) concerned Malta resident, all I have to point out is that apathy on both sides, the city and the people who live here, will only lead to more drawn out argue sessions where nothing constructive is ever accomplished.

Eddie Haver

Malta