Chatting About Water Plants And Politics

As usual I was having my late night cup of coffee and managed to start up a conversation with a good looking young lady. As usual I wrote her name on a piece of paper. Par for the course I not only misplaced the piece of paper but forgot what her name was!

What I do remember though, is that she worked for the North Miami Beach water department and before that she managed North Miami's West Side plant. Between that information and my campaign button we were quickly into a discussion about the sad state of North Miami's water plants, and that they're in good condition compared to the sorry state of the water mains under the streets. The mayor and council think that the road to re-election is by keeping the water bill low.

Of course we're payng to treat lots of water that simply leaks out of the pipes into the ground while the pumping equipment itself is in such a state of disrepair that it's held together with spit and prayers. Meanwhile the cost of repair keeps climbing and the cost of patchwork repairs keeps adding up. At some point you've gotta pay the piper.

Recently we missed the opportunity to save a fortune. The county was ripping up a number of arterial streets in the city and repaving them at county expense. A great opportunity to bury some new pipes! Instead now we have to pay to tear up newly paved streets, and the patchwork repaving makes some of those streets bumpier than they were before.

She told me that she was much happier and a lot less frustrated working where they take these things into consideration