Former Bismarck Mayor Petitions To Rollback Insane Water Rates

Sure the last thing you're thinking about these days is your lawn and garden lacking moisture. Your grass is taking a nap under an ample blanket of snow.  But when it's time to wake up your yard and try to maintain a healthy lawn all year long you may be better off calling a contractor and just covering the whole thing in concrete...and concrete is expensive!

In Bismarck, green grass has become a symbol of affluence.

If your grass was green last summer, then so was your money.  We just got a house in the spring of last year and there was already a lawn sprinkle system installed.  But there are some issues that need addressing and I'd like to have a pro-crew run through it when before we first flip on the water. Last year I thought...procrastination will save me serious cash on a summer of routine lawn watering. It was a wet enough year to get by but still, I would like to develop my previously underdeveloped lawn. I'm not a manicured lawn fella, but we have dogs and need some turf they can run around on.

But good God y'all it's costing a fortune to use water

I promise to be good. Water lightly in the early morning. Maybe late at night.  I'd like us ALL to pay less for water and so would former Bismarck Mayor Marlan Haakenson. (Didn't he have that one cool gas station?)  He'd like to go back to 2018 when this all began.

Here's Bismarck's Q&A from back in the day (2018)

And so it began...doubling water charges for many.

$116 in 2018

and

$232 in 2019?

Mind you, I've never been in that usage stratosphere. Is that a lot of water? I just need to keep my seeds damp.

So the City of Bismarck declared a war on water users.  Maybe it's fair...I'm new to the game. BUT, former Mayor Haakenson seems to think there was a goal in sight and by now that goal has been reached.  He said something like that to KXNet. 

“We are going to create an initiative petition,” explains Haakenson. “It will mandate by city ordinance that they roll back the dollar amount you pay on your house, or your business place back to the dollar amount of what it was in 2018.

 

When they first started, these increases the same would be true. The same petition would roll back these utility bills mainly the water bill so what the dollar amount was in 2018 the city said they needed those increases to do certain projects. Those projects are probably all done. They don’t need the extra money anymore.”

All that probably may be true...I don't want you to feel obligated to sign a petition to lower your and my potential water bills.  That's your choice. BUT you have to call the Hawk first at 701-255-1515

There is no deadline for the petition, but Haakenson hopes to have all the signatures he needs by the Spring or Summer of 2023. Considering he needs a total of 1,146 signatures, he’s hoping that people from in and around the city will come together to fight against high bills.

If you wish to learn more about the water bill petition, get a copy of the petition, or simply sign, call 701-255-1515.

 

Save your garden! That number again 255-15-15. The KX story didn't specify when you should call. Be polite.