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Polk to vote on CooperRiis water line tonight
Published 3:25pm Friday, July 6, 2012Polk County commissioners are scheduled to decide tonight – Monday, July 9 – whether to run a water line to CooperRiis Healing Community in Mill Spring and, perhaps more importantly, whether the county will foot the full bill.
Commissioners will meet at 7 p.m. in the upstairs meeting room of the Womack building in Columbus.
Last month, commissioners debated whether the county should pay an additional $27,000 to run the water line an extra 1,000 feet further along Hwy. 108 of the CooperRiis property as the facility requested. During last month’s discussion, commissioners said the extra 1,000 feet was requested so CooperRiis would save on insurance, but CooperRiis Executive Director and President Virgil Stucker said the request is for safety and is not related to insurance.
“This request has nothing to do with saving money on insurance premiums,” Stucker said in a letter to commissioners. “At best our savings will be a few hundred dollars. Our request is an attempt to help us save lives if there were ever a serious fire. We have no incentive to hook onto the water line if it simply stops at our property line. Our current water supply is adequate. In fact, our expense for connecting to county water will be considerable.”
Stucker said the extra 1,000 feet would provide the facility with two fire hydrants. He said CooperRiis would also be among the county’s larger water customers, with use estimated at 140,000 gallons per month. The organization also plans to construct three new residences in the next year, which will increase the water needs.
Stucker said CooperRiis is a major employer in Polk County, with 116 employees and a payroll that exceeds $4.8 million. The facility began with approximately 24 employees in 2003, according to Stucker.
“Further, the generosity to Polk County of CooperRiis’ founders, Don and Lisbeth Cooper, is worth noting,” Stucker said in his letter. “To establish the CooperRiis Healing Community in Mill Spring, Don and Lisbeth Cooper have raised $30 million, the large majority of which was invested in Polk County. But their generosity has extended beyond the CooperRiis campus to many civic and public causes in Polk County, with donations now exceeding $1.5 million in total.”
Stucker listed the Coopers’ many donations to Polk County causes, including $450,000 to the Polk County Library, $100,000 to Thermal Belt Outreach Ministry, numerous contributions to St. Luke’s Hospital, a $50,000 donation to the CooperRiis Barn at FENCE as well as donations to the Tuba Christmas concert, Hospice, Pavillon International, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office ($10,000) and the Mill Spring Fire Department ($5,000).
Last month, commissioners were split on whether to pay for the extension and especially whether to extend the line the additional 1,000 feet. CooperRiis is a nonprofit organization, and some commissioners said the county has already set a precedent of paying for water line extensions to nonprofits.
Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the extension after seeing a Powerpoint presentation and hearing from CooperRiis officials, including reviewing Stucker’s letter.
If commissioners approve the extension to CooperRiis, the county would amend its current construction project in which a water line is being run to connect the county’s well system at the middle school and the Town of Columbus’ water system at the high school. The current project, which is nearing completion, will allow the two entities to have back-up water.
The total cost to extend the water line from the crossroads of Hwy. 108 and Hwy. 9 in Mill Spring to CooperRiis is estimated at $111,543, including costs to run it to the middle of the property.
The county’s original contract amount connecting the schools was approved at $592,465. Commissioners approved an addition of $23,805 last month to cover additional costs for 23 taps requested. If commissioners decide to pay for the line to run to CooperRiis as requested, the total cost to the county for the water line from the high school to CooperRiis will be $727,813.
I urge all citizens to proceed to the ballot box!
Thank you Polk County Commissioners for properly voting tonight. Cooper Riis is a true credit to our community and deserved no less.
The problem is they are doing too much blowing their own horn. The only perfect gift is an anonimous gift. These folks who tout their good intentions really had only one intention all along…….and that was to garner political favors. The fact is they have non profit status and do not pay into the tax fund from which they now demand money be spent for their benefit. This is a fine of example of what is wrong with Polk county politics and what needs to change. All the good they do has been vastly eclipsed by this one example of their enormous ego and the well shown letter of loudly proclaiming how good they are for all us. If they are soooooo good for Polk county…….HOW ABOUT RENOUNCING YOUR NON PROFIT STATUS AND PAY TAXES INTO THE GENERAL FUND LIKE ALL OTHER HONEST TAX PAYERS IN POLK COUNTY. I SUGGEST THEY PAY FOR THEIR WATER LINE NOT WITH TAX PAYER MONEY. HOW ABOUT INSTALLING SOME WATER LINE FOR THE REST OF US POLK COUNTY COMMISSION……MY AREA DOES NOT EVEN HAVE PLANS FOR WATER ………….LET ALONE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR ME TO PAY FOR A HOOK UP. I REMAIN A DISGUSTED NATIVE WITH THIS ENTIRE SCENARIO.
CooperRiis has, and continues to make, significant contributions throughout our community. In addition to being a large employer, they have supported numerous efforts to make Polk County a better place to live. And, in doing so, have saved the county money. I served on the library board of trustees during the capital campaign to raise funds for our new library. CooperRiis’s generous donations, along with other contributors, enabled building a library with substantially less county dollars. Bottomline: Polk County’s new library required much less tax dollars to build thanks to CooperRiis’s generosity and responsible approach to community partnership. They will continue to have a favorable impact on Polk County’s economy and quality of life. The commissioners would be wise to recognize this and support their request for a water line.
What amazes me and my neighbors the most about this single request is the irony and anarchy of matter. Repeatedly on a monthly basis since they took control of the local county board of commissioners, the current board has sat and ignored the pleas of honest tax paying citizens who pay their taxes and demand changes and ends to corruption matters. The commission refuses over and over to listen to the constitutents who pay their taxes and have a legitimate voice in matters because it is their tax money we speak of at the time. Now, when the special interests come forward touting their very nearly outright public bribery and blowing their horn about all the good they do………our commission springs to life to entertain and confirm the old axiom we all known to be true in Polk, “money speaks louder”. The special interest should not win out this time and get money from the general fund they never paid into.
Just as alarming to me is the simple fact of life these folks like this, not just this time, but over and over again in the same scenario talk about all they do good for our community and over and over again we find tax free status and they do not pay ANYTHING into the tax base they demand pay for their water set up. The sit back and talk about all they donate to this and that and use that as justification to demand public support from the county general fund, when the reality is they also have tax free status already and are just justifying their perfect political connections in order to demand the taxpayers of POLK who DO pay taxes, should contribute to their effort which is already tax free! AND OVER AND OVER THEY GET AWAY WITH IT………TIME AFTER TIME. AND THEY GET AWAY WITH IT BECAUSE THE POLK COUNTY POLITICAL MACHINE DEPENDS ON THESE FOLKS TO CONTINUE FOREVER. WHAT WE NEED IS COMMISSIONERS WHO DO THE RIGHT THING FOR THE TAXPAYERS AND IGNORE THE SPECIAL INTERESTS LIKE THIS ONE. AND IGNORE THIS ONE TO. THEY CAN AFFORD TO USE SOME OF THE TAXES THEY ARE NOT PAYING……TO PAY FOR THIS WATER LINE.
Why isn’t anybody asking about how long it will take this water line to pay for itself? A ton of Polk County taxpayer’s money is going into the ground and no one is reporting the projected return. The worst part of it all is that Polk County’s water systems in Green Creek and Mill Spring are being run by companies outside the county. Someone please ask the county why they have shown no interest in hiring personnel to run these water systems. This seems awful fishy to me! Finally, Has anyone from the county come forward and declared the well system in Mill Spring can independently supply adequate flow and pressure required by the state under normal conditions?
About all I can come up with to describe this you scratch my back and I will scratch yours scenario is utter pure unadulterated hillbilly disgust. While many communities in Polk county sit by without a plan at all for future water service year after year it is disgusting to watch political business as usual in never ending political you did this for me now I will do this for you NEVER ENDING POLK COUNTY PARADE OF TAXPAYERS TAKE THE BACK SEAT AND PAY THE BILLS IS THE BOTTOM LINE.