Okla. Rural Water District Jacking Up Rates to Finance Their Fight 2 Sell Bad Water

Hughes County Rural Water #2, Oklahoma - Notice of Special Meeting 2/17/2012

Its bad enough that customers of a rural water district are still on Boil Order.  BUT for the rural water district to call a special meeting so they can vote to jack up the rates on the folks in light of it, is just down right cold blooded & larcenous-hearted!!    Never seen nothing like this in my whole life!

NOTE:  There are currently 5 board of directors of this water district.  So when I mention “Bd Members” or “the board”, this does not include Ronda Talley.  Talley is the newest board member elected last month by moral majority of the townspeople.   So she is not part of the plot to hurt the townfolks.  By the way, the entity I’m referring to in this Post is Hughes County Rural Water District #2 in Oklahoma.

Yesterday it was posted that they will have a special called meeting on Friday – Feb. 17, 2012 at 7pm  to be held at 709 Roosevelt St in Stuart, to vote to jack up the water rates whereby forcing the folks to pay for the district’s:

• attorney who went to court to help the board fight against the townspeople (who signed petition to oust the board because they continuously failed to provide POTABLE WATER);
• attorney who helped defend the board from having to pay for their failure to comply w/State environmental quality laws related to their failure to provide POTABLE WATER;
• cost to complete repairs required by the State; which by the way, the board has yet to produce to the membership a complete finance report for the full accounting of all the monies spent and how it was used to directly provide of  POTABLE WATER; by the way, the board’s purchase of a weed eater don’t count.
• Pending State penalties of about $8,000 for violating the law (for not providing POTABLE WATER), which the board more likely paid an attorney more than the cost of the fine itself;
• To hire an extra  lawyer out of Tulsa, OK with money this district ain’t got, so that this lawyer can help fight to keep the district from paying penalties that was assessed for not providing POTABLE WATER.

This is the same board who’s negligence in providing POTABLE WATER got the only 2 eating places in town shut down because of it; and they damn near lost their business forever.

This is the same board who’s negligence in providing POTABLE WATER caused several townspeople to be unemployed when the employers could not pay them because THIS BOARD caused their employer to get shut down due to WATER CONTAMINATION.

This is the same board who could not even provide POTABLE WATER to the town’s only school; and damn near caused the school to not open in time for the children to get an education.

This is the same board who could not even provide POTABLE WATER to the town that caused the town to possibly if not in fact lose revenue in taxes from businesses that this board caused to get shut down.

This the same board who failed to provide water  fit for humans which has caused people to either bathe themselves & their babies in CONTAMINATED WATER if they bathe in their own house (if located in town) or they had leave the district to do this.

AND IT GOT MUCH WORST ……….. AND I’M NOT MAKING THIS SHIT UP !

This is the same board who put the townsfolk’s livestock on death row by DEPRIVING THEM OF WATER in the scorching deadly heat.

AND THIS BOARD WANTS TO RAISE RATES ???   And STILL AIN’T GOT POTABLE WATER ??

They got to be out of there damn mind!!!   Personally, I have witnessed Haitians on their own soil, albeit with bad water, got better treatment than this.

Hughes County Rural Water District #2 In Legal Trouble Again with Oklahoma DEQ

Hughes County Rural Water District 2 Gets Sued by DEQ

Hughes County Rural Water District 2 in Stuart Oklahoma is getting sued again, but this time by Oklahoma DEQ. The water district’s board of directors posted a public notice of a special meeting to be held on Feb. 7, 2012 at 6pm to discuss in EXECUTIVE SESSION the claim that Oklahoma DEQ is making. From reading this public notice that was posted in Stuart, OK, the District’s directors agreed on advise of its attorney to go into executive session so as to prevent disclosure of this case with the State of Oklahoma.

According to the public notice, the legal matter pertains to problem with operation & maintenance.

The problem I see with the board meeting in executive session on this matter is that the other party is the State. The state’s case is full disclosure & is a matter of public record. However, the Board had met on Aug. 2, 2011 to discuss similar DEQ legal matter, but it did not go into executive session. Moreover, the membership of this water district not only have a right to know if its’ being sued by the state. but they are entitled to know the particulars – moreso since a lot of tax payer dollars have been poured into this water district to get the water problem fixed.

Below is video of the 8/2/2011 meeting of Board discussing DEQ legal matter.

Where is Your Oklahoma Rural Water District By-Laws?

Hughes County Rural Water District No. 2 By-Laws (Stuart Oklahoma)

I’m posting copy of Hughes County Rural Water District No. 2 (RWD#2) By-Laws that was given by water district’s office in Stuart, OK.   The posted copy is the exact copy that a rural water customer finally received from the Water District office in Stuart, OK office on Jan. 30, 2012 (after never had been provided 1 for over 7 years).

I’m the author of this blog and NOT an authorized distributor of these by-laws to the District’s membership; THEREFORE, I strongly suggest that anyone who needs a copy of the water district’s by-laws should get it directly from the authorized source. The authorized source of the  posted by-laws is Hughes County Rural Water District # 2.  I say this because the Water District has been on some kind of “power trip” & has been falsely accusing it’s district members (the customers). They have already accused folks in the local community of educating other customers on how to vote in the district w/out the authority of the Water Board.   They’ve also made several other accusations that would cause anyone with any ounce of self-preservation to not go anywhere near the water district’s premises nor to have any personal contact with water district’s board of directors & district’s employees unless you have it video recorded.  Not to mention that the water district actually thought pages were missing from these by-laws & for some odd reason they wanted to inspect the pages of bylaws to make sure changes were in it before giving it to a water customer.   So, Im just say …

And besides, according to the RWD2 Bylaws, (Article 20, Printing, Section 1.), the “By-laws shall be prepared in pamphlet form, and a copy thereof  SHALL be DELIVERED to EACH participating member”.  

Anyways, here’s copy of the –>  Hughes County Rural Water District No. 2 Bylaws (Oklahoma) that Im posting (which is not intended as legal delivery to participating members of RWD2); but rather to publicize the by-laws that a RWD2 customer received from the District’s office.

After Bruising Court Battle Oklahoma Woman Wins Landslide in Election to Rural Water Board

Few hours after bruising court battle w/a Rural Water District in Stuart Oklahoma over voting rights, Ronda Talley wins stunning victory in her election to Board of Directors of Hughes County Rural Water #2.  Mrs. Talley was 1 of the towns people in Stuart, Oklahoma who helped organized the towns people to form a rural water community impact panel (CIP) to represent the people’s voice to address concerns of bad water &  the ineffective board that ran the water district.

Hundreds of townsfolks showed up at the Jan. 26, 2012 open annual meeting & nominated Talley for office as board of director that was held by Kevin Morris. Existing board members challenged it by nominating Kevin Morris (incumbent) so that he could keep his seat. Talley’s victory was a landslide with over 85% of the votes.  She received 69 votes.  Morris received only 12.

More likely due to profound distrust of the Rural Water District board members, the county deputy sheriff was asked to count the votes, as many of the townsfolks witnessed the count & watched the ballot box.

Some elderly women (some widowed) were denied their right to vote at this election because the Water District said that the water bill was in their husband’s name. Its ironic because the annual meeting in which the election & voting was held, was at the town’s only Senior Citizen Center.

Election of Rural Water District’s Chairman Disputed. Minutes Not Approved at Annual Meeting

At a January 26, 2012 annual meeting of Hughes County Rural Water District #2 in Stuart Oklahoma, the minutes of 2011 annual meeting that was read by Secretary/Treasurer Janet Frederick were disputed by water customer (member).   After this dispute, membership voted not to approve those minutes until the board of directors  produced the handwritten minutes for the membership to review.    The member disputed the legality of the election of the water district’s chairman – Jim Wilson in reference to term of office.   Secretary of the rural water district read minutes of 2011 annual meeting that mentioned that Jim Wilson was re-elected at a 2011 annual meeting.

Another member – Ronda Talley, at the January 26, 2012 meeting  made motion to not approve the 2011 annual meeting minutes. The motion overwhelming carried to not approve those minutes.

Prior to this January 2012 annual meeting, most of the board of directors told the membership that they did not know when their term of office expired.  Many water customers in this water district had been questioning the legality of the term of office and elections of the district’s board of directors that the board claims to had occurred at an alleged prior meeting.

HoeDown in Stuart Oklahoma to Raise Money for Laid-Off workers due to RWD2 Bad Water

HoeDown in Stuart Oklahoma to Raise Money for Victims of RWD2 Bad Water

UPDATE:   By the way, the Quick Pik, re-opened its food business sometime in August, 2011 when State lifted the boil order.

—– ORIGINAL POST  (as follows) ——-

There’s going to be a HoeDown in downtown Stuart, Oklahoma on 8/20/2011 to raise money for the laid off employees of the Quick Pik & Firehouse Diner that got shut down due to Rural Water District #2 (RWD2) water contamination.

I believe that its about 12 employees that got laid off about a month ago, when RWD2 got caught by Oklahoma DEQ in distributing contaminated water to folks houses & the 2 diners in the rural community of Stuart, Oklahoma.

The 2 eating establishments are:  Quick Pik & FireHouse Diner.  The Quik Pik is the town’s only gas station/convenient store that had a grill (selling hamburgers, fries, and other delicious hot food).  The community & folks from surrounding areas ate there.  And on Sundays, it was ALWAYS packed house.  Also, truckers from afar came to eat there on ongoing basis.  Its gas station & convenient store is still operating, so the store is not

Firehouse diner in Stuart, Oklahoma – Laid-off wokers due to RWD2 Bad Water

completely closed.  But its grill service was shut down because the government prohibited its food service folks from washing their hands in the water provided by water district that was discovered to be contaminated.  The Firehouse diner is the town’s only restaurant.  Its located across the street from the Hughes County Rural Water District office. Yet, the water office did not notify her that the water was contaminated.  Health department shut it down & her employees lives are devastated.

If the water situation does not get solved VERY SOON, the the the Quik Pik (the only gas station in Stuart may closed forever.  And the Firehouse Diner said that if they don’t get

Help is on the way for quick pik employees of Stuart, OK

clean water, they would be forced to move its business to another town.  This will obviously have a trickle down effect in literally destroying the town’s infrastructure.

In this blog post are 3 videos of the Firehouse Diner & Quik Pik representatives explaining how their businesses have been adversely affected economically by Rural Water District #2 contaminated water and there dealing with the Rural Water District.

Again, the HoeDown will be held on Sat. August 20, 2011 from 6pm-10pm.  Make a donation to join in the festivities for a worthy cause.   There’s going to be bar-be-que, soft drinks & activities for the kids.  Just turn off US Hwy 270 into Stuart, Oklahoma (Roosevelt St.) & you’ll see the vehicles & a  bunch of folks.

This is all being organized by the newly formed community’s rural grass root / watchdog group called the: Stuart Community Impact Panel.

Stuart, along with Calvin & Arpelar are the true Rural towns before you get to the big city of McAlester, Oklahoma.  This event is basically Rural America inventing its own Rural Economic Recovery Act.  Not sure if that’s the legal term for it.  If we wait on the government to come thru, the community would be a ghost town.

So lets save Rural America in Oklahoma !!