Delphos May Have New Way to Pay Water Bill

A Novel Approach to Balancing the Budget

Delphos cops may have found a way to help the city deal with the water problem. Residents are being handed parking tickets for parking the wrong way in front of their houses. The fine is only $5, but the concept will go a long way toward helping the city deal with financial issues associated with the water treatment plant or some other fiasco.

And you say "How is a $5 fine going to do much?" Well, just drive around town and see how many people park the wrong way in front of their houses. I did a check of 3 square blocks and was amazed to find no less than twelve cars parked the wrong way. Now that $60 is one third of the minimum payment utility bill for a family of one. But because these cars were parked in the wrong direction, I'm thinking not everyone got the message. Just the ones that got tickets.

A few other things residents need to watch out for is parking too close to a stop sign that's erected in the middle of their yard, parking on gravel that's never been paved in front of their property, and parking more than 12 inches from curbs that haven't been installed yet. So I guess we're all doomed. As it is, not even the elite in this town are blessed with curbs, gutters, and pavement.

To be fair, it is not legal in most towns to park in the wrong direction. It's also not legal to speed. But the lights on fifth street are conveniently set to encourage drivers to drive faster than the speed limit or get caught by no less than three lights between Elida Road and Jefferson St. going west. I do drive that route daily (as most probably do) and have gotten aggravated at the lights for some time. So I decided to check for myself - I sat at a red light at FT Jennings Rd and waited for the light to turn green. I started as quickly as was feasible and increased speed to 40 miles per hour, 5 miles over the limit. I got through the light on Pierce St. but had to break quickly or risk going through a red light at Franklin St. I then waited for the light to change and again increased speed quicker than I normally would to see if I could beat the light at Main. I would have had to do 45 to go through a yellow light. It's no wonder we have a lot of accidents on this stretch of road. Would it not be better to adjust the lights so that a person doing 30-35 mph could drive through all the lights without having to stop? After all, it is the main road through town. By setting them slower, people would naturally slow down and navigate the roadway safer to avoid having to stop. EVERYBODY WINS! Well, maybe not the city because they would lose the revenue from citing cars for speeding or accidents.

Residents are being told not to park closer than 12 feet from a stop sign. I assume that means stop lights also. This is a good rule! Cars parked to close to an intersection make it difficult for others to nagivate the intersection. Most cities deal with this issue by painting the curb in each direction so drivers know not to park there. In lies the problem. Delphos doesn't have curbs. And where they do, there is not always paint. The intersection at Fifth and Jefferson is a great example. On Jefferson by the Grind Restaurant (The old KFC for the diehards) there are parking spots painted on the road right up to the intersection, making it hard for drivers to see. Yes, there is a light there, but I have, many times, looked at the car parked in the first spot and though it was part of the flow of traffic. It is especially dangerous for our children walking across that intersection. The parking spots need to be moved back away from the intersection now, before someone gets hurt.

Delphos has a lot of room to grow. It was an aspiring community once. It can be again. But the residents need to be assured that the laws of the community are fair and that they are the same for all. You can't site one into court for having an unregistered vehicle in their yard if you don't site all who are guilty. But that's what happens. Sometimes it seems that the laws are upheld only when someone complains. That makes it easy for anyone to do harm to their neighbor just because they're upset about something. Make an anonymous call and get your neighbor in trouble. Now that's the way to run a community!

Also - Delphos doesn't even have pavement where people are supposed to park. Is that because of finances - maybe. Is that because there is no storm sewers and we are protecting the residents from floods - could be partially true. But there are places in this town where there are storm sewers and no asphalt so the reasoning is not steadfast.

If we are to aspire our community to grow, we need to get along and address problems fairly for everyone. It would be better to contact residents and say "We have a lot of people parking the wrong way on the streets in front of their houses. We need to correct this within the next two weeks or the police will start handing out tickets." That's the way you get people to conform without thinking that they are being singled out.

Delphos Residents Left With High Bills and Unanswered Questions

A Not So Novel Approach to City Government

If you’ve kept up with the articles in the local Newspaper, the residents were greeted with a cry for help on Saturday morning. The headlines said “Locals Hold Mop”. The article beneath explained the sad truth that the residents of this NW Ohio bedroom community are paying for a two year old water treatment plant that is already at capacity. The Council is at odds on how to pay the bills and is basically telling the residents that the already astronomical water bills are not going down any time soon. The article goes on to say that a proposed wind farm would probably not be a good idea at this time. Did anyone really know that a wind farm was being planned? I’m guessing most did not.

Last Saturday (11/21), an article appeared, I’m guessing, as an answer to the public outcry over their newest utility bill. The mayor spent most of the front page of the paper explaining how the bills are calculated as if this was going to end the frustration. As I was once told – “I don’t want to know how the car works, I just want to know that it does.” The people of Delphos are not interested in how much they pay for the first 100 cubic feet or the last. They want to know that they are going to be able to pay their other obligations after the city utility bill bleeds them dry.

This problem didn’t start last week though. It’s been coming on for a long time. The EPA makes the rounds and tells the city that they are under capacity and must upgrade their water treatment facility. They are given a plan that satisfies the guidelines for a municipality the size of ours. Then we must come up with a plan to finance it. That’s where it all starts.

Someone gets the idea that we need to tear down the water tower that needs major repairs. “But, hey, we don’t need it! We’ll build a reservoir and pump water in.” Then we say – “Hey! We can build a bigger and better facility if we get the local towns around us to buy our water. They’ll not have to put their own money into info-structure if they just buy it from us.” That makes perfect sense!” But apparently no one bothered to ask those other towns what they thought of the plan. And even if they did, we never got a firm commitment, a Letter of Intent so to speak.

Without regard for the citizens, the plan was made to build the treatment plant, probably based on EPA guidelines. But the EPA probably only considered basic growth as the expansion needs for the plant. Nothing was done to survey existing business to find out if they had plans that would affect their future needs for water and sewer. I expect that no one considered the economic development plan for the city. After all, are we not trying to attract new businesses to put our people to work?

Now, it seems that reality has set in. The water treatment plant is now two years old. Because of the expansion of just one major user, it is at or very near capacity. But we can’t charge them for all that excess usage, because they would just fold up shop and go someplace else. Future growth is also a moot point. No business that uses any major amount of water is going to want to locate here.

Many residents would consider moving out of the city limits if it weren’t for the struggling housing market. Add high utility bills to the mix and no one wants to move into town.

The big problem is that we are a small town and we do not have the availability of finances that attract experienced leaders. Council members can only do so much. They can come up with ideas. But the administration has to have the foresight to look at the big picture and say – “This can be done or that can’t be done or In order for that to be done, we need to make sure we think about this and make sure we do that first.” We cannot allow ourselves to put more on our plate than what we can consume. We also cannot allow the people we select to represent us to continue to make decisions without our input. Heck, they don’t even publicize when seats that are up for re-election are going uncontested.

Part of the job of the Council is to represent the people’s best interests. Part is to make decisions when there is a question on which direction to proceed is the best. Another is also equally important. That is to review. Reviewing the successes and failures of the past and also reviewing the successes and failures of those they hire to administrate the town and its respective departments. If anyone is not being effective in their position, it is up to the elected officials to council, correct, or in some cased, replace those persons who are ineffective.

But the bottom line is that it is the responsibility of the citizens to “inspect what they expect.” We can no longer afford to simply let everyone else go to the polls and vote for us because we think our vote won’t matter. We need to research and decide who we think will be the best candidate and vote for them. But it doesn’t stop there! We need to go to council meetings and voice our opinion, not just on things that would affect us now, but on what would affect us as a community down the road, too. We need to hold our council and administrators accountable and question their reason for dong things that will affect the amount of our resources that will be pooled together for the betterment of all.

If you are upset with your utility bill, ask why we changed trash companies because that decision raised your utility bill also. Ask what the going rate is throughout the state of Ohio for a gallon of water. According to our Mayor, water costs us about $.01 per gallon. But it also costs us $.01 to get rid of it because every drop of water used is deemed to go into the sewer system. While you’re at it, ask why some of our streets have the benefit of storm sewers and others don’t. Ask! Ask! Ask! And then research and make sure that the answer you get is the correct one!

We can’t afford to let our bills get any higher. We do a great job at sponsoring everything in town, especially if it benefits our children. But the dollars available will continue to get smaller if we don’t get involved. Use the mop – BUT DON’T GIVE IT UP! And DON’T STOP MOPPING!

Employer Based Health Care vs. Socialized Medicine vs. The Federal Government

The conservative movement in this country is up in arms with the recent health care legislation going through Congress. While the population is divided on whether they agree or not with idea of a government run health care option, one thing is true - Socialized medicine is among us now. I'm not referring to Medicare and Medicaid programs currently run by the Federal Government. Those programs are showing the typical problems associated with any program run by a governmental body. They are overrun with waste and administrative costs. They have large lobby groups that cast a large net of influence on the government officials who write the laws. And they are overrun with fraud. No. the Socialized programs (ie. those that have helping to pay for those who have not) I am referring to are the Employer based health insurance programs that make up the majority of plans in existence that are currently on fire because of the legislation be considered.

Let's look at the way these programs operate. First, most of the larger ones are self insurance programs. That means that the employer simply sets up a fund that pays the insurance bills for their employees and their families. They are run by a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) that charges the employer to monitor the program. A fee schedule is created (based on many factors) that covers the entire cost of the program for all employees and the administrative costs divided proportionately between the employees and the company. The company doesn't really pay the premiums, they collect the premiums from the employees and then pay the bills as they come in from the providers (doctors, hospitals, etc.). At the end of the year, the total cost of the program is re-evaluated and the rates for the next year are adjusted. If the group has a large amount of claims, the costs go up. (Rarely, if ever, do they go down.)

If your watching what is going on here, you see that the costs of someone who has no claims will still go up with the rest of the group. To some, that's a fair way of doing it, but not necessarily to those that are healthy. However, few complaints are logged because the premiums, considering the alternatives, are very affordable. Conversely, it may not seem fair to charge more for a person who gets sick as part of the group. After all, it may not be their fault. This is what socialized medicine is all about.

This is also largely how Medicare and Medicaid work. Employees are required to pay a percentage of their wage into the system for every dollar they earn with the employer making a matching contribution. When you reach retirement age (or become disabled in the case of Medicaid), you are eligible to receive the benefits of the program. Some may say that this is an investment in your future. But you are only required to contribute while you are working. But what about those who don't work and don't contribute? Are they still eligible to receive benefits? The simple answer is "Yes"!

One of the ways that the proposed health care system seeks to pay for itself is in cutting waste in the present Medicare and Medicaid systems, but there really is no way that it will happen. The savings will only come as a reduction in future increases. And the savings will probably be offset by the administrative charges for monitoring the program in order to make sure that we don't pay for unneeded procedures such as mammograms or end of life care. The proposal calls for a 5% or more surcharge on those making more than $500,000 ($1 Million per family) to help pay the cost of the program for those that cannot afford the premiums. Those that do not presently have insurance will be required to have it. If you can afford it and choose not to buy insurance, not buying it will cost you a fine or imprisonment. But never fear, if you can't afford it, the government will gladly pay for it and charge someone else.

One difference in the employer sponsored program is that the insurance is offered, not required. Employees are not required to sign on for whatever reason. Some already have insurance through a spouse. Many do not make enough of a salary to pay for health insurance in addition to other necessities and choose to opt out. With the government program, you are required to have insurance or be fined up to $250,000 or spend a year in jail.

Now, the liberals in Congress insist that we need and will have health care reform. The conservatives DO NOT disagree, contrary to what you read. The difference is that health care reform can happen without taking all the wheels off the cart.

The present system is broken! Insurance costs are skyrocketing. Many are uninsured. Those that are uninsured either choose to be uninsured, can't afford to pay for coverage, or have been denied coverage for pre-existing conditions. (By the way - pre-existing conditions are not considered in the employer based systems as long as you have maintained your coverage from job to job.) When one of these uninsured get sick, they are required to pay their own way. Sometimes those bills can be so large that the family stands a chance of losing everything they have because they can't pay the bill. The government will tell you that the rest of us are absorbing the costs of these unpaid bills. And that is undoubted part of the reason that health care costs are sky high and rising. By creating government run plans that seek to compete in order to keep costs down, we would essentially be double charging the same people that are paying the bills now. That's not the people that are required to be part of a government program. It's the employers that are paying for half of the health care premiums now. The same people who pay half of the medicare and medicaid payments through payroll taxes. The same people that pay half of the social security taxes for their employees. The same people that we look to to invest their hard earned money (what's left after taxes) into creating more jobs for more people so that we can all get back to work and pay our taxes for those that reap without sowing anything. Get the picture?

The largest burden is placed on those that are are saddled with pre-existing conditions such as the self-employed and those that lose their employer-based insurance. Cobra was designed to fill the gap in employment, but many have exhausted their 18 months of benefits due to the struggling economy. Insurance companies don't consider you part of a group to spread the cost out, but are required to take you on if you have kept up your coverage through HIPAA. The problem is that someone who has been unemployed for any time at all may not be able to afford cobra premiums which can more than double their payments at a time when their benefits from unemployment are sometime less than half of their salary. And unemployment doesn't last forever either. After Cobra, should you be blessed with Pre-Existing Conditions, the HIPAA plans can cost more than five times the cost of the employer based premiums - unaffordable to most.

Fixing the system means dealing with these issues in a way that makes sense and does not create more problems in an already weak economy. Health insurance companies are not saints. They are businesses with the main objective of creating a profit for their shareholders. Some have non-profit status, but this does little to control the salaries of executives, some of whom make millions of dollars each year. Many are owned by the same health care industry that determines the costs of services. It would seem that regulations could be put into place to control costs as well as these conflicts of interest in an industry that now controls one sixth of our economy.

I, for one, am in favor of a system where insurance for individuals is co-mingled to save on premiums and still cover pre-existing conditions much the same as Employer based systems are doing now. These groups could be as big as a state and still would provide enough profit provided a large percentage of the populace is contributing. The pools need to be large enough to spread the cost due to pre-existing conditions in order to make them affordable for all. Socialized - yes! Fair - Maybe! But better than government run for sure! Open the state borders to competition between insurance companies and see what happens to premiums!

If the government wants to assure that those who can't afford insurance are covered, they can find ways to make that achievable through Medicaid or tax incentives. Creation of oversight committees to reign in costs is worth considering as long as they do not intervene in the relationship between the patient and the physician.

The other way to help reduce costs overall is by re-visiting tort reform. Professionals in the health care industry are human. They are not perfect and they do make mistakes. There are circumstances where they should be held liable. But there are also frivolous lawsuits designed to do no more than drive up costs by making attorneys rich. How many ambulance chasers ads do you see on a daily basis any more? Just look at the back cover of your local phone book. By putting a limit to frivolous lawsuits, costs for healthcare would come down tremendously because physicians would not be piggy backing tests that are “obviously” not needed simply to cover their backsides in a trial.

Government should be "of the people, by the people, and for the people".1 A government run system does nothing to create incentives to control costs. The sooner we the people stand up and say enough is enough, the sooner we get control of our own destiny and limit government control over every facet of our lives. That's the way our country's founders envisioned it. That's the reason we have the greatest free country in the world. And that's what we need right now before it's too late.

Socialization of services doesn't have to be bad. But, by limiting the government's involvement to oversight, we all win!



1 From the Constitution. Now would be an excellent time to revisit this wonderfully thought out document that is as relevant today as it was when it was written.

City Begins Tar and Chip Season

Watch out two wheelers(bikes, moped, motorcycles)! The city's Tar and Chip Brigade has begun its annual march to make life tough for you. While preservation of the village streets is a necessary evil, it is not a pleasant experience to ride on loose stone and keep your ride on both wheels. Starting and stopping is also very difficult at stop signs and pedestrian crossing. Not to mention the stream of stones coming at you from the car in front that spins its wheels attempting to take off while you sit behind as a unwilling victim.

It doesn't last forever though. Soon the chips will be sitting on the side of the road. For those streets that are fortunate enough to be paved all the way to the curb (several have gravel birms due to not having a storm sewer installed) the street cleaner will take them away. The rest will just have more gravel to deal with.

Could we not seek some of the so-called stimulus money that is earmarked for roads and infrastructure to lay sewer tile on well-used streets and to properly pave them?

The Rise And Fall Of A Bedroom Community

There was a time when Delphos was an aspiring community. Business was thriving and downtown was full. As is the case with many small towns, people would actually use Main St as a place to meet, eat, and shop. But shopping was pushed to the edges of town and with it, went the downtown activity. Now we are left with empty buildings, many falling to the elements and disrepair. Owners of others try to keep up, but much of the money that it takes is going elsewhere as super centers in county seats all around us promise a better deal for our dollars. While hard to resist, the options are becoming more limited as more local business succumbs to the temptation to save a buck. Little do we realize that those dollars would create tax dollars that are spent on local services as well as money for beautification projects that make us proud of our community. Those needed dollars help to invite new businesses to set up shop in our community. Those new businesses aid to the tax base and give our residents jobs so that a few can actually work in the same community that they live. What a concept!

The next time you think about driving to the super centers in Lima or Van Wert, think about what Delphos can do for you. Think about not being able to buy gas or groceries locally because everyone chose to do their business elsewhere. Think about what you spend to get there and what does not come back to your community when you shop elsewhere. And think about all the empty buildings you will pass on the way back into our little ghost town of the future.

Kids on Mopeds - A Deadly Combination?

Summer is here and so are the kids on their mopeds. The streets are buzzing with them - literally! To say we have an energy crisis, you wouldn't know it by the number of trips each of these small motorized bicycles makes to Stadium Park every hour. But in all honesty, kids are kids! And meeting with their friends is important for their social upbringing. And if they are not congregating, then they are immediately bored. So, another trip to the park to see if anyone else has made the trip is the going fad. Good or bad, there's not much else for kids to do. Other than the pool, the skateboard ramps, the Little League Baseball, fishing on the canal that is. Finding things that keep a child's attention for more than five minutes has always been a challenge. It's not a new phenomina.

So kids ride mopeds instead of bikes. What's the harm? Beside the fact that they get very little physical exercise. Except for those that have a hard time starting their motors and have to pedal at 3500 rpms to get them going. Well, if kids respected local traffic laws - nothing. The problem is that no one is watching to protect our kids from themselves. They wiz down the streets of Delphos at top speed. That may only be 25 or 30 miles per hour, but it's still top speed all the time. What happens when they get their motorcycle license? Will we still look the other way when they run them at top speeds because no one is paying attention? They don't care to stop for stop signs. No one is telling them that it is important to stop, put one foot on the ground, and look both ways before proceeding. After all, motorcyclists do "country road stops" all the time. It's too much trouble to come to a complete stop on a two wheeled vehicle. And from what I've observed, cars aren't a whole lot better.

I realize that budget cuts during this economy have stretched our police department thin. And I do know that they make a concerted effort to cruise the streets of town (including the park) to make sure we as a community are safe. But the kids know that and still don't seem to care about following a few simple rules meant to keep people safe in and on their vehicles. It's just a question of time before one of our own gets hurt (or worse) because our kids have not been taught or encouraged to abide by the rules that have been made to protect them and us.

When my son had just gotten his driver's license, he received a speeding ticket. I always said the acorn didn't fall too far from the tree. When I took him to court to appear before the judge (required at his age), there was another boy about 13 years old who had gotten a ticket while riding a bicycle. I thought at the time that the police were being strict, but I now understand it was for his own good. The judge told this boy that, if he was back in his court again, he would lose the opportunity to get his driver's license until he reached 18 years of age. (Remember, this boy was riding a bike.) I thought to myself that this was maybe what was needed to keep this child from harming himself. While I don't want to see any child in this situation, I want to see that our children are not harmed by the fact that we, as their protectors, do not do enough to teach them the alternative outcomes of bad choices.

As we see more and more gas efficient vehicles on the street, we need to make sure we are being cautious in watching out for them. Looking both ways before proceeding at a traffic signal is another step we can take to defend against imminent tragedy. Please do your part to keep our children safe!