Flooded home will have to pay water bill

At Thursday night's Chinook City Council meeting, Les Fuglevand asked for the city to compromise on his $1,456.54 water bill, for using 491,000 gallons of water in the month of March.

Every month some residents of Chinook ask City Council for relief from costs due to extenuating circumstances. And nearly every time the council rejects the request because members feel they can't simply hand out exceptions.

Fuglevand's bill was the result of a break that occured while he was out of town.

When he returned and found not only the mess, but the water bill that went with it, he sent the city a check for $500 and a letter asking that they forgive the other nearly $1,000.

Council members said they understand his troubles, but can't do anything.

"We can't pick and choose. We have to be consistent, " council member Heath Richman said.

Many similar requests are made all the time, but the council maintains their steadfast stance.

As they explain, if they were to allow exceptions for some homeowners, then their water system would lose money. Then that loss would have to be distributed out to all of the already shrinking number of users of the Chinook water system.

There is a program in place in Chinook, that council members talked about, to work with homeowners with water trouble during particularly problematic months from December to February, but the Fuglevand's issue fell just outside that range.

The water meter was removed from the Fuglevand residence afterwards just to make sure that its reading was accurate. It was found to be fully functional.