Part 2-A: Putting Families At Risk
Listen as the Mayor insults elected officials and cues up his puppets, appointed Fire Chief and City Water Superintendent to support his claim county residents in the 39N Conservancy District are in danger. He knew this wasn’t true, The City Fire Chief, Andy Snyder, knew this wasn’t true. The City Water Superintendent knew this wasn’t true. All of them lied to support the Mayor’s ambition to annex 39N Conservancy District.
The Mayor claims 39N Conservancy District has ignored the water problem. Totally untrue; the district has paid consultants, lobbyists, and attorneys to file grants for a water tower for at least the last 6 years. The district didn’t want to create another bond and knew no crisis needed immediate attention. That Haynes factory has been operating for 7 years now and they throttled their water connection not to disrupt water flow on 39N. The city is all too eager to take out bonds, steal money from school districts, and tax residents.
This is the City’s water study that they all had when this video was created. All of them knew the fire flow capacity for residential fire scenarios was acceptable. That didn’t stop them from lying to residents. Watch Board of Works board member Jessica Romaine shakes her head with disgust that residents were reportedly in danger. We wonder if she shakes her head now, knowing it was all a lie and she should have read the NIES water study for herself.
City Fire Chief Says 39N Puts Families in Danger
When your appointed position overrides your duty to tell the truth, the Mayor says, “and I know Chief Snyder echoes the concerns for families out there based on the current water flow situation.” Chief Snyder surely had the NIES water study that showed residents aren’t in danger. So why did Chief Snyder say the system has proven itself not to work? Why did he support the Mayor’s deception that families are in danger?
Chief Snyder is a fire professional. He was once a county volunteer firefighter. He knew 39N Conservancy District was well protected by Center Township Volunteer Fire Department. Why is he supporting the Mayor’s deception that families were in danger, throwing Center VFD under the bus? He knew Center VFD would be there in minutes with tankers full of water if a fire broke out. He knew the City Fire Department had no tankers and that annexation would actually provide less fire protection to 39N residents.
You see, City Fire has to depend on hydrants for water supply. How did the Mayor and Snyder one minute claim 39N hydrants aren’t sufficient for fire protection and the next minute ask for annexation so residents must depend on those hydrants? They wrapped themselves up in lies hoping nobody noticed.
Shame on both of them. Snyder had a duty to tell the Mayor families aren’t at risk; they have Center VFD protecting them like they’ve been doing for the last 66 years. The 39N hydrants bolster those county residents’ fire protection. It doesn’t diminish it. Actually, Mayor, I could argue that annexation would diminish their fire protection because our department doesn’t own tanker trucks and it will be years before the infrastructure can be built out there to support how we fight fires. Why didn’t the La Porte Fire Chief tell the truth? We all know.
City Water Superintendent Says 39N Ignored Water Problems
The City’s hypocrisy is incredible. The City has been doing minimal work on its water and sewer system for decades. Only now are they starting to spend serious money because mains are breaking, raw sewage is being dumped into streets, and the State is demanding the city address its deficiencies. The La Porte Water Works has been deemed non-compliance 3 of the last 12 quarters.
The City of La Porte Wastewater plant has even a worst scorecard being non-compliant 5 of the last 12 quarters. It was just a few years ago, IDEM was going to fine the City of La Porte $2,000 a day for the pollutants their wastewater plant was dumping into Travis ditch which feeds into the Kankakee River. Talk about the kettle calling the pot black, the City of La Porte has spent the bare minimum trying to keep its system running.
The 39N Conservancy District 26-year-old water system is still an infant compared to the City’s 140-year-old water system. The 39N Conservancy District doesn’t have failing water mains several times a year. Our residents don’t have raw sewage being dumped in their basements and streets like the city does after every heavy rain. The city department heads have said several times that the city water and sewer system needs $130 million in immediate repairs. The audacity of Tim Werner, to claim the 39N Conservancy District doesn’t put any money in their system is incredible to watch. The 39N system needs no repairs, all have been completed promptly and paid for. 39N needs a water tower for one factory, that’s it.
Tim mentioned the installation of the fire suppression pump installed on 39N being overrated for the system capacity but he should have mentioned it was his predecessor that approved the connection. The City of La Porte should have denied that connection unless the factory built a water tower. We can’t put the genie back in the bottle, but the truth should be told. The time to build infrastructure is when demand is needed, and the people creating it should pay for it. That factory on 39N is an international, multi-billion dollar factory traded on the stock exchange. Before the city signed off on that connection, the city should have demanded the factory install a water tower.
Residents and families have never been at risk on 39N, and shame on the Mayor, Fire Chief, and Water Superintendent for deceiving the public.