Part 4: The Mayor’s threat to shut off water to 39N
November 3rd, 2023, City Attorney said our organization claims the city threatened to shut off water, and frankly that is wrong. Take a listen;
Spoken like a true politician in a lawyer’s suit. Ask any resident on 39N if the Mayor threatened to shut off their water if they don’t annex to the City of La Porte, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single person who says the Mayor didn’t threaten to shut off the water.
The City Attorney in this video trying to walk back the Mayor’s threats with our attorney sitting in the room. The City Attorney knows threatening to shut off water unless you agree to annexation is a hostile annexation and illegal in the State of Indiana. We wonder why they didn’t recognize that in 2022 when they initially made these threats.
Now the City of La Porte says they never threatened to shut off water to 39N residents. Really? So what does the Mayor mean when he says if the residents don’t want this (annexation), “we’ll take our water and go home.” Take your water from where and from whom Mayor?
April 23rd, 2023 the Mayor was on a local radio show explaining the need for annexation. He pushed back on our information that the city can’t shut off water to 39N Conservancy District without shutting off water to the Johnson Road corridor. The Johnson Road corridor tees off the 39N Conservancy District downwind from the district-owned booster station. The city modified that booster station back in 2005 to pump a higher pressure to accommodate that Johnson Road corridor. We even asked a 39N Conservancy Board member if the city could shut down water to 39N without shutting down water to Johnson Road, and he said no unless they want to install their own million-dollar booster station.
So the City Attorney claims the city never threatened to shut off the water to residents on 39N, please explain what the Mayor is talking about here, Mr. Otis.
It sure sounds like he’s talking about shutting down water next year on 39N but it won’t shut down water on Johnson Road. The Mayor didn’t explain how he would get water to Johnson Road without the 39N booster station and water system. The 39N engineer’s map makes if very clear 39N booster station feeds the Johnson Road corridor.
If the mayor isn’t talking about shutting off water to 39N then please explain whose water the Mayor is shutting off and it won’t affect Johnson Road residents in this conversation. Of course he’s talking about shutting off water to 39N and he’s scaring residents.