Calendar of Events

Thursday, August 17th @ 7:00pm
Community Water Meeting - Aledo High School
Main Auditorium - seats for all attendees

Special Guests:

Phil King, State Representative
Dianne Helms, Reg. Coordinator for Senator Estes
Frank Espino, TCEQ, DFW MetroPlex

Issues to be discussed:

Poor Water Pressure
Poor Water Service
Our Next Steps
State representation efforts by Rep. Phil King & Senator Estes
TCEQ investigation of Willow Park's management of our water service
Water Rate Calculation and Analysis to be performed by independent firm
Updates from Aledo Fire Chief, Mayors, Committees

click here for directions

SUNDAY April 23rd– 6:30 pm
Pre-Hearing Meeting at Stuard Elementary

Willow Park Water Rate Petition Hearing Update for PCCC Community

(includes Deer Creek, Meadow Park, Stone Creek Farms, Oak View Estates)

We realize that the last two months have been relatively quiet regarding any progress with Willow Park’s aggressive take over of our water systems. This should bring you up to date. Hopefully you will attend the meeting at Stuard Elementary School and provide some feedback and statement of support for your community. All recent documents have been added to the web-site at www.thepccc.com

Update on STM Process from January 31 Hearing:

Mark Zeppa, opposing attorney representing Willow Park and Doyle Hanley of Deer Creek Water Works, filed two motions against the hearing over the Sales Transfer Merger (STM) of Deer Creek Water Works. The first motion was to quash the whole proceeding of the hearing by challenging the jurisdiction of the court to even take the referred case from the Exec. Director of TCEQ. The second motion was to limit the scope of the proceeding, if the first motion failed, to only discuss the water rights, the CCN, of the Deer Creek Water Works area.

The Judge, Kerry Sullivan, evaluated all of the supporting documents submitted from the Willow Park Attorney and ruled against both motions. Apparently he sees something wrong in the manner in which Willow Park utilized Eminent Domain, stating that they did not adhere to the procedures laid out in the appropriate Local Government Code. In addition, he stated that there was obvious public interest at stake that needed to be heard regarding the entire process. As such he denied the motion to limit the scope of investigation as well. The hearing on the STM Case will be heard in September, and they really are trying to get the hearing slated for the Parker County area.

Rate Petition Hearing for April 27^th in Austin

William P Clements Bldg, 300 West 15^th Street, 4^th Floor, Austin TX 78701

This is the hearing that we have all been waiting to happen. This is the hearing in which each and everyone of you that signed the original petition are already an “interested party”, and as such should plan on attending the hearing in Austin. Favorable turnout by each of you seated in the courtroom will let the Judge know that YOU are representing yourself, as well as having an attorney to present the case on your behalf.

Several of you , and that means in large numbers, can be called on the personally stand up to give your account of how exorbitant you have found Willow Park’s rate to be, comments regarding customer service, and the poor manner in which they have followed their own contractual agreements regarding sewage rate calculations. All of those issues have an impact on your total water bill.

As a community of the Deer Creek area you have voted unanimously to support the initiatives of the PCCC to help fight for reasonable water rates, and to contest the validity of the purchase of the Deer Creek Water Works by Willow Park. The PCCC has done as requested and to date we have done quite well. Gaining status in the STM Hearing with all of the committee members of the PCCC that were present was quite a surprise to our attorneys. Gaining a Hearing for the Rate Petition was another plus, since the SOAH Judge has the ability to enforce an interim rate until the whole process of the rate review is completed. The interim rate, if put into place, could definitely give the whole community of the PCCC a financial break, and lend credibility to the process of calculating an appropriate rate for the Deer Creek Area.

Speaking of financial breaks brings up a tough subject. Over 330 of you signed the petition to appeal these rates as forced on you by Willow Park. Over 200 of the community voted unanimously to provide a contribution of $100 per household to support the use of attorneys for our case.

To date, over half of the community has presented its support to the Parker County Community Coalition. Of the $22,000 collected, one contributor gave $5000, another gave $1000, but the remaining funds came from the individuals who gave their $100 amounts. If you add that up it would appear that many are expecting others to carry the burden and fight for them. I think this is due to lack of information, and that is giving the benefit of the doubt to them.

Several folks have canvassed the whole community on foot. I was surprised at the number of those homeowners that seemed totally un-informed of what was happening. I was really surprised at the apathy exhibited from a few who felt “you can’t take on City Hall”. Your contribution will do more that just challenge City Hall – it will force an actual water rate study against true expenses, instead of just charging you higher water rates because other cities of similar size charge similar rates.

Many of you have either called, e-mailed, or personally said that you are ready to donate more than your $100, and I have asked you to wait until the majority of the residents have at least contributed the first amount. At this point no-one on the PCCC will stop you from making your additional contributions now, because we are faced with needing to support both the Water Rate Petition Fight and the Sales Transfer Merger Hearing later this year. The Rate Fight has the immediate priority, and for that we need your help now.

We need your contributions to provide for the attorneys that have been truly working behind the scenes to make this hearing happen. Please mail them to address below. This form is accessible on the web-site as well at www.thepccc.com

Sincerely,

Stephen Barron – Chairman PCCC

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _cut here & mail in_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

PCCC Group (make check payable to “PCCC Group)

PO Box 1302

Aledo TX 76008

Name____________________________________________________

Address__________________________________________________

Tel________________________e-mail_________________________

Amount Enclosed- _______________

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _cut here & mail in_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

You can also make contributions for PCCC GROUP directly at the Weatherford Nat. Bank in Aledo. Just use the inside desk or drive thru. Please annotate the deposit with your name and address for our records.

Thursday, January 12th

Community Meeting
Stuard Elementary Cafeteria
Meeting Starts at 6:30pm
Click here for additional details.

There will be a community meeting to update all residents affected by the Deer Creek Water Works and DyeGard Water Works areas. The meeting will introduce to the community the attorney Doug Black, the attorney Georgia Crump from the Austin firm of Lloyd Gosselink, and the water utility expertise from another individual from Austin as well.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday - JAN 12th, Stuard Elementary School Cafeteria, 6:30pm

Please try to send at least one from each household. I know that kids
basketball practices are on-going, but we really need your support on this matter.

We also need the monetary support pledged at the last meeting of $100 per household, so please bring your checkbooks, receipts will be provided at the meeting. If you have not signed the petition then this will be your time to fix that. All petitions will be collected and taken for filing after this meeteing with the TCEQ in Austin.

In addition to the attendees we will invite the media to attend - to give them the idea of the scope of the community affected.

Invites have been extended to Rep Phil King's office and Senator Craig Estes office. This will give you the opportunity to thank them for the efforts made to get this entire affair routed toward a SOAH Court Hearing.

I have attached a flyer that you can use to provide to your neighbors, just print it out and please share it with your neighbors. If you don't want to print the back side, just select from "File Print" to only print page one.

Look forward to all that can make the effort to come to the meeting.

Steve Barron
on behalf of:
Parker County Community Coalition (PC3)