Today July
26th, I got a letter in the mail from the City of Winters and I am
PISSED. I’ve never used this column to write about the city or city staff or
even local politics but today all that changes.
The letter reads as follows:
Dear Lis,
Edmund;
The City of
Winters is preparing to file liens on real property that are past due on the
water and sewer bills due to the City of Winters.
Currently
the property located at 9 RUSSELL ST is past due in the amount of $133.41.
Please forward payment to the City of Winters in full by August 1, 2014 to
prevent a lien being placed on your property.
Please
contact me at 530-795-4910 ext 104 if you have any questions regarding this
notice.
Sincerely,
Shelly A. Gunby
Director of Financial Management
City of
Winters
My first thought is that I missed
last month’s payment or they lost it. So I went on line and looked at my
banking stuff and sure enough there was the cashed check. I then checked my
current bill to see if there was a previous balance and there wasn’t. The
delinquent date on that bill is July 15th less than 10 days prior to
the “Collection Letter” being sent out.
So why am I pissed off? Because yes,
I am late, but Lien threatening late? I don’t think so. I’ve been late before (I
get paid on the 20th so don’t usually pay it till then) where a past
due amount shows in the previous balance box. When that’s happened I might even
get a red bordered past due reminder notice but never a threat.
So what’s changed at city hall? I
can’t imagine its Shelly. She is the nicest, number crunching, hand quilting, Harley
riding, city staffer I know. Is it rubbing off from the Police department? They
are getting a bit of a hard ass reputation. Maybe it’s the Neu voice on the
City Council. Or what about J.D.? Is this part of his (personal or city) plan
for a bigger and better future? Is it just growing pains even thought we
haven’t had any growth?
If it’s anything, it’s probably preparation
for the inevitable growing pains that will come with hundreds of houses that
are congregating at the entrance to the proverbial pipeline. Somewhere in the
not so distant future there will be a few thousand more people sharing this
community and its services with us.
Does that mean that Winters will become a not quite so small,
small town? A town run by uninvolved nonresident bureaucrats and contract personnel?
Is it already becoming that? Shelly the Finance Director lives in Woodland,
Gene the Building Official lives in Davis, and the Fire Department is being run
by out of Towner’s. Not to mention the contract lawyers, planners, and backups
for staff.
All I know is that the letter really rubbed me the wrong way.
And that’s my point, when did Winters become this impersonal place. I know
Shelly and a lot of the people at City Hall. I’ve dealt with them over the last
10 years in many different capacities. I’ve served them coffee and wine, I’ve
sat in meetings and on committees with them, and I’ve also gotten licenses and
permits from them. So why the form letter? I thought Winters was better than
that.
But maybe I’m just fantasizing that there ever was this small
town vibe. Was I wearing rose colored glasses when I first drove over the
freeway and looked up at the Gap and down to the water tower? Did I really get
chocked up the first time I walked in to the house we bought here in Winters?
Was I being naïve when I invested everything I had into the coffee house
because that’s what Winters needed? Did I cry and feel a great loss, like a
hole in the heart of Winters when Charlie Rominger and Gloria Marion died even
though I just knew them as customers. Or the deep loss I felt more recently
with the deaths of Leslie and Julie.
Maybe it’s like Debra recently wrote, have we lost our
collective innocence? Are we becoming hard and calloused, like the hands of the
farmers that made this town? Or are we just becoming like most other cities and
towns in America? A loose knit group of nameless neighbors that consume the
services but complain about the price.
I truly don’t think that Winters is that place, YET. But that
letter makes me wonder what their thinking down at City Hall. I may not know
what the powers that be are thinking but I do know what the rest of you are
thinking. “Oh just shut up already and pay your water bill like everybody else!”
To view the column in it's original form go to page 16 of the following link. Winters Express 8/14/14
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