The Town of Fincastle Virginia has outsourced the water and sewer system for several years. The only example I have of how it's working, is when I noticed that there was water coming out of my meter box a couple of weeks ago. I called the town office and was told that I needed to call the water authority in Roanoke. Then I was told there was someone at the plant who could come by and check it out. 45 minutes later, no one had shown up so I called the water authority. They had trouble figuring out where my address was, I guess because Fincastle is so big and complicated, but they finally seemed to understand. When I headed out of town I saw a water authority truck in front of the old Baptist church, so I stopped and related my story. They said they would look at it.
I went to town and several hours later I was on the way back and my cell phone rang. It was the technician from the water authority, who was at my house. He informed me the leak was on my side so I would have to take care of it. I asked him to wait for me as I was only 5 minutes out, and he did. When I arrived we determined that there was no water in the box when he got there and then found an old o ring on the ground so I said that the other guys must have fixed it.
He was disturbed that there were other guys involved. I guess the local guys aren't supposed to fix things, we are supposed to have someone drive up from Roanoke. Anyway, he wanted to know where else they were working so I guess the town will pay twice for the two repairs that day. Doesn't seem like the most efficient way to me!
A couple of months ago during another problem, one of the technicians said they were not allowed to do any work unless they spoke to Mayor Critzer. I asked how that worked when he was working and they said not so good! Sometimes it takes hours to get hold of him. Another example of government waste and mismanagement.
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