Editor,
My name is Rayma Powers. I am a Duncan resident. I have lived here for 24 years coming this December. I have been an active member of the employment community here in Duncan for a major part of those years. I pay my taxes and bills and I don’t think I have ever had any problems here to date as far as I can remember.
There was one time in 2003 when my water meter was leaking, and I called the City of Duncan Utilities Department to report the leak. It was on a Friday and the city employee from the water department came out and just turned it off. I asked him what I should do for the weekend, and he just said call a plumber and left. It was after 5 p.m. and I didn’t know anyone who plumbed but I had a friend who knew someone, so she called for me and of course they came out. They dug up the meter and replaced a plastic piece that was connected to the meter costing $1.59 and then he charged me $150.. He also told me that the city was supposed to dig up the meters, not plumbers. I took the receipt to the City Utilities Department to try and get some kind of help and when I asked the woman if the plumber was correct and the City was supposed to dig up the meters, she waited a second to answer and the woman in the desk behind her said yes while the one is front turned around to her and said “shush” and looked at me and said no. It was then that I realized I would not get any help from customer service or the City. My thoughts went to that old adage “You can’t fight City Hall” and it was true. At some point during this time I did talk with a meter reader who asked me why I was on the water line in the alley and everyone else was on one across the street. I answered, I did not know that. The next time I went to City Hall I asked about it and they told me they did not do water line moves any more.
The reason I am writing this letter is because I have received a bill that I must dispute. When I first moved to Duncan my water and trash was a measly $25 per month. I realize that was around the year 2000 and things have changed since then. However, somewhere
around 2008 my bill started rising. It was around $35 to $45 for few years and then it started rising again. By 2014 it was up to $55. I knew that everything was going up, so I just paid it and went on. 2017 rolled around and it went up to $65. I complained downtown but customer service just looked at me and said they could send someone out to read the meter just to check. I said no to that suggestion then. During the next three years the bill slowly creeped up more. Somewhere during this time, the City of Duncan made it mandatory that we pay $5 a month for a recycling trash that I never used, but I had to pay for it. My bill had risen to the high $80’s or low $90’s for the last couple of years and every time I went into pay it, I would complain that there was no way I was using that much water. Of course, I would get the same talking points that they would send someone out to read my meter and I would think, what’s the use. This year most of the bills have been $100 or close to that until the meter was moved.
During all these years I have had to have plumbers come and fix things because of the buildup in the water. Since 2005 I have had to have five water heaters replaced and every year I have had to have a plumber come and replace the filter inside my bathtub faucet because of the chat in the water was so corroded it was eating them up. The funny thing about it was the plumber only had to turn on one faucet in the house to work on any of my plumbing because my water pressure was so low.
In 2017 I had to take in two of my baby grandkids to raise. They were small and I had just begun teaching so I had my hands full. Water was a big problem, so a schedule was important. It took 20 minutes to put enough water in the bathtub for a bath and because of the time they would share the water. One got out and the other got in. This had gone on until July of this year. No one could run anything when one appliance was running or if anyone wanted to shower it was a long one trying to get soap out of hair. No flushing stools while running bath water of any kind or the washing machine or washing dishes. The only water outside was a trickle for watering the dogs. I couldn’t hook anything up that the kids could play in the water during the summer at all. My water pressure had always been terribly low and to prove it every time plumbers came; they knew they didn’t have to turn the water off in the alley because it was controllable from just one faucet. My bill seemed extremely high for the fact that everyone around me had plenty of water pressure and all my neighbors said they always had lots of pressure. At the end of the year 2022, I had to call Vermillion again to replace my water heater. This time James put in one he said should last a while. He also told me that when I could save up some money to call him and he would replumb this whole house and I would have some water pressure. I called him in March, and he set a time up to be here a few weeks later and he and his crew came out and replaced everything under my house and the line all the way to the meter. It took a few weeks because he worked around his other jobs, and I just knew that I was going to have water for the first time. I was wrong. I still had no water pressure and James told me to call the City Utilities.
During the time the plumbers were working, the water was obviously off and I had already gotten my bill for April which was $108.78 and then the next one coming up was $99.95 that was billed 4/25/23 and due 5/17/23. I couldn’t understand how it could be so high having all that work done and water off for a time. After the plumbing job was completed, I went to the City of Duncan and spoke with Buddy Hokit who in turn talked with his supervisor about my ordeal. I explained that I had just spent $5,000 to replumb my whole house hoping it would take care of my water pressure, but it did not. I suggested that I thought if I was hooked to the water line across the street that I would be getting better water pressure just like my neighbors and he told me he would talk to his supervisor.
A few days later the supervisor from upstairs was in my front yard knocking on my door. He and his assistant had been in the back alley looking at my meter and checking my water flow. He reported to me that my meter was flowing at one gallon a minute and his assistant confirmed what he was saying. He said you should be getting four gallons per minute. His next questions was “How have you been living like that?” I said well I have learned to manage. I have been raising grandkids for the last seven years and we are on a schedule when it comes to water. Everyone shares bathwater because it takes 20 minutes to fill the bathtub and everything else with water is scheduled and timed. I thought for a moment and my next response was “If that is true then the City of Duncan has been charging me for four times the amount of water I have been getting and that would explain the high water bill.” The supervisor didn’t respond to that claim but he did tell me that I should have been hooked up to the water line across the street when all the other people were hooked up years ago and he could not give me an answer why I was still in the alley by myself. He assured me that they were going to run a line to the main line across the street and put it in my front yard. He also told me that I would have to run my own line from that meter to my house again, but that I would have normal water pressure. A few weeks later the workers showed up and dug a line under the street, hooked up a line and put a cylinder in the ground for the meter to be placed in. I let my plumber know that everything was ready, but the plumber said it would be about six weeks before he could work me in to run the other line. So, for that much longer I was on the slow water pressure.
My water bill that was read due for June 15, 2023, was for $76 and for a month I thought maybe things were going to turn around and maybe I was being charged rightfully. Again, I was wrong. Next bill was $144, due in July 15, 2023. I waited until late in the month to go and pay this one. I called the city about the bill and of course I got the same talking points. They send someone out to read the meter and then call and say everything is fine. The meter is fine. Customer service said I could file some papers that they would turn over to their lawyer. That upset me because the supervisor came out here and confirmed to me that I had a water flow problem that was a City problem while wanting to know how I had been living like this. I paid the bill anyway and like in 2000, I thought its no use to try and get help because no one is really interested in helping, period. It was odd because on July 7 the plumber came and hooked my line up and my meter was moved. The meter reader came the following Friday, July 14 to read the meter and couldn’t find it so my son showed the reader where it had been moved. Everything was still exposed, and the inspector had still not come by and inspected it. The reader made a comment about how everything was still exposed. I don’t think anyone ever came out and eventually the dirt fell in by itself around it and grass grew around it so I guess they figured its ok. For seven days my water was hooked up to the new water line and nothing changed in the house except we did have good water pressure. My bill was $95.87.
Its Sept. 24 and I am writing this letter. I don’t have the money to pay this month’s water bill. I called on the 10th of September wanting to know where my bill was. Customer service said there were some problems with some of the bills so they went out late and the mailed mine out and I should be getting it any day now. I asked how much it was. She said, get ready … a whopping $266. NEVER EVER have I had a WATER BILL that high! I told her I am not paying it and of course here comes the talking points. We will send someone out to reread your meter. She did and the outcome was the same. She called and left a message that I could fill out a complaint which I guess I will be forced to do because there is no way I can afford to pay this bill or any others this high.
There was and is obviously something wrong with this/my meter and that is on the City of Duncan’s side, which means that the City of Duncan should consume the offset at least, and fix the problem. In my case since I really think they have been overcharging me for the duration of my 24 years or however long the last meters were put in that they need to reimburse me anyway. I read where the City is supposed to be putting in new meters and I saw on KSWO where the Mayor confirmed that “They are putting in new meters in Duncan Oklahoma that are going to work correctly.” He said this on air.
Sincerely,
Rayma Powers
Duncan
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