Generally speaking, the movement of fluids throughout a home can be heard by occupants of the home, whether it be forced air from the furnace, the air conditioner kicking out comfort on a blazing hot day, or water moving through the pipes doing the chores that water does.
Watering the lawn with a sprinkler, watering the plants and shrubs and flowers, and filling the pool are all uses of water where the occupants of the home can hear, as much as see. If the hose is being used outside, you can hear the water moving under pressure from the inside.
Doing the dishes by hand, or using a dishwasher also produces the sounds of fluids in motion, again in this case water. Taking a shower, drawing a bath, shaving, these all require water, and therefore also make enough sound to be noticeable to anyone in the home.
Either the flushing of a toilet, or a toilet that doesn’t complete the flushing cycle all make water-in-motion noises. So too does every faucet in the house when in use.
My point here is that we generally have a pretty good idea when our water usage is in action, mostly because we can hear it as much as we can see it. So if the water was running, from whatever source, for six consecutive days without reprieve, then we’d have some notice of it, with our ears as much as our eyes.
Jack Groenewoud appeared before Council this past week as part of a personal delegation. He told the story of how his water bill showed up and it was for an eye-popping $749.06. Yet there’s no pool, the grass wasn’t watered, the hose wasn’t used and never really is, and the water usage inside the house was consistent with past water usage. Yet the town hammers him with a water bill that’s roughly four times what the norm is on average.
He went to the town. In a revelation that momentarily had me losing my balance, somebody spoke to him. To her credit, Revenue Co-ordinator Meghan Jessop gave Groenewoud a leak test kit , and actually visited the home to get a meter reading that very day. This staffer has not yet learned the repugnant policy of her seniors, the policy of ignoring anyone and everyone who dares pose a question to town staff about anything to do with the town. And despite her efforts, Jessop still informed Mr. Groenewoud that, despite not having an answer for the billing anomaly, the home owner didn’t qualify for a rate or billing adjustment that would reflect the fact that the water bill of over $700 was egregiously incorrect.
In other words, “we don’t know what happened, but whatever it is/was, it’s clearly your fault because nothing is our fault, so in the most polite terms, pay-up and shut-up.”
The fact that this gentleman had to arrange a personal delegation to address Council represents a failure of process, or more accurately put, another failure of process by the men and women charged with administering our town’s affairs.
Arrogance. Self-entitlement. The assumption of infallibility.
Another day at Renfrew Town Hall.
Mr. Groenewoude administered the leak test and came up with no leaks. He arranged to have a plumber come in for a look around, and again, no leaks. He doesn’t have a pool of his own, but there’s one a couple of doors down that required filling, possibly done during the same time frame.
As I mentioned, the water bill for the billing period was $749.06. Ms. Jessop informed Mr. Groenewoud that he had six days of consecutive, non-stop water usage from noon on July 10, 2024 to noon July 16, 2024. Yet there’s absolutely nothing to indicate, nor evidence to verify such an unusual usage of water. Six consecutive days, non-stop, from noon on the 10th to noon on the 16th. Just the fact that the anomaly usage started and stopped at exactly the same point on the dates in question suggests that the problem exists on the town’s end, and not the Groenewoud’s. Honestly, who starts a six-day water-running rampage at precisely noon on any given day only to shut things down precisely at noon on the sixth day?
For the record, the Groenewoud’s water usage for this billing period was pegged at 123.413 cubic metres, which is generally accepted as a lot of water, and far more than two people living alone would ever dream of consuming. Their average water usage is 17.45 cubic metres / 2 months, meaning the usage they were charged represents a seven-fold increase.
It juist doesn’t make sense, but as far as the town is concerned, it’s not their problem, it’s the Groenewoud’s.
So, the facts on the ground show the Groenewoud’s being billed $749.49 for a river of water they never used. Their regular bill averages out to be $165.00 for two months. And nobody has an answer as to why their bill went up by a factor of 4.5. And all the town can do is scratch their heads, whistle a jaunty little tune, and tell the Groenewouds to pay up or have their water cut off.
I was happy to see Councillor Andrew Dick have some questions for Mr. Groenewoud, and I do believe he will follow up on this, but there’s no guarantee that the administrative staff will do much to help the councillor since they generally regard him as a pain in the ass, which is another way of saying that he’s doing his job and they don’t like that.
Councillor John McDonald had a question for the staff on this topic, but the Clerk informed him that during delegations, questions can only be directed towards the delegate, and not the staff, since putting a staffer on the spot is to be avoided at all costs. Better to have Councillor McDonald’s questions raised at the end of the meeting, when most people have already checked out. Or better yet, as far as staff is concerned, have the question asked in closed session, so that no staffers have to worry about any embarrassment that may accrue from them constantly fumbling easy-to-catch balls.
In closing, there are different ways to spell both Meghan and Jessop. My apologies for any inaccuracies. Attempting to get information off the town’s blue-chip five-star website can be a challenge, something I believe to be intentional. And with a policy of having a website serve as a smoke screen, there’s always going to be a chance that you get somebody’s name wrong.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 