Pathetic Response to a Serious Issue

As of Thursday, December 29, 2011

The huge water bill received by Mr. and Mrs. Phelps (Dec. 23) demonstrates a complete lack of competence by the county’s accounting office and Randy Gould.

The Phelpses were not the only residents who were unhappy with their water bills. Public Works Director Randy Gould described the problem as being a “glitch,” offering a pathetic display of pablum. The supposed cause of the “glitch” was a coordination lapse between the meter upgrade installation and the software developed to facilitate the meter readings.

Then Mr. Gould continued the substandard and unacceptable response to this problem by saying that “the bills were not really incorrect,” but instead “just not complete.”

In addition, we have the response from Peggy Deaks, of the county utilities’ accounting staff, stating that the computer printout of the bill for the Phelpses was apparently lacking a key coding that would have calculated the correct water usage and the amount due. Do you again read into this gross incompetence and a lack of leadership?

How can you propose an upgrade to a system that has about 12,000 customers without being sure of the actual number and without having the entire process installed, tested and proven to work before doing this piecemeal, and with poor stewardship?

I would urge customers to attend meetings of the county (board), write letters to the commissioners concerning their problems with the meter reading and processing of billing correctly, and be very vigilant about the contents of any mailing that comes from Gould and/or Deaks.

Please don’t excuse behavior and lack of serious leadership of those quoted in this article; the responses are transparent and uncaring and disingenuous at best.

We must demand better.

Ronald Vanhoover

Pinehurst

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deidretg 1 year, 4 months ago

If Sam Ragan was still running The Pilot we would at least have had the benefit of some investigative journalism forthcoming from our local 'news outlet'. Questions would have already been asked, like; "Who is providing the system of wireless meter reading?, What was the process used to obtain the equipment and software (bidding - yes or no)?, How much is this obviously unreliable system costing Moore County?, Who are the payments made out to?, etc. Unfortunately, as it is today, we just get social chit chat, designed to keep the crowd that is in control of this county sailing along smoothly. I guess I should be relieved by the fact that I live in Southern Pines and the leadership here is smart enough to never let the County of Moore get its hands on our water system. As always, Pinehurst suffers greatly from the lack of control over its water resources. Then there is Vass, too.

Toda 1 year, 4 months ago

" Public Works Director Randy Gould described the problem as being a “glitch,”

Say it's no so that Southern Software made a line coding mistake. The whole issue stinks of cronism and subliminal greed on the part of Larry Caddell and President of SS, Commissioner Nick Piceno. This should have never happened to the people of Poorer County. No wonder the vote was 3 to 2 on the water bond that was tied to the new Grand Palace for criminals. Pathetic!