Carefree Residents Alert
A special interest entity NOT associated with the Town of Carefree is currently conducting a telephone survey. This dark money/special interest group survey is intended to mislead Carefree residents regarding the current water negotiations under way with Cave Creek to consolidate water service to all accounts in Carefree within the Carefree Water Company.
Misinformation in the survey is stated as if it were factual information in an attempt to create false perceptions under the guise of “research.” Many Carefree residents have contacted the Town infuriated over the misleading questions.
The people conducting this “research” have refused to identify the participants behind this survey. As a result, the Town is investigating who and how this survey was authorized and funded so Carefree residents can be informed about the sponsor’s intent. Be alert to this situation should the people conducting this survey contact you or someone in your home.
What is the Real Situation Regarding Water Service for all Carefree Residents?
Carefree’s intent is clear: to secure a high quality, reliable water resource for ALL Carefree residents and businesses to ensure high quality of life services at the lowest possible costs to all.
There is no more precious resource in the arid desert southwest than water. It brings life to the desert and economic life to a community. Carefree made a concerted effort to protect this precious resource by purchasing the Carefree Water Company, which currently serves approximately ¾ of Carefree. In addition, Carefree has an enforceable Agreement with the Town of Cave Creek which enables Carefree to purchase the remaining balance of the water accounts in Carefree which are currently serviced by the Cave Creek Water Company system.
Why is it critical for Carefree to exercise its rights to acquire these water accounts at this time so that ALL Carefree residents are under the control of one water utility?
1. Representation:
Every Carefree resident should have representation on this critical community resource by the people they directly elect. Under the current approach, Carefree citizens receiving water service from the Cave Creek Water Company system do not have this requisite representation. This deprives them of one of their basic rights. In recognition of this, the Agreement authorizing Carefree to acquire these water accounts from Cave Creek was agreed to by both communities.
2. Impact:
From a financial perspective, Carefree does not assess a municipal property tax. Therefore, programs and services such as the master contract for fire/emergency services, are paid for through revenue from Carefree’s sales taxes. In order for the Town to continue to pay for these types of public safety services which all of its residents benefit from, it must continue to diversify its sales tax revenues.
The largest undeveloped commercial property in Carefree which has significant capacity to generate revenues for the Town and offset the need for a property tax is located within the Cave Creek Water Company service area. However, according to a lengthy public record, Cave Creek has mismanaged their water resources and refuses to provide sufficient water supplies for future commercial development in Carefree called for in the Agreement. Plain and simple, no water availability for future development in Carefree will result in the need for a property tax in the future which will impact ALL Carefree residents.
3. Public Safety/Community Concerns:
Every year, Rural Metro, which staffs Carefree’s Fire Department, inspects and “exercises” fire hydrants throughout the Carefree and Cave Creek Water Company service areas to be sure that they are operable and functioning properly. Since beginning these regular inspection programs in 2012, a large number of fire hydrants within Carefree on the Cave Creek Water Company system have evidenced significant deficiencies. However, Cave Creek has either intentionally or through shoddy management practices neglected to address these identified deficiencies. This creates significant personal safety issues for Carefree residents living in the Cave Creek water service area in the event of a fire.
Plain and simple, if you have a fire hydrant near your house or business, you should be able to rely on it being operational when needed. If you can’t rely upon it to operate properly, it creates a safety hazard and the potential for a significant liability claim against Carefree for knowing of these deficiencies, in spite of our inability to secure their correction by Cave Creek. This could create a significant liability claim which would become a liability for ALL Carefree residents.
4. Management of Water Resources:
Cave Creek’s public records clearly show a lack of both continuity of personnel and having the systems in place to manage this precious resource. Over the years since it has owned its water company, Cave Creek has either under-funded needed - if not required - water infrastructure improvements and not followed an industry accepted maintenance schedule. This has resulted in emergencies and more costly repairs.
Our bottom line is that no Carefree resident should be forced to have to continue to rely upon an outside political entity (Cave Creek) for their water service when that entity has not demonstrated an ability of effectively manage such a system.
So what is the solution?
Carefree has agreements in place with Scottsdale to deliver reliable, high quality water from the Central Arizona Project through Scottsdale’s system to fulfill the needs of ALL Carefree residents and businesses. The Town Council has been working with engineering specialists to model a united Carefree water system, and to define the overall costs. We are also resolving an equitable and affordable way to distribute the associated costs over an extended time period so as to mitigate the monthly costs to users. Doing nothing to correct this water situation will continue a situation which causes considerable harm to a sizable number of Carefree residents.
This is a situation which we need to either correct now or face the necessity that we will need to revisit it sometime in the future - when costs would likely be considerably higher. In the longer run, the costs of doing nothing now and pushing the problem into the future will far outweigh the costs of planning for and moving forward at this time to secure reliable, high quality water resources for ALL Carefree residents.
The Town Council has a fiduciary responsibility to protect and preserve the interests of all of the Town’s residents. We will continue to move forward on this important initiative until it is successfully completed.
A special interest entity NOT associated with the Town of Carefree is currently conducting a telephone survey. This dark money/special interest group survey is intended to mislead Carefree residents regarding the current water negotiations under way with Cave Creek to consolidate water service to all accounts in Carefree within the Carefree Water Company.
Misinformation in the survey is stated as if it were factual information in an attempt to create false perceptions under the guise of “research.” Many Carefree residents have contacted the Town infuriated over the misleading questions.
The people conducting this “research” have refused to identify the participants behind this survey. As a result, the Town is investigating who and how this survey was authorized and funded so Carefree residents can be informed about the sponsor’s intent. Be alert to this situation should the people conducting this survey contact you or someone in your home.
What is the Real Situation Regarding Water Service for all Carefree Residents?
Carefree’s intent is clear: to secure a high quality, reliable water resource for ALL Carefree residents and businesses to ensure high quality of life services at the lowest possible costs to all.
There is no more precious resource in the arid desert southwest than water. It brings life to the desert and economic life to a community. Carefree made a concerted effort to protect this precious resource by purchasing the Carefree Water Company, which currently serves approximately ¾ of Carefree. In addition, Carefree has an enforceable Agreement with the Town of Cave Creek which enables Carefree to purchase the remaining balance of the water accounts in Carefree which are currently serviced by the Cave Creek Water Company system.
Why is it critical for Carefree to exercise its rights to acquire these water accounts at this time so that ALL Carefree residents are under the control of one water utility?
1. Representation:
Every Carefree resident should have representation on this critical community resource by the people they directly elect. Under the current approach, Carefree citizens receiving water service from the Cave Creek Water Company system do not have this requisite representation. This deprives them of one of their basic rights. In recognition of this, the Agreement authorizing Carefree to acquire these water accounts from Cave Creek was agreed to by both communities.
2. Impact:
From a financial perspective, Carefree does not assess a municipal property tax. Therefore, programs and services such as the master contract for fire/emergency services, are paid for through revenue from Carefree’s sales taxes. In order for the Town to continue to pay for these types of public safety services which all of its residents benefit from, it must continue to diversify its sales tax revenues.
The largest undeveloped commercial property in Carefree which has significant capacity to generate revenues for the Town and offset the need for a property tax is located within the Cave Creek Water Company service area. However, according to a lengthy public record, Cave Creek has mismanaged their water resources and refuses to provide sufficient water supplies for future commercial development in Carefree called for in the Agreement. Plain and simple, no water availability for future development in Carefree will result in the need for a property tax in the future which will impact ALL Carefree residents.
3. Public Safety/Community Concerns:
Every year, Rural Metro, which staffs Carefree’s Fire Department, inspects and “exercises” fire hydrants throughout the Carefree and Cave Creek Water Company service areas to be sure that they are operable and functioning properly. Since beginning these regular inspection programs in 2012, a large number of fire hydrants within Carefree on the Cave Creek Water Company system have evidenced significant deficiencies. However, Cave Creek has either intentionally or through shoddy management practices neglected to address these identified deficiencies. This creates significant personal safety issues for Carefree residents living in the Cave Creek water service area in the event of a fire.
Plain and simple, if you have a fire hydrant near your house or business, you should be able to rely on it being operational when needed. If you can’t rely upon it to operate properly, it creates a safety hazard and the potential for a significant liability claim against Carefree for knowing of these deficiencies, in spite of our inability to secure their correction by Cave Creek. This could create a significant liability claim which would become a liability for ALL Carefree residents.
4. Management of Water Resources:
Cave Creek’s public records clearly show a lack of both continuity of personnel and having the systems in place to manage this precious resource. Over the years since it has owned its water company, Cave Creek has either under-funded needed - if not required - water infrastructure improvements and not followed an industry accepted maintenance schedule. This has resulted in emergencies and more costly repairs.
Our bottom line is that no Carefree resident should be forced to have to continue to rely upon an outside political entity (Cave Creek) for their water service when that entity has not demonstrated an ability of effectively manage such a system.
So what is the solution?
Carefree has agreements in place with Scottsdale to deliver reliable, high quality water from the Central Arizona Project through Scottsdale’s system to fulfill the needs of ALL Carefree residents and businesses. The Town Council has been working with engineering specialists to model a united Carefree water system, and to define the overall costs. We are also resolving an equitable and affordable way to distribute the associated costs over an extended time period so as to mitigate the monthly costs to users. Doing nothing to correct this water situation will continue a situation which causes considerable harm to a sizable number of Carefree residents.
This is a situation which we need to either correct now or face the necessity that we will need to revisit it sometime in the future - when costs would likely be considerably higher. In the longer run, the costs of doing nothing now and pushing the problem into the future will far outweigh the costs of planning for and moving forward at this time to secure reliable, high quality water resources for ALL Carefree residents.
The Town Council has a fiduciary responsibility to protect and preserve the interests of all of the Town’s residents. We will continue to move forward on this important initiative until it is successfully completed.