Making a point

At the last Moorcroft Town Council meeting the governing body passed the third and final reading of the two percent annual raise of both water and sewer rates as demanded by the state. “We have been charged to make sure that the water enterprising account pays for itself,” Mayor Dick Claar spoke plainly, “and without this [increase] it does not do it.”

This point was reiterated by town attorney Jim Peck: “The state came in and told the town that they either raise their utility rates two percent or forget getting any more grants, so this two percent is scheduled in this ordinance to increase every July.”

Retired municipal resident Elise Hanslip admitted that this was the first time that she understood that the town is not at fault for the rise in utility costs, that the misrepresentation of these accounts started decades earlier.

She still questioned Claar and his council about the effects of the rate hike for those who are “too proud” to accept the discounts offered by the town to relieve part of the cost for elderly and those on a fixed income and in the midst of this conversation, she stated that the approximately $6 overall increase for residential utilities will have a significant effect on people’s ability to buy groceries.

Members of the council laughed a bit at this comment, Claar saying, “I’m going to have to follow you because I can’t find it [99¢ loaf of bread].”

Hanslip took umbrage at this and decided at that time to prove her point the next week by using the Diehl’s ad sheet and buying 15 loaves of bread, one can of chili, two packages of bun length hot dogs, eight five pound bags of potatoes and a pound of carrots, which equaled $6 worth of groceries for each councilman, including the mayor, equaling $30.51. She subsequently left the goods at Town Hall to be given in turn to the food pantry on behalf of the governing body.

“The council didn’t think $6 could buy much for groceries [and] laughed at me when I said I had purchased bread the previous week for 99¢. They didn’t think that was possible.” After taking the groceries to the pantry, the mayor later said of the Hanslip’s action, “I stand corrected.”