May 29, 2013

Confused? This news-pooch certainly is. Last week we ran a story in our web edition announcing a partnership between the city and a company offering water and sewer line warranties. The press release we got from City Hall was full of back slappin’ and glad handing quotes, reassuring residents the program was a legitimate venture. But when the envelope arrived in the mail, things changed in a hurry.

City logo on the envelope, what seemed like city letterhead on the inside, a letter with the city manager’s signature; oh yes, this went to great lengths to look like a legitimate communication from City Hall. However, upon closer examination, the letter is designed specifically to dupe the recipient into thinking it’s an official city communication. Make no mistake, the letter is from a private business masquerading as a city entity, schlepping warranties for aging water and sewer lines. They drop some powerful names, too, in order to make their case, name dropping not only the mayor but also the City Council in an attempt to sell a $120 per year plan that is alleged to warranty the water and sewer lines that run underground from the curb to your house. The letter is short on details and long on the supposed “partnership” with the city. The clincher here is the small print at the bottom of the letter that advises that full details of the program will be available only after you shell out your hard earned cash for said plan. This newshound isn’t buyin’ it for one minute.

We’ve written about these scams before with the help of local plumbing guru Dennis Hammontree of H&H Plumbing. The only difference here is this “program” seems to have the blessing of city government. We’d like to get a piece of that pie of largess but that’s a rant for another day. Frankly, we’d like to know how much money this outfit forked over to Councilman John Sharp for pressin’ this thing through. Don’t recall seeing this on any committee agenda, that’s for sure. Folks, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is, and shellin out $120 for a supposed plan that doesn’t give details before you buy it just doesn’t seem smart at all. But then again, there’s just not a lot of “smart” coming out of City Hall these days.