- May 5, 2024
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Dear Editor:
I was wondering how many customers had their water turned off last week. We have been on auto pay for around 11 years. I have been a Palm Coast Utilities customer since 1989. PCU changed their auto pay system and says they have done various things to notify its customers including ads in the Observer. I am not doubting they made some sort of effort, but I must tell you that I read the mail, the Observer, and flyers from PCU and I must have missed it.
We were out of town, with a friend house-sitting for us, who was recovering from surgery a couple of days prior when the water was shut off, putting her into an undeserved hardship. We fixed the problem over the phone as soon as we found out, and the water was turned back on in less than six hours.
I feel that turning someone's water off is huge, and all of the responsibility belonged to PCU since they made the changes, while we were on auto pay, to make sure we got notification, period.
After all, we signed up for autopay for convenience and peace of mind. For obvious reasons, the payment was never late. How about a phone call, or a delinquency letter, or a big red letter on the front door for a long-time customer?
They said we were three months late and would remove one month’s late fee. Gee, thanks. A year ago this happened with our auto insurance and they gave us a call and the problem was solved without disruption. Poor management to allow this to happen to a long standing, never delinquent, auto pay customer.
The city of Palm Coast owns the utility now, so are we to expect this type of incompetent decision-making in our future? I would like to know if there were any more autopay customers who had their water shut off. Maybe we were the only ones, but I suspect not, because when we called back later, to see if the water had been turned back on, the phones were experiencing heavy call volume and we had to call back several times that morning to get through.
If we had not had someone house-sitting, we would have had to spend the weekend after New Year’s without water because we arrived home on Friday, late afternoon, and I am sure they would not have treated this as an emergency, and our water would have stayed off until Monday sometime.
I understand that water is precious, the city reminds us of this, but it goes two ways. They need to think of the hardship they impose by turning off anyone's water, for Pete's sake. It was their system change that brought this on.
Maybe a different policy should have been implemented for this one time change to their system.
I still love living here.
Bryan Boutot
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
While Googling what constitutes as acceptable noise levels here in Flagler Beach, I came across a piece on the noise ordinance in the Palm Coast Observer. I am hoping that someone can help me.
We have an issue here on South Central by the par 3 golf course. After years of being closed, the course has been purchased, and they are now in the process of rehabbing the greens. This is loud work. I sit here typing this email at 7 a.m. on the Sunday after Christmas and some kind of tractor is making painfully slow progress with its engine and mechanical parts roaring.
It seems, to my untrained ear, that the machine exceeds the maximum decibel level authorized by the city. And at 7 a.m. on a Sunday? That's just wrong.
Then there's the machine for the sprinkler system (I think that's what it is). This is being run multiple times a day and is equally loud if not more so. They're turning that on as I type.
While I understand that these folks want to start towards making a return on their investment, I do not think we should have to suffer in this way. In my opinion, this is callous behavior, and if the shoe were on the other foot they would be angry as well.
I know that bars and restaurants are constantly being monitored for noise, but is this golf course?
Christine Boyle
Flagler Beach
Dear Editor:
The headline, “Teaching Life Skills to Reduce Stress,” on Page 30 of the Dec. 10 edition, the Buddha statue and the subhead mentioning “mindfulness” really caught my attention. Mr. Pat Williams and Mr. Michael Eisen want to promote Eastern religions to help students and teachers overcome stress and develop resiliency.
Another approach to “self help”? The bookstores are packed with self-help books, many of which sell well, but our country and our world don’t seem to be getting any better. And it’s not surprising that Buddhism and Hinduism would be used to promote stress release and offer peace.
After all, our Supreme Court ruled out prayer in public schools years ago and has now declared what God calls wrong, a Constitutional right. All the while, left-leaning liberals work hard at stifling any mention of the Bible, removing God and His Son – the Prince of Peace – from the public arena.
John Spancake
Palm Coast
