The proposed Frisbee course is in addition to the existing course at Highway 4 and Bear Valley Road.  Proponents claim that a second, harder course will be of benefit to the community, bringing in more business and providing additional recreation for school kids.  Realistically, however, any benefit to local business is likely to occur from the existing course at the entrance to the Village, not from a second course tucked away behind homes on Orvis and Schimke roads.  Further, a tournament level course is not a realistic option for school kids.  Their skill level is better suited to the existing course along Highway 4. 

The reality: The proponents are asking the residents of the New Subdivision to abandon their rights to the common areas by adding a second disc golf course which is of benefit mostly to people from out of town who like Frisbee golf and can drive to Bear Valley for the day and play for free.

Why does it make sense to solicit unrestricted use of our any of our common area open space in the residential area to out-of-towners?  If our common space is converted to free use by people outside the area, why wouldn’t we open up Bear Valley beaches to campers and to the general public?  If open space common areas are converted to free use by the public, why do we residents and taxpayers have to pay to use the beach?  Why doesn’t BVRI consider residents’ concerns about the temptation created by a string of unoccupied homes along the proposed course?  Why should Orvis and Schimke residents have to live with all the noise and loss of privacy associated with Frisbee golf, especially when it so often occurs at the same time of day people are trying to enjoy their decks?  Why is BVRI even considering converting one of the most beautiful, easily-accessed common areas within the New Subdivision for use by out-of-towners when Bear Valley already provides free disc golf?

As you may remember, the par course area was considered and rejected for placement of the tennis courts and, before that, a cross country ski area.  In both situations, the community decided that putting commercial-type recreation so close to our residential area violated the spirit and purpose of our common area open space.  Both activities were located elsewhere.  If Bear Valley needs a second Frisbee course, it should be distanced from residences. 

Please email BVRI (BVRI@goldrush.com) and Terry Woodrow, your representative on the Alpine County Board of Supervisors (Woodrow@premierProperties.com), and let them know that a disc golf course abutting residential property is not how you want to see Bear Valley developed.  Please copy your email(s) to this website (admin@bearvalleyhomeowners.com) because BVRI has recently had email problems. 

TO:   BVRI@GOLDRUSH.COM
TO:   WOODROW@PREMIERPROPERTIES.COM
CC:  ADMIN@BEARVALLEYHOMEOWNERS.COM

I am opposed to a disc golf course in the open space common area where the par course now exists.  Organized, open-to-the-public recreation that violates homeowner privacy and quiet enjoyment of open space is inappropriate in the areas adjacent residences.
Name:__________________________________

BV Lot or Address:________________________

Congratulations for the good work and tireless effort that was put into this activity, especially by John and Gloria Dralla.

LAWC Letter:

Good day all-

As directed by the California Public Utilities Commission, LAWC is withdrawing advice letter 90 which was filed on May 13, 2010.

This advice letter was for a rate design that equalized service charges to all customers regardless of the size of the connection.

The CPUC has advised LAWC that this proposal is not acceptable and therefore LAWC is withdrawing AL 90.

Cheers-

Kimi Johnson

Office Manager

Lake Alpine Water Company

209-753-2409

1.     Why do we have to pay two different utility bills each quarter and each have the term “water” in them?

Ans.  Water comes into our residences from the Lake Alpine Water Company (LAWC).  Wastewater leaves our residences and is treated by the Bear Valley Water District (BVWD).

2.     What is the difference between the LAWC and BVWD?

Ans.  LAWC is a privately owned investor utility (IOU) and BVWD is a quasi-public entity.

3.     Can you tell me more about LAWC?

Ans.  The Lake Alpine Water Company (LAWC) is a for profit, privately owned Class D Water Company subject to the regulation of the CPUC and the California Department of Health.

4.     Who are the owners of LAWC?

Ans.  The Orvis family owns 50% and Aspen Limited Partners own 50%.  Bruce Sr., Roma, Bruce III and Paula Orvis are individual shareholders and well as Chuck Toeniskoetter and Steve Hallgrimson as partners in Aspen Limited Partners.  Bruce Sr., Bruce III, Chuck Toeniskoetter, and Steve Hallgrimson and Dave Ritchie (non-shareholder) sit on the board of directors.  Roma Orvis is the Secretary-Treasurer and non-voting member of the Board.

5.     What does Class D mean?

Ans.  Class D is a category created by the CPUC for IOU’s.  There are four water company classes:  A, B C, and D.  Class D is the smallest and must have less than 500 customers.

6.     How many customers does LAWC serve?

Ans.  That number changes each year because new residences and condos are built and some connections are removed.  In 2010 that number is near 500.

7.     Who regulates LAWC if it is a privately owned company?

Ans.  The CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) is a public body that regulates investor owned privately held utilities in California.

8.     What is the CPUC’s mission?

Ans.  Their overriding mission is to insure private utilities make enough money to provide reliable and safe drinking water to the ratepayers they serve.

9.     How much profit can LAWC make per year?

Ans.  The CPUC calculates two ways to determine profit and gives the utility the higher of the two.  One measure is a 12.75 – 13.75% annual rate of return, the other is 24% rate of margin.   As a comparison, Class C water companies (more than 500 ratepayers) are limited to a 10% annual rate of return and  presumably a lower rate of margin.

10.  How does the CPUC establish the rates we pay?

Ans.  LAWC’s rates are set by the CPUC after notice to its ratepayers, an informal hearing and listening to comments about service, quality of water and any responses and protests.  This process usually takes 6-9 months.

 Water Bills

11.  I see a number of charges on my quarterly bill.  What are they?

Ans.  The bill typically consists of a connection charge, CPUC fees and possibly a quantity charge, a special water plant loan repayment charge and a fire protection charge. 

12.  In the past I had a flat rate charge and now I have a metered charge.  Why?

Ans.  Meters to a customer were not always available and were expensive to install.  However, the State of California recognizes California is a state with a growing population and limited water resources.  Therefore, California would like every customer to have a meter to control personal water  use by seeing their monthly, quarterly or annual bill.

13.    Does every customer have a water meter? 

Ans.  The State of California in or around 2000 mandated all water use be metered by the year 2015 for the purpose of conserving water.  As a result of this mandate, LAWC installed meters on all residences and condos in the new subdivision beginning in 2005 and completed the installation by 2008.  The condos were also metered, but by building and not by unit, due to the cost of retrofitting existing structures.  Not every customer in Bear Valley has an individual meter.  Businesses and public entities have had meters for the longest time.  Residences had meters installed and tested within the past few years.

14.  What type of rate did I have in 2009?

Ans.  Homeowners in the new subdivision and condo owners had a flat rate for unlimited use of water.  Old subdivision, business and public entities had metered  and usage rates.

15.    How much did I pay in 2009?

Ans.  Homeowners and condos paid a flat rate of $973.13 per year plus the CPUC fees and loan charge to pay for the treatment plant.

16.  What am I paying currently in 2010 for water?

Ans.  Homeowners pay a quarterly rate of $171.08 service connection fee and a quantity use charge of $4.85 for every 748 gallons or 1 Ccf (100 cubic feet of water).  Condo owners pay a flat fee of $1,178.40 for unlimited use of water.

17.  Why did I pay a charge for water when I was not in my home for the quarter and did not use any water?

Ans.  Metered rates consist of service connection fees (ready-to-serve) regardless of whether a drop of water is used, based on the size of the connection.  Use of water is charged per 100 cubic feet of water (Ccf). 

18.  Why do I have to pay for the water treatment plant?

Ans.  The State of California in or around 2000 required LAWC to install a new operating system to comply with updated health code requirements for drinking water.  BV residential ratepayers are paying for this $1.2M+ plant completed in 2008 through an annual surcharge of $350/year.

19.  Why are homes in the old subdivision treated differently from the homeowners in the new subdivision and condos?

Ans.   The Old subdivision (accessed through Station House Road) does not primarily rely on LAWC water.  It has private wells.   LAWC sells bulk water as back up.  The Old subdivision has two, 1”meters, its own holding tank, maintains all its pipes from the meters and distributes the back up water to 40 homes.

By
Phillip Coffman P.E. (RET)

Barbara Goodrich was appointed as a Director of BVWD at the District meeting on May 31, 2010. She will serve as a Director in the previously vacant position until the next regular election for that seat in 2011.

Barbara brings outstanding qualifications to the BVWD board and a demonstrated tirelessness in the analysis and understanding of the District financial condition.

 Congratulations Barbara, I look forward to working with you to bring about the necessary changes in the BVWD to make it a truly cost-effective service to the Bear Valley rate-payers.   

From
Phillip Coffman

Barbara Goodrich has submitted her application letter to the BVWD Board of Directors for appointment to the district board of directors. As you can see from her outstanding qualifications, she will make a fine addition with critical skills to help straighten out our district’s affairs. I urge you to contact the BVWD with your emails, calls, or letters as soon as possible to show your support for Barbara’s appointment.

Here is Barbara’s letter of application for the BVWD Director position:

BARBARA J. GOODRICH

                                                                                                                                                                        May 11, 2010

 To the Directors of the Bear Valley Water District:

This letter is to express my interest in the opening on the BVWD Board of Directors created by Phil Davis’ resignation.  As you may already know, my entire professional career is in accounting and finance, and I can bring an important skill set to the District.

 Under the direct and daily supervision of an on-site, full-time general manager, the essential technical, regulatory, and operational phases of the District’s responsibilities are in good hands.  However, with respect to accounting and financial management, the District is still confronted by significant challenges.

 I am a CPA (inactive).  My professional experience includes several years working for an international public accounting firm, four years running a general ledger practice for small companies, serving as director of finance for a venture-backed start-up company and as chief financial officer of a publicly-traded corporation.  I have served as treasurer of the Bear Valley Music Festival and am currently its Vice President-Fundraising.

I have attended almost all BVWD’s board meetings since December 2008 and am knowledgeable as to the District’s history and current issues.  My commitment to the District is proven.

 During the past year and a half, I have devoted hundreds of hours in service of the District and its ratepayers.  Currently, I am a “financial volunteer” and have worked on the 2010 and 2011 budgets, the monthly financial reporting package, and loan financing.  Further, I am working with District staff on the crucial task of developing policies and procedures that are needed to bring internal accounting practices up to industry standards, as well as working with the District’s contract accountant to correct long-standing bookkeeping problems.  In the course of my assistance to the District, I have developed strong working relationships with the BVWD staff.

 I have been a local homeowner for 12 years and recently became a board member of Bear Valley Residents Inc.  As a result of my activities in our community, I have cultivated good working relationships and a high degree of credibility with many of the District’s ratepayers.

 I do not own or represent a business in Bear Valley, I have no commercial ties to any particular development, and I have no business with the District except as a ratepayer.  Thus I am free of any real or perceived conflicts of interest on matters coming before the District. 

 Last year, the auditors referred to the District’s continuing financial condition as “fragile” and reported that the District had a “significant deficiency in internal control over financial

 reporting.”   Adding my financial skill set to the Board would be a significant step toward addressing these problems.  While my voluntary accounting and finance work has been helpful to the District thus far, I am convinced that, as Director, my professional knowledge and experience will be of even greater assistance in formulating and implementing policies critical to the future of the District.

 I invite you to call or contact me regarding any concerns you may have, and I look forward to working with you in the future.

Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                                          Barbara Goodrich

BVWD Contact Information:

bearvalleywater@sbcglobal.net

BVWD
POBOX 5027
Bear,Valley, CA 95223

(209)753-2112

This is an important position and it is critical that it be filled with someone who is willing to devote themselves to some hard work to improve the operation and cost-effectiveness of BVWD.

There is compensation for this position as provided by the CA Water Code.

I would very much like your vote to actively serve on the Board during the next three years when both full-time residents and vacation homeowners will experience dramatic changes affecting our pocketbooks and impacting our ability to live and enjoy our unique mountain community.

 My husband and I have been dues paying members of BVRI since 1992 with the purchase of our cabin on Schimke Road.  This past year, working successfully with Barbara Goodrich and engaging my husband John, I experienced the satisfaction of seeing positive changes facing the Bear Valley Water District (Sewer).  We spearheaded the Proposition 218 movement to defeat the proposed 50 % rate increase that resulted in stopping the $4,000,000 unnecessary tertiary treatment plant.  We then constructively helped elect Phill Coffman to the BVWD Board.  I’ve immensely enjoyed working with Bear Valley people, many of whom I had never met before, who took the time and made great efforts to collect the 200+ signatures between the time of the Music Festival and Labor Day weekend. This group was eager to solve a very real problem facing both vacation owner and resident alike.  To be successful I read, analyzed and evaluated voluminous materials regarding the past 10 years of BVWD operations and its regulatory bodies.  Many questions are still unanswered, but now we have a competent General Manager to move us forward.  I would like to bring the hundreds of hours of this experience to the BVRI board to enable it to be knowledgably proactive in the future.

 At the same time the sewer problem arose this past summer, Bear Valley was coincidentally hit with a proposed rate increase from the Lake Alpine Water Company (Water).  Again, hours were spent to learn the process of the CPUC regulatory agency, read the laws under which it operated and gather data. I determined homeowners were paying almost 80% of the fixed costs and raised this issue at the public meeting.  I called 30 other Class D private water companies to learn their rates and shared the information with the CPUC, including discussions with the head of the Water Division.  I was extremely disappointed no one from BVRI openly represented us at the public hearing and even more so to learn BVRI merely sent a letter protesting the rate increase solely on behalf of the business owners.  Since buying our home in 1992 we have seen our water bill rise to over $1000/year regardless of whether we use a drop of water or a thousand gallons of water.  As these rates continue to increase, our homes’ resale values will be adversely impacted and the cost of living for the full-time residents will become prohibitive.  At the last BVRI Board meeting this past January, a letter was sent again only on behalf of the business owners to Lake Alpine Water Company to not increase the business water rates with no mention of residential users.

Complacency and cordiality have been the mantra of our current Board.  This is fine when no substantive issues face our community.  But if BVRI is to represent our community, we need active Board members not only willing to give their time but who understand, analyze, question and respond timely to the issues facing us as homeowners.  With my 30 years experience as a trial lawyer, I am eager to serve our community.

 More importantly, I look forward to engage greater numbers of our very small community to actively participate in its future and experience the immense satisfaction of public service.

 Please make me a write-in on your ballot as well as John Dralla and do vote for Barbara Goodrich for change Bear Valley can believe in.  

Thank you. 

Gloria Dralla

 Dear Fellow Bear Valley Home and Condo Owners,

 After 17 years of owning a home in Bear Valley I feel it is time to voluntarily contribute my energy and experience to the BVRI Board of Directors, for the purposes of 1. Reducing expenses of owning a home/condo and 2.  Making sure we maintain, and improve, our enjoyment of the place we love.

 During the 1990’s I simply shared the wonderful summers and exciting winters with family and friends.  However, in this past decade new and challenging events occurred.  Water prices rose, sewer hookups were rationed and issues related to how we parked our cars and accessed our snow transportation surfaced.  Most of this I watched from the sidelines as so many of us will readily admit.  We left these issues up to BVRI, our sewer district board, our CSA and Alpine County officials.  The proposed tertiary plant changed me.  I could no longer just sit back, I needed to get involved to justify why I would see a substantial increase in my operating costs.  I wrote letters, attended meetings and had detailed conversations with ECO:LOGIC engineering staff.  I am an engineer by education and 35 years professional experience.  The sewer issue went away for a while.  This last July 4th weekend I sat at the edge of Bear Lake and said to a friend “I do not want to talk about this anymore, I just want to enjoy Bear Valley.”

 All that changed when my wife Gloria and I met Barbara Goodrich following the 2009 music festival and started discussing her experiences with our sewer district.  Barbara is an intelligent, unbiased leader.  She convinced me to get engaged and that I have done.  I have studied the sewer district proposals, challenged the data that was supplied and omitted from reports, volunteered to our great GM Julio to find solutions to the non-working outfall project gauge, volunteered my services to our CSA to lower the costs of ball field water usage so that the money could be better spent elsewhere and challenged the incorrect balloting procedures associated with the sewer district, among other things.

I have respect for many of the BVRI Board members both within the community and in their external professional lives.  I have their products in my home and I have used their professional services in my consulting business.  But, I cannot excuse lack of attendance, when another set of candidates will gladly step in and devote needed expertise and energy.

I ask you to vote for Barbara Goodrich (financial experience), and write-in Gloria Dralla (legal experience) and myself (technical experience) to complement the BVRI Board.  All sorts of hurdles have marred this election process.  As with the sewer district election, voting for just three candidates will have a greater impact on bringing new energy to the Board.  However, if you feel so inclined, I recommend voting for Ron Murphy and Jack Wedgwood to fill out the slate.

 Thank you again

 John Dralla

 Every year, we receive a ballot from BVRI that has exactly the number of candidates as spots available.  BVRI doesn’t advertise the election to the residents; they pick who they want and limit the choices to those they’ve already selected.  Furthermore, they seem to reflexively endorse incumbents, irrespective of incumbents’ active participation or attendance, even when other residents are anxious and willing to serve. It is not an election in any meaningful sense of the word.

 The reason I’m on the official ballot is that an existing board member decided not to run and a position became “available.”  Prior to that, I was advised that I needed to get endorsements from 25 BVRI members in good standing to be placed on the ballot, and that emails would suffice.  When I asked to see a list of members in good standing, I was told that it was confidential, but I could see it at the BVRI office.  When I asked where the BVRI office was, I was told that it didn’t have one and I could see the list at a board member’s home.  When I said that I’d go to a board member’s home, I was told that I couldn’t see the list until BVRI talked with its attorney about confidentiality.  By this time, the Jan. 10 deadline to get endorsements was rapidly approaching.  So, having no idea who was actually a dues-paying BVRI member, I guessed and sent an email to friends and neighbors in Bear Valley asking them to email an endorsement.  When residents started sending endorsing emails, BVRI told me they wouldn’t accept emails; only scanned or mailed signatures. 

 WHY IS IT SO HARD TO VOLUNTEER FOR BVRI THIS YEAR??????

 I got on the ballot because BVRI decided to endorse me, eliminating the need for the 25 emails they wouldn’t accept anyway.  I ended up on the ballot, but other interested candidates – John and Gloria Dralla – are left out because the procedure BVRI insisted on was impossible to meet.  Things kept changing under a tight deadline.  BVRI wouldn’t put them on the ballot and wouldn’t include their candidate statements in the BVRI mailing.

 I strongly endorse the candidacies of both John Dralla and Gloria Dralla.  We worked closely together on the tertiary treatment plant problem, and their work was thoughtful, analytic and thorough.  In addition, John Dralla has volunteered his services to help solve the ball field watering problem; Gloria Dralla worked tirelessly with the CPUC to help minimize the water rate increase.  John and Gloria bring different professional strengths to our community, and it’s not redundant to vote for both. 

 Even if you decide not to pay your dues, please send in a ballot anyway.  While your vote won’t count toward the election, it will give the Board a message about the kind of representation – and election – you want.

 Please feel free to contact me by email (bgood94028@aol.com) or phone if you have any questions.  Thanks for your consideration.

                                                                                                Barbara Goodrich