The minutes from the June board meeting were released in advance of the July 18 meeting, and mentions this tidbit:
“Zody has a connection with a 3rd party company who are interested in purchasing water companies and inviting them to an upcoming meeting for a presentation.”
Selling Sheep Creek Water Company to a private company would be a disaster for the current shareholders and customers of Sheep Creek Water Company. Water prices will be raised significantly, and we can also assume that necessary infrastructure upgrades will not be prioritized because of the cost.
That said, personally I think private companies will not be jumping at the “opportunity” to purchase Sheep Creek Water Company. Last year’s proposed consolidation with PPHCSD fell through because California decided not to fund the purchase of water rights, and they also said “California is not in the business of buying failed water companies.”
If the state thinks Sheep Creek is a failed water company, surely private companies will come to the same conclusion after doing their due diligence.
Nonetheless, this is not a time for apathy. This is our water company, and things are not great right now, but if we pull together, we can fix the problems and continue to provide water to this community for generations, much like Sheep Creek Water Company has done for well over 100 years already.
One last note: here is board member Dave Nilsen at last summer’s ice cream social to discuss consolidation: “I think it would be a disaster if we sold this [Sheep Creek] to a private water company”, at the one hour mark of the below video.
