Aladdin Water District faces the axe

Convinced that members of the Aladdin Water District will not be organizing themselves properly any time soon, the county commissioners have taken the first step towards dissolving it. A hearing will take place at the beginning of March to make a formal decision.

According to Commissioner Jeanne Whalen, who attended the district’s meeting in October, members said at that time that they would organize the paperwork and respond to a number of violations of state statute. Two members worked hard to do this, she said on Wednesday, but the rest did not appear willing to help.

Setting the hearing gives the district until March to organize, she said. Meanwhile, County Attorney Joe Baron presented a “stack of paper” that has never been filed with the state, from the formation of the organization to a map of the district and the order excluding certain properties from the district.

Baron said he would be sending this to the state and would notify district members of the hearing. The financial paperwork also needs to be filed with the county clerk, he noted, as it is not currently accessible.

The organizational woes addressed by the commissioners also included the list of members of the district. At least two named participants have since died, while another now resides in the nursing home.

The next step after the hearing, said Baron, would be to appoint three people from the district to become trustees in charge of dissolving it. However, he pointed out, “As much as their participation is today, they’re not going to do anything.”

This would leave the commissioners in charge of performing an assessment and inventory of such things as the district’s property assets, unpaid taxes and so on. This would be brought to the next meeting to be used in discussions of how the dissolution will take place; in the meantime, Baron will research options for dealing with the water well and system that currently belongs to the district.

Baron pointed out that the loss of the district will also mean that district members will cease to receive water. This can be prevented by participation from members to organize the district, he said; by the time the hearing takes place, “They either step up, or they don’t.”