Ward 5 meeting with Cal Eilrich!

[Larry Ratcliffe]

I attended this meeting at the golf coarse the other night and asked this question, "Could you tell me why the City of Fernley could not sell the Water Treatment Plant?". Basically, the answer I came away with is because it is worth more than the 75 million that was offered for it. He said he felt it was worth twice that.  I wonder how he could come up with that figure. I know it was built for around 80 million. So, lets take a look at this from an engineering perspective. The plant is what, 7 years old now. The life expectancy of most machinery is approx. 20 years. The fee that all residents have to pay is for 25 years. So, it is easy to say the the plant will need major equipment replacement in 13 to 18 years. The cost of which will be in the millions of dollars. This does not take into account the increase in standard maintenace, supplies for water treatment and staffing costs, which the City (taxpayers) pays for now! So, lets jump ahead 15 years from know when the major equipment starts to have a need for replacement. My question now is how many more years will the fee that we are now paying be extended to cover future costs?

[My Fernley News]

Let's look at this from a business point of view.

If a business is running at a deficit, you unload it.

If you can sell it and break even you would be ahead no matter if you think it's worth more of not.

You don't beat a dead horse.