Re: Nobody can live without water [Village News, 9/2/10]

The directors of FPUD have had to raise rates because the cost of wholesale water to FPUD was increased. We have only so much money for reserves. This year we will spend $11.5 million to buy water and we have allocated about $79,000 to hold down rates. We are like your corner gas station owner; he buys from a supplier and passes on rate increases too.

One of the few areas over which we have total control is employee expenses. We have held down costs by not increasing the total cost of employee salary and fringe benefits for two years. All of the FPUD rate increases over the past two years have...