Owner of A+ Automotive, David Gibson, addressed the Bourbon Board of Aldermen on Nov. 25 about concerns to a major water leak that led to what he said was an $11,000 bill from the city.

In January and February of this year, Gibson noticed a decrease in water pressure at his business.

“This September, if you remember, I had a haunted trail back there one year, and so I went around brush-hogging back there, and I hit the side on (Highway) J, and it was super eroded. Water had just been pouring through there, which you’ll find out later was this leak,” said Gibson.

He contacted Floodplain Administrator Mark McEuen, who was present at the meeting, to take a look at the leak located in the 9000 block of North Outer Road in Bourbon.

“My bill had just never changed. It’d been minimal use, minimal use, minimal use and then they went out there and shut off our meter,” said Gibson. “They said it was on your side, Mark and his guys helped me find the leak.”

“Then I got my next bill, which was a $6,600 water bill, they said that we used 100,000 gallons,” said Gibson. “That was actually after the clerk had taken the sewer side off, so it was almost like a $10,000 water bill.

“In my opinion, I don’t think the meter was being read correctly because if the meter was being read correctly, we would have picked up on this leak. I base that on the fact of all the erosion that I have on the land,” Gibson said.

The landowner was willing to make a payment toward the bill.

“I’d be willing to pay $500 to $1,000 of this bill,” said Gibson. “If it was a leak, we would see these numbers spike. Just wanna check and figure out what we can do here.”

Mayor David Lafferty told Gibson that the bill wasn’t just on the meter that was associated with the leak.

“The way I understand it, the water leak is in the water stuff that you run without getting permission from the city, tied into city water running down to the other building, out of city limits,” said Lafferty.

An alderman wanted clarification from Gibson and the city about the status of the property.

“We don’t know where the leak is at?” asked Alderman Margie Brine.

“We know where the leak is at now,” said Gibson.

“Is it your property or is it on the city’s property?” asked Brine.

“It’s on my property,” said Gibson. “It just wasn’t caught very quickly because my bill just kept coming out and kept being the same amount.”

“We just started looking because the water tower started pumping 100,000 gallons more than normal, that’s how we discovered it,” said McEuen.

“I have this giant trench where water has been trickling for greater than a 30-day period of time,” said Gibson.

Brine asked for Gibson’s solution.

“So what are you asking the city to do?” asked Brine.

Lafferty mentioned the city had taken off the sewer charge, but the meter charge was still to Gibson.

“He wants us to forgive his water bill, even though we did the sewer and know it wasn’t going down the sewer,” said Lafferty. “We knocked the sewer charge off, but it still went through the meter, and it’s on his property.”

“It’s a $6,000 water bill; it’s pretty hefty,” said Gibson. 

McEuen had a question regarding the price of the bill presented.

“$6,000 or $600?” asked McEuen.

“$6,000 means $6,660 and like 91 cents, it was $11,000 before they knocked the sewer off,” said Gibson.

An alderman clarified the cost of the utility bill presented.

“This bill here is $6,150,” said Alderman Mary Heywood.

Gibson thought there was a meter reading issue because of the erosion found at his property.

“I just don’t think the meter was reported correctly,” said Gibson. “I think it was leaking prior to that based on the erosion of my land.”

“How come you didn’t notice the erosion of your land?” asked Brine.

“Back in the nine acres where I have that haunted trail, I only noticed because I took my skid steer through there,” said Gibson.

“Actually, in county land, it’s not city land where he’s talking,” said Lafferty.

Brine asked Gibson about the location of the leak on his property.

“So you don’t normally use this part of your land, and you just have it out there?” asked Brine.

When Gibson agreed.

“Right, and that’s how I actually figured it out,” said Gibson. “I’m the one who stopped by the city. The city didn’t come to me and say, ‘Hey, you’re pumping 100,000 gallons of water every month.’”

McEuen said they did come to Gibson.

“We did. As soon as we found it, we turned it off,” said McEuen.

Gibson believed that the meter reading was done incorrectly and thought that there are more leaks than just his property.

“I think my account just picked up a discrepancy of whatever was missing out there,” said Gibson.“I’m not unwilling to pay a portion of the bill, I’m just saying $6,000 for a water leak is a little excessive.” 

After Gibson’s comment, Brine asked how the situation went down from the city’s perspective.

“Mark, could you tell me your two cents here, so I understand from our perspective how this went down?” asked Brine.

“He had a leak,” said McEuen.

“Okay, I get that,” said Brine.

“The water towers were pumping 100,000 more than normal, so we got to investigate,” said McEuen.

“Since we know it was leaking, we turned it off?” asked Brine.

“Yep, same day I found it,” said McEuen.

Mayor Lafferty mentioned how the city handles water leaks.

“We can’t go around and inspect people’s properties to see if they got water; we’ll shut it off, and that’s what we do,” said Lafferty.

Gibson agreed with shutting off the water if a problem is located, but argued that his meter would have indicated a leak in the leading up to the large break.

“Right, I’m just saying I would have been alerted to this by an earlier bill,” said Gibson. “My bill is literally the minimum charge, almost the entire year's worth of minimum charges, up until all of a sudden consumption is 975,200 gallons.”

He didn’t believe it was possible for that many gallons of water to be pumped within a month.

“I don’t even know if it’s possible to, mathematically, in 30 days, to pump that much water,” said Gibson.

“Yeah, it is,” said McEuen.

Brine said the city has already reduced the bill.

“Let’s acknowledge that the city took the sewer line off,” said Brine. “So we’ve already given you a $5,000 credit.”

“It was like 3,000,” said Gibson.

“So the city has already done something,” said Brine.

The city charges water bills a month behind. The bill for Gibson ran between the date of Sept. 15 and Oct. 15.

“I think if we would have captured this data a little bit earlier, it would’ve informed us that there’s a problem. We’d have fixed it sooner,” said Gibson. “The meter’s off, the water’s off.”

“Right, but we may not be talking about one hole dumping out all this water. You may have a larger problem,” said Brine. “Regardless, the water issue is yours because wherever the leaks are, one, ten, how many there are, was your responsibility.”

“I know for a fact that it was leaking a lot earlier than what was captured,” said Gibson.

“I’m willing to talk about setting up some kind of payment plan. I’m not willing to forgive the money,” said Brine. “There’s nothing that tells me here that the city’s responsible.”

“I understand. I think that if we really dug into this, we’d uncover a whole list of other problems,” said Gibson.

Brine recommended McEuen further investigate Gibson’s leak and revisit the issue at the next board meeting.