To the editor,

Open letter to the Mayor, City Council, and City Manager of Hoisington.

The Leadership of Hoisington has finally tipped over the canoe. We in Hoisington have been enduring the ongoing swimming pool debacle, the financial problems that arose as a result of the Windgate Apartment purchase, the costs involved with developing the 60 acres of land northwest of town, and selling our water, which becomes more precious every day, to an adjoining water district, and NOW, we find out we will be paying drastically increased utility rates which are going to have an ongoing financial impact on all citizens and the business community as this increase is computed annually.

Increasing costs are given as the culprit, but these costs did not happen overnight and should have been better anticipated by the City. Regardless of inflation, politics, etc., it is the job of city management to maintain appropriate funds for times like this.

It is very disappointing that ALL council members present voted in favor of the utility rate raise. If you were concerned about the pain you are about to inflict on your constituents, you would have voted NO and looked for other revenue sources.

PLEASE, I urge you to go back to the drawing board and come up with some other way of achieving your needed funding without penalizing everyone in Hoisington.

Terry Nech

Hoisington