Public voices concerns, comments, and questions about Aqua Indiana service

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - The public got to voice questions, comments and concerns regarding Aqua Indiana's water service at Tuesday's City Council meeting.  You might recall this past summer, the company had issues delivering water to customers.  Now the city wants to take over Aqua's service in southwest Allen County.

Some Aboite Township Aqua Indiana customers are fed up with Aqua.  High prices for what they call sub-par service.

"For just my husband and I last year in the month of May, our basic water bill was $93.57," one customer explained to City Council.

"The pressure is low and my water has been gray and I was afraid to drink or cook with it," another customer said.

City of Fort Wayne Board of Public Works member, Kumar Menon, said they've heard this all before.

"Isn't new to us.  We've heard these for years and years.  We've expressed these concerns to Aqua."
    
This past summer, the City had to supply water to parts of Aboite Township because Aqua's wells were drying up.    

"I was lucky that my neighborhood was one of the few that got connected fully to city water.  For the first time that I could remember I had good water pressure at my house," one customer said to City Council.

Menon and the President of Aqua Indiana said issues with water out in that area of the city dates back a lot longer than you think.

"Several other utilities have been in this region before who could not address this problem," Board of Public Works member Kumar Menon said.

"Some of what you're hearing is a remnant of the old days when another company owned the system and not really representative of what Aqua is today," Aqua Indiana President Tony Bruns said.

The City of Fort Wayne is in talks right now with Aqua about possibly buying them out, and supplying Aboite Township customers with city water.        

"We have the ability to deliver more pressure because we have a larger capacity.  We have more reserves that we haven't had to touch during the drought.  That's one of the biggest things we can do.  Price - as you know we already are a lot more affordable than most other utilities not just in this region but statewide," Menon said.

City officials and the President of Aqua Indiana told me they're having a good, constructive talk about the situation.  They hope to present a decision within the next two weeks.