Orange Water
July 2, 2010 - by
Unless you happen to subscribe to the Asheville Citizen Times, you probably missed this article by columnist John Boyle about North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman David Young:
Citizens Times.com
May 27, 2010
Time for David Young to do the right thing
John Boyle
COLUMNIST
Really, David?
I can’t believe how tone-deaf politicians can be.
Earlier this week, David Young, the chairman of the N.C. Democratic Party and the owner of the Eden Glen Mobile Home Park in Weaverville said the orange-colored water he charges residents for is safe but “not pretty.” Oh, and for those who refused to pay the bills because the water is so nasty? The people who may want a word with the part owner after their water was cut off?
“I don’t manage it (the mobile home park). …I’m just an investor there.” Young told our papers.
Dear lord.
You’re not just an investor, David; you’re the owner, along with your wife, Leigh. It’s on the legal papers.
On Wednesday, I went out to the park, driving down the potholed road through old, rusting trailers. One resident, Renee Purvis, handed me a bottle of orange water she drew from her bath tap that morning, and I watched her draw a lighter-orange tinted bottle from the bathroom sink.
It’s been that way for 10 years, although the color ebbs and flows, she said. She and her daughters, 9-year-old Megan and Hilda, 10, don’t drink the water.
And, yes, they stopped paying the water and sewer bill, too – in her case, $106 for two months.
“It’s never totally clear,” Purvis said of the water, standing near her rust-stained tub. “It’ll clear up maybe a little while, then it’s right back straight to muddy orange-brown.”
In short, the water there is disgusting. Young and others say it’s just high iron content, but really, David, would you drink this junk? Would you want your children to bathe in it or wear clothes washed in it?
Leslie Burnett and trailer-mate Draven Marco, who have five children in their trailer, just moved in about a month ago and weren’t told about the bad water.
“At first I used some of the water to mix up formula, and my baby vomited profusely and didn’t stop until I started using bottled water,” Burnett said. “We’ve gotten rashes, boils, yeast infections. The ants die if they get in the bathtub and drink the water.”
That’s more than “not pretty” David. That’s shameful.
They all invited you to come live with them for a day and enjoy the fine water you provide.
You and your wife are listed as the owners of the park since 2001, and residents say the water has been orange and nasty since then and even before. In 2008, you petitioned the state to start charging for this and were granted permission in January.
They started getting bills in February – for water few human beings would use. People are supposed to pay $45 or $50 a month for orange water that stains their clothes and tube? Water they’re convinced sickens their children?
David, residents of your mobile home park are so disgusted they’re not paying the water bills. Some opt to use raw creek water instead of the well water you provide.
Yes, you. Not the management company or the water company you hire to separate you from the residents.
You. This is your problem.
You’ve been a politician for two decades, and you head the party that stakes a claim to helping the least affluent among us. And this is how you treat the people who live in your trailer park?
Forget about the political flak you’re deservedly going to catch for this when you run for any other political office. What you’re doing to these people is just wrong.
You didn’t return my call, and you weren’t in your office Wednesday afternoon, so I went to our archives for a quote. Back in 1998, when you ran for Congress against Charles Taylor, who had his own image problems related to his wife’s ownership of shabby housing, you said this: “People have this image of politicians padding our own pocketbooks and looking out for our own self-interests instead of theirs.”
Oh, and this: “I enjoy finding ideas that will work to solve people’s problems. Put simply, I want to put my energies and abilities to work for the people of Western North Carolina.”
Here’s an idea: Fix the water problem in your trailer park. A decade is long enough to find a solution and those people of Western North Carolina deserve better.
This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at jboyle@citizen-times.com, and read his blog at citizen-times.com/boyleitdown.
Posted in North Carolina - Democrats
Orange Water
July 2, 2010/
Unless you happen to subscribe to the Asheville Citizen Times, you probably missed this article by columnist John Boyle about North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman David Young:
Citizens Times.com
May 27, 2010
Time for David Young to do the right thing
John Boyle
COLUMNIST
Really, David?
I can’t believe how tone-deaf politicians can be.
Earlier this week, David Young, the chairman of the N.C. Democratic Party and the owner of the Eden Glen Mobile Home Park in Weaverville said the orange-colored water he charges residents for is safe but “not pretty.” Oh, and for those who refused to pay the bills because the water is so nasty? The people who may want a word with the part owner after their water was cut off?
“I don’t manage it (the mobile home park). …I’m just an investor there.” Young told our papers.
Dear lord.
You’re not just an investor, David; you’re the owner, along with your wife, Leigh. It’s on the legal papers.
On Wednesday, I went out to the park, driving down the potholed road through old, rusting trailers. One resident, Renee Purvis, handed me a bottle of orange water she drew from her bath tap that morning, and I watched her draw a lighter-orange tinted bottle from the bathroom sink.
It’s been that way for 10 years, although the color ebbs and flows, she said. She and her daughters, 9-year-old Megan and Hilda, 10, don’t drink the water.
And, yes, they stopped paying the water and sewer bill, too – in her case, $106 for two months.
“It’s never totally clear,” Purvis said of the water, standing near her rust-stained tub. “It’ll clear up maybe a little while, then it’s right back straight to muddy orange-brown.”
In short, the water there is disgusting. Young and others say it’s just high iron content, but really, David, would you drink this junk? Would you want your children to bathe in it or wear clothes washed in it?
Leslie Burnett and trailer-mate Draven Marco, who have five children in their trailer, just moved in about a month ago and weren’t told about the bad water.
“At first I used some of the water to mix up formula, and my baby vomited profusely and didn’t stop until I started using bottled water,” Burnett said. “We’ve gotten rashes, boils, yeast infections. The ants die if they get in the bathtub and drink the water.”
That’s more than “not pretty” David. That’s shameful.
They all invited you to come live with them for a day and enjoy the fine water you provide.
You and your wife are listed as the owners of the park since 2001, and residents say the water has been orange and nasty since then and even before. In 2008, you petitioned the state to start charging for this and were granted permission in January.
They started getting bills in February – for water few human beings would use. People are supposed to pay $45 or $50 a month for orange water that stains their clothes and tube? Water they’re convinced sickens their children?
David, residents of your mobile home park are so disgusted they’re not paying the water bills. Some opt to use raw creek water instead of the well water you provide.
Yes, you. Not the management company or the water company you hire to separate you from the residents.
You. This is your problem.
You’ve been a politician for two decades, and you head the party that stakes a claim to helping the least affluent among us. And this is how you treat the people who live in your trailer park?
Forget about the political flak you’re deservedly going to catch for this when you run for any other political office. What you’re doing to these people is just wrong.
You didn’t return my call, and you weren’t in your office Wednesday afternoon, so I went to our archives for a quote. Back in 1998, when you ran for Congress against Charles Taylor, who had his own image problems related to his wife’s ownership of shabby housing, you said this: “People have this image of politicians padding our own pocketbooks and looking out for our own self-interests instead of theirs.”
Oh, and this: “I enjoy finding ideas that will work to solve people’s problems. Put simply, I want to put my energies and abilities to work for the people of Western North Carolina.”
Here’s an idea: Fix the water problem in your trailer park. A decade is long enough to find a solution and those people of Western North Carolina deserve better.
This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at jboyle@citizen-times.com, and read his blog at citizen-times.com/boyleitdown.
Posted in North Carolina - Democrats