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Vail Daily letter: Turntable needs water

Marcia J. Reed
Minturn, CO Colorado
letters@vaildaily.com

Dear Minturn Town Council,

This is not 1809 or even 1909 but, rather, 2009. We no longer can go down to the river, haul water up and put in in our waterback stoves to heat it. In 2009, we depend on tap water, not just personally, but also to run a business, especially a restaurant and motel.

Although I do not live in Minturn, but, rather, Eagle-Vail, my husband and I are regular customers of the Turntable Restaurant. On four different occasions during the course of the summer, my husband and I have noticed the water being turned off only at that end of town with no prior warning! The last two times have been in the last two days. To us, who are regular customers, this is unconscionable!



First, Darla Goodell runs the most popular breakfast restaurant in the whole Vail Valley and has many, many repeat customers who enjoy both the food and the camaraderie. The place is truly fun and the food is really good. In order to run such a good business, she has employees who work cooking, cleaning and serving tables. Along with her customers, her employees were all there both mornings and therefore had to be paid. In addition to that, food had been prepared which had been purchased from her various vendors, which had to be thrown away because there was no water. Her paid employees had to go home.

In addition to the restaurant, she also runs a motel, which has guests who expect to rise each morning and use their bathroom, the toilet and the shower. I believe both of these pieces of equipment use water. I know how mad I would be if I’d just gotten the shampoo in my hair and the water went off. And, it’s not just the guests who are affected. Again, Ms. Goodell has a cleaning staff which was on duty all four mornings that couldn’t clean because there was no water.

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From the information I have gotten from authoritative sources, only one of these days was caused by an actual emergency. The other three were a result of the public works officer refusing to change his schedule or even take into consideration the numerous people who were affected by his actions! Why couldn’t he have scheduled his maintenance when the fewest number of business and residential customers would be affected? In any event, Ms. Goodell and others in the area should have been notified even if there was an emergency. I know that when there was an emergency at the water treatment plant in Avon, signs were posted on every major road and, in addition, a reverse 911 call was made. But, no, this guy just turns off the water.

The cost to the Turntable for the four days I mentioned, in terms of loss of perishable foods, loss of customers and paid employees who could not work but had to be paid, must be in the thousands of dollars.

My question is this: Should a man who treats people with such a total lack of consideration be employed by the town of Minturn? At any rate, it seems to me that Ms. Goodell deserves a rebate for four days of water which was not used since the water was turned off. That could at least help her to make ends meet!

Marcia J. Reed


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