TIMBERLAKE: Council fires back

We the city of Athol council members and mayor write this letter in regards to addressing the slanderous and false accusations brought forward by Sue Damon and former Timberlake Fire Chief Jack Krill against our city employee, Bob Wachter (hereinafter referred to as "Bob") regarding the city of Athol's water system.

We will start with enlightening you a little with Bob's job duties as our city's water operator, not to mention he is also back-up water operator for two other water districts (Bayview and Bitterroot).

Bob has been employed by the city of Athol for 15 years and has held his Idaho state issued water license for the same amount of time. Prior to the installation of the large water tank (1996) Ms. Damon and Mr. Krill mentioned in a "My Turn" article in the Coeur d'Alene Press dated Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010, the City of Athol's water system was controlled by two other water tanks which are still in service and used as back up supply, if we shall need to perform maintenance and repairs to our cities main water tank. Between the two water tanks, we have 80,000 gallons of water storage as well as two pumps in place that produce 800 gallons of water per minute. *Average house fire, the fire department uses approximately 200 gallons of water per minute/information provided by Northern Lakes firefighter.

At no time were any of the city of Athol residents in danger when the main water tank was temporarily taken out of service. Bob often goes above and beyond his call of duty in making sure citizens and businesses are informed whenever there are any changes or repairs that will be taking place in the city of Athol. Citizens generally attend the City Council meetings which are held the first Tuesday of the month to learn the happenings that are taking place, in which it was at a City Council meeting that we advised Bob to remove the tank from service for necessary repairs and maintenance.

We would also like to reiterate that it is the city of Athol that owns the water system to include; the water tanks (3), water pumps (2) and fire hydrants (47). In any event, Bob did inform the fire department as a courtesy that the water tank would be out of service for repairs and maintenance, in which it is not a fire code violation to remove the tank from service for repairs and maintenance as needed to provide our citizens with safe drinking water. As Ms. Damon and Mr. Krill allege in the article they submitted, it appears that they are trying to put fear into our citizens with their false statements, in which we as mayor and City Council members do not take lightly. You do not attack our employee with your slanderous remarks; you will learn that we stand behind him.

We also do not take lightly the other violations Mr. Krill and Ms. Damon indicate that Bob is responsible for to include: Covering an exit sign, too many extension cords, live Christmas trees in foyer, etc. Those petty violations you spoke of were during a Christmas dinner to benefit our community. Volunteers use the building to help those who may be alone or do not have the money to provide a Christmas dinner for themselves or their children. It is a community effort, local businesses get involved and it is a time to bring the community together. To write a petty violation to those who decorate to make those in need feel special and then point the blame on our city employee, we take offense to.

We citizens are growing tired of all of the turmoil over personality differences and the slanderous statements that have been taking place regarding the fire department.

Hopefully everyone can learn to work together and keep our fire district moving forward as it is presently doing. The commissioners are doing a wonderful job working with Northern Lakes and we really like the direction it is heading.

Lanny Spurlock, Mayor

Bob Rickel, Lewis Miller, Mark Dane, Shirley Hyke, City Council members