On behalf of the North Beach Water Board of Directors, please allow me to publicly thank Don Cole for his excellent cartoon in the Oct. 4 edition. Don did a fine job of defining the tempest in a teapot that has been caused our modest water rate increase. His cartoon did encourage me to address our rate increase in a couple of different ways, so here goes!

Cheap whiskey costs about $10 per 750-milliliter bottle, which contains 25.4 fluid ounces. That comes out to 40 cents per fluid ounce. Cheap beer costs about $3.19 per six-pack of 16-ounce cans, or 4 cents per fluid ounce. North Beach Water costs $1.35 per 100 cubic feet. Since 100 cubic feet equals 748 gallons of water, and a gallon of water contains 32 fluid ounces. We can multiply these values to determine that we supply our customers with 23,936 ounces of water for $1.35. That makes the cost per fluid ounce of water a mere $0.000056400401, or five and one-half ten-thousandths of a cent. Unfortunately, the beleaguered husband in Mr. Cole’s cartoon will not save money by consuming cheap whiskey or beer! Our water is still a wonderful bargain!

Another possible way to look at our rates is on the basis of tonnage. How much weight do we deliver to your curbside for a mere $1.35? Water weights 8.3454 pounds per gallon. The 748 gallons that we deliver to your curbside weighs 6,242.35 pounds, or somewhat more than three tons! By the way, if you divide $1.35 by 6,242 pounds, and then divide the result by the 2,000 pounds to a ton, you will find that we are delivering pure, clean, fresh, safe drinking water to your curbside at 43 and one-fourth cents per ton! What else that is so good for you, can you get delivered to your curbside at that weight, for a mere $1.35?

Again, we thank Mr. Cole for his tongue-in-cheek comments about the reasonableness of our water rates. Water is a necessity for which each of us has a need. At the rates presently charged by North Beach Water, it is still a wonderful bargain! Consider what has happened to cellular telephone and satellite or cable TV rates in recent years. Although they have escalated a great deal more than our water rates, no one even bats an eyelash. Frankly, I don’t understand why, because these services are not really necessities.

Jim Hagen, Director

North Beach Water