Gateway Enterprise Fund Shows $314K Defecit. Sichel Says $400K is More Likely

Fort Myers, FL

While the Gateway Services District Board of Supervisors continues to fund a swollen administrative bureaucracy, residents could soon be facing a water rate increase. That's because the Enterprise Fund which accounts for water revenue is showing a deficit of $313,795. Supervisor Ed Sichel believes that deficit is more in the range of $392,000.

So as you use less water, you may soon have to pay more for that water. Even district manager Brian Lamb is starting to ring the alarm bell."The utility revenue needs to be very closely monitored given the lack of meter fee income that is the fund's only major revenue source". He went on to say "the deficit is due in main to the shortfall in budgeted revenue".

Despite the utility revenue shortfall, Supervisors will approve the following invoices tomorrow night:
- $6,500 for health care for 10 employees, which includes full coverage for Bill Knight's entire family.
- $6,439 for the engineer for Wetland 47. The entire engineering budget for the year has already been over-spent.
- $4,882 for the attorney for Wetland 47.
Not to mention the contributions we all make to the employee pension fund.

It's been over a month since Operations Manager Bill Knight told Supervisors "the savings the residents see in their water rates more than pays for our administrative costs". Does that include an upcoming water rate increase? Knight's facts were supposed to be distributed to the residents of Gateway. Knight has yet to produce any such information and the Supervisors have never asked him for that information.

Supervisor Ed Sichel told me last night that he's been bringing this issue up for the last 3 months. "We will have to increase our water rates, cut expenses or do some creative accounting." Is it called creative accounting or a shell game?