Rim Country Water slate wins PSWID election

Pine Strawberry Water Improvement District (PSWID) election results:

Mr. Ron Calderon: 704
Mr. Michael Claxton: 710
Mr. Michael Greer: 740
Mr. Howard Matthews: 535
Mr. Marvin Mortensen: 547

Write-in: 9

Using the vote totals and making the assumption that most people either voted one ticket or another it looks like there were about 1,260 people who cast ballots in the PSWID election. So that would break down to about 57% for the Rim Country Water slate and 43% for the change slate.

Comment: This was a disappointing outcome. You have to hand it to Ray Pugel and his Rim Country Water surrogates. They are good at confusing the issues and mobilzing voters. Someone told me that when they were at the polls they heard a couple say that they had received a letter from Coldwell Banker (Bishop Realty, which Mr. Pugel owns) and that they had driven up from the valley to vote in the PSWID election. That reminded me that long ago someone explained to me that the realtor’s used their client lists in these situations. Oftentimes the realtor is the only one who the weekender knows in the community and there is a level of trust that has been established there. How much that drove the vote totals we will probably never know.

This update is from the group Water For Pine Strawberry. We will be sending out an update after each of the PSWID meetings with a summary of what the board did, additional facts that are relevant to what went on, and some commentary. Updates on earlier meetings are available on our website: www.WaterForPineStrawberry.com .

Water For Pine Strawberry is a group of residents concerned about the communities water issues and how they can best be resolved. Visit our web site, www.WaterForPineStrawberry.com, for more information. The website for PSWID is www.pswid.org .

Clarifications can be submitted by anyone who is explicitly named, implicitly identifiable, or a board member to items in this update. Clarifications will be posted on our website. We reserve the right to post a response. Clarifications must deal with the topics discussed in the email that relate to the individual or the board. They must be in family friendly language and be non-abusive. When the clarification is accepted, it will be posted to the website and notice of that posting will be added to the next update.