UPDATE: WHAT YOU PAID WITH YOUR COTTONWOOD WATER BILL!!!

FROM 2004-2016, COTTONWOOD'S WATER RATEPAYERS PAID NEARLY $23,000,000 IN CITY BOND DEBT PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST TO PAY FOR 6 WATER COMPANY PURCHASES & MORE THAN $500,000 IN NONSPECIFIC SURCHARGES DIVERTED TO EXPENSES UNRELATED TO WATER UTILITY COTTONWOOD WATER BILL PAYERS HAVE BEEN GETTING SOAKED FOR 12 YEARS TO PAY FOR THE CITY'S REAL ESTATE BUYING RAMPAGE, AND FOR $5.38 A MONTH IN SURCHARGES UNRELATED TO THE PURPOSE OF THE WATER UTILITY. Sherry Twamley--Verde Village News publisher--recently started an investigation on behalf of the City of Cottonwood's 9,000 municipal water bill payers who want to know how/where their inflated water bill revenues are going to. Her early research reveals that since 2004, Cottonwood water ratepayers paid more THAN $23 MILLION IN BOND DEBT PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST (SEE ATTACHED) FOR FOUR OF THE CITY'S SIX PRIVATE WATER COMPANY ACQUISITIONS. Two other water companies were acquired with ratepayers' money (Spring Creek and Quail Canyon). Spring Creek Water Co. is about 8 miles from the City limits and not a drop of the water has ever been used. It would cost millions of dollars to connect the Spring Creek Water Co. to the City Water Utility. Public records** also reveal the City has taken more than 100 questionable expenditures from utility ratepayers money for non-utility purposes, and diverted funds from the ratepayers' four Water Utility Reserve Funds--including the Water Resource Development Fund, Water Source Assurance Fund, Gila River Adjudication Fund, & Water Conservation Fund--during fiscal years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 year-to-date for items which appear to be inappropriately charged to water bill payers. The charges include $45,516.30 for a so-called 'Environmental Education Center", $16,614.56 paid to Desert Dragons Promotional Products LLC PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS (Silk Screening, Embroidery, Products for Advertising), expenses for brochure racks, booklets for kindergartners, Sci Tech expenses, educational books, and the largest expenditure --approx. $202,947.30 to date--was diverted to Cottonwood's Sewer Division to pay for engineering, drilling and geological services, fees, and injection well expenses for the City's est. $14 mil. Riverfront Water Reclamation (Satellite Wastewater) Plant, which is now under construction. **SOURCE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS, March 2017, received from City of Cottonwood Attorney, Steve Horton.