The Real Wimberley

Letters to the Editor

Without any real exaggeration, Wimberley is one of the most unique places to live in America. How many places do you know that 85% of the people who don’t live in the town claim to live there?

Which is to say: There are less than 2,500 people in True Wimberley, and 15,000 in the Wimberley Valley, and every one of the 12,500 people not in True Wimberley—even those in the city of Woodcreek—call Wimberley home.

It hasn’t been that long since Wimberley—founded in 1848—finally wrapped itself with incorporation and had its first municipal argument: village or city? Many leaned toward quaint—village—but many saw the numbers rising and knew we needed to lean toward city and the responsibilities that entails.

One of the very next arguments the city had was wastewater treatment for the south side of Cypress Creek, and that argument seemed to finally be resolved in the last few years with contracts signed and the city—that growing entity that needed to take charge of its own destiny—taking on a wastewater plant.

There were vehement arguments against this, and some wanted Aqua to bear the brunt of the cost and run the system Aqua would build and maintain; while others saw the future as being brighter if the city took on the task of not just stupidly going into some debt, but taking on debt in order to control its own future.

If the city controlled the system, the city controlled the growth. If the city owned the system, the city owned its own future.

The new city council is threatening over 15 years of study, negotiation and compromise, and wants to hand control and ownership to Aqua of not a wastewater plant, but pipes crossing Cypress Creek back to Aqua’s own plant.

Most of the people in Woodcreek and Mountain Crest are not fans of Aqua, even though the local Aqua folks do a great job. So, it’s really not that.

Rather, it’s that Aqua Inc is the largest privately owned water company in America, and their quest is for not just profit, but as much profit as they can pull from the pipes, which means their prices are double and triple what is found most places in Texas.

Even in America. But it’s the mythology of private versus public ownership that has such allure for many these days, including our new mayor and most of the council.

And, it is mythology, since costs to properly build and run anything are roughly the same whether by private company or city government. So, if the initial costs are about equal no matter who pays them, then the biggest factor is profit: government entities are not set up to make profit, so their charges tend to be lower than private companies whose entire being is focused on profit.

Let’s not make any mistake: Profit is not a bad thing, but it does depend on who profits and at what cost.

Utilities are not jet skis; water, wastewater, electricity, these are necessities we all must have to maintain whatever lifestyle we can provide. They tend to be giant works projects that cost a lot of money and, from the very beginning of the republic, governmentslocal, state, federal—have overseen these necessities in order to make sure the customer costs were kept lower.

Considering one of the primary reasons for this project is to prevent the waste pollution getting into Cypress Creek and the Blanco River, installing pipes over or under Cypress Creek for waste water seems sheer foolishness with an inevitability to fail.

Thus, no rational argument exists for the city council to break existing contracts or further delay this project. And despite how the new mayor has tried to frame things in council meetings, this is not a subject affecting the 2,500 True Wimberley residents, but all 15,000 of the—let’s call us—Real Wimberley residents.

And, if the outcry is any indication, most of the 15,000 are against the council’s unsubstantiated desire to reverse 15+ years of settled debate. Which points to the idea the mayor is mistaken: we do have a voice, we are speaking loudly, and she ignores us at all our peril.

So, perhaps, if the laws allow it, two more At-Large places on the city council should be created to be filled by people who own and live in Real Wimberley. Maybe it’s time to continue our unique streak and have real ‘local’ representation.

Clay Ewing