Perhaps our council and district are unaware of what people in the country already pay in regards to water.

It cost us $6,000 in the year 2000 to have a septic tank and bed put in, and some say that is cheap by today’s prices. It just cost my friend $15,000 to have a drilled well put in. Our well is dug and ancient, and likely we are looking at replacing it very soon since in August we have to conserve water.

The oil company will not fill our tank if it is over 10 years old, so every 10 years we have to get a new one. When they do fill it, it is $750 every two months during the winter, at least it was this year. We cannot switch to cheaper natural gas; there is none out here.

When the hydro is off, can you people in town get water? We can’t. Can you use your toilet? We can’t, unless we spend $2,000 on a good generator.

What do you pay to have your laneway snowplowed every two days? Do you have to pay to have your septic tank cleaned out every other year at the longest? There is also the cost of running a pump every day and the cost of buying one and maintaining it.

Do you have hydro outages

that last for days?

Does the plow hit your mailbox every few days so that it’s now being held together by rope until it’s warm enough to go out without gloves to get the screws out? Do you have hydro outages that last four days to a week? Did you spent thousands to have a backup propane generator just so you won’t freeze when the hydro goes out because your insurance company won’t insure you if you use wood?

Do you have cable? Do you have high-speed Internet? It was a thousand dollars to have satellite put in when moved up here and high-speed is not available in the country. But I hear if we have enough money it will be, if we buy a special attachment.

In spite of all this we love our home in the country and we love Gravenhurst and Bracebridge. Please use some common sense and find out what it’s like to live in the country and what we sacrifice to live here. Don’t tell us to move if we don’t like it; this farm has been in our family since the 1880s.

What will you do if we don’t pay that portion of our tax bill, shut off our water?

Carol Fraser

Gravenhust