The bypass valve at Strawberry Fields RV Park is now chained and locked after being found open by city staff.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
The question is whodunit?
Someone opened the water bypass valve at Strawberry Fields RV Park this year allowing water to flow past the meter for months without ever being recorded for billing purposes, according to the city.
No one is claiming responsibility for opening the valve, but under the city’s rules, the RV park will be required to pay the average consumption of water at the park over a three-month period.
The city is currently monitoring the park’s water bills from October to Dec. 31. The city will decide a repayment figure after determining the average consumption.
The park owner has agreed to the repayment plan, though he says it doesn’t favor him. He says the park was largely uninhabited when the city says the bypass valve was open. The park now has a lot more RVs consuming water.
City police investigated and concluded they could not determine whether the opening of the bypass valve was an intentional theft of water by the owner or an error made by the city while conducting maintenance on the property.
“It is also unknown who may have turned the valve on, as it was unsecured at the time,” said Capt. Ray Tremblay who investigated. In the wake of the incident, the bypass valve is chained and locked.
City Manager Mary Ellzey said police are called anytime there is a water theft or meter tampering, but she said the owner and his manager said they know nothing about the open valve. The city can’t prove otherwise.
“We don’t know who did it. The owner of the park doesn’t live here. He had no idea. There was no way to prove that the water usage was intentional,” Ellzey said.
The case is interesting because the RV-park is managed by Chiefland City Commissioner Tim West. His boss is RV park owner Hal Lyons. West and Lyons said Tuesday they had no idea who opened the bypass valve.
“We didn’t know anything until they showed it to us. They said, what the hell is going on, and we said, you tell us what the hell is going on,” Lyons said.
West wondered if the city may have accidentally left the value open when the facility was first constructed and never noticed it was open, but he wasn’t making any allegations.
“I can’t prove it either,” he said.
West said he photographed an oak tree near the water pipes that flow into the city as proof the city hadn’t cut it down during land clearing. The photograph was taken around the time the park opened and the bypass valve, which accidentally showed up in the photo, appears to be closed.
Ellzey said the city’s maintenance crews drive past the pipes that control inflow of water to the RV park every week. They would have noticed the valve was open. They also take the meter readings at the location of the bypass valve.
“Tim tried to insinuate that. That doesn’t hold water,” Ellzey said.
Ellzey said this is the first time in city history an open bypass valve allowed water to bypass the meter. The problem was discovered in September by billing clerk Anita Parrish when she noticed the RV-park’s water bill was unusually low. City maintenance staff visited the meter site and noticed the bypass valve was open. The bypass valve allows water to bypass the meter.
Ellzey said the city doesn’t know exactly how many months the bypass valve was open but it appears to have been from March to September. The park opened for business on March 14.
“If we have another development that requires something like that, it will be locked,” she said.
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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting October 14, 2019; Posted October 15, 2019
