Docket Number	Docket Name	Company
UW 208	SEVENTH MOUNTAIN GOLF VILLAGE WATER COMPANY REQUEST FOR A GENERAL RATE REVISION	SEVENTH MTN GOLF VLG WATER COMPANY

Comment Number	Created Date	Email Received Date	Company Name	Comment Type	Source Type	First Name	Last Name	Email	Nearest City	Comment
UW 208-1	6/27/2025 7:35:23 AM		SEVENTH MTN GOLF VLG WATER COMPANY	Oppose Docket	Web	Alan	Crawley		BEND	This rate increase is almost 100% and a hardship for retired people, which most people in single homes are. The letter from the utility says they need the money to pay for repairs. I ask the PUC to investigate why there is an insufficient maintenance fund in escrow. I also ask if having sufficient retained earnings for maintenance is not an existing requirement of the PUC, or other agency. Or can an owner of a utility withdraw all he wants for personal use. If this utility is really broke, I ask the PUC require he take out long term loans and raise rates just to amortize the loans. Or sell the Utility. Lastly, any rate increase percentage should be equal to all types of customers: to homes, golf course and Seventh Mountain Resort, to avoid one type of customer subsidizing another. Thank you.
UW 208-3	7/18/2025 12:34:44 AM	7/16/2025 5:17:25 PM		General Comment	Email			bendbryants@gmail.com		For the record, my name is Steve Bryant and I am president of the Elkai Woods Fractionals Home Owners Association consisting of 49 individually owned townhomes in the Widgi Creek development served by the SMGV water system. There are two other HOAs served by SMGV, one consisting of 37 townhomes, and one consisting of 107 single family home sites. The system also serves the large Widgi Creek golf course complex, beauty salon, indoor pickleball facility, and a photo studio. We are located five miles west of Bend and surrounded by the Deschutes River and National Forest where fire safety and water security are critical issues. First, we appreciate the efforts of owner Dale Bernards to improve the reliability and maintenance of our water system. The additional proposed improvements are timely and necessary. In addition, adding annual operational expenditures to ensure high quality of ongoing maintenance, testing, and responding to emergency repairs are of equal importance. This is a fairly small system and there are no other water systems owned or operated by this owner. In considering operational costs, it may be important to understand that this system has no filtration or treatment, there is no gravity fed storage, and staffing support is part-time and remote. Nevertheless, the system has met our needs reasonably well over the years with few interruptions, but there have alse been minimal major maintenance needs until recently. We now understand that it is critically important to bring the system up to current standards of safety and reliability. We would like to ensure that every precaution is being made with these improvements to greatly reduce or eliminate the risks of contamination, maintain water system pressures in the event of power outages (through regular maintenance of the back-up generator and upgrading of the pumps and electrical systems), periodic flushing of the water mains through fire hydrant operations and testing, and making timely repairs of water meter leaks and other system malfunctions. Finally, we have the following specific concerns and questions that we would like to have addressed: 1. The two townhome HOAs, consisting of 86 individually owned units, pay all of the water, sewer, and garbage utilities for our owners. As such, SMGV bills our HOA Management company for all 86 units which in turn pays the entire water bill to SMGV. Thus, the water company is relieved of the requirement to individually collect payment from these 86 customers and the HOAs also absorb any delinquent payments and collection efforts. With a near doubling of the rates, we would ask that consideration be given to a substantial payment discount for this collection service. 2. We understand that at least one additional bid is being sought for the electrical and pumps overhaul work. We would like to be kept informed of that and any other bid proposals and request that any cost savings from lower bids be reflected in this rate increase proposal. We would also like to be kept informed of the scheduling of the proposed improvements relative to the rate case schedule. Our understanding from the owner is that the proposed system improvements must be completed or obligated before the rate increase takes effect. 3. There is very little redundancy in this relatively small system to deal with emergencies, such as prolonged power outage, break in a water main, or system contamination. It would seem prudent with this rate increase for the owner to develop an emergency operations plan that would be communicated to the customers. 4. We learned for the first time at the administrative law judge hearing on July 8th that the proposed overhaul of the system may require a "multi-day" shutdown of the water system. This would be enormously disruptive to our owners, renters, and the commercial customers. We would like to know if other work-around alternatives have been evaluated and considered, even at some additional cost. Thank you for your consideration of these comments. Steve Bryant President, EWFHOA 60563 Seventh Mountain Dr. Bend, OR 97702 (541) 619-3964
UW 208-4	8/16/2025 2:59:00 PM		SEVENTH MTN GOLF VLG WATER COMPANY	General Comment	Web	Edward	Coulson		BEND	I own a townhome governed by the Elkai Woods Homeowners Association (“EWH”), one of 37 units served by SMGV. I join in the comments of Steve Bryant, president of the Elkai Woods Fractional Homeowners Association (“EWF”), 49 units also served by SMGV, with one exception, noted below. I submit these comments as an individual homeowner of EWH. Specifically, I appreciate the efforts of SMGV to improve the reliability, safety, and maintenance of its water system. For the reasons Mr. Bryant states, I join in his requests that the customers be kept informed of any additional bid proposals and the scheduling of proposed improvements. I would appreciate the final ruling include a requirement that the proposed system improvements be completed or under contract before the effective date of the rate increase. I also request the ruling to include a requirement that SMGV develop and distribute to its EWH and EWF customers an emergency operations plan before the effective date of the rate increase. I take exception to Mr. Bryant’s request for a discount based on SMGV’s currently billing EWH and EWF for water usage that includes individual EWH and EWF owners’ monthly water bills, for two reasons. First, to my knowledge, EWH has not authorized Mr. Bryant to request the discount on EWH’s behalf. Second, EWH’s property manager has determined that the EWH governing documents do not authorize EWH to pay individual homeowner water bills. EWH has not yet determined how to correct this practice. Should the PUC actually grant any discount based on this practice, I request that it clarify that the discount is applicable only so long as EWH continues to pay individual water bills and does not interfere in any way with EWH’s right to modify or discontinue this practice in the future. Thank you for your consideration. Edward R. Coulson, 60556 Elkai Woods Drive, Bend, OR 97702 206-953-2579