I have been a resident of the Amberwood subdivision here in Kyle since August of 2005. During the duration of our family living in Amberwood, we have had Monarch Utilities as our water company. There are several ongoing issues with Monarch that seem to go unaddressed and continue to get worse.
As everyone out here knows, water in this neighborhood is outrageous. Our bill in September was $279, just for water. We then have to pay Kyle for our sewage and waste another $65.
The mayor of Kyle Lucy Johnson has tried to help our community herself by doing whatever she can to prevent further increases in rates for our neighborhood. They have temporarily come to an agreement on not increasing our rates another 62.2% at this time, but only raising them by 13% more for now.
We have been told for the eight years that we have lived here, that these increases are to help the water improve in quality and allow Monarch to do any and all preventative system maintenance to our system. This being said, yesterday evening 2,300 residents of Amberwood and Indian Paintbrush who are all Monarch customers, experienced a water outage starting at aprox. 5:30 p.m., about the time that families are getting dinner ready and taking baths. We called Monarch and were told the first time, this issue was due to an issue all over Kyle and that Monarch does not have an ETA for anyone. We had to go out and purchase water, and change dinner plans with four kids at the last minute. Later on around 8:00 p.m. we called Monarch yet again, just to be told a different story. We were told that, there was a large leak in one of Monarchs pipes here in Amberwood, and there was still no ETA. Well we finally got water again at 8:00 a.m. this morning. We called Monarch to ask about what they would be doing to take care of the customers who had to deal with this, just to be told. “That Monarch would not be issuing any sort of credits to the residents, but will NOT be charging us for the repairs.” I was beside myself, they would NOT be charging us for the repairs, this is their idea of taking care of the customer? Mind you that as of today, there is still a notice posted outside the neighborhood that we should still be boiling our water.
Many families out here including our own are sick of the high rates, contaminated water and poor customer service provided by Monarch and want it to end. We need help, this and many other issues have been going on far too long.
Leah Marshall
Kyle
