The Philadelphia Water Co. has stated it will write a guarantee into its contract with the town of Bar Harbor that if the town doesn’t like the operation in five years it can buy it from the PWC for a set price, including any improvements made by the company in the interim.

I do not think the town could run the water company any more efficiently than the present owners do now. The Bar Harbor town council says there would be no increased cost to taxpayers. But what about the extra employees that would be needed? And what about the understandable requests by supervisors for a raise in pay because they have more people to supervise?

Suppose the town buys the water company, spends money on improvements and then cannot make it self-supporting. All we are left with is a white elephant. In their efforts to persuade people that Bar Harbor should buy the water company, some council members seem to be trying the same scare tactics as we have recently witnessed in the presidential elections. There has even been a suggestion that the PWC would bring in empty oil barges, insert liners, fill the barges with water and sell it to Saudi Arabia. Buying the water company now is a bad idea.

Ron Landis

Bar Harbor