| Providence
'wet water' efforts will continue, spokeswoman says
By
Cody Gochnour
December 18, 2007 | PROVIDENCE -- This city has been
torn over water rights and development issues for the
past year.
Providence is growing and as it does so it will need
more water than it now has. Mayor Randy Simmons' plan
to transfer water rights from other communities was
met with considerable opposition from a group of residents
known as People for Wet Water.
People for Wet Water had a water initiative prepared
and presented it to the City Council. This initiative
was rejected and replaced by one written by Mayor Simmons,
according to their Web
site. They then took it to the polls, getting the
initiative put on the ballot for Novembers election.
They also encouraged individuals to run for city council,
which several did.
Each side has accused the other of running a dirty
campaign. On their Web site, the People for Wet Water
accuse the mayor of using smear tactics and illegal
campaign practices for which they have filed lawsuits.
Simmons said that defeating lawsuits brought by the
People for Wet Water has cost the city $74,000. Simmons
also said of the group's candidates, "their campaign
was so filled with smear and fear, but you know, when
you're doing it you don't think it's smear and fear."
The initiative was defeated at the polls, as were
most of the group's candidates.
"The candidates who didn't get elected didn't try
very hard," said Laura Fisher, webmaster of peopleforwetwater.org.
She said that she was disappointed by the results, but
that she and her husband will continue to fight.
"We feel a moral obligation to do something," she
said, then quoted Edmund Burke, "the only thing needed
for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Fisher said that the couple has hired a new lawyer
for the fight ahead. "I'm not terribly optimistic,"
she said, "but our attorney is very optimistic."
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