New Tiered water pricing in Raleigh

You may have noticed that there has been a change to the web presence and billing cycle of the Raleigh water utilities. As I perused the site today, I discovered the introduction of a new pricing plan for Raleigh residents. From this page:

Beginning in November, Raleigh and Garner residential customers will be billed using a new, tiered billing structure with new rates. Only single-meter residences are changing to tiered billing. Apartments with master meters are not changing to tiered rates.

There are 3 tiers based on consumption. Each tier is billed at a different rate. Those who use less water will pay less.

INSIDE Raleigh and Garner city limits
Residential Water Rates

• Tier 1 = 1-4 CCF billed at $2.28
• Tier 2= 5-10 CCF billed at $3.80
• Tier 3= 11+ CCF billed at $5.07

In response, I have written this letter to be sent to UtilityBilling@raleighnc.gov:

Hello-

I am frustrated to read that you are implementing a tiered rate program on your water usage fees. In general, when I think of bulk consumption, pricing usually goes down per unit sold. In this case, you are charging more per unit sold.

I understand the motivation behind this kind of structure. The ultimate goal is that of conservation. However, for those of us with several people living in a household, there will never be anything we can do apart from taking a two week vacation that will reduce our consumption to the 1-4 CCF per month range.

Not only are we in essence being punished for having more people in our household, we're being charged a higher rate per CCF than we previously were. (It appears that my rate was $2.65/CCF)

I find this analogous to driving to the gas station to fill up with fuel and finding out that my charge per gallon varies dependent upon the size of my gas tank. By extension, since the size of the gas tanks are generally proportioned to the size of the vehicle, it would be like charging gas at a variable per gallon rate based on how many people were in the car.

Can you please explain how this approach is a fair way to charge for a utility we all depend on? If you feel there are abusers of the resources available to us, then charge them for their usage, but don't make the rest of us bear the burden of those who (in your opinion) overuse their share of water.

Our services are out of control

This is a screen shot from my phone via the PlanningCenter app a couple of weeks ago. Made me chuckle

How to Pray for Your Kid

Recently, I went through Dennis and Barbara Rainey's Passport2Purity book with my son. Inside is a list of valuable suggestions on how to pray for your child. This is a list of 26 suggestions of things to petition the Lord for over the life of your child. I'm hoping the Rainey's don't mind if I re-post that list here!

1. Pray that God will protect your preteen's innocence.
2. Pray that God will bring godly friends into your preteen's life.
3. Pray that your preteen won't forget how to laugh.
4. Pray that God will draw your preteen into a relationship with Him or deepen the relationship that's already established.
5. Pray that God will bring other godly adults into your preteen's life
6. Pray that your preteen will be grounded in the spiritual disciplines of Bible study, prayer, and worship.
7. Pray that your preteen will learn to love the unlovely (reach out to other kids)
8. Pray that God will bring about tests of character in your preteen's life to help him learn how to stand strong in his convictions.
9. Pray that your preteen will develop humility.
10. Pray that you will catch your preteen in sin in order to have opportunities to train him.
11. Pray that your preteen will develop a larger peer group of believers that can have its own identity--enjoying music, parties, and memories together.
12. Pray that intellectual understanding of the changes in your preteen's body will give him cause to praise God for His glorious creation.
13. Pray that your preteen will respect and treat the opposite sex in a biblical manner.
14. Pray that your preteen will develop his own convictions about what he watches, listens to, and reads.
15. Pray that your preteen will learn self-control.
16. Pray that if your preteen is lying to you, God will allow you to catch him in that lie. Pray also that God will give him the courage to follow through with restitution and repentance.
17. Pray that your preteen will not give in to the temptation to use drugs or alchol.
18. Pray that your preteen will develop a loving and caring relationship with his siblings.
19. Pray that your preteen will learn how to manage his anger.
20. Pray that your preteen will learn how to control his tongue.
21. Pray that God will protect your preteen's mind from being polluted by pornographic images and ideas.
22. Pray that your preteen will not develop an attachment and preoccupation with material things.
23. Pray that God will keep the communication lines open between you and your preteen during the teenage years.
24. Pray that your preteen will develop biblical convictions.
25. Pray that your preteen will stand strong wen peers pressure him to do something contrary to those convictions.
26. Pray that your preteen will begin to understand God's mission for his life.
    

What motivates you to work?

Something New in the Church

We can all think of ways in which new technology has become a fixture in modern churches. From video screens to light production to sound mixes, some in church leadership (including myself) can't imagine planning and executing a corporate worship gathering without the aid of some of these technological innovations.

The "advance" of any area will bring with it its share of critics.

With that thought in mind, I was humored recently while reading the end of the chapter entitled "The Cathedral" in Joseph and Frances Gies' Life in a Medieval City. Addressing the issue of new innovations available at the time of the 13th century, they write,

Thirteenth-century bishops are delighted with the technology that gives them their incomparable cathedrals. Interestingly enough, clerical opinion in the past was not always so favorable. St. Bernard wrote angrily to William, abbot of St Thierry, about the great Cluniac churches: "Why this excessive height, the enormous length, this unnecessary width, these sumptuous ornaments and curious paintings that draw the eyes and distract the attention from meditation? . . . We, the monks, who have forsaken ordinary life and who have renounced the riches and ostentation of the world . . . in whom do we hope to awake devotion with these ornaments? . . . One could spend a whole day gaping instead of mediating on God. What ineptitude, and what expense!"

How interesting that over 700 years later, the concerns and criticisms are the same, just the names and types of technologies have changed.

Reason to Buy Travel Insurance

I've never purchased any, but I may reconsider if I ever make plans to fly somewhere for vacation!

Something New

Here it is...





....there it went.

Have a great day!