Governor’s Mansion Complying with Drought Recommendations

October, 26, 2007 , by Barden

On October 24th, in a letter to the editor, Gertrude Kappel sought to take a swing at Governor Easley. This came only days after he asked the state to cut its water use down by half. Today, the Governor’s office released its water bill to the public.

What the letter was attacking was the “hypocritical” nature of the Governor asking for water conservation while maintaining the lovely Governor’s Mansion downtown.

What Ms. Kappel neglected to mention in her pithy attack was that months before, the governor had already called on all state employees (his staff of 40 at the mansion included) to reduce their water usage by twenty percent. You see, the Governor was already having his staff make their conservation efforts before he asked it of the whole state.

The News and Observer has reported that the two-month water bill since his call for state conservation showed a reduction by twenty-nine percent. Thanks no doubt to the cessation of their water guzzlin’ eleven thousand gallon a-day water irrigation system. The system was shut down in early August.

Although it has rained steadily for three days in Raleigh, the drought persists. One hopes that everyone in the city, including Ms. Kappel, continues to make conservation efforts until water levels have returned to normal. Kudos to the Governor and his conservation efforts. Of course he could have gotten those cool points too if he’d just asked us all “if it’s brown flush it down, if it’s yellow leave it mellow.”