Or are their Pro-Conservation words only for show? once they rake in their guaranteed Profit Margin and even then they are guaranteed whatever they have deemed "enough" of a profit knowing they can always raise it again after a few months if they need raises etc. If you stay below FPB's monthly minimum who ultimately benefits, yes you are trying to do your part helping everyone and the future generations by trying to be more contentious, eliminating waste & help replenish and repair our planet which is why everyone should try to conserve & save yourself some $$ too, but in the end FPB is who benefits the most, if you stay 500 gallons below their 2,000 gallon minimum that is an automatic 25% profit for FPB on top of their built in profit margin. For comparison, say you purchase a hybrid or a high MPG model vehicle and it costs you $30 to fill it up and your neighbor isn't interested in conserving or trying to be "Green" at all so he/she purchases a SUV that costs $50 to fill up the tank. Your neighbor goes to pay the attendant who says that will be $50, the neighbor pays. You go up to the attendant after filling up your car "That will be $50" but I only needed/used $30 worth for my car, "sorry there is a $50 minimum charge regardless of how little you need/use, but you are more than welcome to pump the difference out on the ground or I will just keep it and sell it to the next customer. Regardless you owe me $50 for the gas OH! And I need to collect another $100 more for my buddy the "Exhaust Department" b/c when you use the gas it comes out the exhaust ya know and my buddy gets double what you pay me, before you ask it doesn't matter that only $30 worth came out through your exhaust you are going to pay double what you paid me. I would suggest you go somewhere else if you don't like it but it won't do you much good b/c I own every station in town same goes for my buddy the Exhaust Dept."

My issue(s) are with FPB's Water and Sewer "Charges", since I can not get FPB to reply to my electronic or written inquiries I will post it here in the hope of receiving some pertinent information and or advice.

* Fact/Assumption each FPB customer is charged for a minimum usage of 2000 gallons of water per monthly billing. So if you do your civic duty and try to be "Green", conserve etc...and happen to keep your usage under 2000 gallons FPB makes that much more of a profit off of me/you/everyone. In my most recent billing I used 1400 gallons(do they always round UP to the next '100'?), therefore FPB profited by 600 gallons. Including this billing and the prior 11 months I averaged 1383.3 gallons per month so in addition to their built in profit margin on average they make another 617 gallons worth of profit per MONTH off of my conserving efforts.

* Sewer is based on actual usage at $8.27 per 1,000 gallons, correct? Then why is my Sewer bill always at or above $20 a month? Last 2 months @ $20.54, 9 months prior @ $19.94, and October 2008 @ $15.16. Or am I mistaken and there is a built in minimum profit margin for Sewer just like water?

Would this have anything to do with the 'separation' (be it real or bogus) of the FPB Water and the City Sewer? The attempt to have it appear the 2 are not joined at the hip owned and operated by one and the same, just so FPB can say they do not have a Monopoly???

I read in the Lexington paper (September 15 & 16) where Attorney General Jack Conway fought the Columbia Gas proposed rate hike and cut it nearly in half to 6.13 million - down from an initial request of $11.57 million.Was there ever anything at all concerning this mentioned in the State Journal? After doing a search on Jack Conway & Attorney General Jack Conway, the most recent article was September 10th concerning State Employee numbers. Columbia Gas serves more than 91,000 customers in 33 counties, what is the number of FPB Water and or Sewer Customers in Franklin County? May be he or someone could look into some of the FPB questions a large majority of customers seem to have concerning FPB's actions and what seems to be free reign in price fixing/setting.