Posted on 02/25/2014 10:55:35 AM PST by nickcarraway
Cape Coral woman Robin Speronis has been relying on solar panels and treated rain water to survive.
A Florida woman who has been living off the grid for about a year and a half was told that she has one month to "plug in" or deal with the authorities.
Cape Coral woman Robin Speronis doesn’t have any city power or water running into her house and relies on solar panels and treated rain water to survive. "I'm choosing to live without being dependent on the system," she told NBC-2.
Officials from Cape Coral Code Compliance met with Speronis and her attorney about the situation last week.
"When this was brought to my attention I felt like I had to act. I felt like Cape Coral was intruding in the woman's lifestyle," said Todd Allen, Speronis' attorney.
A magistrate ruled that Speronis was guilty of not being hooked up to a water supply that had been approved by the town.
"What happened here is people don't talk to us or cooperate. We don't communicate then we are forced to use the legal tools at our disposal," said Frank Cassidy of Cape Coral Code Compliance. "In the whole scheme of things, it’s no different than the hundreds of cases we deal with all the time.”
Speronis has indicated that she doesn’t plan on changing her lifestyle.
"I don't have to justify my life. They have to. That's the way our system of justice works. They have justify it. I don't," Speronis said.
“we’re only forcing her to do this because she didn’t obey our orders voluntarily. It’s really all her doing.”
they want to discourage others and they like having control and lastly, there is the money
We have had cases in the People’s Republic of Oregon where rainwater collection was illegal.
Some areas you cannot collect rain water.
I have 2 rain barrels here and get water from my well also. screw them all.
This is my neck of the woods and I suspect it has something to do with the $17k assessment that is forced on each property owner when the city dual water system gets installed on their street. There are still outlying areas being incorporated and perhaps she could not afford to pay so they cut her off - when she managed to survive without it they came after her. Cape Coral is known for having crazy restrictions like not being able to park a pickup truck in your driveway.
You’ve just hit another one of my hot-button issues.
Politicians (mainly REPUBLICANS claiming to be CONSERVATIVE) who nickel-and-dime you to death with a thousand bologna slice hidden fees, just so they can say they did not raise your taxes.
Raising my tax rate a couple of clicks would be WAY more honest.
Septic system!!
Yea, it’s stupid, but easily overcome if you put in an underground cistern. But then I only ever used my water for the garden and pool.
Once incorporated, municipal services are designed and maintained with the expectation that they will be used. If this woman has access to a sewer water treatment facility and ever intends to sell her property to a buyer who expects to benefit from that facility, then she can't expect to opt out for her own convenience.
Many municipalities use the metered water supply to assign a value to the sewer treatment access. It just not practical to meter the toilet output. If this woman were to be connected to the sewer system and yet opted out of the water supply system, then she would be defeating the mechanism for fairly assessing the costs of the sewage treatement.
Living in a city (or a "town") has its advantages but also some burdens. Without more information we can't know how reasonable the woman is being.
Even the electrical system has costs associated with bringing the power to the home and not just delivering the electricity. My local power company supplied five hundred feet of underground cable to my place. They did this in anticipation of selling electricity.
Most utilities operate as monopolies because it isn't always feasible to permit competition. Just how many sets of power poles should we have along our streets, for example? People who want power or water connected are seldom shy about insisting that the utility pay for the cost of the connection.
I’ve read about this woman before. When Florida has a hurricane coming in, THEN they want you to have your own water and own power.
That is the way it is in my town. Hurricane coming, everyone get your own water and own power. But, if you want to do that all the time, they have a fit. They will also have a fit if the grid goes down and stays down since people won’t have power and water and sewer and there will be famine and people dying right and left. Very few will have power and water and human hygiene methods because it’s not encouraged except for have three days of supplies and most people don’t even do that.
Charged with being a non-hooker
I see what you did there -- LOL!
True, but most municipal water systems also have flat rate for customers that have another source of water, such as a well, but are connected to the POTW (sewer system) Also, some communities put a fire protection charge on the water bill. This is for maintainance of the fire hydrant system. If Cape Coral has such a charge then the woman would not be paying her fair share of fire hydrant maintenance costs yet she is getting the benefit. Don’t know for sure but that’s the way it works where I live.
I think this is fairly typical. I used to own a condo where they did the same thing and then made seasonal adjustments to account for landscape irrigation.
The city doesn’t care about her not using eclectic. What they want are water and sewer fees and a part of those are a fixed minimum that you will be billed for even if you use zero city water
You know about private sewage disposal, right?
Water comes in, . . ."
Rain water coming in, filtered and chlorinated, using a cistern and hand pump. Typical suburban setup.
. . . water goes out.
Into septic tank, with outflow into leach field.
she might consider putting the dogs in a kennel for a while
Even the firefighting services themselves need a source of revenue to operate and it must come from the people who are protected by the service.
I have read of people who fought paying for firefighting and then complained when a fire broke out and the firefighters didn't respond and their home was allowed to burn down.
What did such an owner expect? That they could simply make the most recent payment and then qualify for firefighting response, only to quit making payments as soon as the fire is out? Who in his right mind would pay every month for firefighting services if he could just wait until there is a fire before paying?
These are the same kind of people who expect "health insurance" to cover pre-existing conditions. You can't buy fire insurance on a home that is on fire. Similarly, you shouldn't be able to buy health insurance for a health matter that already exists without having to pay a premium that takes into account the known condition.
I had planned on getting incarcerated somewhere. 3 hots and a cot, free television, climate-controlled living quarters, health care.
Hell, that's more and better than I have now.
They need that extra cash to pay off the public employees salaries and bennies.
(b) If you have your own water and septic, fine. However, the plumbing must be up to code and if you live within some jurisdiction or other, your septic cannot interfere or cause problems with area drainage, your house plumbing (if you have plumbing) must be up to code, and although not legally necessary, it's a wonderful idea to have your well water checked. None of this is usually a problem.
In Maine, many claim to "be off the grid," yet do impact neighbors. (E.G., build a damn for low-head hydro and you affect flow downstream.) OTOH, everything usually works out OK if the "independents" are just somewhat cooperative, not raving Masshole hippies, or wannabe "mountain men" who take potshots at compliance officers, although some of whom deserve it!
In Florida, which is by-and-large inhabited by 30 Million excess Floridiots, wells can be a problem because of a rapidly dropping water table, which is causing the region, not intended to be inhabited by our species, no end of problems large and small.
You wanna go totally off the grid? Not generally all that feasible an idea in a suburban setting, although it can be done. Go for it out in the hinterlands.
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