Audrey Parker
Posted on 07/10/2013 7:40:34 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
MADISON – Audrey Parker says she has paid her water bill on time for the past 20 years, but that didn’t stop the city of Baraboo from shutting off the great-grandmother’s water supply Tuesday.
The reason?
The 81-year-old Parker says it’s because she wouldn’t let the city replace her analog water meter with a new ‘smart meter’ – a battle she’s fought with City Hall for more than a year now.
“(Monday) I went to see the Mayor (Mike Palm). The cutoff day was this (Tuesday) morning and I thought the city might relent,” Parker told Wisconsin Reporter. “Yesterday they came and I wouldn’t let them in.”
City Hall vs. Grandma: Audrey Parker, 81, of Baraboo is fighting a one-woman battle against City Hall. The city shut off Parker’s water Tuesday after she repeatedly refused the installation of a ‘smart’ water meter. A little after 9 a.m. Tuesday, though, Parker left her house to go to the post office. When she returned she found a disconnect notice taped to her front door.
“I saw the blue flag marking the water line and I said, ‘Uh-oh,’” she said. “I thought they might have relented, but not this time. They’re trying to set an example of me.”
Parker received similar notices over the past year, but the city didn’t act on its threats.
Last September she went before the Baraboo Public Safety Committee to present her case to opt-out of the new meter.
Parker told the committee she’s had heart palpitations since the city installed ‘smart’ gas and electric meters outside her home in spring 2012, and that she had health and privacy concerns with the smart meter for her water.
And, she just doesn’t like the city telling her what to do inside her own home.
The committee denied the opt-out and gave Parker two weeks to allow the city to change the meter. Those two weeks turned into more than nine months.
Smart meters use radio frequency waves to send usage information between a utility customer’s home and their utility company. The high-tech gauges are a key link in the transition to the Smart Grid, the shared initiative of the federal government and the energy industry to modernize the nation’s electricity transmission and distribution system. There’s a lot of taxpayer money involved in a myriad programs to bring the Smart Grid and smart meters online.
The U.S. Department of Energy has spent at least $$2.96 billion on Smart Grid projects through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus.
The use of radio frequency, the technology used in microwaves, cell phones, Wi-Fi networks and baby monitors, has some, like Parker, concerned about the long-term health effects.
Opponents of the meters cite anecdotal evidence of a variety of health-related problems, from migraines and nausea to insomnia, seizures and heart problems. They point to studies on cellphones as evidence of the danger of the technology in smart meters. A New York Times article noted that “Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have found less than an hour of cellphone use can speed up brain activity,” raising questions about the health effects of low levels of radiation emitted from cellphones.
Parker says she won’t back down on refusing the smart meter, even if it means buying bottled water to drink and using rain barrel water to flush the toilet.
“I’ll get by without it,” the octogenarian said, noting she was raised on a farm without running water. “They’ve been heavy handed. They’re not acting like public officials, they’re acting like totalitarians. I don’t like to be threatened. I’m not going to buckle.
“I don’t think people buckled when they built this country,” she added.
Parker isn’t alone in her resistance.
In Illinois, two women were arrested for interfering with smart meter installation, according to KATU.com in Portland, Ore. In Texas, a woman pulled a gun on a utility worker.
Baraboo city officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
“I don’t think people buckled when they built this country,”
FReep Mail me of you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Audrey Parker
They want to put a small radio transmitter so they can read the meter from the street and not have to demand entry to her house to read it.
This is not agenda 21. It’s a simple improvement in the way the city meters and bills for the water it supplies. There is no reason to get heart palpitations over it.
Go, Audrey! I really don’t think radio frequencies are a concern but 2+billion on energy conservation. Love to see how much landfill is used up with all the old water meters.
That’s the green movement scam-people throwing away perfectly good items for ‘green’ technology.
I applaud this lady.
I just found out that my rather reclusive cousin in CA (who is considered “odd” by the rest of the family) is in a similar battle with both the city, where she lives, and her younger brother who is supposed to watch over her. She refuses to connect the phone to receive calls and recently returned a cell phone (covered in tin foil) to her brother who had given it to her so she could call 911 in an emergency.
What she doesn’t know is that she has a smart meter on her home, and her brother can link to it (from another city 130 miles away) so that he can track her electricity useage to make sure that she is alive and well.
We all think she’s nuts, but maybe she’s smarter than all the rest of us put together. She’s getting along fine — nearly off the grid in the heart of a large city.
Why doesn’t the city put the smart meter out by the road? Seems like this would be a ‘smart’ solution that would accommodate both parties?
And her brother works for whom? The electric company?
Otherwise I would be interested to hear that this information is available to the public...
Her brother is a self employed architect. I don’t know how he does it, and I’m not going to ask. He is her guardian, but she resists all help. He has a way to link to her meter to see when the usage peaks, the variations throughout the day, etc. so that he is aware of movement in her house.
Since he’s kind of the caretaker, he likely has the account number.......log in via computer and “check your usage” - that’s the way they’re touting those things around here.
Tyranny comes to Maple Street.
They want to put a small radio transmitter so they can read the meter from the street and not have to demand entry to her house to read it.
This is not agenda 21. It’s a simple improvement in the way the city meters and bills for the water it supplies. There is no reason to get heart palpitations over it.”””
Sorry- YOU are wrong.
I live rural—have since 1993.
I have had electric meters all that time, and the ‘meter reader’ doesn’t get out of his truck. He stops- punches some buttons on his ‘reader’ & my power usage is recorded for the monthly billing period.
He never sets foot inside my fence lines.
The SMART meters CAN & WILL be controllable by outside persons as to YOUR usage.
The usage can be restricted/lowered electronically anytime they wish.
I have lived on a PRIVATE well also since 1993. I have large animals- horses. We have had a 10 ++ day heat wave with temps over 110 degrees on many of those days. When the temp gets over 90, my horses drink plenty of water-—as much as 50 gallons EACH per day. Being told by ANYONE how much water my horses will be allowed will be grounds for shooting someone!!!
Control of every aspect of your life from behind the Washington Beltway is not their job!!!. Most of those fools don’t even know the difference between a horse & a pony!!!
E. Pluribus Unum ~:” UN Agenda 21 at work to eliminate all private property and individual freedom.”
Agenda 21 is a United Nations effort to control people and land by useing beige , benign ,neutral grammar.
The Agenda 21 ‘buzz words’ :
envireonmental sustainability
smart growth
heritage act
regionalization
sustainability
eminent domain
just compensation
The city already controls your water. There is a valve in the street. They can turn it off anytime they want. Nothing will change for this woman if they put a transmitter on her meter.
Coast to Coast had someone on last night to explain Agenda 21. Pretty frightening.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.