My reading of the Plainview Water District's shenanigans concerning the Donna Drive Plant leads me to believe that although Water Commissioner Bernard Chetkof and his sidekick, Donald Rosen, may have left town following a state comptroller's audit, politics over competence continues to plague the water district. The comptroller's report, 98M-353, showing how district funds were siphoned by a pattern of unitemized and unauthorized vouchers can be found at the state comptroller's website and at the website http://www.strategic-techs.com/pwd.pdf.

My further reading of the Donna Drive debacle in the Herald indicates that another thing has not changed. The Plainview Water District still appears to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of H2M Corporation as we residents continue to be subject to H2M's whims and judgments.

Just look at the cast of characters who have been terrorizing the residents of Donna Drive.

* The principal consulting engineer is H2M.

* The architect is H2M.

* The water quality lab is H2M.

* The Water District superintendent was an H2M employee just prior to his appointment by the same commissioners whose use of improper payments and vouchers were chastised by Comptroller McCall.

I do not think anyone was particularly surprised that following the H2M lab report on the Donna Drive situation, the Water District awarded the Donna Drive engineering and architectural design work to H2M.

To compound this mess, we have Water Commissioner Kevin Langberg, a protégé, associate and political appointee of former Town Supervisor Lewis Yevoli. As town supervisor, Mr. Yevoli had recommended the town board grant no bid contracts to H2M even after it was known H2M did not inform the water commissioners that there were potential violations of state environmental law concerning the Water District's storage and dispensing of hazardous petrochemicals adjacent to district's wells, including main wells, 1-1 - and 1-2, on Manetto Hill Road. At this juncture of the Donna Drive fiasco, the community needs to know the nature of the relationship between Messrs. Langberg, Yevoli and the H2M Corporation, including political contributions and any possible quid pro quo.

Another issue that seems to have been ignored by the Herald is the manner in which the water district compensates H2M for its services. Does H2M get paid like the federal, state, county and town governments pay their consultants, i.e., by time and materials? If things have not changed from the Chetkof-Rosen days, the water district pays H2M on a percentage of construction costs, a method that is ripe for overpayment and was severely criticized by the town board. The commissioners need to explain the fee payment basis to our community's ratepayers and taxpayers.

These are items in need of thorough investigation by the town board, which should exercise its oversight and due diligence powers over the special improvement districts lying entirely within the town.

Michael Tenenbaum, PE