City shuts off water at area apartments

By Denice Thibodeau

Published: October 9, 2008

Georgia Carter came home from the hospital on Thursday to an unpleasant surprise: the water had been turned off in her Cabin Lake apartment on Cherokee Court.

She wasn’t the only tenant without water — all 100 units in the complex had the water turned off by the city on Wednesday.

The complex was purchased by Raymond Pyant, of Richmond, early this year, according to Carter. Many of the individual apartments are owned by other people, but all tenants have agreements that say the water bill is included in their rent.

Tenants said Pyant is responsible for paying the water bill and maintaining the grounds.

“I have a beautiful apartment,” Carter said. “And I’m not going to talk against him (Pyant); he has tried to keep things up.”

She is more angry with the city, who let the bill get so far behind.

“Why let it get to this?” she asked. “Why didn’t they do something before?”

Barbara Dameron, the city finance director, said the city has been dealing with the payment problem for about a year, with both the current and former owner.

“We regret this has happened,” Dameron said. “It’s a bad position for the city and we don’t like the situation. But we have a fiduciary responsibility to the other citizens to collect the money owed.”

Asked if there were any steps the tenants could take to get the water tuned back on, Dameron said the account is in the owner’s name and she doesn’t have the legal background necessary to offer advice.

“We will do all we can, but right now I don’t have answers,” Dameron said, saying that the payment promised on Thursday had not materialized as of 4 p.m. “I’m not sure what accommodations we are going to be able to provide.”

Pyant could not be located for comment.

Contact Denice Thibodeau at or (434) 791-7985.