As published by Lakeway Voice, January 2016.

Lakeway MUD-Not Just Another Utility

Lakeway Municipal Utility District (LMUD) was established in 1972 to serve the growing community of Lakeway. There was a group of homeowners (17 sections) that had recently paid for and installed septic tanks and did not want to have to pay LMUD for sewer service, but wanted water service. This group became known as the “Out of District” (OD) customers. Today, with over 4,000 customers, roughly one fourth of them are in this OD category. The OD customers that are on septic tanks do not pay property taxes to LMUD since property taxes help to pay wastewater Debt. We get questions from time to time about why certain properties are not allowed to vote in LMUD elections, and this explains it. Taxpayers (In District) are also voters, while non-taxpayers (OD) are not entitled to a vote.

We pride ourselves in being a part of the community, and not “just another utility”. Our customers know they can contact us with questions or concerns and we will do our very best to work through any issues to the best of our ability. During the recent publicity about high bills due to a dry summer and going to twice per week watering schedules, we worked with many customers to show them exactly when water usage was occurring. Many had their irrigation systems set to operate more frequently that they thought. We also found that many had leaks in irrigation, toilets, and/or pool systems of which they were unaware.

Our staff is trained to be responsive and caring in dealing with our customers, and they all take a great deal of pride in resolving issues and satisfying customers. We get a lot of compliments from our customers, and I thought I would share one of many emails we receive from customers with you:

We moved to Lakeway this past January. I wanted to share a very positive experience we had with two of your employees (Angie and Chris) last week. On Wednesday, Nov17, I contacted Lakeway MUD offices regarding a problem with bees in what I thought was the LMUD water meter box. There were bees coming out of the small hole in the concrete cover. The bees were so intense that I could not get to the water shut off valve in order for a plumber to do some work at my home. I contacted Angie on Wednesday morning and explained the situation to her. She told me that she would pass on the information and have someone contact me. By midafternoon on Wednesday, I received a call from Chris, who explained to me that the concrete cover did not belong to Lakeway MUD, but that he had coordinated to have someone come out and remove the bees between 11 and 12 on Thursday.

On Thursday between 11:00 and 12:00 Chris and a representative from Justice Pest Services were there. Thursday afternoon, Angie called me to see if everything was OK. This level of timely service and follow-up unfortunately is not the norm today. It was so refreshing to see this level of customer service! The reason I am writing you is to say how impressed I was throughout the whole process. Both Angie and Chris were very professional in helping me.

I told Chris how I appreciated the fact that he did not pass the buck and send me to someone else (because it was not Lakeway MUD’s meter box). I could have spent so much time trying to find out who to contact to get rid of the bees, but Chris stepped up and took responsibility for coordinating the removal of the bees. Again, I appreciate how your team responded to my problem. I have already told many friends of the positive experience I had with your organization.

Here is another example of going ‘above and beyond’; we received a letter from a lady saying “Please send me a jar opener so I can get my Artichokes open; I need to twist the lid open”. One of our staff members received the letter and made a call and found out she had seen a jar opener with LMUD’s logo when visiting a neighbor. Unable to find any jar openers, he went to Randall’s, Walgreen’s, and CVS with no luck. Going online, he found a jar opener with a cat on it and ordered it (at his own expense). We then received the following letter:

“Thank you so much for the cat jar opener; I used it on a 16 liter bottle of iced tea. It was too small for my Artichokes. Nobody has the type of jar opener I really need”

A few months later, cleaning out an old storage closet, a few jar openers with LMUD logos were found; they had been ordered 20 years ago! We sent two to the customer, and she was thrilled!

These are but a couple of examples of our commitment to going “above and beyond”.