Q.C. mulls water company buy

When Queen Creek’s Town Council considers a purchase agreement for the Queen Creek Water Co. on Wednesday, it’ll be something significant for company President Paul Gardner.

With more than 20 years of his life and generations of his family involved in the company over the years, it will symbolize the end of an era.

“It’s very personal,” Gardner said. “Sometimes it’s pretty melancholy. I’ve been at this for 23 years, and my family has been at this for a long, long time.”

As a child, Gardner used to visit Queen Creek with his grandfather Taylor Gardner, who managed the Queen Creek Water Co. since 1954. In its infancy, the water company was owned by the Ellsworth family and served about 50 homes and farms.

Gardner said he used to tag along to check meters.

“My grandfather was running the whole operation,” Gardner said.

With a handshake, Taylor Gardner took over the water company from Leo Ellsworth, and by 1972 he had incorporated the water company. He ran it until 1985, when he died at age 81. Paul Gardner said his grandfather had a heart attack while digging out a meter box.

“He was doing something he loved,” Paul Gardner said. “He set the stage for Queen Creek, because until you have a water system, you don’t have a community. Once the water company was established, you started seeing little developments.”

Gardner executed his grandfather’s estate and stayed on to run Queen Creek Water Co,. which had about 350 customers at the time.

Now that company operates 11 well sites, serves about 9,500 customers and has about 30 employees. At build-out, the water company could serve about 30,000 people.

“All the bills used to be hand-typed and hand-processed,” Gardner said. “Now we can read all 9,500 meters in three days, process the bills by computer, and we even have a stuffer, licker, stamper machine.”

And because things have come so far, Town Manager John Kross said the town is buying a sound, well-maintained system. Queen Creek is applying to the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority for a $40 million low-interest loan for the $38.2 million purchase price and to cover attorney, engineering and consulting costs.

“We wanted to give the town first right of refusal,” Paul Gardner said.

Gardner said his grandfather would be “amazed” at the growth and the town’s purchase, which saved the company and customers from a third-party water company purchase.

“Even today most people (in the East Valley) think they’re getting their water from the city, but some get it from a private water company,” Gardner said. “There comes a time when every community begins to look at the water business. Now is that time.”

Council meeting

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: 22350 S. Ellsworth Road

Information: (480) 358-3000 or www.queencreek.org