Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 403
As you know, the Seeley Lake Sewer District Board sent a memo to voters and property owners in the Sewer District about the upcoming Bond Election. The Board would like to take this opportunity to clarify the facts. Supplemental materials can be found at www.seeleysewer.org. Our purpose is “to maintain and provide a healthful environment for present and future generations and to supervise wastewater treatment within the District.” The data shows the nitrate levels in groundwater within the District are trending upward. This concerns MT DEQ and...
I have been involved with preliminary planning, design and cost estimates for a sewer project for Seeley Lake since 1984. The current project, which began about 10 years ago, was agreed to provide a sewer treatment system for no more than $100 per connection per month. The current project design is estimated to cost $35 million to provide sewer service to approximately 515 customers. This results in the project construction cost to be estimated at $68,000 per connection. This sewer system is too expensive for our district. The board has been...
SEELEY LAKE - The fate of a pair of bonds to fund Seeley Lake’s proposed sewer system is in the hands of the voters with ballots being mailed out Feb. 3. If the bonds pass in the Feb. 23 election, the Seeley Lake Sewer District can move forward to finish checking off the conditions of the funding package and put the proposed sewer project out to bid. However the water gets muddier when looking at the impacts of a “no” vote. The Pathfinder reached out to the Missoula City-County Health Department, Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ...
SEELEY LAKE - I am writing in response to Curt Friede’s letter last week. Curt has given false information regarding the Seeley Lake Sewer Project. I contacted the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) last year and asked if Seeley Lake was on a watch list for sewer contaminates and the answer was NO. I asked if Seeley Lake had higher then the state law for contaminates in the water and the answer was NO. I asked if the DEQ would enforce a sewer if the project was voted down and the answer was NO. I have an email to verify this. So yes, I...
SEELEY LAKE - Curt Friede’s letter to the editor about the sewer proposal last week suggests we “get the facts.” Here are a few: Fact: Mr. Friede of one of the parties suing the sewer district board to force them to build the sewer. Fact: There is NO SIGNIFICANT groundwater nitrate degradation, in the groundwater OR the lake, that we know of definitively. The engineers recommended water quality testing in all four sewer “sub-districts” but test wells were drilled in only two. Of those two, only one was tested regularly and it consisten...
Walt Hill’s comments on our Seeley Lake sewer mess would be laughable except for the fact he is a respected community leader. His ignorance of the facts of the case are scary and dangerous. Here are some facts: • Sewer District residents have a right to KNOW all the truths about the sewer project...the reasons, the costs, the impact. The Sewer District Board has NEVER completely provided those facts to residents. • Sewer District residents have a right to PARTICIPATE in the discussion of this very important discussion. Past Boards have pooh,...
SEELEY LAKE - As you may know, I am OPPOSED to the General Obligation Bond for the Seeley Lake Sewer project that we will be voting on in February. Phase I voters will be voting on a Revenue Bond and the General Obligation Bond and both have to pass to get funded. If the Bond were to pass there will be funding available for the sewer and collection system for Phase I. Phase I people will find the following components charged to them every year: the debt for the General Obligation Bond, the debt for the Revenue Bond, Operation and Maintenance...
As reported in the Jan. 21 issue of the Pathfinder, Walt Hill provided “information” to the hospital district directors that involved an assortment of truths, half-truths, distortions and outright false information. It was painful for me as a fellow sewer district director to read what he put forth to supposedly educate another board’s leaders how to cast their district’s vote on the up-coming bond election. I hope that each of the district’s qualified electors will be able to vote in the best way for him- or herself based on an understan...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board had its monthly meeting on Jan. 21 when the Board discussed litigation strategy, a change in who qualifies for voting agents in the upcoming bond election and comments made by a Director at another public board meeting. The Board closed the meeting to discuss litigation strategy with their attorney regarding a lawsuit filed in December seeking to force the District to install the proposed sewer and mandate properties to connect among other things. After coming out of the closed session,...
Seeley Lake Sewer Board members have been hearing discussion in the community about the capacity of the wastewater treatment system designed to serve the Seeley Lake Sewer District. There seems to be a lack of information about the capacity. Great West Engineering wrote a Technical Memorandum as a design report to submit to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The preferred alternative chosen by the District Board was a sequential batch reactor (SBR) with groundwater infiltration galleries. In the Design Flow section of Technical Memo...
SEELEY LAKE - Seeley Lake Elementary (SLE) School Board members unanimously voted to extend their ice rink agreement with Seeley Lake Regional Outdoor Center for Kinetic Sports (ROCKS) for another three years during their monthly meeting Tuesday, Jan. 19. They also approved hiring for various positions and continued updating their 2000’s policy series. ROCKS Board members Garry Swain and Scott Eggeman spoke to the school board. SLE had a three year agreement with ROCKS that expired this year. The agreement allowed ROCKS to host the ice rink a...
SEELEY LAKE – At their Jan. 12 meeting, the Seeley-Swan Hospital District Board voted unanimously to designate Chair Twyla Johnson as the special district agent to vote in favor of the sewer bond that is being voted on Feb. 23. They also learned more about the possibility of the Seeley-Swan Medical Center being included in the residency program through Partnership Health Center. Board member Walt Hill provided background information on the letter the Hospital District received from the Sewer District. Hill also serves as a director on the Sewer...
To quote board publications, “The Seeley Lake Missoula Country Sewer District Board of Directors adopted Resolution #11192020, calling for a bond election on Feb. 23, 2021, by mail ballot asking the qualified electors in the District to approve a General Obligation Bond to finance a portion of the costs of the treatment plant and associated infrastructure and a Revenue Bond to finance a portion of the cost of the Phase 1 collection system. These bonds will replace the Assessment Bond methodology authorized through the Notice and Protest p...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board has been granted an extension to respond to a lawsuit filed by a group of landowners. The lawsuit seeks to force the District to follow through with previously adopted resolutions to construct the proposed sewer, mandate connections and also to reimburse the plaintiffs’ legal fees. The lawsuit filed Dec. 15 and served a few days later gave the District three weeks to respond before the plaintiffs could request an entry of default judgment against the District for the relief demanded in the complaint. T...
SEELEY LAKE – According to the Missoula County Elections Office, there are a couple of changes to the voter registration process for property owners in the Seeley Lake Sewer District for the upcoming Bond election. The Feb. 23 election will be conducted by mail with ballots being mailed Feb. 3. Unlike most elections, Sewer District elections allow certain landowners the ability to register and vote in addition to the registered voters who reside in the District. There are several ways in which landowners may be eligible to vote depending on h...
LOCAL SEELEY LAKE BUSINESSMEN ARE SUING THE SEELEY LAKE SEWER DISTRICT!! As you may already know from the Pathfinder this past week, several of your local businessmen are suing the Seeley Lake Sewer District. Their names and John Does are in last week’s Pathfinder. They are seeking TO FORCE THE DISTRICT TO CONSTRUCT THE PROPOSED SEWER SYSTEM. It is my opinion that they are doing this to benefit themselves, as I know they all own several lots in the sewer district that they probably want to develop. It is also my strong opinion that they d...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board of Directors learned at the end of their Dec. 17 meeting that a lawsuit had been filed against the District seeking to force the District to construct the proposed system. In the Board’s regular business they approved a letter to be sent out to District landowners and voters with information on the project and the Feb. 23 Bond Election. District Manager Jean Curtiss informed the Board at the end of her Manager’s report that she had seen a draft of a lawsuit against the District. However, at th...
SEELEY LAKE – At the Seeley-Swan Hospital District board meeting Dec. 8, Partnership Health Center (PHC) Executive Director Laurie Francis updated the board on PHC’s COVID response and operations. The board also voted to authorize an additional $1,250 in legal fees in response to the proposed RV Park on land adjacent to the Seeley-Swan Medical Center. Francis said as of Tuesday, six out of the 16 staff at the Medical Center were currently home due to COVID-19 quarantine requirements. This is a similar percentage at the other PHC clinics. PHC...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board of Directors voted at their Nov. 19 meeting to call for a bond election to be held Feb. 22, 2021 to finance the proposed wastewater treatment plant and Phase 1 of the collection system. In doing this the Board abandons the previously approved financing method. The idea of a bond election was floated several months ago as a compromise to keep the project moving forward after voters elected two new directors. In their campaigns, Tom Morris and Jason Gilpin were very vocal that they wanted the c...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board and one of its former insurance providers have signed an Assignment of Rights and Claims that will keep the District from having to pay legal fees for defending the District against a 2018 lawsuit. There has been a longstanding question over whether or not the District’s insurance would cover the cost of the defense because the District changed insurance companies just days after the lawsuit was filed. The District did not know of the lawsuit when it made the change. The District’s policy wit...
SEELEY LAKE – At the Oct. 22 meeting, the Seeley Lake Sewer District Board continued on its path toward holding a bond election. The Board was presented with a draft resolution to hold a bond election. The District’s Bond Council Dan Semmens said that if the Board wants to move forward with an election date in February of 2021, it should adopt the resolution at its November meeting. There would be two types of bonds. A general obligation bond would pay for the treatment plant, force main and lift stations and a revenue bond would pay for Pha...
If you got a mailer attacking my opponent, for the record that is not from me, and I disavow it. I do not do attack mailers, never have and never will. The interest earned off the current principle of the Coal Tax Trust Fund currently funds over 15 different programs in Montana. Those dollars back up Montana’s retirement systems, Montana’s schools, Montana’s Agriculture and infrastructure across the state just to name a few. Every session legislators try to spend that principle on all kinds of things, but Democrats in the legislature have done...
Since ballots will soon be in the mail, I have some concerns about our local elected representative, Mike Hopkins. If you’re not familiar, Mike moved here from California where his mommy was busy suing Danville, California for two years over his traffic tickets. She later also sued the moving company who brought her here to the house she bought for little Mikey in the South Hills. She even sued the local Republican Women’s group when they weren’t running the way she thought they should. Is Mike really a Republican? He talks a big game, but w...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board continued discussing holding a bond election and rejected an ordinance reinforcing a resolution mandating connections at its Sept. 17 meeting. The Board also received a proposal that would keep the District from having to pay $350,000 in legal bills to defend the District from Don Larson’s lawsuit. In other business the Board approved paying its past due legal bills after negotiations, the Board gave a landowner a letter stating it wouldn’t initiate annexing their property and Director Pat G...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board had a marathon meeting stretching over four hours on Aug. 20. The board covered many topics ranging from a cash shortfall, potential bond election, mandating hookups, legal bills, water testing results and other regular business. District Manager Jean Curtiss informed the Board that the District has around $34,000 to operate in the coming months after paying this month’s invoices. The first half of this year’s property tax bills are not due until the end of November so the District won’t...
