Sorted by date Results 326 - 350 of 405
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board held their annual assessment hearing after their board meeting Aug. 17. The assessment uses the same methodology as the previous year and charges commercial and vacant property based on square footage of the lots while properties with dwelling units are charged a flat rate of $79.85. Don Larson, representing the Committee for Sensible Wastewater Solutions, presented a petition protesting the annual assessment. Larson said that in just couple of hours he had collected around 50 signatures protes...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board was informed at their monthly meeting, Aug. 17 that this fall’s planned notice and protest might be delayed. The Board’s public outreach meetings scheduled for Aug. 23 and Sept. 21 will go on as planned. Residents at the meeting took the opportunity to ask questions during public comment. District Manager Greg Robertson explained that the notice and protest period cannot happen until they receive a status on the district’s most recent application for additional funding. The application to Rural...
SEELEY LAKE - I attend Seeley Lake Sewer District Board meetings when I am in residence and read about them when I’m away. The Board did a lackluster job of getting information out last year and the opposition did a great job of distributing misinformation. In this community, like many others, rumor travels swiftly and easily, often trampling facts along the way. This year, the Board is providing facts professionally, while the opposition continues to present opinion as fact. Several other tactics are employed; distraction is a favorite. C...
SEELEY LAKE - Polson is developing a $17.6 million sewer upgrade after the EPA came in and levied a $40,000 fine on the district for exceeding its wastewater discharge limits. Sewer bills will jump from $20 per month to $60, and that’s for 2,000 residents. The State of Montana loaned Polson $14.6 million. Lincoln is upgrading its two lift stations at a cost of $300,000 per station and that sewer station serves about 400 users. That’s after 15 years of use. Their sewer rate increase will depend on how much money it can get from the state. Lin...
SEELEY LAKE - The five business men on the Seeley Lake Sewer Board and their general manager Greg Robertson, henceforth called B/gm, have now conjured up at least three purposely twisted ways to try to get their sewer proposal past the constituents of the district! First, the B/gm plan to “SHOW SUPPORT” for the sewer by using a reverse technique of not actually proving any measurable support. Under their scheme for an up-coming “Notice and Protest” event, they are requiring a count on solely signed opponents to “prove” that the board has b...
by PartnersCreative On behalf of the Seeley Lake Sewer District SEELEY LAKE - Property owners in Seeley Lake don’t have to sift through thousands of pages of water quality studies and engineering reports in order to learn key points about the community’s proposed sewer system. Last week, the Seeley Lake Sewer District published a new web page that provides concise yet thorough answers to frequently asked questions regarding the proposed, multimillion-dollar project. “This would be the largest-ever infrastructure project in our community — one...
SEELEY LAKE - Residents bombarded the Seeley Lake Sewer District (SLSD) Board with questions and comments at the board’s July 20 meeting. The “public comment” period dominated the meeting taking up three quarters of the 80-minute meeting. Topics ranged from the pending protest period to goose poop in the lake to McDonald’s coming to town. The meeting got off to a tense start when resident Don Larson asked Board President Mike Boltz when the letter of intent to incur indebtedness would be sent out. District Manager Greg Robertson started...
SEELEY LAKE - The letters last week on what to do about the proposed sewer project have stirred renewed interest from the community. This is wonderful. The more input from residents the better. Senator Tester just gave the Seeley Lake Sewer District $600,000 which is barely significant considering the overall cost. This will basically finance the political push for the Seeley Lake system and further negate the wishes of most residents. That money could be better spent cleaning up the lakes. One writer stated that the proposed sewer system...
SEELEY LAKE - For 28 years I’ve watched the Seeley Lake sewer project tossed around like a yo-yo! I have seen Sewer Board members quit their positions to be replaced with other dreamers. Because of lack of significant grants, the Board has to rely on assessments from the property owners to keep the dream going on. Please, Sewer District people, fight against all future Sewer Board proposals to create ways and schemes to gain funds for Board use. Seeley Lake is not a suitable place for a trial and error project....
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board distributed a flyer from Lindey’s parking lot during the Fourth of July parade which contained some error in fact and some unsubstantiated assumptions. The Board must work harder to give us accurate information so we sewer district residents can make an intelligent decision. 1. The flyer states a sewer would reduce the cost of housing when in fact it would INCREASE substantially the cost of housing. How can the cost of housing decrease when expenses are increasing? Residents can expect monthly bills wel...
SEELEY LAKE – I think voters voted against the sewer because so many questions were not answered. Like how much would the monthly cost be to users? It was quoted from $50-$192 a month, that is a huge margin. We need definite numbers. Then we were told the other four districts or phases may never be added to the sewer. Then how much would a few of us be paying? I think everyone should be put on at the same time, that way a lot of people are helping to pay for it, not just a few. An even better idea is to have every household in the Seeley L...
SEELEY LAKE - Seven Montana communities, Seeley Lake among them, will receive funding to update water infrastructure. On June 28, Montana Senator Jon Tester announced he had secured more than $2 million for rural water projects, including water supply infrastructure, wastewater treatment facilities, environmental restoration and surface water resource protection. The Seeley Lake Sewer District is set to receive $600,000 of the funds. The funds come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Water Resources Development Act Section 595...
SEELEY LAKE - That is the question. Ah…summer at Seeley; sun, sand, swimming, sailing, skiing, surfing and the….sewer. That’s right, all that fun and a big decision too. That is why I have decided to dedicate some of my time this summer to help sort out facts from fiction regarding this important topic. I hope you will do the same. If you are a property owner in the Sewer District, you will have the opportunity to seal the fate of this controversial issue during the month of October. In the meantime, there will be lots of information being...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board continues to ignore district residents’ desire to not pursue a central sewer. It is beyond me how the Board can void a legal election in which we said NO to the sewer project last December. I thought we had to vote on any bond debt we assume...isn’t this taxation without representation? I live in Sub-district 2. That is mostly the lakeshore homes and businesses west of Highway 83N. But I live EAST of the elementary school in (what the Board decided) is one of the lowest income areas of the sewer dis...
SEELEY LAKE - Recent comments published in the Pathfinder were not factually correct regarding the background and future of Seeley Lake’s proposed sewer project. The vote that was held last December was not a referendum on whether there should be a sewer project in Seeley Lake. The vote was only to determine if the bonded debt for the sewer system ($4.488 million) could rely on a particular methodology to handle any default payments that might occur. The failure of that vote simply means that a different course of funding will have to be establ...
SEELEY LAKE - A review of the Sewer Board meeting minutes is revealing. District residents should take the time to Google and read them. Just Google “Seeley Lake Sewer District” and look in the left hand column. Among the revelations are board members, Missoula County Public Works Director Greg Robertson, Citizens Alliance Bank President Gary Miller and retired chemistry professor Walt Hill from Placid Lake all agree “selling” the sewer project to the district residents is their mission and getting the facts right is of paramount importa...
SEELEY LAKE - As most of you may know, the Seeley Lake Sewer Project was legally voted down in December. Why and who said this vote did not stand? However, at the present time, the Seeley Sewer District is still trying to shove this project down our throats. I also want to make it clear that no one in the December election voted more than once on the sewer project, as stated sometime this year in the Pathfinder. I personally talked to the election board in Missoula and they said they went through every ballot to make sure no one voted twice....
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board continues its end-run effort to cancel last fall’s election results. After a solid majority voted “NO” on the $12 million bond issue last December, it is trying to circumvent the law by first shutting the public out of the meeting to discuss the $40 thousand sales effort by a PR firm and second allowing board members to advocate for the failed proposal. If any Sewer District dollars are spent on this new sales effort it should be a public meeting to discuss the strategy and if board members are permi...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board received an updated estimate for the construction of the wastewater treatment plant and Phase I of the collection system. The new estimate of $14 million was briefly discussed at its May 18 board meeting along with this summer’s planned public outreach and the board’s ability to advocate for the project. The United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development (RD) requested an updated construction estimate to account for the start of construction beginning in 2018 instead of 2017. The...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District (SLSD) Board is moving forward with a public outreach program after receiving a second chance at funding. The funding package from the United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development (RD) consists of $5.7 million in grants and $4.4 million in loans. Manager Greg Robertson recommended that the board utilize the services of a public outreach and education firm. At its March meeting, the board received a proposal from PartnersCreative to create and run a public outreach program. The public ou...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District (SLSD) Board received a second chance at funding the construction of the proposed wastewater treatment plant and Sub-District/Phase I of the collection system. The funding package consists of $5.7 million in grants and $4.4 million in loans. The news came in a letter to the district, dated March 20, from Steve Troendle, United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development (RD) Community Programs Director. The board had requested a second chance after the bond election failed last December. The...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Community Council’s (SLCC) April 10 meeting covered a wide range of topics including the proposed gravel pit on Cottonwood Lakes Road and the Special Management Area (SMA) for septic systems in Seeley Lake. Presentations on housing and economic growth as well as the Seeley Lake Trails Project were also heard. Missoula County’s newest Commissioner Dave Strohmaier shared what he has been working on the last few months and took questions from the public. Cottonwood Gravel Pit Gary Lewis presented on the gravel pit...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board received news at the March 16 meeting that they will be given a second chance at a funding package from the United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development (RD). The board also discussed hiring a public relations firm to help put out their information to landowners and the community. “[District Manager Greg Robertson] has received verbal approval that RD is going to let [the sewer district] move forward with another shot at the funding,” said Manager Amy Rose. “This time with a notice and p...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board was updated on the status of their grants and their appeal to the United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development (RD) at their Feb. 16 board meeting. District Manager Greg Robertson said that the approximately $2.5 million in grants the district currently has from multiple sources would remain intact pending a decision from RD. Robertson said if RD pulls its funding, the other grants have lined up to pull their funding as well. RD’s funding package consisted of $5.7 million in grants and $4....
SEELEY LAKE – As a result of the Resource Team Assessment conducted last fall by Montana Economic Developers Association (MEDA), the Seeley Lake Vibrancy Committee has formed and is working towards addressing the community priorities identified in the assessment. More than a dozen community members have split the work between six initiatives to explore ideas on how to improve the community: Healthy Community; Website; Chamber Reboot; Montana Main Street; Tourism Business Improvement District and Voting Rights. Committee organizer Lee Boman s...
