District Moves Forward with Public Outreach Firm

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 outreach would be purely informational and not advocate for or against any one side.

The cost of the public outreach bid by PartnersCreative is around $40,000. It includes creating and answering Frequently Asked Questions, registering a domain name, mailings to land owners, town hall meetings, advertising, press releases and social media setup and monitoring.

The board accepted the offer from PartnerCreative.

The district asked for funding for the public outreach that Citizens Alliance Bank (CAB) has made available through the Seeley Lake Community Foundation. CAB would not confirm that the funds were available for this purpose. The district does have a reserve fund that can cover the cost if alternative funds are not found.

PartnersCreative requested a meeting with the board to go over details of the public outreach. That meeting is tentatively scheduled for May 31 and will be a public meeting as there will be a board quorum present.

In other business, Robertson has started working on the list of new conditions RD attached to the funding after the failed bond election.

Robertson said he is going to ask RD for clarification on some of the conditions including the condition to have 155 signed user agreements ahead of bidding the project. There are approximately 208 lots in Phase I and Robertson questioned being able to attain 155 hookups because there are a number of vacant lots that won’t be hooked up.

Robertson has been working with the county commissioners on ideas to reduce the cost to the district by creating a reserve fund for late and non-paying accounts. Additionally he is working with the county on the subsidies to reduce the operation and maintenance costs when the sewer starts up.

Robertson confirmed that all the other funding sources remain available. The district did receive a letter from the LOR Foundation stating that the $500,000 grant given to the Seeley Lake Community Foundation to support the development of a sewer has technically expired. LOR requested the district to not spend any more of the approximately $300,000 left in the grant until further notice.

LOR’s letter indicates that it will consider making the funding available after the district completes the notice and protest with the landowners to secure bonding and “there are no unreasonable delays.”

The next sewer board meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Thursday, May 18 at the Missoula County Satellite Office located at 3360 Highway 83.