SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer Board voted to levy special assessment after receiving protest letters from less than 50 percent of landowners at their Dec. 21 meeting. Three board directors are up for election in May of 2018.
The special assessments will raise $5.79 million to fund construction of the district's wastewater treatment plant and Phase 1 of the collection system. The rest of the funding for the $15.7 million project has already been secured from various granting federal and state agencies.
All properties in the district will equally share the cost of the treatment plant while Phase 1 will also pay for its collection system. Across all four phases, each property's portion of the debt for the treatment plant is $8,552.69. The collection system adds $7,153.85 worth of debt for a total of $15,706.54 debt per property in Phase 1.
District Manager Greg Robertson described the landowner protest as "robust." Approximately 40 percent of landowners successfully protested. Based on data posted on the district's website, protests from about two percent of the landowners were verified but invalidated.
Robertson said there were some protest letters that were rejected and not included because they could not identify which property they belonged to. Others were rejected because the property was not in the district.
All of the protest letters received including the invalidated and rejected ones will be posted on the district's website. Robertson said the letters have all been scanned but he had run out of time to get them posted online ahead of the meeting.
The invalidated protests would not have changed the outcome of protest. Robertson said only five or six were rejected due to being outside the district.
The district's bond council required the protests to be tracked for Phase 1 separate from the rest of the phases. In Phase 1, 46.6 percent of landowners successfully protested and 2.4 percent were received but invalidated. Robertson noted that the 50 percent threshold was for the full district because it is considered a single project.
The vote to levy special assessments was unanimous with all five board directors present. The resolution has been posted on the district's website: http://www.seeleysewer.org
Positions on the sewer board currently held by Mike Lindemer, Bob Skiles and Mark Butcher are all up for election in May of 2018.
Anyone interested in running must return a notarized application to Missoula County Elections Office by the filing deadline of Feb. 12. For more information contact sewer district Secretary, Felicity Derry at 406-677-2559 or the county elections office at 406-258-4751.
The next sewer board meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18 at the Missoula County Satellite Office located at 3360 Highway 83.
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