Board mandates connections

SEELEY LAKE – In a split vote the Seeley Lake Sewer District Board passed a resolution to mandate connections to the sewer system as it is built at their Aug. 15 meeting. The board also approved the tax assessment method for the District’s annual administrative fee and officially opened public comment on the proposed Rules and Regulations (R&R).

Board President Pat Goodover came out firing in his opening comments responding to people who have questioned his independence, ability to look at all sides of the issue and his role as president as well as the need for the Board to mandate connections.

Goodover explained that the board adopted a resolution to incur debt to construct the proposed sewer in 2017. The majority of property owners choose not to protest the debt and therefore the board voted on a resolution to move forward with constructing the proposed sewer.

“Individual board members, including the president, are required by law to comply with the duties imposed upon the board and those duties were to construct a sewer system,” said Goodover. “And to be totally clear, if Don Larson were on this board, he would be required to see the system [constructed].”

Goodover went on to explain that the resolution to mandate connections is the Board’s way of making sure the cost is as cheap as possible for everyone while fulfilling the Board’s responsibility to construct the system. Mandating connections will also ensure that the system does what it is designed to do, make a safe and clean environment for residents and visitors.

Goodover said if the board does stop this project, the state and county would force it to be built pointing to what happened to Linda Vista in Missoula.

Also in his comments, Goodover addressed the people who have been asking for the board to look at alternatives by saying that the board and its engineers have looked at all the alternatives. He challenged those people wanting an alternate system to bring a solution.

“I’m perfectly willing to let the community come forward to us with other options,” said Goodover. “All I ask is that the Health Department approve it and it be as efficient as what we’ve got going in. If you can come up with something else that’s less expensive, better quality or whatever, I’m perfectly willing to put it before this Board.”

Mandating connection

Missoula County Sanitarian Jim Erven presented the Board with a letter from the Missoula City-County Board of Health. The Health Board supports the resolution to mandate connections citing the concerns over the nitrate levels in Seeley Lake’s groundwater. The letter explains that the new treatment plant will remove approximately 85 percent of the nitrates but only if properties are connected to it. Allowing onsite septic systems to continue to be used will remain a threat to the ground water standard.

District summer resident Colleen Krause presented the board with a petition she said contained the signatures of 182 people within the District that oppose the Board mandating connections.

Goodover asked what Krause thought the Board should do instead of mandating the connections. He explained that the Board is being told by Missoula County that they need to mandate the connections. Krause suggested they not mandate the connections and then demanded to know who at the County was telling them this and that the system will be forced in if the Board doesn’t take action.

Director of Environmental Health at the Missoula City-County Health Shannon Therriault said she couldn’t speak for the Missoula City-County Board of Health or the Montana Department of Environmental Quality but that both agencies have the authority to shut down people using their septic systems if they are causing or contributing to a violation of the water standard.

Therriault said the Health Department would not be coming to Seeley Lake to install a sewer if this system isn’t built but that through DEQ and the Health Board a solution could be required. That might involve requiring level 2 septic systems be installed but she said those solutions are just not as good as the proposed sewer and may not address the problem with nitrates in the ground water.

Both the Health Board and Health Department support the sewer and if the sewer is installed everyone should be connected to it to solve the problem.

Hutchinson questioned why the whole District should be mandated. She went on to explain that there has been no testing of groundwater in Phase 3 and 4. Many lots in those phases are larger than a recently approve subdivision that is allowed to install not nitrate reducing septic systems just across Cedar Lane from Phase 2.

Therriault disagreed saying that the whole area has shallow ground water and porous soils that makes it a bad area for conventional septic systems. She added that the other reason for a sewer was for future development. Without a sewer the area is severely limited for growth.

Hutchinson said another issue with mandating connections is that it appears as though the Board is attempting to skirt Rural Development’s requirement to have 148 landowners in Phase 1 sign user agreements. She said forcing people to hook up equates to mandating public support for the project.

Steve Troendle, Community Programs, Montana State Office of the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development (RD) has confirmed in an email to the Pathfinder that if the Board mandates the connections, RD would back off on the requirement to have the signed User Agreements.

One of the reasons why RD included the requirement for the signed User Agreements was to document public support after the failed bond election in 2016. In the email to the Pathfinder, Troendle wrote that RD would not likely seek additional documentation on community support, as there was insufficient protest to defeat the bonds during the notice and protest period in 2017.

Goodover moved to sign the resolution titled: Resolution 08152019A of the Seeley Lake-Missoula County Sewer District: A Resolution to Mandate that all Properties in the Seeley Lake Sewer District Connect to the Subject Sewer System. Hill and Good joined him in voting for it while Hutchinson voted against it.

After it passed it was questioned what the resolution meant. Goodover asked the District’s attorney Jon Beal to explain the purpose of the resolution.

“The Board only acts by resolution or ordinance. So that’s the position of the Board moving forward for this project and that will be utilized by the board through the process of obtaining grants and funding and that sort of thing. So that’s what the purpose of the resolution is,” said Beal.

Annual Assessment Hearing

Even though the hearing was to take comment on the method of collecting the assessment, not the amount of the assessment, the discussion quickly went to the budget. The method assesses land with a dwelling unit using a flat rate while land with no dwelling units pays per square foot of land.

Residents expressed concerns that the method of spreading assessments has some downtown businesses paying significantly less than residents on similar lot sizes. The extreme example of this is Remarkable Floral, which sits on one of the smallest lots in the District. They will pay about $12 per year while a similarly sized lot with a dwelling unit will pay approximately $150 per year.

The opposite happens when businesses are on large parcels. Pyramid Mountain Lumber Chief Operating Officer Loren Rose expressed concerns over the mill having to pay more than 20 percent of the budget and yet they don’t have more flushes in a day than some downtown businesses.

Another issue raised is that lots with multiple houses or trailers will pay the same as single house lots.

Residents suggested that the Board continue to keep the budget the same as last year and use reserve funds the District already has for this next year. The need to hire a District Manager was the mainly what caused the budget to go up. Missoula County had previously provided a manager for free and the money saved was put into the reserve fund.

District Manager Jean Curtiss said that it was too late to change the budget or even the assessment methodology. She said the Board had to vote to sign the assessment at the meeting in order to get it on the tax rolls. If it were not signed the District wouldn’t be able to collect taxes this year. Curtiss explained that the night the board adopted the budget there were lots of people in attendance but nobody said anything.

Curtiss suggested the Board make sure to get it on the agenda early next year to make sure the discussion can happen in time to make changes if needed.

Utilizing the reserve funds for this year also has issues. Some of the reserve fund has already been committed to things such as match for construction and subsidies for operating and maintenance of the system. The fund has not been officially audited recently to see what the balance is after taking those expenses out. Missoula County Public Works Seeley Lake Projects and Operations Coordinator Kim Myre said in her opinion the reserve was already being stretched.

Director Beth Hutchinson suggested that the board hold a special meeting to revisit the budget after the required notice. She suggested the budget could be raised a small amount instead of doubling it and the rest taken from the reserve.

Hutchinson also felt that the board could also consider other methods of spreading the assessment. Myre said it wasn’t possible to do so and get it on the tax rolls this year.

Hutchinson made a motion to hold a special meeting to revisit the budget. Director Davy Good felt that the budget had already been adopted and should be kept to keep moving forward. Director Walt Hill suggested changing the budget was simply kicking the can down the road though he did feel that for next year the assessment methodology should be looked at to see if a more equitable method could be found.

Goodover joined Good and Hill in voting against Hutchinson’s motion.

Because the comment/protest period doesn’t close until Aug. 25, Myre recommended the board vote to approve Goodover to sign the resolution after 5 p.m. on Aug. 26. Technically if the board received more than 50 percent of the assessed value, they would be barred from using the proposed assessment methodology.

Goodover, Hill and Good voted in favor of Goodover signing the resolution after the set date to spread assessments. Hutchinson voted against.

Rules and Regulations

The District has a complete draft completed now including the methodology for charging users based on a Volume Ratio Unit, the language mandating connections as the system is built and other policies under which the District and landowners will operate.

The board voted 3-1 to open the comment period for R&R and set a hearing at next month’s meeting. Hutchinson explained that she was voting against it because it contains the connection mandate.

The latest version of the R&R is up on the District’s website: http://www.seeleysewer.org

The next regularly scheduled meeting is Sept. 19 at 5:15 p.m. at the Seeley Lake Community Hall.