Sewer Board not interested in serving community

SEELEY LAKE - The sewer board’s attorney comes across as being overly aggressive and occasionally patronizing and seems to take an awful lot of liberties and “willful interpretations.”  Such behavior distorts the law and results in minimizing the rights of the public to have their will respected. The board then feels confident to go its merry way in carrying out anything they want to, including overriding public sentiment.

I presented a petition signed by 182 Seeley Lake constituents, who are in Phases 1-4, opposing the mandate to hook up to the sewer. These signatures were gathered in a very short period of time and the petition is still available for people to sign.

 When I introduced the signatures, there were no significant comments from any of the board members that are so strongly in favor of the current design. This showed me that they are not responsive to the community of Seeley Lake in any way. I was not able to ask them what evidence they had for who wanted the mandate. So I am asking that question to be answered at the next board meeting.

Over at least the past decade, it was fine for the board to blow off actual VOTES expressed through secret ballot.  Those votes clearly indicated a lack of support for the sewer.

Now the board is acting in accord with the attorney’s guidance as though the warped notice and protest process is a FOREVER EXCUSE to continue ignoring documented public sentiment and instituting any conditions they feel like.

Last month the board voted to have the president sign a statement for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality certifying that the board had looked into all alternatives to the sewer.  That was not true.  When I repeated that the board had not looked into all alternatives, the president challenged me to present any I could find for the next meeting.  Right there was an admission that they have not looked at any themselves.

At the meeting in June, Beth Hutchinson recommended having a Saturday workshop with outside people explaining alternatives that could work over installing an expensive sewer system. The rest of the board was not interested and voted against her motion. Let’s be honest, the majority of the board are not interested in hearing or caring about listening and serving this community.