Board discusses process of finding alternative solution

SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board brought on its new manager and discussed how to move forward to identify and implement a solution to Seeley’s wastewater issues at its Jan. 20 meeting. The Board was also informed that Missoula County would no longer provide some of the services formerly given to the District.

Vice President Pat Goodover presented an idea to put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the various manufacturers who have presented their products to the Board in the last few months. The manufacturers would be given the District’s preliminary engineering report (PER) and asked to present how they would solve the groundwater pollution problem and how much it would cost.

“The Board knows what it wants, which is a way to treat the septic systems and sewer products in a way to reduce nitrates to 7.5 [mg/L] or below. We just don’t know how to do that and that’s where you providers [manufactures] come in,” said Goodover.

Newly hired District Manager Bill Decker expressed a couple of concerns about the idea. He questioned how a project could be created when the District no longer has a discharge permit. The nitrogen limit and other pollutions for a new permit may be different and could significantly change the treatment requirements.

Goodover felt that 7.5 mg/L nitrates limit would satisfy the requirements put forth by Missoula City-County Health Department. The County has not pointed to any other pollution that needs to be addressed.

Decker said he thought the District needed to start by partnering with an engineer. This would spell out a project before putting out an RFP.

President Tom Morris said the District’s PER contains several alternatives in addition to the engineer’s preferred alternative.

The preferred alternative in the PER, a central sewer with a Sequencing Batch Reactor treatment plant, was selected and designed by the Board, but the voters in the District turned down the funding for it in 2021.

Morris said the alternatives in the PER are what the Board is considering now. He felt the venders they had talked to could use the information in the PER to propose alternative solutions.

Another concern for Decker is that the District didn’t start with a Request for Qualifications (RFQ). He said he knows that the manufacturers that have presented are qualified however they were selected to present by the Board without allowing anyone who was interested to apply. Decker said to be eligible for public funding such as loans or grants the District needs to go through a RFQ process. The District then chooses who to send the RFP to out of the firms that responded to the RFQ.

Goodover questioned why they couldn’t do both steps together.

“What’s the hurry? You’re 25 years into this and now you want to combine steps,” replied Decker. “The time between an RFQ and an RFP is probably three months.”

Goodover said the hurry is to solve the problem for the community so it can move forward. The Heath Department currently is holding up any new or increased development.

Morris suggested and the Board agreed to have Decker present an RFQ and an RFP at next month’s meeting for them to consider.

In a letter to the District, Missoula County Public Works Director Shane Stack stated that the County will continue some of the services they have provided to the District though an interlocal agreement but many of the things in the agreement will be terminated as the agreement expired last fall.

Services that will continue include allowing the District to use file storage in the County’s Satellite Office in Seeley Lake as well as a backup of electronic files the County currently has and use of the conference room at the Satellite Office for meetings.

The County pulls back the $100,000 committed to the District to subsidize the previously proposed central sewer system and will no longer provide management of the tax assessments.

Stack writes that another interlocal agreement isn’t necessary given the changes since the last agreement but states that the County would consider developing another agreement if the District begins developing a sewer for Seeley Lake again.

In other business, the Board negotiated the hourly contract rate for Decker as Manager. The Board’s current budget has a little more than $25,000 in it, which works out to about $26 per hour for part-time at 80 hours per month.

Decker said he is retired and while the money is nice, he really wants to be involved in the District and help it reach its goals. He didn’t think that the job would take him 80 hours per month to complete so the District would not be using up their entire budget.

The Board and Decker agreed on $26 per hour.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 17. The agenda and information on how to participate will be posted on the District’s website seeleysewer.org