County to consider assistance

MISSOULA – The Missoula County Commissioners briefly discussed a letter from the Seeley Lake Sewer District Board requesting county assistance and resources at their June 12 administrative meeting.

The letter from the District requests several things the county previously provided the District through an interlocal agreement including use of office space in the County’s Seeley Lake satellite office and administrative assistance from Missoula County Public Works Seeley Lake Projects and Operations Coordinator Kim Myre. That agreement expired last fall.

Outside of the previous interlocal agreement, the former Missoula County Public Works Director Greg Robertson committed the county to performing construction engineering for the collection system in order to reduce the project’s cost. Robertson took a new job in January and left the county unable to fulfill that commitment.

With the county unable to perform the construction engineering, the District turned to the engineering company who has designed the system for these services. The resulting contract amendment increased the cost of the project by $759,400.

The District requested that the county work with them to come up with a creative way to, at minimum, finance the in-kind match of $257,000 that was shown on the District’s funding applications. Commissioner Dave Strohmaier pointed out that previously the county has only provided in-kind staff time and not hard cash.

Commissioner Cola Rowley questioned if the county can legally put funds into districts that do not benefit the county as a whole. It is not a new question as there are several other projects asking for the same funds.

“The other ones [requesting funding] are actual systems that clearly need help. This [Seeley’s Sewer] has not been created yet so I guess I would be inclined to make sure people have clean drinking water in their current systems and that when they flush their toilets it’s taken care of,” said Strohmaier.

While he expressed his concerns on one hand, Strohmaier said he is interested in what the county staff would come up with for recommendations.

Commissioner Josh Slotnik reserved his comments on potential funding pending staff review.

The District has continued to use the office space and the Myre’s time for administrative duties even after the interlocal agreement expired. The commis sioners affirmed that this could continue in the mean time.

Other items requested included use of the county surveyor, a vehicle, a backup sewer plant operator, clarification on the terms of a $110,000 interest free loan previously provided to the District and clarification on the terms of $100,000 the county gave the District to subsidize the initial operating and maintenance of the system.

The commissioners instructed their staff to start working on responses to each of the requested items with a tentative schedule to have a meeting between the District and commissioners in late August.