Public comments fill light agenda

SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board pushed their final by-laws amendment out another month and spent a significant amount of their Dec. 19 meeting hearing and responding to public comment on a variety of issues.

Last month the Board approved the bulk of the updates to their by-laws but excluded an updated section on Duties of the Board. The Board agreed to send that section back to the committee to rework it.

District Manager Jean Curtiss provided the board with another draft Duties section for consideration. The committee hadn’t met to discuss it partly because one of the committee members had a health issue come up. Director Beth Hutchinson, who is on the by-laws committee, said she would like for the committee to meet in the next couple of weeks to further refine it before considering adoption at next month’s meeting.

It was also discussed that the public didn’t have a chance to see the new section until the meeting as it was not uploaded to the website. The by-laws require that Board members, not the public, need to have amendments in writing 14 days prior to adopting the amendments. The Board agreed though, that for the public to participate in the process the proposed amendments should be available for public inspection ahead of the meeting.

The Board agreed to let the committee work on the Duties section with the plan to have a draft copy available 14 days ahead of January’s meeting.

Early in December the District sent out letters to Phase 1 Landowners requesting them to sign Temporary Right of Entry for Construction Easement forms. The mailing generated a significant amount of discussion both ahead of and during the meeting. Due to the number of questions and concerns, Curtiss suggested the District put out a press release to try and clarify common questions (see article above).

The issue of whether landowners are mandated to connect came up at the meeting with residents questioning why they needed to sign a temporary easement if they were mandated to connect.

Curtiss explained that while it is written into the Rules and Regulations that connections are mandated, the District does not have the authority to come on their land or force people to connect. Landowners who choose not to allow their property to be hooked up during initial construction of the system will have to pay for it themselves at a later date.

Curtiss said that she didn’t think Missoula County Health Department had the authority either unless a septic system failed or a landowner wanted to increase their use. No new or replacement septic permits would be issued.

Landowner John Richards presented the Board with a letter expressing his frustration with the District’s policy requiring a property having to pay a larger share of the construction debt if the property is developed beyond its current use.

In Richards’ case, he plans to construct 48 housing units on his six lots. By the District’s current policy, he will have to pay an extra 42 times the debt service which amounts to nearly $660,000. This is on top of the approximately $90,000 in debt his six lots will currently pay.

Richards didn’t think he should have to pay 42 times more for a pipe that he already paid for with his lots.

Curtiss disagreed, saying that it wasn’t fair to all the other people using their lots for one housing unit each to pay the same as he would using six lots for 48 housing units. She said adding in 42 units could bring down the cost for everyone. Two hundred and eight landowners currently pay for Phase 1’s collection system equally. It would make a sizable difference to spread the cost over 250. Likewise the treatment plant is being paid for by approximately 500 landowners and could be spread over 540 with Richards’ development.

Another issue Curtiss pointed out to Richards in a letter sent to him earlier this month is that the District must reserve capacity for everyone currently in the District. The design includes some extra capacity but it wasn’t necessarily just for Richards’ property to use. Once the system is operating, the Board, with help from their engineers, will look at what the capacity is compared to the actual use and determine how much would be available for additional development.

While Richards said he supports building a sewer system, he is opposed to the high costs. He suggested the Board look at alternative solutions saying that everyone could upgrade their existing system on their own and it would be more affordable than the current plan, even after $10 million in grants. He felt other alternatives existed and would also qualify for grants.

Curtiss said she felt this was the cheapest a sewer would ever be for Seeley.

Board President Pat Goodover said he would like to see multi-family housing available and felt the Board could work with people like Richards but that they have to work within the applicable laws.

The next regularly scheduled meeting is Jan. 16 at 5:15 p.m. at the Missoula County Satellite Office located at 3360 Highway 83.