Mayor addresses water boundary issue

Lack of communication always leads to confusion, ignorance, and hostility. When communication between city/county government and citizens break down, the people will create their own reality, which may, or may not, be true. Mayor Gretchen Heller pledged on her Web page a transparent administration with the goal of keeping everyone informed. In keeping with that goal, the mayor punctually answered last week’s question.

Question: Last year the council voted to extend water service to two new housing developments in Kootenai, outside the Sandpoint city limits. Claiming a need for more capacity the city tried to pass a $20 million bond in May that failed. They will try again in November. Why do the council and the mayor continually vote to extend the water boundaries and water service to private developments and thus creating a need for more capacity that the residents of Sandpoint have to pay for?

Mayors Answer: Briefly, here is the answer. First, the last service area expansion (2/20/08) approved by council will provide water and will generate $861,465 in New User Fees for the system. Second, more than 25% of the current water users of the system reside outside the city limits so the burden of paying for the system is not solely the responsibility of Sandpoint residents. Third, the system is a utility that is in the business of making and selling water. Additional users decrease the per user cost of maintenance and operation (economy of scale). Fourth, the combined reliable treatment capacity of our current system is 4.0 million gallons per day (MGD). Once in July 2003, the system had a maximum daily demand of 5.3 million gallons and a maximum monthly demand of 4.5 MGD. Sand Creek, fortunately, has been flowing above projections recently but this is not something we can count on. Fifth, the criteria developed by council stipulate conditions under which extension would occur. Those criteria are designed to ensure that only those hook ups that make economic sense for the current users are allowed.

NEW QUESTION: I received an e-mail asking the following question. “Who was the person, or persons, responsible for representing the city of Sandpoint in the negotiations with Panhandle bank regarding the parking fee settlement, and are they qualified to be doing negotiating for the city? How much training did they have?”

(If you have a legitimate question you can give me (Bob) a call at 1 (800) 507-9426 - leave your name and number and I will return the call. If you prefer, e-mail me at bgunter1@roadrunner.com and tell me the question you would like answered. Your question will be sent to the person most capable of answering it at city hall or the courthouse - both question and answer will be printed in your Daily Bee.)