City's water bond returning to ballot
SANDPOINT — Six months after rejecting a bond to expand and renovate the city’s lake water treatment plant, Sandpoint voters will get another chance to make their opinions known when the bond measure returns to the ballot next month.
On a 141-104 vote, the $20.5 million bond was shot down last May, but the measure is back for another try, and city officials are hoping the Nov. 3 election brings a higher turnout and a different result.
The two bonds are virtually identical, but new information has enabled to city to cut $3.5 million from the project’s price tag, bringing the bond down to $17 million. If passed, Sandpoint water users would see a 15 percent water rate increase each of the next two years, which Public Works Director Kody Van Dyk said equates to an increase of approximately $6 per month.
In addition to the $17 million, the city will also receive $5.1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development to help fund the project.
Between its lake treatment and Little Sand Creek facilities, the city can comfortably provide clean water to its users during most of the year, but the plants often reach or exceed capacity during the busy summer months. With residential growth on an upswing, city officials worry that demand for clean water will soon exceed supply.
“Growth will continue,” Van Dyk said in an e-mail. “Whether the bond issue passes or not, people will move here. If more water is not available in Sandpoint, housing prices will increase as demand for available hook-ups increases. Sprawl may occur as surrounding water districts provide water to new residential and commercial developments.”
Among other upgrades, the renovation would include the addition of an immersed membrane filtration process, which filters out pathogens from raw water. The plan also calls for a larger raw water transmission pipeline and rehabilitation of the plant’s chemical and operations buildings. The proposed upgrades will allow the lake plant to improve its output of 3-3.5 million gallons of water per day to at least 10 million gallons.
Councilwoman Carrie Logan said there are myriad reasons to upgrade the plant now.
“First off all, it’s going to cost us less now than it will in the future,” she said. “Second of all, each year we run up to our peak ability to treat water for distribution within the system. As demand continues to grow, that is only going to get worse, which is going to translate back to reduced services for existing customers. I don’t want to see that happen.”
Logan said the council does not have a “Plan B” for funding the upgrades if the bond is once again rejected, and she said obtaining judicial confirmation is most likely off the table.
“I don’t know how we could go for judicial confirmation after two times being denied by the electorate,” she said.
The election will be held at Sandpoint City Hall, and absentee voting is available now until election day.