Water system LID rankles Sagle landowners
SAGLE — The Sagle Valley Water & Sewer District is putting the finishing touches on a Local Improvement District despite strong objections from some landowners.
The district’s board of directors are meeting tonight to consider formal protests landowners have already entered into the record. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Sagle Senior Center at 650 Monarch Road.
No further comment or testimony will be taken by the board, according to district officials.
The LID assesses landowners a tax to pay for the installation of 330,000-gallon reservoir, approximately 10 miles of water main and upgrades to three wells, said project engineer Tim Blankenship of James A. Sewell & Associates.
“All of this gives the users fire-flow protection and it gives them a municipal, potable water source that works even when the power goes out,” said Blankenship.
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality awarded the district a $2.3 million low-interest loan in 2007 to expand district’s existing system and absorb two other neighborhood water systems. The loan carries a 2-percent interest rate and is payable over 20 years.
But the LID is drawing robust opposition from landowners for a variety of practical and philosophical reasons.
“Everybody’s already on a well already,” said Charlie Newsom. “Why would we would we want their water system when we have wells that work?”
Landowner John Cupery also has a productive well, but has been paying a $10 fee to the district even though he doesn’t receive the system’s water. He’s been paying the fee under protest to keep a lien from being slapped against his property.
“It seems illegal. I don’t know how they can do this,” said Cupery.
Opponents contend commercial landowners and board members’ personal interests are the driving forces in the LID.
“They’re the ones who have been pushing this the biggest and it’s easier for them to push it and spread it out over several hundred households than it is, of course, to pony up the money for it themselves,” said Newsom, adding that the LID is contrary to Idaho’s strong spirit of self-determination.
Critics also accuse district officials of failing to be forthright about the LID and disregarding the wishes of the vast majority of landowners within the district.
Mark Cherry, chairman of the district’s board, did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Single-family homeowners can either pay the entire assessment — estimated to be about $7,000 — in a lump sum or pay $37 monthly installments over the next 20 years.
The ship has sailed for landowners to be let out of the district, although some could successfully argue they should be exempt from the assessment.
“They can’t de-annex, but they may have presented a good-enough case that they should not be assessed for the LID,” said Blankenship.