USFS grapples with Granite Reeder funding dilemma

NORDMAN — The Granite Reeder Water & Sewer District is running out of patience with the U.S. Forest Service’s inability to hook up to its system at Priest Lake.

“We need to be fair to the other people living in our district by demanding the same thing from the Forest Service as we do from our residents. It’s only fair,” said sewer district commissioner Jim Peirone.

The district extended its sewer line to the Reeder Bay Campground and Ledgewood day-use recreation site on the west side of the lake, which should have triggered hookups to the system.

But the Forest Service contends it isn’t just a matter of tying into the system. Entirely new restroom facilities with flush toilets would have to be constructed.

“We’ve looked at it and we estimate approximately a $2 million build,” said Idaho Panhandle National Forests spokesman Jason Kirchner.

The agency’s recreation budget is strictly one ply these days.

“Right now, our current recreation budget for both this year and last year is just enough to cover maintenance and operation. We’re starting no new projects,” Kirchner said.

The only way the Forest Service can fund capital improvements is to secure grant funding, Kirchner said.

District officials, however, feel the Forest Service’s cost estimate is dubious. District chairman Vince Aguirre figures a centralized restroom facility to serve both recreation sites could cost as little as $300,000.

“Our biggest complaint is they’ve had 10 years to plan for this. They could have gotten it into the budget,” Aguirre added.

But Kirchner said Forest Service funding has contracted to about a third of what it was 20 years ago.

“These are the kinds of realities that we’re dealing with here,” he said.

With the sewer at its doorstep, the Forest Service should also be paying district maintenance-and-operation fees regardless of hookup status.

Aguirre said the district has an annual maintenance budget that’s in excess of $200,000.

“The other users have to make up for it. We have to charge our other users more for what the Forest Service won’t pay,” Aguirre said.

The Forest Service, however, is barred by federal law from paying fees for a service it’s not using, according to Kirchner.

District officials are puzzled by the agency’s funding woes. They note that timber sales are still occurring at Priest Lake and use fees were just increased.

Moreover, the Forest Service pulled back on a $10 million plan to re-brand its public image.

Kirchner said budgets are structured in a manner which prevents officials from pulling money from one area or project and applying it to another. He added that the use fee increases were secured by a contractor who services certain recreation sites.

Kirchner emphasized that the sewer district project is important to the Forest Service, which helped fund the system’s development.

“We want the same thing they do. We want to make the improvements,” said Kirchner.

District and Forest Service officials are meeting on Jan. 26 to discuss potential solutions to the funding dilemma.

The district hopes the situation is resolved soon due to concern that the Forest Service’s vault toilets could be polluting the lake.

“That’s why we put the system in — to keep Priest Lake pristine,” said Peirone.