SWSD seeks judge's OK to borrow $1.2M

SAGLE — A six-year moratorium on sewer hookups at Sagle could end if a judge agrees to allow the Southside Water and Sewer District to borrow $1.2 million without voters’ consent.

The district wants to use the money to build a drip irrigation system at its land-application site that would increase capacity by 50 hookups.

The increase is enough to lift the moratorium, but it is a partial fix in a district where 186 users have paid for a hookup, but have not been served by the district, and where 20 property owners want to immediately hook into the system that cannot accommodate the additional strain.

Bill Allen is among Southside property owners who has waited several years for the moratorium to lift. He bought a lot in the Sagle district eight years ago and was prepared to build a year later. Because he lives in Sandpoint and cannot vote in a district bond election, he thinks that judicial confirmation — allowing a judge to decide whether the district may borrow money — is the best option.

District residents who already have a hookup, Allen said, will likely oppose raising rates to pay for an updated or expanded sewer treatment system.

“No one in the district is going to say, ‘Yes, raise my sewer fees, I want to help these guys out,’ ” he said. “Not in these economic times.”

If approved, rates would increase by no more than $17.30 per month, according to the district.

“Judical confirmation takes it out of going to vote because a judge makes a ruling on the whole situation based on the need,” Allen said.

 If a judge rules against the district, he said, “They are kind of stuck in a rut. Where do you go?”

If the ruling goes against the district, the Department of Environmental Quality, which has already approved a low interest loan for Southside, would try retaining the money for the project for next fiscal year, engineer John Tindall of DEQ, said. But there are no guarantees.

“We would do our best as DEQ to try holding that money for them,” Tindall said.

But many in the district don’t think that using a low interest loan that must be paid back by district patrons is the best way to fix the system.

In written testimony to the board, Richard Wingerson of Sagle voiced a concern held by many in the district. He doesn’t think that users already on the system should pony up for newcomers.

“I respect the right of property owners to develop their property,” Wingerson wrote to the board. “But I feel that they should bear the full cost of that development. It is simply not fair that I be required to pay for their benefits.”

Southside board chairman Jim Haynes has no illusions of what the district faces.

In his 3 1/2 years on the board, he and other board members, as well as patrons, have worked on solutions to increase the system’s capacity that have fallen short.

If approved, the latest plan would use the money available from DEQ to repair a lift station and build a drip irrigation system that would allow the district to use more of the land at its application site for dispersal of treated waste water.

The 40-acre application site west of Highway 95 has a 5-acre setback that isn’t being used to apply treated wastewater, Haynes said.

 “We found with drip irrigation we could use that area we have as setback and gain more land for more application,” he said. “We would gain 50 hookups.”

Gaining the hookups would lift the moratorium and buy the district a few more years to find a real solution.

That is an important first step, Tindall said.

“The bottom line, if they are successful in moving forward with this proposal,” Tindall said. “They will be able to lift the moratorium and that is a major accomplishment given how difficult it has been to expand their wastewater disposal and treatment system.”

At its next monthly board meeting at 2 p.m., March 10 at the WaterLife Discovery Center at the Sandpoint fish hatchery on Lakeshore Drive, the board will vote on a resolution to take the matter before a judge.

If the board approves a resolution, the court has 30 days or more to set a hearing date for a judge to decide the matter.

A favorable ruling could translate into appeasing the property owners such as Bill Allen who are ready to hook into the system as early as late summer, or, more likely, next year.

“I am ready,” Allen said. “I have a builder, and I know others who do, too.”