T.Falls outlines sewer project costs

The City of Thompson Falls is being cautious as they move forward on a plan to connect the properties above the railroad tracks to a city sewer system and update the current treatment system.

The Thompson Falls City Council met with Great West Engineering representatives Craig Pozega and Carrie Gardner, as well as Bob Murdo from the bond counsel, last Wednesday to discuss the wastewater project. Council members and about 15 residents received a general update on the project plan, as well as the budget and the impact on property owners.

The city will hold a public meeting at the Thompson Falls Community Center at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 7, to gather comments on the project before deciding whether or not to commit to the project.

“It’s not a done deal,” council member Tom Eggensperger said Wednesday. “We want a lot of attendance at the public meeting so we can have as much public input as possible.”

Earlier this year, the council voted to move forward with a Rural Development (RD) funding package through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Signing the RD letter of conditions did not lock the council in to proceeding with the project. Pozega said Wednesday that he knows the project is expensive, “but this RD grant is the largest ever in the state by far. People are recognizing the impact this will have on taxpayers.” The conditions of the RD funding include design on the project beginning in February 2019. If the council, at the Jan. 14 meeting, decided not to agree with the conditions, USDA could withdraw the RD grant.

With the current funding package laid out by Great West Engineering, more than half of the project would be funded by grants. That would include $9,182,000 that RD has already committed to the project, and proposed grants of $750,000 from the Treasure State Endowment Program and $125,000 from the Renewable Resource Grant and Loan Program through the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Additional funding, as outlined in the project, would come from RD revenue bonds of $3,274,000 and RD Special Improvement District (SID) bonds of $1,558,000. Both of those bonds would be repaid by the city. Under the plan, the revenue bonds would be paid by sewer rates and charges over 40 years, while the SID bonds would be collected through an SID on property taxes. The SID assessment would be $4,665 per property, or $308 a year. The proposed rate structure for the sewer system would be a base rate of $40 a month for residential properties, $45 for commercial properties, and a usage fee of $4.10 per 1,000 gallons after the first 2,000 gallons per month. The revenue bonds would increase those monthly fees by $25, results in base rates of $65 for residential and $70 for commercial properties.

Another $425,000 is being proposed through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. That grant is not currently in the project budget, Pozega said, but it could be used to help offset the SID assessments for qualified low-income families. The city received a CDBG grant for the completion of the Ainsworth Park project. Once that grant has been closed (in August of 2019), the city can apply for another CDBG grant.

The funding package is for the first two phases of the wastewater project. The first phase includes connecting around 200 properties on the west end of Thompson Falls to the city sewer system, while the second phase includes connection of 138 properties and upgrades to the treatment system. The first two phases would connect properties east to Grove Street above the railroad tracks. Pozega said that additional funding and SIDs would be formed.

Mayor Jerry Lacy said that they hope to have Sanders County Sanitarian Shawn Sorenson and representatives from the Department of Environmental Quality at the Jan. 7 public meeting to talk about the “why” of the project. Council member Lynne Kersten said she has spoken with residents and is getting questions about whether or not there are other options for wastewater treatment. “I don’t think the public understands there are no other options,” Kersten said.