Paradise sewer board gets notice to produce

The Sanders County Sewer District at Paradise had a marathon meeting last week - more than three hours - and at times it got heated between board members and members of the audience. A closed meeting after the regular meeting last Tuesday resulted in Terry Caldwell stepping down as board chairman soon afterwards. "Please accept my withdrawal from the chair position and associated responsibilities," he said in his resignation letter to the board members. "I have too many irons in the fire to be able to give the amount of time and energy this position needs," he said, adding that he would remain on the board until his term expires in 2024.

Last Tuesday was the fourth meeting in a week. Two of the meetings were conference call sessions to keep the funding agencies updated on the project's progress. Some of the agencies are concerned with the lack of development in the project. ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) has given the board a 60- to 90-day start-up deadline or face a possibility of withdrawing its $1,437,881 grant. Collette Anderson, the project manager for Great West Engineering, said that ARPA requires that the project get started within four months of the time they award the grant, which could be such things as a project management plan, schedule, certification form, and commitment of other sources of funds, she said. Erin Wall, the ARPA program specialist with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in Missoula, said the ARPA grants were very competitive and they will be strict with the deadline, but she added they would be willing to entertain a possible 30-day extension.

"The ARPA program received hundreds of applications and somewhere around 70 were awarded funds in the first round last year, so yes, it was very competitive and they are just interested in making sure the communities are progressing and using the grants as was intended," said Anderson. The deadline given to the board was February 8. Great West will be making the extension request on behalf of the board.

The sewer district is also in danger of losing its two grants of $1,882,000 and loan money of $770,000 from the USDA Rural Development program. Jennifer Baldassin, the area specialist from RD Missoula, was on the conference call Tuesday and talked about a 60-90-day deadline, which would be in May, to have a buy/sell of property for the project in place before possibly pulling its funds. The board might also be asking for an extension from Rural Development.

One of the biggest hurdles the board faces is obtaining property for the drain field and mixing zone. Terry Caldwell, then the board chairman, appointed board members Dewey Arnold and Janice Barber as a subcommittee to start negotiations with Bridger Bischoff for a portion of his property. The initial approved acquisition was $200,000, but the first parcel selected wouldn't work because the Burlington Northern San Francisco Railroad would not grant an easement for the drain field. The new choice of property the board would like to purchase would not require an easement. At the previous week's meeting, Bischoff said the new proposed site closer to town makes the most sense and he was open to negotiation.

Caldwell suggested to Arnold and Barber to also have advisors for the negotiations, including Anderson and Paradise resident Katy French, a member of the town's water board. Barber disagreed with having French as an advisor. "Our water board wants to do everything they can to tank this project. I don't want either one of you two (referring to French and LeeAnn Overland, also on the water board) anywhere near our negotiations because you're going to tank it on purpose," said Barber, whose board position is up for reelection this year, along with the position of Janie McFadgen, the board secretary. French, an engineer, however, said she's never been against the sewer project, but wanted it to be done in a legitimate process.

Barber also said the board needs to hire an attorney to review such things as the land purchase. "We really need that attorney to represent us so that we're not hoodwinked, because we have been hoodwinked," said Barber. The board voted in favor of Caldwell to look for an attorney and provide names at the next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, February 8, at 6 p.m. at the water board building.

The board had planned to go over the bylaws at the last meeting in order to make a few changes, based on advice from Chad Thompson, a technical assistance provider for the Midwest Assistance Program, a nonprofit organization that helps rural communities with drinking water, wastewater and solid waste utilities needs. However, the board tabled revising the bylaws after French told them the bylaws were illegally approved. "These bylaws, the original ones you're working from right now, were not incorporated legally and correctly. They were approved in a closed meeting without public knowledge," said French. She said the 2011 vote was merely to study the feasibility of a sewer system and protested that the board's purpose was to construct a system. Overman reiterated that the vote 11 years ago was to just ask community members if they were interested in a sewer system.

Paradise resident Melissa Rowland spoke up at the previous week's meeting stating that the previous board broke the law and believed the present board needs to see that those people are held accountable and that their actions should be thoroughly investigated. "There are still open ended questions whether or not half of what they approved was even done legal. I think that should be the board's primary objective as a new board to make sure that everything that is currently at hand was done legally because me as a homeowner in Paradise from what I understand a lot of it was not," said Rowland. Caldwell said it's the board's responsibility to ensure everything done presently is done legal and transparent, but he doesn't think it's their role to investigate former board representatives and suggested she see an attorney. 

Caldwell has also brought up the possibility of reducing the area to just Paradise proper, which would exclude the post office, the Paradise Church of God, the Paradise Center, and Bischoff's proposed subdivision of getting hooked up to the system. Board member Don Stamm made the motion to keep the project area the same. The motion was seconded by Barber. Board members briefly talked about it and then voted unanimously to keep it the same size.

The idea that the board is moving ahead without a legal vote continues to be voiced at every meeting. A document dated October 4, 2011, certified by the Sanders County Clerk and Recorder office and signed by Nichol Scribner, states that voters that autumn approved creating the Sanders County Sewer District at Paradise by a vote of  30-23. However, the question has been raised as to whether an actual sewer project was approved in the 2011 election. The approval of a specific sewer system was not on the 2011 ballot because such a project could not have been designed and presented before the creation of the district. By law, the 2011 election was limited to whether a sewer district should be organized. However, Montana Code Annotated 7-13-2218 gives the board the legal means to proceed with a project without an additional vote, according to John Thorson, a licensed attorney in the state of Montana. On his own, and after hearing of the continuous debate of the situation, Thorson's research indicated that the district has broad powers and can "construct, purchase, lease, or otherwise acquire and operate and maintain water rights, waterworks, sanitary sewerworks, storm sewerworks, canals, conduits, reservoirs, lands, and rights useful or necessary to store, conserve, supply, produce, convey, or drain water or sewage for purposes beneficial to the district," according to MCA 7-13-2218. "Bottom line: There is no requirement of an additional election on these questions. Once properly formed, the district has the specific authority to proceed with a project," said Thorson in a letter to the board. Thorson also recommended the board seek the advice of its own attorney on these issues.

Great West is in the process of evaluating options to update the project design in lieu of the railroad's refusal for an easement. Stamm said he would like to see an itemized list of expenditures for the project, specifically what Great West has been paid, something Arnold plans to do. "We are in the position where we cannot use that property, and therefore by saying that, I think that Great West holds a little responsibility for the design and the money spent for the design to go down there when they have to redesign it," said Caldwell, who added that it wasn't the board's decision to move the drain field, but something they were forced to do based on the easement issue. 

Stamm is for the proposed system and said it could be a major problem if an individual's septic fails. Based on his correspondence with Sanders County Sanitarian Shawn Sorenson, he said it's unlikely they would not be able to get a variance from the county for a replacement, but Caldwell disagreed, saying it's possible to get one. The board planned to invite Sorenson to a meeting for clarification. Sorenson said the county can't install replacement systems unless they meet environmental standards.  

"The main reason is seepage pits do not allow time and space for establishment of a biomat for treatment of wastewater and reduction of pathogens before wastewater is infiltrated into soil and mixes with groundwater. Therefore, shallow groundwater under seepage pits can be contaminated," said Sorenson. "Many lots have limited space for replacement so seepage pits have been installed in the past," he said. "Groundwater monitoring conducted during the community sewer project shows there is groundwater within 25 feet of the surface, and probably much closer. Therefore, we cannot meet separation distances using the archaic practice of installing seepage pits, which offer very little, if any, treatment," he said.