Mayors decline to meet with pastor in church site dispute

The mayors of Post Falls, Rathdrum and Hayden have declined to meet with the pastor of Real Life Ministries, saying their dispute is with the county, not the church.

Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin said Jim Putnam, the church’s senior pastor, asked the mayors for a meeting last week. The request came after the elected officials asked the Kootenai County Commission to delay its final decision to allow a septic system above the aquifer and reopen the public hearing on the church’s proposal to build a new campus on the Rathdrum Prairie.

The mayors don’t think the county should allow the church to expand without first having sewer service.

“We don’t see any productivity coming out of that meeting,” Larkin said. “The issue isn’t with Real Life Ministries.”

Instead, the mayors allege that the county commission “unilaterally bypassed” a 2005 agreement between the cities and county not to approve large projects until a sewer master plan study on the prairie is complete.

The results of the $300,000 study are expected by year’s end.

Commissioner Todd Tondee, a former Post Falls councilman who voted to approve the church’s plan, said he has no intention of changing his mind.

He said the church’s new campus won’t harm the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer because Panhandle Health District has limited the amount of sewage flow it can produce until sewer service is available.

The property has the capacity to handle the equivalent of 23 residential septic tanks and the church has agreed to hook to sewer when it is available.

The county also is requiring the church to conduct a traffic study and mitigate any road impacts before construction can begin, Tondee said. It’s likely the sewer study will be completed by the time the church finishes the traffic study, he said.

“There are lots of conditions the average person doesn’t understand or see,” Tondee said. “They didn’t get authorization to build the whole project. They just got authorization to invest in the traffic study and start planning.”

Larkin said he met with Tondee on Monday but he still isn’t comfortable with the answers, especially given that the septic allowance for the property could handle only about 69 people.

The church plans to build a 3,500-seat worship center, children’s ministry, 300-seat chapel, field house and athletic fields.