Residents Favor Using Revenue Bonds To Finance New Sewer Construction

Thu., Dec. 14, 1995

Bruce Krasnow Staff writer

When suburban residents of the North Side are asked how soon they want sewers the answer is: now.

At least that’s what most of those who attended sewer workshops last month in the Mead and Whitworth areas said.

Sponsored by Spokane County, the two North Side workshops and two others in the Spokane Valley drew 1,100 people.

The workshops provided an overview of the county sewer program and presented options on how to finance new sewer lines in the face of diminishing state and federal grants.

Among options presented by the county is changing the way neighborhood sewer lines are built. Currently, neighborhoods petition the county for sewers and form a utility local improvement district, or ULID.

Under state laws, residents are charged by lot size and ULIDs must be approved by 60 percent of the property owners. Forming such districts is often slow and there’s no guarantee neighborhoods with the greatest need for sewer service will receive it.

Switching to general-obligation bonds issued by Spokane County permit faster sewer construction and could better target needy areas. Revenue bonds also permit county commissioners to charge on sewer useage rather than lot size. That would assuage homeowners who contend that sewer extensions force owners of larger lots to subdivide in order to afford the payments.

Revenue bonds are currently used to pay for large interceptor or trunk lines as well as pumping stations.

North Side residents who filled out questionnaires strongly favor using revenue bonds for all sewer construction. In fact, 65 percent of those who responded favored such a switch. In the Spokane Valley, 57 percent favored the change.

Other findings include:

Fifty-two percent of North Side residents who responded think sewers are more cost effective than septic systems.

Sixty percent said they want service now. Eleven percent want it within five years and 23 percent were willing to wait 20 years.

The county utilities department will take the comments and present them to commissioners next month as part of a larger recommendation on the sewer program.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONNECTION FEES MAY RISE SHARPLY Despite the county’s outreach effort, one woman who attended said there is still a lot of confusion about the county sewer among North Side residents., Kathy Spencer, 43, a resident of Camelot, said her neighbors still don’t know that the county is planning to increase its sewer connection charge from $555 to $1,075 in 1996. Rates will go up to $1,105 in 1997; $1,225 in 1998; $1,260 in 1999 and $1,395 in the year 2000. The charge, which is increasing to pay for new trunk lines and pumping stations, will affect Camelot, Forest Glen and Carriage Hills even though those neighborhoods were promised a sewer line back in 1981, said Spencer. Those neighborhoods are likely to connect to the new north interceptor line in spring. She’s urging residents to attend the Jan. 9 county hearing on the proposed increases or write to commissioners. Spencer wants the county to honor the lower connection charge of $555. She believes the higher amount is going to support new sewer service to developers. Other county money that should have gone to build lines up north was spent in the Spokane Valley instead, she argued. “Neither do we want to pay for what the Valley got at our expense or what the developers will get in the future,” she said. “I don’t want to pay for somebody else’s sewer.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: CONNECTION FEES MAY RISE SHARPLY Despite the county’s outreach effort, one woman who attended said there is still a lot of confusion about the county sewer among North Side residents., Kathy Spencer, 43, a resident of Camelot, said her neighbors still don’t know that the county is planning to increase its sewer connection charge from $555 to $1,075 in 1996. Rates will go up to $1,105 in 1997; $1,225 in 1998; $1,260 in 1999 and $1,395 in the year 2000. The charge, which is increasing to pay for new trunk lines and pumping stations, will affect Camelot, Forest Glen and Carriage Hills even though those neighborhoods were promised a sewer line back in 1981, said Spencer. Those neighborhoods are likely to connect to the new north interceptor line in spring. She’s urging residents to attend the Jan. 9 county hearing on the proposed increases or write to commissioners. Spencer wants the county to honor the lower connection charge of $555. She believes the higher amount is going to support new sewer service to developers. Other county money that should have gone to build lines up north was spent in the Spokane Valley instead, she argued. “Neither do we want to pay for what the Valley got at our expense or what the developers will get in the future,” she said. “I don’t want to pay for somebody else’s sewer.”