Commissioners Decide To Slow Sewer Hook-Up Fee Increase

After hearing three hours of testimony Tuesday, county commissioners decided that the increase in sewer connection fees should be slowed, even scaled back, for those already in the middle of the process.

The county utilities department is proposing the steepest connection fee increase in years to make up for past inflation and pay for new trunk lines and pumping stations in unincorporated areas.

To pay for that infrastructure, the department seeks to increase the charge for homeowners who connect to sewer in 1996 from $555 to $1,075 this year.

If the increase is not granted, Utilites Director Bruce Rawls said the county would have a hard time paying the debt service needed for the projects.

But residents and business owners said the increase was coming too quickly and was unfair.

Mike Craigen, a Fairwood homeowner, said property owners there already paid for a package treatment plant. Sewer pipes are already in the ground and it’s not their fault the connection wasn’t made this past summer, as originally planned.

Several large neighborhoods in North Spokane are due to connect this summer or next including: Glenenden, Carriage Hills, Fairwood, Camelot and Forest Glen.

With a combined 1,066 homes, the connection increase for these subdivisions would bring in an additonal $550,000 to the county utilities department.

In making a motion to scale back the fees, Commissioner Steve Hasson said he was aware the decision would affect the county’s finances. “But everything we do affects our finances.”

Hasson and fellow commissioners Phil Harris and John Roskelley decided to phase in the increase over two years, instead of one, and come up with a plan to allow those already in the process of connecting to pay the 1995 rate.

No motion was passed in order to give staff a week to determine exactly which neighborhoods pay the old charge and which will pay the new.

, DataTimes MEMO: Changed in the Valley Voice.