Thompson Falls Council votes 3-2 to create two new sewer districts

Plains and Paradise are not the only Sanders County towns with sewer and water treatment plant woes. Thompson Falls is going through its own throes.

In all, more than 500 parcels north of the railroad tracks rely on private septic systems that DEQ (Montana Department of Environmental Quality) and other agencies require to be removed before groundwater and/or Clark Fork River water is affected. County sanitarian septic permits are getting more difficult to acquire for new construction due to the high number of existing septics already draining into the local gravels.

Thompson Falls Mayor Jerry Lacy and City Clerk/Treasurer Chelsea Peterson have been working toward solutions for at least two years, including accepting an engineering report that designed a multi-phased plan to hook up the parcels to the city’s water treatment plant.

At the March 11 Thompson Falls City Council meeting, the city took one step forward toward implementation of Phases 1 and 2, affecting residences west of Grove Street. Lacy broke a 3-3 tie, voting yes to forming two new Special Improvement Districts (SIDs). As explained by Lacy, SIDs are required by state law in order to apply for funding to help some low-income and elderly residents pay for the inevitable sewer rate increases that will come with building and financing the project, and to allow the project to progress into acquiring loans and grants. Voting against creation of the SIDs were Dennis Newman, Shawni Vaught and Tom Eggensperger. while Earlene Powell, Lynne Kersten, and Raul Ribeiro voted in favor.

DURING THE weeks-long public comment and protest period prior to this vote, affected parcel owners gathered signatures and sent in comments in protest and support of the proposal. Each parcel was allotted a protest, so some owners’ opinions were counted as multiple “votes.” A protest of over 75 percent of ownerships would allow the protestors to overrule a city council vote. SID creation was protested by 55 percent (107 of 193 ownerships) in SID 1 and 63 percent (89 of 142) in SID 2.

Several meeting attendees voiced opposition to the project due to increased sewer fees, recent money they had spent on their own systems. Some questioned whether the state laws were constitutional, and whether any city council members were on the city payroll (they are not).

Meeting attendees were assured that this is not the final decision to proceed with the entire project; there will still be several points ahead in this process in which public input will be sought before a vote. Next month, for instance, Clerk Peterson said there will be a resolution considered to borrow planning money from DNRC (Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation).

“Tonight’s vote,” clarified Ribeiro, “was not that we’re going forward with the project. If we don’t have these SIDs in place, then if this project does go forward, people aren’t going to have access to these funds. I voted to help out those people.” He explained that he is not personally going to be able to take advantage of those funds. “I don’t speak for the council, but I am going to continue to work at bringing down the cost of this project and make it easier to swallow. You have my solemn word on that.”

THE ENTIRE project is currently estimated to cost about $15 million, including later Phases 3 and 4, hooking up properties east of Grove Street to the wastewater treatment system. A large portion of that cost is expected to be covered through grants, while property owner assessments will be used to pay off loans. The first assessments related to SIDs 1 and 2 will appear on November 2020 tax bills.