Bigfork seeks $8.1 million bond OK for sewer work
Bigfork voters will be asked in July to approve $8.1 million in bonds to replace the village’s aging wastewater treatment plant.
The Bigfork Water and Sewer District board approved a resolution for a bond election at its May 12 meeting.
The money, if approved, would help fund construction of the next phase of the Bigfork Wastewater Treatment Plant and an upgrade and overhaul of the plant.
Bond approval would mean a $71 annual tax increase per $100,000 in property assessment.
The bonds would be assessed over 20 years.
If the bond issue is not approved, the money would be raised anyway through increases of $39 a month in sewer bills. That would total $468 a year for current rate payers, district manager Julie Spencer said.
“The decision to pass this resolution appears to be the fairest way to fund the necessary replacement of the aged treatment plant,” Spencer said in a prepared statement.
A mail ballot will be sent out to registered voters in the sewer district and will be due back by July 27. To pass, the bond needs to receive a simple majority of the votes. However, at least 40 percent of voters must respond for the vote to be valid, so participation is key, Spencer said.
The current treatment system at the plant was constructed in 1986 with an anticipated 20-year life expectancy.
“In spite of improvements and updates, this plant is showing considerable signs of age,” Spencer said. “Failures of the plant are costly and can be disastrous to [Flathead] Lake. District employees work diligently to prevent such occurrences, but high summer inflows sometimes stress the plant beyond treatment capacity and mechanical failures complicate matters further.”
The expansion will double the district’s existing capacity to be able to accommodate an increase in wastewater projected over the next 20 years.
Mechanical failures in the plant over the past five years have resulted in violations of the discharge permit issued by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality that allows Bigfork to discharge its treated sewage into Flathead Lake.
The state’s new discharge permits have stricter standards than the current plant is able to comply with. Failure to meet the new standards could result in violations and possible fines.
A good portion of the district is undeveloped or in subdivisions that have not yet been fully developed, including Saddlehorn. As new sites come on board, hook-up fees will help defray costs and perhaps pay off the bond sooner, Spencer said.
The estimated total cost of the project is roughly $9.6 million. The district has applied for and received grants of about $1.5 million to help reduce the amount of the bond.
The first phase was a Treatment Plant Headworks Replacement Project that involved $3 million of new equipment and building expenses. That work was completed in 2008.