Kalispell Council approves Evergreen sewer fee

Kalispell City Council on Monday approved a $3 monthly fee for Evergreen sewer customers.

The change is in response to the Evergreen Water and Sewer District instituting a new meter fee of $3 per account monthly for meter data from each of the sewer customers connected to water service. The city is not responsible for the fee, but is passing the cost onto Evergreen customers.

“This is a fee that the city is not implementing of its own volition, it’s simply a pass through,” Mayor Mark Johnson noted.

Water meter data is the only mechanism used to calculate sewer usage and until March the Evergreen district provided the water metering information as a courtesy to the city for those sewer customers, city staff noted. Under sewer regulations, customers that are not connected to municipal water, but to city sewer shall have their water service metered and this is at the expense of the customer.

COUNCIL ALSO approved a resolution regarding funding for the city’s lift station located within the Fairview Boulevard Subdivision. Construction on the lift station is expected to begin this year.

The purpose of the resolution is to approve the reimbursement of any allowable preliminary expenditures previously made by the city on the project to be repaid by the bond when those funds become available. The project is being financed through bonding from the Montana State Revolving Fund.

DURING THE meeting, Council voted to pull an update to its construction and design standards from the agenda to hold a work session on the item.

The city is looking to update its standards in response to changes in state and federal requirements, to adopt changes to construction materials and methods, to aid with the operation and maintenance of public infrastructure and “to ensure the standards reflect the best practices necessary to support a sustainable community,” according to the work session agenda.

Features Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.