News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters residents will vote, most likely in May, to decide whether the city will have a sewer system.
It is probably Sisters' last chance to get partial funding for a sewer project from grants.
Sisters Mayor Steve Wilson, city administrator Barbara Warren and Dick Nored of HGE Engineering attended a meeting with various potential granting agencies in Salem on Wednesday, December 9.
They came away confident that the city could get about $4 million in grants to help fund the $12,186,000 project - but only if Sisters residents are solidly behind it.
"One of the things that the block grant people made clear is that if we don't have the vote of the people, don't even bother," Warren told the city council at a Thursday, December 11, workshop.
It is also clear, according to Mayor Wilson, that the opportunity to get grant money is fast slipping away as grant funds dry up statewide. Rural Development funds from the Northwest Timber Initiative, which ends in 1998, total $41 million for fiscal 1998; they will drop to $15 million in fiscal 1999.
And, Wilson noted, granting agencies are not going to look favorably on Sisters again if the city follows its pattern of talking about a sewer, but not moving forward with the project.
"We've talked about this for 20 years and never done anything about it, so why should they give us grant money without a mandate from the residents," Wilson said. "We definitely need to make a decision as a community, are we going to do this or are we not, because it's kind of a do-or-die situation from a reputation standpoint."
Wilson advocates building a sewer system now, fearing that,if Sisters doesn't act, health concerns will force the city's hand some time in the future, when costs will be higher and grant money to help will be gone.
"If the residents decide not to put in a system and we're eventually mandated to put in a system, the cost would be staggering," Wilson said.
Wilson and Warren fear the city could be forced to install sewers if the current septic systems are found to create an imminent health hazard.
An extensive study conducted in 1992 did not show any evidence of ground water contamination in Sisters. But despite the lack of evidence of a direct, on-going, health risk, some sanitation officials remain concerned.
In a letter to the mayor, Roger Everett, director of the Deschutes County Environmental Health Division, and Dick Nichols of the Department of Environmental Quality, cited concerns about the chemical toilets used to accommodate tourists in the summer months.
"There are no facilities for hand washing after using these chemical toilets," they wrote. "The potential exists for a major outbreak of infectious diseases, not only for residents, but also for the tourists passing through the area."
The Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce funds many of the portable toilets. According to chamber manager Steve Shunk, it is feasible to make sure all of Sisters "porta-potties" have hand washing facilities - in fact, all of the toilets now in use are to have hand-washing facilities installed this week.
Everett and Nichols reported "approximately 20 (septic) system failures each year which require corrective action" in Sisters and they avowed that "a community sewer system is the only sound, long-term solution."
But it is an expensive one.
According to HGE Engineering, $6,299,000 of the project would have to be financed through loans. In addition to one-time connection fees of approximately $1,000, residents would have to pay a fee of approximately $42 per month to pay off the debt.
That may be a stretch for some Sisters residents who are on a relatively tight, fixed income.
It is, however, Wilson noted, considerably less than the $100-$110 per month rate to be paid by citizens of Aurora, who recently approved a sewer system.
Wilson has broached the idea of exacting a 2 percent infrastructure sales tax to tap tourist dollars to defray sewer system costs. If implemented, such a tax would knock monthly payments for residents down to $35 per month.
The sales tax idea has drawn fire from local business people, who argue that it would be costly and difficult to administer.
Wilson has asked for other ideas, and the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce has formed a task force to research options.
Chamber manager Shunk told the city council that the chamber will help the city survey residents regarding the sewer project and also explore the availability of private funding sources.
Some residents are already letting their feelings be known.
Bob Curry, a resident of the Buck Run subdivision, said he and his neighbors are concerned about siting the city's treatment facilities on Forest Service land south of the city.
"A lot of people use that forest, and now it looks like it's going to be torn up," he said. "A lot of people in Buck Run are going to lose big time."
At the same time, Curry indicated that residents were willing to listen if the city could convince them the site south of town was the best place for the treatment plant.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)