City plans expansion of infrastructure

Sisters city officials are expected to take a major step toward expanding the city’s water and sewer infrastructure when they vote to amend an engineering contract at the June 9 City Council meeting.

The extent of the infrastructure expansion will be determined by population forecasts in a new Comprehensive Plan, expected to be adopted this year.

City Engineer Richard Nored from HGE Inc., will be paid $49,500 to write an update to the Sewer and Water Master Plan.

The expansion of Sisters’ infrastructure will be itemized within the Master Plan that Nored’s contract will allow him to write. The city will then determine, with the help of a public advisory committee, which projects are eligible for System Development Charge (SDC) proceeds.

Nored will evaluate the demand for water over a 20-year period. He will determine what size of pumps, wastewater treatment and effluent disposal facilities will be needed in the Master Plan. In addition, the city engineer will determine effluent treatment alternatives to provide the city with options for getting rid of its wastewater.

With the different effluent alternatives, Nored will include an environmental assessment for direction on satisfying state planning guidelines. The contract also includes a Biosolids Management Plan, with an evaluation of potential biosolids disposal sites.

City Manager Eileen Stein believes that Nored should be done with the Master Plan by early September. Stein said that she will be soliciting members of a public advisory committee sometime in July to establish a new SDC format based on the new Sewer and Water Master Plan.

Stein has already tasked the future committee, “to tell us what you think is the most fair and equitable way to administer SDCs. Obviously restaurants have been an issue for this community. I suspect that there will be people like Steve Wilson (owner of Tea & Treasures) or Lisa Clausen (owner of Sisters Movie House) who may want to sit in on this committee or other people … whose interest is going to be in trying to keep SDCs as low as possible.” (See related story, page 16).

The expansion projects that Nored will list in the Master Plan must contribute at least 40 percent more capacity to the existing system in order to qualify for money generated from the SDCs, according to Stein.

Some scrutiny of projects that are candidates for SDC eligibility could result in legal opposition to the process.

“The things on the list may or may not be eligible for SDCs. I couldn’t tell you,” Stein said. “But somebody with legal counsel who’s watching this very closely will be taking a look at the assumptions we’ve made. I’ve seen it happen before where somebody’s legal counsel wants to get ahold of your assumptions and say, ‘That’s not going to add 40 percent to the capacity that’s only 30 percent.’”

The formation of the public advisory committee is intended to buffer the process from legal challenges and address the expectations of the community said Stein.

She hopes to convene the committee some time in early September.