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Show Sewer Board Gains City Council Support For June 8 Bond Election "Wo all acknowledged thai (he best thing lor Ihe people in (he community is to pass that sewer bond," slated Jack Green, referring re-ferring to a joint meeting held Thursday night when the Snyder-ville Snyder-ville Basin Sewer Improvement District Board and the City Council agreed that alternatives to the passage of an election authorizing the District to sell SI. I million General Obligation bonds are '"spooky" as Board chairman Mel Flinders stated. The election is slated for June 8 and all registered voters in the District, which encompasses the Snyderville alluvial basin will be able to cast a ballot. On May 26, the sewer board and City Council will conduct a public meeting to try to alleviate any apprehensions the citizonry may express. The general obligation bonds will be retired through revenue service hook-up and service fees by the year 2000, according to the projections drawn up by Dick Christcnscn of Burroughs and Smith Bonding Agents, Salt Lake City. Estimates based on projected revenues arc "conservative", according ac-cording to members of the sewer Thursday's meeting modified the strict stance taken three weeks ago by the sewer board when they determined no more letters of agreement would be provided developers until alter the bond issue passes. Now, land uses permitted under present oning will be allowed to proceed without sewer board consideration. consid-eration. Those proposing conditional con-ditional uses must still come to the board to seek agreements on sewer availability, and then approach the I'ark City Planning Commission. One concern voiced by city officials and sewer board members, mem-bers, is the severely under-par level at which the present sewer plant is operating. Preliminary commitments have already been made for hooking up 500-1100 units. "The present plant passes no standards while the new plant will be Ihe finest of its kind in the stale," explained board member James Kilby. the existing sewer treatment facility is discharging more effluent than allowed by the Slate Health Department or by the Environmental Protection Agency. "You don't treat effluent share ol a new system. A concern of mayor I. con Uriarte and Councilmcn raised at Ihe meeting concerned Ihe likely possibility that Park City will receive a $400. 000 Federal Housing Administration loan in the next 30-60 days for Ihe purpose of improving city water lines. Uriarte urged that water line improvement be coordinated with similar sewer line work if the election passes so that "We only have to tear up Ihe streets once." He added that comprehensive road improvements in town must await this underground work. Flinders responded, "If the election passes, I see no reason why the KPA couldn't fund us this . summer so that water and sewer line work may be coordinated and hopefully completed in this building season." TV Scanner Flinders said that the engineering en-gineering firm of Bush and Gudgell has collected physical data from a TV x-ray type scanner which indicated that the $160,000 should be enough to correct infiltration problems in the sewer lines. "B ut we won't really know till we dig up the pipes," the board who have upped the hook-up charge for a single dwelling from $350 to $750 which Flinders said is well within the range now charged for such service by other municipalities. "We tried to gear this so the brunt and burden of the sewer system arc borne by the new developers coming in rather than by people who've already paid for one system," Flinders explained. - He justified the proposed monthly service fee hike, from $3.35 to $5.00 on inflation and the fact that i all real estate within the district will be appreciated as a result of the new sewer treatment facility. The estimate on retirement of . the bonds through hook-ups and ' service fees is based on 150 projected new hook-ups in the system's sy-stem's first year, 250 in the second year, and ' 100 ..in consecutive years. There could actually easily be 1,100 new hook-ups within 18 months of the system's opening. Effluent could be accepted by fall of 1977 if the bond election passes and construction con-struction begins immediately. Permitted .uses May Proceed the same way in 1976 as you did in 1940. The EPA standards are much stricter," Kilby explained. Flinders feels that failure of the bond election might impair the leniency shown by the state in enforcing standards up until now. Thai leniency was based on the Health officials realization that the sewer district board was doing everything possible to upgrade sewage treatment in the area. Tear Up the Streets Only Once The $1.1 million in bonds will finance only 25 per cent of the new system's cost. the. Environmental En-vironmental Protection Agency has made a firm commitment to finance the remaining cost. Of this amount, $160,000 has been earmarked to upgrade and improve im-prove the existing sewer lines in Park City. Some of these pipes arc old and leaky and get filled with spring run-off water during the spring, taxing the existing plant even more. In fact, sewer board officials agreed that upgrading up-grading the existing plant to state and federal standards would cost nearly as much as Park City's County Commission chairman added. Kilby stated, "Due to the $14 million valuation of the district and the complexity of the money system we could have sold a revenue bond. But we would have had to make projected revenue hikes in monthly service fees unpalatable to the voters. We decided to sell GO bonds to keep the payments palatable to the voters." He continued, "We have great confidence we'll pay off the obligation to bond holders through the revenue generated by the system rather than by imposing a mill levy on the taxpayers." I Officials of both agencies look forward to meeting with concerned concern-ed citizens May 26 at the Memorial Building. "If we want our growing community to continue to be a reality in the immediate future, then let's get behind the bond election," Flinders urged. He earlier stated "without it (the system), this area can't grow." |