06/08/2006

Septic tank fee proposal sinks

New way to fund septage plant sought

BY BRIAN MCGILLIVARY

bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Grand Traverse County officials blasted out of the water a proposal to collect an average surcharge of $1,400 on new septic tanks in the county.

The county sewer and water committee, dominated by supervisors from five townships that pledged to cover bond payments for the troubled $7.8 million septage treatment plant, needs a new funding mechanism to bail out the money-losing operation.

The committee's proposal was to ask the county board to levy a surcharge on new, county-wide septic tank permits to raise enough money to cover annual bond payments of almost $600,000 a year.

The idea didn't go over well in some quarters.

"It's like big brother casting itself out on all the little townships," said county Board of Public Works chairman Doug Mansfield. "And you can't put this on the public before the plant is working."

A tank at the plant collapsed last June, just a month after it opened. Numerous other construction and design failures were then discovered. Repairs are ongoing and won't be completed until at least month's end.

It will then take another several months to get the plant fully operational.

In a three-page memo of concerns, County Administrator Dennis Aloia questioned the legality of the surcharge proposal, reliability of funding projections and the fairness of tying plant costs to new homes.

"How equitable is it to charge only new homes for septic tank permits to solve a problem that exists county-wide for anyone who is on a septic tank?" Aloia wrote.

The committee will review the funding question at its regular meeting at 9 a.m. Friday in the county's Public Service Building, 2650 LaFranier Rd.

Acme Township supervisor Bill Kurtz, a water and sewer committee member, said funding concerns should be turned over to the county.

"I don't think (financing) is our job; it's bigger than this committee, it's the whole county that is going to have to ante up," Kurtz said. "Getting the plant up and running is our job, and that's no small task."

Kurtz said the BPW and county board need to solve the financing issue.

Mansfield and Aloia objected to the townships' apparent effort to wash their hands of the financial crisis.

"If you shove this on the BPW, you are going to see some really dedicated volunteers of this community lash out," Mansfield said. "That board can do a lot of things that you won't like."

Mansfield also apologized for not making sure the county had a better business plan for funding the plant when the concept came before the public works board.

He said the board will no longer be a rubber stamp for the townships' recommendations.

The plant was to be funded with user fees, but over a six-month period the fees collected were less than half of revenue projections made by county attorney Michael Houlihan and engineering consultant Gourdie-Fraser Inc.

Kurtz said the entire septage plant project was driven by Houlihan and Gourdie-Fraser, who were hired by the county, not the townships.

Aloia said the township supervisors recommended the hiring by resolution. The townships of Acme, Peninsula, Elmwood, Garfield and East Bay assumed the plant's financial burdens through a contract with the county.

"You are responsible for paying this debt and if you don't, we can take it out of your treasury," he said.