The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Various options are on the table after city council and Channing residents began tackling the gap between revenue from the subdivision and the cost of its sewer and water services. Over 40 residents of Channing and nearby Wally Heights crowded the City Hall Council Chambers Tuesday evening on invite from a cost-conscious council. 'One of our goals here is to, together, create some efficiencies,' Coun. Bill Hanson told the crowd. Since Channing and Wally Heights are not connected to the city's water grid, the municipality, as a matter of fairness, pays for those residents' water tank deliveries and sewage tank pumpouts. The problem, as council sees it, is that the utility bills paid by the subdivision amount to far less than the actual cost of the service. In 2011, the gap was $110,913. What's needed, Mayor George Fontaine said, is 'a system that's going to continue to work and that's affordable for the entire community and that's workable for the people who are living' at the subdivision. He said council has already discussed various proposals, including whether the current number of deliveries and pumpouts is reasonable. See 'Option...' on pg.6 Continued from pg.1 'So if we're having some people out there with 1,500-gallon tanks _ and I don't know what the right sizes are _ (or) 2,000-gallon tanks and somebody (else has a) a 400-gallon tank,' Mayor Fontaine said, 'the person with the 400-gallon tank should probably be considering whether they would do that if they were paying their own pumpouts.' Council has also discussed the option of installing suitable tanks at Channing and Wally Heights properties and then charging the cost to those residents' utility bills. There has been talk as well of the city taking over the service from its contractor, but calculations at this point suggest there would be no cost savings. But not everyone at the meeting seemed to agree there is a problem and that subdivision residents bear the responsibility of solving it. One woman said Channing and Wally Heights are part of Flin Flon and suggested the community as a whole should continue covering the delivery and pumpout deficit. 'You guys got beautiful lawns. You don't have to water your plants with leftover water out of the grandkids' swimming pool,' she said, comparing subdivision residents to other Flin Flonners. Ron Sommerfeldt of Wally Heights downplayed any notion that subdivision residents are taking advantage of the city-funded deliveries and pumpouts. 'I think everybody that I know conserves as much as they can so that they can make (their water) last,' he said. Channing's Carrie Stinton pointed out the $3,000 a year she pays in property taxes helps fund water and sewer piping projects inside Flin Flon. 'I don't think $3,000 a year is cheap taxes, but I don't have a sidewalk, I don't have paved roads, I barely have street lights out there,' she said. 'We have a beautiful new beach and hockey rink, but that was paid 90 per cent out of a committee to get that. So the city's overhead cost for maintaining the Channing-Wally Heights subdivision has got to be low compared to everywhere else.' Coun. Colleen McKee told Stinton she was correct to say Channing helps pay for Flin Flon infrastructure but 'the bottom line is, how do we solve this problem? The city doesn't have the money. What do we do?' Another attendee said subdivision residents pay more for water and sewer than other Flin Flonners _ an extra $125 a year, to be exact _ yet do not have unlimited use like other residents. 'But it doesn't come anywhere near close to paying what's actually being used, it's as simple as that,' answered Mayor Fontaine, adding the subdivision pays higher rates because the water and waste has to be trucked. One person suggested the subdivisions deserve financial leniency since they helped fund a sewage treatment plant and water treatment plant to which their homes are not even connected. But Director of Works and Operations Rick Bacon, who joined council for the forum, said the subdivisions benefit from both facilities. 'You would not get drinking water and you would not have your sewage treated if those plants weren't there,' he said. In response to several complaints about the pumpout service, it was noted council recently signed a one-year agreement with a new contractor. Mayor Fontaine said it will be important to monitor the service to gauge the feasibility of continuing as is and what kind of value the city is getting for its money. With the new contractor in place, several attendees suggested council now wait a year before looking more closely at the issue. While Mayor Fontaine said 'everything's in negotiation' in terms of closing the financial gap, he made it clear that running piping to the subdivisions is not in the cards for the next 15 years or so, if at all. 'The city is carrying a financial load that's pretty much at its limit at this point that wouldn't allow big projects that run sewer and water (lines) out to the Channing and Wally Heights areas,' he said. 'It's just not feasible. 'So over 15 years you would think that you would try and make the deliveries as efficient as possible and the pickups as efficient as possible.' Mayor Fontaine stressed he did not want subdivision residents to feel like 'second-class citizens,' but he still faced some tough comments. 'If we were going to be an economic benefit to you somehow in Channing, something would get done, but we're not,' remarked one woman. Between 2003 and 2011, the cost of water deliveries jumped 33 per cent, up to $126,000 a year. Between 2004, the first full year they were offered, and 2011, tank pumpouts rose 26 per cent, up to $43,885. The rate per 1,000 gallons pumped has increased another 24 per cent in 2012. While the total cost of water delivery and pumpouts came to $181,240 in 2011, utility charge revenue from the Channing area amounted to $70,327. The nearly two-hour meeting concluded with no final decisions, but council was to take the feedback into account as they move forward.
