This communication covers work underway in the following areas:
- Tax Levy measure on November Ballot
- New Policy Guidelines for Leaks and Extraordinary Water Usage
- Cell Tower Survey Results & Next Steps
- Progress on District Rejuvenation Projects
A. Tax Levy for a 2-year contract with a District Administrator has been put on the November Ballot. Please vote!
If you are a registered voter in the Sanitary District service area, your November ballot should have arrived. On that ballot, you will find a tax levy measure to fund a 2-year contract for an interim District Administrator for both Districts.
With this ballot measure, voters will be able to choose between paying for the Administrator with property taxes or with rate increases. A ‘Yes’ vote is to fund with taxes. A ‘No’ vote is to fund with rate increases.
The break-even point is a property with a Clatsop County Tax Assessed Value of $591,000. Below that value, taxes will be less burdensome to ratepayers than will rate increases. (Note – this is the Assessed Value and not the Real Market Value, as shown on your property tax statement.)
The District Board Presidents have sent a letter to all voters registered in the Sanitary District explaining the measure (Click here to read the letter).
All registered voters are encouraged to vote in order to give direction to the Boards.
B. New Policy Guidelines for Leaks and Extraordinary Water Usage
The Water District Board has adopted new policy guidelines for addressing appeals by ratepayers when they are billed for what they see as unexpectedly high usage of water.
A review of the District’s policies showed that current policy guidelines are pretty clear about how appeals related to water consumption due to leaks should be addressed, though there is room for improvement. However, the current policy had no instructive guidelines for how to address appeals related to water consumption that were not due to leaks.
Water Leak Policy: The below updates were adopted:
- Clarifies the definition of a leak
- Indicates that guidelines for addressing appeals that are not related to a leak will be documented in a separate policy
- Changes the homeowner’s timeline for fixing a leak once notified of it *1
- Specifies a more representative timeframe for determining the usage that will be billed during the leak period *1
*1 – These updates are still much more lenient that leak policies from Cannon Beach, Manzanita and Nehalem.
Extraordinary Water Usage Policy: A new policy was adopted that provides guidelines for how to address appeals that are not related to a leak. Key elements are:
- Differentiates Established Usage from Extraordinary Usage
- Sets a cap for how much of the Extraordinary Usage will be considered in the appeal
- Bills Established Usage at current rate/fee structure. (This include usage above the cap)
- Sets a billing rate for the Extraordinary Usage that is below the cap
C. Cell Tower Survey Results and Next Steps
Next Steps
The Board is awaiting confirmation (or not) from Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) about whether the terms and conditions of the Forest Legacy Program allow a cell tower in the Forest part of the Forest-Watershed.
If the terms and conditions of the Forest Legacy Program allow the construction of a cell tower on the property, the Board will 1) identify the set of questions about the tower that will need to be answered before a decision can be made, and 2) confirm broad base support for a cell tower.
Survey Methodology & Results
To inform their decision, the Board reached out to Arch Cape Water District property owner to get their perspective. Property owners were invited and encouraged to complete a survey during the period of September 20 – October 10. 89 people responded to the survey. 5 of them lived outside of the Arch Cape Water District boundaries and were not eligible. 84 responses met the criteria.
89% of respondents were in favor OR conditionally in favor of a cell tower. 11% are not.
Click here for complete results of survey
D. Progress on District Rejuvenation Projects
In addition to standard operations tasks and addressing unexpected challenges that present themselves, the following progress has been made this month on the rejuvenation projects listed below – with green indicating completed and yellow indicating progress was made / new status reported. (The complete set of projects with status can be found by clicking here)
Project 1 – Replace Operations Control Electronics for the Water Plant
All electrical computer components have been installed and are operational. The plant is being run on the new systems and secured with the new firewall.
The last remaining step is to implement: a) Broadcasting of alarms from the water plant and b) Remote access to the water plant from the Sanitary plant and from mobile devices of staff. We are waiting on our Systems Integration vendor for help with this final step.
Project 2 – Replace Webb Lift Station
Construction of the lift station is ahead of schedule.
Note: Snapshots of the progress can be viewed on the District’s web site (www.archcapewater.org and click on News & Updates) or click on this link. Click here for progress snapshots.
Project 6- Upgrade & Bring Current the Districts’ Web Site COMPLETED
Project 7- Inspect Water Lines for Lead COMPLETED
Project 8- Address Corrosion in Water Plant
All fans are operational and have been wired into an automated control process.
Still awaiting quote from electrician to repair the critical circuitry eroded by corrosion
A.C. Water District Board (Go to Home Page) 