April has been about giving shape to next year’s Boards and Budgets.
This communication covers work underway in the following areas:
- May Elections – Make your write-in vote count
- FY2025-2026 Budgets & Long Range Plans
- $106,500 of County funding for Feasibility Study to incorporate Arch Cape – Falcon Cove
- Progress on District Rejuvenation Projects
May Elections – Make your write-in vote count
There are 3 open ballot positions for the Water District Board. Since no candidates filed for those positions, write-in votes will determine who will serve on the Board.
If you, as a Registered Voter, intend to write-in a candidate on your ballot that has not announced a campaign, please check with that person to make sure they will accept the position. If not, your write in vote may be in vain.
If you are conducting a write-in campaign for one of the positions, please send an email to <<click here>> to let us know for which position. Whatever we receive, we will post at the mailboxes and on the web site. That way, since there won’t be unintended competition for one Board position, multiple Board positions may get filled.
FY2025-2026 Budgets (Starts July 1)
There have now been 2 budget committee meetings. A third scheduled for May 1st with recommendations about rates. A public hearing on the budget will be held at the May 15th Board meetings, followed by Board adoption of a budget.
A. The most impactful area of change from last year’s budget is a significant increase in the cost of Staffing.
The Districts have not been able to find/ retain qualified staff. This inability to find and retain staff for water and waste water positions is a shared experience on the North Coast. The demand for staff is driving salary ranges higher in order to attract and retain staff. Our budgeted cost must rise accordingly.
With the resignation of the operator-in-training last August, the District has been unable to fill the open position and has been finding creative ways to augment Matt with contractors.
Unfortunately, just last week, the contractor who has been working with Matt on specialized utility duties was offered a less demanding job at more money. So, we are back to square 1 looking to fill an open position as well as contractor position(s) until a full time person presents. Matt continues to single-handedly carry the burden of on-call and emergency response, which is a risk to Matt’s health and the Districts. It has been our good fortune to find a qualified operator that will come in one weekend a month to give Matt a break.
The Districts are budgeting for two positions, an Operator position with an annual salary of $87,000 and a Manager position with an annual salary of $100,000. (One of these will be filled by Matt.) Starting in FY2027-2028, $50,000 will be budgeted for temporary help which could be used to contract for additional operations support or for administrative support, whichever is needed.
B. Annual rate increases are under discussion to pay for these increased staffing costs. The Budget committee will review consider proposed rate increases at their May 1st meeting.
$106,500 of County funding for Feasibility Study to incorporate Arch Cape – Falcon Cove
Clatsop County collects Transient Lodging Tax (TLT) from short term rentals across the County. State legislation allows for 30% of the County’s TLT revenue to be used for improving public safety and essential services infrastructure. Until recently, the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners has determined to spend the 30% of Arch Cape’s TLT on roads and draining in Arch Cape and on the Pedestrian Bridge on the North end of Pacific Ave.
In February, the Board of Commissions approved $106,500 in funding to the Arch Cape Falcon Cove Beach Community Club for an “Incorporation Feasibility Study”. From the transcript of that discussion: “… it [the $106,500 ] will not in any way disrupt what is being spent in that community for road and drainage. There is an excess in the fund right now and so we’ll be spending that [$106,500] for the project.”
Given the rising costs to provide water and waste water processing, the Water and Sanitary Districts asked the Board of Commissioners for $88,000 from these funds to offset ongoing costs for the essential services of water and waste water processing (click here to read request to the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners). The response was “Commissioners Kujala and Thompson [the Commissioner for our area] briefly discussed this request and indicated hesitancy to contribute to the District at this time.
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 FY2024-2025 budgeted rejuvenation projects listed below – with green indicating completed. (The complete set of projects with status can be found by clicking here.)
- Project 1 – Replace Operations Control Electronics for the Water Plant. PENDING
The final step is to work with AT&T or Verizon to implement the capability for plant alarms to be broadcast to Staff members by text rather than email.
- Project 2 – Replace Webb Lift Station. JUST COMPLETED
The lift station is now fully online and operational.
90% of the total costs of building the lift station are budgeted from an award FEMA grant. FEMA has released the second reimbursement request in the amount of $228,000. The third of four requests in the amount of $69,000 is awaiting FEMA approval and release.
- Project 3 – Upgrade & Bring Current the Business/ Admin Computer and Data System. COMPLETED
- Project 4 – Find, Compile, Electronically Store and Provide Access to Required Business Documents. AS TIME ALLOWS
- Project 5 – Implement an Asset Management System. COMPLETED
- Project 6 – Upgrade & Bring Current the Districts’ Web Site: COMPLETED
- Project 7 – Inspect Water Lines for Lead. COMPLETED
- Project 8 – Corrosion in Water Plant. COMPLETED
- Project 9 – Replace Operations Control Electronics for the Sanitary Plant. COMPLETED
- Project 10 – Move Asbury Creek Intake. IN PROGRESS
A.C. Water District Board (Go to Home Page) 
5 responses to “April 17th – Month 10: Next Year’s Financial Picture is Taking Shape”
$160k of our money to fund an incorporation study very few want in lieu of investing in our aging infrastructure? What a waste.
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I’m surprised to hear you think there’s so little interest in exploring incorporation. Has there been a survey or other solicitation of input from the community? Based on our experience with the county commissioners, and the tone of the minutes from the meeting approving funding the study, it seems clear they have little interest in the wishes of our residents.
Certainly an argument could be made that we, as a community, might prefer to prioritize the infrastructure projects over the study, but the water / sewer districts’ request for funds appears to have come after the request for funding for the study had already been approved. Perhaps this is an opportunity to look for ways to improve communication between the community club and the boards?
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Self rule does seem to be an American rallying cry. Always best for “us” to decide our fate, than “them”. The fundamental question is whether “we” have the where-with-all to carry it off. This would be the path ahead.
Four relevantly important questions:
1) Who will do it? The dream: 5 qualified and dedicated city council members and staff will appear and continue to appear. The current reality: Of the 10 positions on the water and sanitary board, no one has filed for candidacy for 4 of them and another serving member has recently resigned – 50% of the position are unfilled. The Districts are running with one full time staff rather than two, as there is a vanishing work force on the coast.
2) What will it cost? Currently the County provides the area will a number of services; governance, administration, roads, policing, planning, building inspection, to name a few. If the County drops out of the picture, which of those services are the city going to pick up?
3) How will we pay for it? Aside from a couple of inns and a hoped-to-be deli, Arch Cape and Falcon Cove are not huge commercial hubs. The only income producing factories are short term rentals, and the general consensus seems to be that there should be less of them than more. We are all getting a dose of reality of what it costs to run the water and sanitary districts, especially as they age. Now we also have a forest-watershed that must be maintained. Are our pocket’s deep enough to add more financial burden?
4) How big is the appetite for self-rule? The appetite for governance over the water and sanitary districts could be an instructive case study for the appetite to take on even more.
To answer Beth’s very appropriate question “has there been a survey or solicitation of input from the community”, even transparent communication about this initiative has been absent — not even the simplest of surveys. Before approaching the County Commissions, why not approach the community itself? High level answers to these four questions would not be difficult to obtain, and for a lot less than $106,500. If the high level answers showed promise, then dig into the money pot to works out the details.
In this economy, the opportunity cost of spending that kind of money to answer four questions is very high, especially with the pressing, real and increasingly expensive demands of providing the critical services of water and waste water processing. Without those services — there is no city to self-rule. (Detroit is a great case study for that!).
Bill Campbell
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Let’s be real, the only reason everyone in Falcon Cove and some in Arch Cape want to incorporate is to permanently ban short term rentals. That’ll be $106k!
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Thank you for your hard work. These are challenging problems to solve.
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