Tapping into OBC

For several months, the Carbon County Impact Joint Powers Board (CCIJPB) has expressed a desire to speak with a representative from the Old Baldy Club (OBC) in regards to their outdated billing, an issue brought up by board member Roger Cox in June (see “Lagoon done, billing discussed” on page 6 of the June 20, 2018 Saratoga Sun). During their regularly scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. on Feb. 13 at Saratoga Town Hall, Chairman Richard Raymer and Vice-Chairman Craig Kopasz reported that they had been able to do just that.

“Craig and I had a phone conference with Bill Coalbreath, who’s the general manager at Old Baldy, today. Went through, basically, some ideas. I think there’s more to this issue than just bringing the Old Baldy Club into compliance,” said Raymer.

Raymer added that Coalbreath was able to give both him and Kopasz an idea of the number of water users and sewer users in OBC, but would be able to give the CCIJPB a more concrete number in the near future. Raymer also said that he was assured by Coalbreath that OBC is on board with coming into compliance and doesn’t expect a different rate than what other users are paying.

“One of the things that I thought about in that conversation is, we’ve went through and revamped our sewer ordinance. We’ve instilled sewer fees on other entities in town, like apartments and mobile home parks, and that’s essentially what we’re looking to do with Old Baldy. Maybe it’s time that we take that same evaluation to the water side of things. We are still providing water service to a meter, essentially, just like every residence except we’ve got some instances where we’ve got one up on the hill that there’s 40 plus water users, there’s 40 plus water users over here, and they’re all paying, virtually, nothing,” Raymer said.

Kopasz, following Raymer, stated that while OBC was more than willing to work with the joint powers board to come into compliance, they didn’t want to feel like they were being singled out when it came to billing. He continued, stating that charging OBC the same rate that residents pay while being on their own private system may cause “some heartburn.”

“We’ve got to figure out where we’re at and Jon (Winter) was working on some numbers, preliminary numbers, as far as percentages of that $30. How much goes to operations, maintenance and breaks,” said Kopasz.

“What percentage of that $30 gets the water to where their meter is,” Raymer added.

Cox, replying to Raymer and Kopasz, pointed to the current water ordinance in regards to water service outside town limits. Under 13.16.032, the Town of Saratoga is able to enter into agreements with customers outside their limits to provide water service. The ordinance, adopted in 2012, defers to Wyoming Statutes 15-7-601 and 15-7-602. Under 15-7-602(ii), the water rate for providing water service to customers outside corporate limits “shall not exceed the actual costs of providing and delivering water to the point of connection to the city or town’s water system.”

On the subject of a private water system being tied into the public water system, Raymer brought up the mobile home park on 13th street. Much like OBC, water service is delivered to a master meter which leads into a system that is owned, operated and maintained by the mobile home park.

“Right now, they’re just getting a flat fee on whatever they’re metered. Now, when we went through and added a sewer service fee to each and every one of those, that was an extreme amount of income to the town,” said Raymer. “What we don’t want to do, if it’s $30 a month for a residence, we don’t want to go charge them $30 a month for each one of those trailers and then, when they get a water main break or a fire hydrant that doesn’t work, they’re going ‘Well, we’re paying you the same as what everybody else in town is paying to make sure that fire hydrant works and that water line is not broken.’ So, what is that number?”

Joint powers board member Joe Parsons entered into the conversation, stating the he felt a private system being tied to the water system for the Town of Saratoga was the same as the water line of a private residence tied to the water main.

“If something breaks and we don’t get it to that manhole, then that’s our problem. Anything past that manhole is their problem and my tap fees paid for me buying into the system, but then everything that happens after that is my monthly rate. So, if they own the water line, just like I own the water line from my house to the manhole, that’s my problem. I’ve got to budget for that,” said Parsons.

Jon Nelson, town council representative on the CCIJPB, agreed with Parsons, adding that both OBC and the mobile home park chose to go with a master meter.

“They have the choice to put their tap and tie into the system where they want to and the town’s responsibility is to deliver the water to that point, but the monthly charge for using the water should be the same for everybody, or, every dwelling,” said Nelson.

Following further discussion, which saw some board members suggest a discount for residences behind a master meter and others state that a discount was unfair to residents on their own meter, the joint powers board made the decision to begin working on the process of rewriting the current water service ordinance. It was clarified by the board that this rewrite of the ordinance would not mean an increase in rates for residential or commercial customers behind a single meter.

The next major discussion for the CCIJPB was in regards to the United States Forest Service (USFS) Brush Creek/Hayden District water and sewer line project. Raymer informed the board that work will not continue on the project until after the ground has thawed and, when work does continue, it will be under direct supervision. The pipe that had been laid into the ground previously would be removed and abandoned and replaced with new pipe.

While the CCIJPB had originally advised the Town of Saratoga to go through with annexation of the forest service property, Cox stated that he felt annexation should be taken off the table and the joint powers board should enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an easement around the water line. A motion to advise the town to abandon annexation of the forest service property was approved by the majority of the board with Nelson voting against. Another motion, this one to enter into an MOU with the USFS, was unanimously approved.

The next meeting of the Carbon County Impact Joint Powers Board will be at 6 p.m. on March 13 at the Saratoga Town Hall.