Bend May Change Course on City Water Project
What may come as a surprise to residents who have supported theCity of Bend’s original Surface Water Improvement Project slated to costabout $68 million, city councilors are now considering cutting theproject cost in half by delaying the water filtration systemconstruction and not building the hydropower facility slated to generaterenewable energy.
However, opponents of the original plan say the city isn’t changing the project at all, but just spreading it out longer.
Bend’sSurface Water Improvement Project, in the planning stages for more thantwo years, is supposed to update and improve the surface watercomponent of the City's dual-source system. But the basic premise of andthe cost of the project and related increase to ratepayers has broughtforth numerous objections from community leaders including Bill Smith ofWilliam Smith Properties, Inc. and the Old Mill District and formerMayor Allan Bruckner. They contend that city councilors are not changingthe $68 million plan at all, but in fact just delaying the project.
“Itdoesn’t do anyone any good to delay a bad decision,” said Smith. “Theyshould stop the project and if the city wanted to show good face theywould stop engineering on the membrane treatment plant as well.” Thecity is spending nearly $18,000 a day on engineering for the treatmentplan and will eventually spend millions just on consultants. “The cityneeds to relook at the whole project,” added Smith.
Bruckner alsoexpressed his concerns: “I am extremely disappointed with the city’sproposed resolution. The Stop the Drain committee feels very misled.Rather than economizing and reviewing, it actually commits the city tothe entire project. They force any future council to spend the next $30million, because without that, the $30 million they propose to spend nowis totally wasted.
“Additionally they offer no reduction in theoutrageous consultant design fees, even though designs may change ifparts of the project are delayed. And while it offers some temporaryrate relief, the whole project must be paid for, so it merely increasesthe size of the bond necessary to pay for it. Their spin is verymisleading to the pubic.”
The project as planned still rests onthe State of Oregon extending the federal deadline of October 2014 totreat its water for cryptosporidium. If extending the inevitable to 2020as hoped, it will make the project cost even more due to inflation.
TheCity now says it is planning to mothball the hydroelectric project, butWilliam F. Buchanan, Bend attorney, doubts that. “The city claims tohave received $18 million in “grants and loans” for the project,” saidBuchanan. “But these are merely loans with a mere $750,000 that isforgivable. Aside from the misleading tenor of a city press release thecity’s own term sheet shows that $18 million is from loans, not grants;the $18 million is secured by pledges from the City’s General Fundrevenues, thereby jeopardizing police fire and other essential serviceswithout sufficient funding mechanisms given the plummet of real propertyvalues and the $18 million in loans requires a hydroelectric project.
“Nowthat the City claims it is mothballing that hydro project, wouldn’tthose low interest loans be lost? If so, why isn’t the City mentioningthat?”
The Bend City Council plans to continue discussions on itsnew plan at the Wednesday meeting March 7 and consider a resolution toapprove it.
