Stormwater committee needs community support

Before convincing Flathead County commissioners to approve an intent to form a Rural Special Improvement District, the Bigfork Stormwater Advisory Committee needs to convince them to approve of spending around $250 of county money to establish a boundary for the RSID.

The district boundary for the RSID is identified as the Bigfork Water/Sewer district. It contains over 1,900 property owners and 3,200 parcels of land. But in order to officially establish the sewer district as the boundary, a legal description needs to be written at an estimated cost of $250.

All of the money in BSAC’s budget is grant money allocated for education and outreach, therefore the stormwater committee is dependent on county money to establish a payment district.

But in order to do this, BSAC first needs to show commissioners there is support for an RSID to finish the stormwater project within the community of Bigfork.

“Basically, feedback from the community,” commissioner Pam Holmquist said at the July 27 monthly BSAC meeting.

An RSID would help pay for the last installment of the stormwater project, which will be completed at the north and south ends of Bridge Street and is expected to cost about $1.2 million for construction.

Tax-based RSID districts are used to finance infrastructure improvements and are generally formed to pay for new roads. According to state law, an RSID can’t be formed if 40 percent or more of the affected landowners protest it. Without an RSID in place, the remainder of the storm-water project will be halted.

The project’s already $1.3 million cost for construction on Electric and Grand Avenues was paid for through grants from the Department of Environmental Quality and county funding.

The project has fixed issues such as flooding from blocked and clogged drain and filtration systems, and pipes that were broken by other construction projects. Those problems and water samples gathered from the Bigfork Bay in 1997 that showed stormwater contamination to be well above the standards outlined by the Department of Environmental Quality spurred the start of the stormwater project in 2007.

Holmquist said the best way for residents to tell commissioners whether they support the project or not is via email. Emails to commissioners can be sent by visiting http://flathead.mt.gov/commissioner/co ntact_us.php and filling out the form.