By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer

The Windmaster Sewer District Board of Directors, comprised of county commissioners, has found a way to pay the majority of installation costs for new service connections.

Last week, the district agreed to adopt a financial plan that had been developed by Dave Meriwether, county administrator.

He calculated that, by borrowing $319,500 from the road fund and $500,000 from a timber acquisition account, the county could offset all but $1,500 of the hook-up fees. The money will be repaid by taxes collected within the new Urban Renewal District at Windmaster.

“I think the commissioners really wanted to ease the pain of this thing and make it as affordable as they could,” said Meriwether, who was charged with paring down costs as much as possible.

Under his plan, the 111 residents in the health hazard zone will have the expense of grinder pumps and other equipment covered. He believed the city might allow the remaining $1,500 fee to be paid over time, which would further lighten the immediate financial burden on new customers.

District officials also followed Meriwether’s recommendation to charge Windmaster residents $22 a month for repayment of a $500,000 state loan for sewer construction. That debt is slated to be repaid within 25 years and is the only amount that is outstanding on the $2.5 million system.

Once Windmaster residents have connected to the sewer, they will be required to pay the city’s $60 monthly service fee.

The sewer board has decreed that all properties within the area with failing septic systems connect to the sewer within three years. That clock begins running in the spring of 2010 when the lines are completed and turned over to the city.

The 22 landowners with failing septic systems must connect to the sewer within six months of the lines becoming operational.

Undeveloped Windmaster properties will not be required to access sewer services. However, when a structure is built on those parcels, the owner has to pay debt back to the time the sewer went online.

The district board was advised by the state Department of Human Services and Attorney General’s Office that failure to require mandatory hookup to the sewer could result in legal action. The state had allowed an exemption to existing rules in order for the city sewer to be extended beyond the urban growth boundary.

Once a potential health risk has been identified, the state expects the problem to be alleviated, according to Gail Shibley, DHS administrator for the public health division.

Windmaster residents with functional septic systems have lobbied during the past several years for hookups to be non-mandatory. They objected to paying the cost for sewer installation and connection when their properties did not have a sanitation problem.

For the past two decades, the county has been aware that septics were failing intermittently across a 130-acre swath of ground. Some of the properties between Windmaster Corner and Portland Drive sit over a concrete-like sub layer that cannot be penetrated by water runoff.

That has allowed raw sewage to rise to the surface and infiltrate yards and ditches with bacteria, viruses and possibly parasites.