1106 Old Route 66, Sunrise Plaza, Suite 2A, Saint Robert, Missouri 65584

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DRY CREEK PROJECT IS NEARING COMPLETION!

After years of waiting, the Dry Creek project is finally almost complete!  This will bring public sewer to the Texas Road and Z Highway areas, plus remove the Country Oaks and Thousand Hills areas from the old plants serving those areas.  (I know the neighbors are excited about that!)  Public sewer was declared available for all but fifteen homes on June 17th, with connection required within ninety days.

If you are a home or business owner in the affected area and have not received a letter from us recently, please contact the district office at 336-5880.  The area of the project is generally defined as: Z Highway from Texas Road through the McFadden property east of Sweetwater Bar-B-Que, Texas Road from Z Highway to Tampa on the east side and Talon on the west side, Tulsa Road from Z Highway through the Bell and Nickels properties, Tyler Lane, Tabernacle Lane, Trumpet Lane, Tablet Lane, Triple Lane, the unsewered areas of Tampa Road, Thames Lane, Talent Lane, the unsewered areas of Titan Drive, Tempest Drive, Taffy Lane, Toledo Lane, Tiger Lane, Tailor Road, Torpedo Road/Drive, and Turbine Lane.

The board of trustees has identified three general areas of our physical plant in need of immediate improvement.  These are: (1) Replacing our main treatment plant, which is undersized and unable to meet the more stringent discharge requirements in the upcoming permit.  (2) Replacing the collection systems in ten neighborhoods with old shared private service lines that were never taken over by the district.  There is no other mechanism in place to maintain the lines, some are in immediate danger of catastrophic failure, and EPA is expecting the district to eliminate all sanitary sewer overflows - and it is the right thing to do in order to better serve these customers.  (3) Replace the entire collection system and treatment facility in Stony Gap, a development that was not constructed according to standards that has a history of sanitary sewer overflows and poor treatment plant performance.

Financing for this work will be on the August ballot.  The entire bond issue is $8,000,000.  This will mean about a $13.36 per month increase per single family home (or equivalent) if the bond issue passes.  If it fails, the work still has to be done, but it will cost an additional $150,000 per year in interest for private financing - about $4.00 more per SFE (an increase of $17.07 per month).

What is the benefit of these projects?  Cleaner and safer water in the Gasconade River, enhanced protection of our groundwater supply, and fewer sanitary sewer overflows that put raw sewage on the ground.  Who benefits?  Everyone who lives, works, or plays in Cullen Township and downstream (and down wind).  Who has to pay for it?  The customers of Pulaski County Sewer District #1.  Who gets to vote on the bond issue?  All residents of the common sewer district, which is all of Cullen Township outside the city limits of St. Robert and Waynesville and the boundaries of Fort Leonard Wood as they were in November of 1991.  Do city residents and sewer customers get to vote?  Those in the areas annexed after the district boundaries were set in 1992 do, indeed, get to vote.  Will this raise my taxes?  No, there is no tax support for the sewer district.  Is it fair for non-customers to get to vote higher bills for customers?  Probably not, and that is another item to complain to the state legislature about.  Will city residents have to pay for sewer revenue bonds in the city and in the district?  No, only customers pay for revenue bonds.

An informational brochure will be mailed to each registered voter in the district.

At times there is a situation between the district and a customer or developer that cannot be resolved in the office.  While an appeal can always be made to the Board of Trustees, there is a need for another body to hear the issues and try to resolve the situation before a board meeting - an appeals group with no other business to conduct.  It consists of three persons: a sewer district trustee, a realtor, and a builder.

The inaugural meeting of the Appeal Group was held at noon on October 4th at the district office.  The regular schedule of meetings was set as noon on the second Tuesday of each month at the District Office, with the exception of every third meeting (starting in December of 2007) being held at six o'clock PM.  The evening meetings may be held in a different location - TBA.  Please call the office to be placed on the agenda.  Portions of these meetings may be closed to the public-at-large, as the welfare of identifiable individuals is discussed.

UPDATE: The August meeting is scheduled for the 12th at noon in the conference room of the district office.  Notice will be posted at the district office, as well as provided to the Waynesville Daily Guide and KJPW Radio.  (Other news outlets will be added upon their request.)

UPDATE: The July meeting is scheduled for noon on the 15th in the conference room at the district office.  Notice will be posted at the district office, as well as provided to the Waynesville Daily Guide and KJPW Radio.  (Other news outlets will be added upon their request.)

STATE AUDIT

The final report from the audit was released at a public meeting moderated by the State Auditor on December 11.  The final report is available on the website of the State Auditor: http://www.auditor.mo.gov/press/2007-76.pdf.  (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required.)  Copies are also available at the district office.

The audit took a great deal of time and energy, and trying to reconstruct the past was a real challenge (and sometimes impossible), but the audit was a good experience.  We learned a lot and, while many things had already been found and corrected before the audit, we have been working to implement the remaining recommendations.

ONSITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

(lagoons, septic tanks, holding tanks, aerated treatment units, etcetera)

The Health Department is now handling all permitting, inspections, and enforcement actions for private individual OWTS.  They plan to have all required documents available on their website, as well as the ability to accept online payments.  Their phone number is 573-736-2217.

2008 Budget

The budget was passed at the December Board of Trustees meeting.  Copies are available at the district office.  With the increase in the customer base from the Dry Creek Project, and using the $100,000 projected carry-over in unrestricted funds, the average monthly bill per residential unit will drop six-percent from the December bills, even though the operations budget is increasing by eight-percent.

The audit revealed that our base rate might have been too high and our per-thousand-gallons usage charge too low in 2007, and that has been adjusted for 2008.  The result of that is, while the average bill will go down, the higher bills (above about $44 in 2007) will go up.

Budget Message

Budget

Budget Performance for Last Two Years

2008 User Charge Ordinance

April sewer bills reflected the adjustment to winter water usage.  The AWC period corresponds to the water bills you received in January, February, and March.  Note: Highway H Utilities refuses to provide water usage information to us, so the board decided that charging those shared customers the average sewer bill as determined in the budgeting process is the fair thing to do, rather than rely on year-old data.  Those customers may bring in their water bill stubs or a printout from their water provider to show us the actual usage.

(Feel free to complain to your state "congress-critter" about "districts" being omitted from state statutes requiring private water companies to provide usage information to "cities, towns, and villages".)