**DRAFT**

A special meeting of the City Council of the City of Tonasket was held on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 7:00 pm in the City Hall, Tonasket, Washington.

This special meeting has been advertised to invite residents of the Bonaparte Creek/Mill Drive area to discuss the proposed water/sewer project and also annexation of the area. Other items of discussion and possible action: the Council will determine whether or not they will accept or reject or modify the proposed annexation and whether or not they will require the simultaneous adoption of zoning regulations and assumption of indebtedness; other items relating to the proposed Bonaparte Creek/Mill Drive Water/Sewer project and annexation issues may be discussed.

Those present were Mayor Plumb and Councilmembers Griffin, Ramsey and Olson who joined in the flag salute. Also present were Superintendent Bill Pilkinton, Planner Kurt Danison and City Clerk-Treasurer Alice Attwood.

There were citizens in the audience that signed a sheet recognizing their attendance at this meeting.

Mayor Plumb gave a brief update of the project and annexation and how the city has arrived at this juncture.

Kurt Danison, explained the process of annexing to the attendees. He also explained the City has spent a considerable amount of funds on the process already, including the grant applications and preliminary water/sewer project plans.

Kurt went through a list of questions submitted by Donald Beatty.

1. Will any residents lose their mail delivery service? Answer: don’t know why they

would.

2. What, if any, are the benefits of the area annexation? Answer: Access to city

utilities, new streets and there is ample capacity in the sewer treatments system.

3. How much will taxes increase? Answer: Kurt explained this information which is

in the Cost/Benefit Analysis Report.

4. Regarding Zoning regulations—what are they? Answer: The Planning

Commission is currently reviewing the regulations and considering different

regulations for the area.

5. What is the cost for the project? Answer: The sewer portion of the project is

1.3 million dollars.

6. What is the amount of the loan, and how much will the monthly payments be?

Answer: Not sure—we are seeking ¾ of a million dollars in grant funds.

7. What is the amount of the grant? Answered above.

8. How much will each household pay to be connected to the sewer, and how many

homes are involved in the project? Lump sum or payments? Answer: It is the

intention that the homeowners pay as little as possible to connect to the system

and no answer to the lump sum or payments at this time.

9. Besides the $14.00 surcharge, what other hidden costs and fees can we expect?

Answer: Those with private wells will need to have cross connection controls

installed and those need to be inspected annually.

10. Will City employees be doing the work, or are bids open for local private

Contractors? Answer: The City is required to go out for formal competitive bids.

Another question from the audience is what about old septic tanks, what happens to those. It was answered that those would probably need to be decommissioned.

Mr. Beatty would like to be kept up to date on the loans and grants available for the project.

Earl Groff stated that a benefit of being in the City would be better snow removal.

Other comments: Would the City be requiring meters on the private wells? Kurt replied that the City would not be involved in this type of regulation.

Councilmember Olson stated that he came into this process late and would hope the community wants to come into the City and not feel like they have to be annexed.

Don Atchison said thank you to the City and he is happy to support this project.

There being no further business the meeting was declared adjourned.

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Patrick Plumb, Mayor

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Alice J. Attwood, Clerk-Treasurer