All 2/19 meeting documents are available for download and review under the tab “2/19 Meeting Documents”.  The documents available are:

1. The Remington Water Facility Plan is a 200+ page document giving cost break downs and details of the overall plan.  It is a 75mb PDF document.
2. FAQ document covers the main topics and questions everyone had at the meeting.
3. Chairman notes is a pdf of the 20+ year history of the district.
4. Meeting Presentation is the power point that Welch Comer used for their presentation.
5. Funding Options Summary  covers all the different funding methods covered at the meeting.

After reviewing the above documents, please send questions to: niutilitybill @ hotmail.com

The next meeting will be March 18th, 6:30pm at the Athol Community Center.

Some believe that the only reason Remington Water District is trying to upgrade the wells is to enrich board members through private dealings with developers. 

The Truth:  Since 1999, the district has had 1 large well and 2 small wells.   The two small wells can handle domestic water usage during the winter.  The large well is the work horse during the summer.  If the big well ever went down during the summer, the district would not be able to provide fire flow (1,000 gal per minute) and water demand.

The board has known this and has been working towards building up the funds needed to put in one additional well.  Each developer has paid for their own infrastructure that has been added to the system.  In exchange, each developer has paid annexation fees to put towards the new well.

In 1999, the water district had $30,000.  Today the district has $700k.  The system was designed for 460 connections.  The district currently has 367 connections.  Our low rates of encouraging water usage is part of the problem.

The district has tried to do everything out of pocket without increasing rates or impacting our current users.  For 20 years, we had one rate increase of $10, from $25 to $35 with an increase of 10,000 gallons to the base from 15,000 gal to 25,000 gal.

For 20 years the district has put aside money.  During those 20 years, the district purchased two 250,000 watt backup generators powered by liquid propane, out of pocket (over $100k).  During those same 20 years the district has set aside close to $700k for a new well, coming from annexation fees and cap fees.

Before DEQ changed the requirements, the district anticipated only having to add one well to the system at $900k in 2008.  Today, due to DEQ requirements, it is more.

The TRUTH IS each board member owns a home in the district.  We are all neighbors out here and none of us wants to be screwed.  We all want an amazing water system.

The Remington Water District in 1999 had user rates of $25 per 15,000 gallons as a base.  The district has raised it’s rates one time to $35 per 25,000 gallons as a base rate.   The board has always wanted to encourage water usage by implementing an $0.80 per 1000 gallons between 25k-100k gallons used and then $0.60 per 1000 gallons over 100k gallons.  Unfortunately, those low rates is what caused us to not meet fire flow (1,000 gal per minute for an hour) and peak water demand in Aug of 2018.  EVERYONE was watering!

Those 3-5 days of water usage is what DEQ is using to determine that we are at capacity.  Even though, the system was originally designed for 460 connections and we have 367 connections.

(See attached water rate comparisons)

The district purchased an old AG well that had been used for decades from Sean McCormick back in 2007ish with the intent of cleaning it up and using it as our back up well.

After much consideration and the location of the well, the requirements of keeping the well from becoming contaminated, easements (all properties within Shamrock Ranch I and II have a 10-15′ easement on every border of each parcel), the location of the drive-ways, and dealing with 4 homeowners, McCormick is cost prohibitive to use.  Not to mention the tensions it would create with neighbors.  (see attached packet)

The district is looking at other options.

It has come to the boards attention that there is mis-information being spread about the intentions of the district in regards to acquiring other water systems within northern Kootenai county.

#1 Mis-Information Being Spread:
The water district is trying to take over other systems to make money, back door deals or board members will benefit from these “deals”

#1 The TRUTH:
Neither the district or it’s board members will make money off the acquisition of these other water systems.  The only benefit the district will receive, an increase of monthly user fees.  Even this is not accurate.

If the district takes over another system, it would be to help that system with management and by providing that system with the opportunity to borrow funds at lower rates as a government taxing district, which these systems could not do on their own.  That’s it.  Any fees gained from taking over a system is minimal to the district.  The majority of the funds from each system acquired would ultimately need to be set aside for that system for emergencies.  The recommended amount of funds that should be set aside for a system should be 10% of the value of the system.

So why take over other systems?  #1 – because Idaho agencies would like to see all small systems consolidated into one big government water system under RAFN.  #2 – to help other systems improve their situations.

#2 Mis-Information Being Spread:
The water district would make our current users foot the bill for the upgrade of systems being acquired.

#2 TRUTH:
All of the board members are users of the Remington Water District system.  Making us pay for another system to upgrade their system to provide fire flow and adequate water supply is simply stupid.  None of us have any desire to pay for other improvements to another system.  That would be wrong.

Each system acquired would be treated as a separate system from Remington Water District from a financial standpoint.  All cap fees and the majority of user fees would all have to be set aside for each individual water system to cover their own repair and upgrade costs.  A fraction of the user fees would be used to cover our costs of managing the system and the costs associated with maintaining water lines that pass by their system.

The REAL truth to acquiring other water systems:

There is zero value in acquiring other water systems ultimately, for Remington Water District.  The most Remington Water District would achieve from taking over a system, more added users.  But only a fraction of their user fees would be used by Remington Water District.  Example:  If we acquired a system with 50 users and their monthly rate was $50 a month, we might be able to use $5 a month of that user fee to go towards Remington Water District.  The rest would go to pay for their own water usage of their system and to pay back improvements they take on in upgrading their water system.

So what does Remington Water District really gain from that scenario?  $250 a month.  That is not worth the headache and work that Remington Water District put into acquiring the system.   What does the system gain?  Extremely low interest and pay back period that they cannot achieve on their own as a non-government entity.

Remington Water district gets $250 a month in this scenario and helps people improve their situation.  That’s it.

SO WHY DO IT?  To help others and to satisfy Idaho agencies under RAFN that would like to see consolidation.  RAFN is the reason for this consolidation push.

By now, everyone in the district should have received our flier giving a run down of the current situation and the reason we need everyone to come to the meeting.  6:30 pm at the Athol Community Center, Feb, 19th 2020.

Here is the situation.

In the summer of 2018, for the first time in district history, for several days, we were unable to meet peak water demands and fire flow of 1,000 gal per minute.  It’s important to mention, the board has always encouraged water usage through extremely low water rates.  With people wanting to keep green lawns, watering gardens and animals, water demand has increased during hot summer days.  Even though, we are well below the connections the system was designed to accommodate.  Our system was designed for 460 connections (currently we are around 370 connections).

A LITTLE HISTORY

Back in 2004, the board understood that if our primary well ever went down, we would without water service for as long as it would take to pull the old pump and replace it with a new one, about a week or two.  So the board has since been working towards maintaining an emergency fund of 10% of the value of the system, in case of repairs.

In 2006 the board was approached to provide water to a new development, west of Weir, East of Ramsey, North of Seasons and South of Hwy 54.  The board saw this as an opportunity to get the funding needed to get a second big well put in at about $900k dollars, all out of pocket, provided by the developer.  The developer agreed.  In 2007/2008, the financial collapse happened, the real estate market cooled and money dried up.  The project was on hold.

Since that time, the board authorized splits and developments in and around district boundaries, as long as it did not negatively impact the current users, to build up funds for a new big well.

During this time, the board spent $200k (estimated) on two backup generators that ran off liquid propane.  The board also upgraded control systems for the wells.  In addition to these upgrades, the district also repaired leaks throughout the system to reduce water loss.

Since 2004, the board has been able to set aside $700k dollars in addition to those upgrades in preparation for getting a second big well online.

PRESENT DAY

This past June (2019) when the district was about to approve new development in the same location of the development from 2006, the developer was informed by DEQ that the district was at capacity because the district was not able provide peak demand and fire flow with it’s primary well offline, which DEQ considers to be a health concern and primary reason for needing to add source capacity.  DEQ rejected the development and placed a moratorium on the district.

The district met with DEQ to get specifics of their decision.  The board was informed that since 2007, DEQ had put in place NEW requirements.  The district, under these new requirements, needed to be able to provide peak demand and fire flow with the district’s main water pumps offline.   That means upsizing our current large well and then add a new well to the system.

We have a couple options:

OPTION 1.  Increase the user rates to encourage less water usage and not add a new well.  How this will effect users: when our big well goes down, we will be without irrigation water usage, only domestic use, for a couple weeks while a new pump put into service.  (we currently have a backup pump ready and waiting, should our big pump fail)

This also means, no more water connections in the district.  DEQ will not allow for any additional connections.  That means no more splits of property within district boundaries.

OPTION 2. We meet DEQ’s requirements by upsizing our existing big well and add a new well to the system so we can have our primary well offline and still provide peak demand and fire flow.  User rates will still go up.  Major benefit to all of us; if a well goes down, we will still be able to meet peak demand and fire flow while repairing the pump.  It also means new connections can be added to the system.  In other words, homeowners will be able to split their land with water.

The board has done everything they possibly can to do this out of pocket.  The $700k in the bank, the bulk has come from cap fees in preparation for adding this new well.  Without the added costs of the new requirements of DEQ and the moratorium placed on the district by DEQ, we would have started bringing the new well online this summer without needing any financing.

The meeting on Feb 19th will be to discuss the financing options we have before us on how to meet all of DEQ’s requirements so the moratorium can be lifted.

Hope to see everyone there with a mind of helping all of us make the best decision for us all. (see the attached financing options sheet we will be going over at the meeting.)

Best Regards,

Your Board