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.