Bond issue committee faces difficult task

By Dave Moore of the Tribune’s staff
Published Wednesday, October 1, 2003

A committee assembled to promote Columbia’s water and sewer bond issues in the November election faces three tough chores. It must:

First, persuade Columbia residents to spend more money for water and sewer improvements that aren’t visibly in need of repair.

Second, overcome the perception - advanced by opponents of Elvin Sapp’s proposal to develop the 489-acre Philips farm property - that sewer and rate increases will principally support new developments.

And third, build interest in a decidedly unglamorous issue.

"I think this isn’t the sexiest election on Earth," Vicki Russell, a member of the committee and associate publisher of the Tribune, said during a committee meeting on Thursday.

The city will make another pitch for the sale of municipal water and sewer bonds tonight to the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition. That meeting is set for 7:15 p.m. in the commission chambers of the Roger B. Wilson Government Center, 801 E. Walnut St. The issue will be placed before Columbia voters Nov. 4.

Last Thursday, members of the Yes For Better Columbia Water and Sewers Committee heard the city staff’s take on the water and sewer issues. If both are approved, the monthly bill of the average Columbia household will jump by $6.22 by the year 2009, according to information provided by the city.

The average monthly water bill would go up by $3.39 - from $14.78 to $18.16 - over six years, while the average sewer bill would climb $2.83 from the average monthly bill of $9.93.

The city staff’s presentations aim to head off the idea that the rate increases mostly will pay for new homes rather than fixing current infrastructure.

Lowell Patterson told the group that most of the $18.5 million generated by the sale of sewer bonds will pay for repairing and replacing sewer lines, mains and pumps.

Patterson spoke specifically about the roughly $1.2 million replacement of a sewer pump station south of town that would serve the Clear Creek area, including the Philips property, if it’s annexed into Columbia.

In the city staff’s evaluation of the Philips Farm development proposal, it mentions that "without the passage of the bond issue in November, staff is unaware of any other funding source which has been identified to provide the sewer upgrades needed for the proposed development."

Patterson told the bond-passage committee: "That pump station is almost 20 years old," adding that the station needs to be replaced regardless of whether the development planned for the Philips Farm property goes in.

Patterson told the Tribune today that the replacement and upgrade of the Clear Creek sewage pump station figures into a larger plan to stop the discharge of sewage into Gans Creek.

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Reach Dave Moore at (573) 815-1708 or dmoore@tribmail.com.