Residents raise concerns over who pays for a 59-year-old water line upgrade as HB 1906 aims to improve clarity in utility rates and long-term planning.
At the heart of Sunday’s town hall meeting with Clyde Shavers was the topic of water lines and who pays for upgrades.
Inside the La Conner Civic Garden Club, Shavers opened the meeting by acknowledging concerns such as threats to programs like SNAP and “challenges to democracy,” and touched on some recent wins in Olympia.
Some audience members were expecting the meeting would revolve around water line concerns, though Shavers’ town halls are usually an opportunity to update constituents and answer questions on various topics affecting the 10th legislative district. A man complained Shaver’s talk was politically charged and almost left the room.
Shavers shifted the conversation to House Bill 1906. If passed at the upcoming legislative session, this bill would address transparency and consumer protection in water system rates — issues brought up by several attendees who said they will be unfairly burdened with the cost of upgrading the 59-year-old water line in their Skagit Beach neighborhood, just north of La Conner.
The water line, owned by the town since 1993, is due for an upgrade expected to cost $3.5 million, according to Town Administrator Scott Thomas.
In an agreement with Skagit Beach developers, the Town agreed it would provide maintenance and repair work, but not upgrades — and the system needs to be upgraded. The Town can contribute $500,000 for the project and is looking for other funding sources to supplement the revenue from homeowners, Thomas said. General tax dollars don’t pay for large improvements when the beneficiary is a specific group, like a neighborhood.
A concerned Downey Road resident who asked to remain anonymous lamented that the water line is also servicing agricultural customers who are paying for the water, but not for any work done to the system. If those properties don’t pay for improvements, he said in an interview, they should not be serviced.
The idea of creating a local improvement district — a tool that allows improvements to be paid over time through special assessments on the benefiting properties — raised concerns about people on fixed incomes being unable to afford their homes, but seniors and low-income property owners may qualify for assessment deferrals.
“While the failing waterline has to be replaced, we do not want to see residents displaced from their homes to do that,” Thomas wrote in his email.
If passed at the upcoming legislative session, HB 1906 would help ensure rate changes are fair and reasonable while ensuring consumers are given more advance notice on how planned investments would impact their rates. The bill would also require the plan submitted to the Department of Health to include all the necessary capital improvement projects for the next 10 years, a specification that would give homeowners clarity on what to expect, Shavers said.
After the meeting, Mayor Marna Hanneman and Thomas said the Town has been making an effort to be more transparent, meeting with the homeowners association several times over the past two years and attending a neighborhood meeting in September.
“I think we need to keep making efforts in that regard,” Thomas added.
Shavers emphasized the importance of public input in the legislative process, and stated his commitment to continue working with the Town on submitting a capital budget request form to the legislature in hopes the House will include the water line project in its proposed budget.
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
