Petition circulating on sewer plant

A petition asking Coulee Dam’s town council to reconsider it current course to upgrade the town’s wastewater treatment plant is being presented door to door by a half dozen people.

Greg Wilder, a resident who has been skeptical of the proposed design and critical of the town’s process in the matter, said the group hopes to present signatures from 90 percent of the town’s households to the council at its Jan. 23 meeting.

Monday afternoon, he said, some 200 signatures were in hand.

The petition drive was started by Kathy and Tom Skordas, he said, but he had personally gathered 67 signatures and not had a rejection.

A total of four have so far refused to sign, he said.

A similar drive may take place in Elmer City as well, he said.

Petitions will be delivered to the town council and full copies will also be sent to the Dept. of Ecology (the town’s funding agency), the Colville Tribes and to state and federal elected officials, he said.

An engineer at Gray & Osborne said Monday that his firm would be willing to hold off development of Coulee Dam’s wastewater treatment plant plan, and allow Indian Health Services to do a “value engineering” study of the plan.

Jeff Stevens said that the plan for the plant is from “25 to 33 percent” complete, and any order to delay would have to come from the town of Coulee Dam.

Stevens had indicated the same a few weeks ago when both the council and Gray & Osborne engineers appeared to be ready to delay the project. That occurred when Mayor Quincy Snow was out of town and the council meeting was run by Mayor Pro Tem Ben Alling.