City to pay contractor to run sewer plant

Grand Coulee’s city council voted just days before they had no operator to sign a one-year contract for operation of its sewer plant via an independent contractor, on an emergency basis.

At the time on Aug. 23, the current employee had given notice earlier this month to retire on Aug. 25 after months of being the lone operator.

The contractor, SJ Environmental, had already been in talks with both Grand Coulee and Electric City about running the plant and doing other related work.

The plant processes 184,000 gallons of waste a day in the space it occupies on Bureau of Reclamation land in the USBR’s industrial area along SR-155 overlooking Crescent Bay on Lake Roosevelt.

The state requires qualified operators for wastewater plants, with the certifications necessary for testing for safe operation of the plant. Finding such an employee takes time, and the council had been presented with two possible options: a three-month contract with SJ or a full year.

No one thought it would take only three months, so the full year seemed the best option to council members.

“In a perfect world, we have somebody with the certifications to come in, and that would just need some wind-up experience, … and then move into that spot,” Mayor Paul Townsend said. “And then from that point, then we’ll look at the backup.”

Regulatory agencies indicate operating the current city plant actually takes 1.5 employees, the head of city maintenance, Dennis Francis, told the council earlier this year.

Councilmember Tom Poplawski said he was disappointed in the situation and noted there are a variety of reasons for it: “Multiple contracts with alternate with other jurisdictions that have to be considered and managed within the process. … Unions which are also affecting decision processes, to a great degree not allowing freedom for a city to really manage itself.”

Poplawski note the contract with Electric City requires a joint committee to make recommendations on hiring, then each city council to vote.

“But I don’t think we can wait,” Poplawski said. “I’m not sure there’s any one of us here who really wants to make that motion, because our hearts aren’t in the motion. But it has to be done.”

Poplawski moved to authorize a one-year contract with SJ Environmental. The council passed it unanimously.