“When we first hired BHC, I told them that this would be a difficult project to bring to fruition. We had neighborhoods that could not agree on how the costs should be split and a Council that was not committed to the project.” Randy Witt, Public Works Director, City of Bainbridge Island.
ACEC of Washington 2006 Engineering Excellence
Bronze Award - Social, Economic, and Sustainable Design Considerations
Since 1999, residents of five geographically and economically diverse neighborhoods had petitioned City officials to rectify over 70 documented septic system failures and the resulting environmental and public health concerns. Adverse soil conditions had led to the septic system failures, a problem that was intensified by small lot sizes and close proximity to Puget Sound. These septic system failures impacted a sensitive wetland, restricted outdoor recess on the playground of an elementary school, and increased the potential of pollution to enter Puget Sound. Although there was a clear and significant need for the project, the residents had a general distrust of the City, its Council, and its consultants – to the extent that they hired their own consultant to monitor the efforts.
Early in the project, it became apparent that it would be a challenge for the City to build a new wastewater collection system while developing an equitable cost allocation and payment plan for four neighborhoods and a school, given the variety of economic, topographic, and geographic differences present. The solution to this public health and safety concern was the installation of a publicly owned, operated, and maintained sewer system. But deciding how to finance the project and the equitable distribution of the costs between the five areas proved to be a major challenge.
To this end, BHC Consultants proposed some innovative measures:
- Include the costs to install the individual grinder pumps on private property as part of the low-interest assessment – a process that is extremely unusual but resulted in significant savings to the homeowners.
- Use a previously untested State RCW to shape a financing plan that allowed for separate cost-districts in a single LID. This measure significantly reduced LID administrative costs and allowed consolidation of formation hearings.
- Use a low-interest Public Works Trust Fund (PWTF) loan to reduce annual assessment payments to one-half of the payment for traditional municipal bond financing.
- Use a competitive bid selection process for O&M services for the grinder pumps. The City had no previous experience in operating and maintaining grinder pumps. This angst was resolved by contracting for guaranteed O&M services with the pump manufacturer for a 10-year period, resulting in annual savings of thousands of dollars.
As a result of these measures, the annual payment for a typical $20,000 sewer assessment went down from $2,300 per year to $1,200 per year. This reduction in cost is what made the difference between a positive and negative vote for formation of the LID. The LID formation was approved by the property owners in an overwhelming show of support for the project.
BHC Consultants earned the trust of the affected residents by encouraging the participation and input of every homeowner in each community, allowing the team to understand the issues, viewpoints, and demands of the various neighborhoods. Armed with this information, BHC assisted the City in a critical workshop with City Council to explain the technical options and financial consequences of this undertaking. The team developed an interactive presentation that allowed the Council to pick an endless variety of technical and financing options and see the resulting effect on the project budget, in real time.
In April 2005, construction was completed on municipal sewers serving 220 homes in the Emerald Heights, Pleasant Beach North, Point White, and Rockaway Beach communities, as well as Blakely Elementary School. BHC Consultants exceeded the City’s expectations by bringing the project to fruition and delivering it under budget. |