Members of the La Center City Council voted 4-1 at a Dec. 14 meeting to approve a $14 million sewer agreement between the City and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. The agreement would allow the City to provide sewer service to the Cowlitz Tribe’s proposed casino near the La Center I-5 junction.
Outgoing council member Linda Tracy cast the only opposing vote. Council members Al Luiz, Kristine Carmona, Greg Thornton and Randy Williams all voted for the agreement, which was first reported in The Reflector on Nov. 2.
The resolution was first made available to the public on Nov. 18 and was presented at a public hearing three days later. Representatives of La Center’s four existing card rooms presented objection to council members and City staff to the resolution and the lack of public notice. As a result, Mayor Jim Irish tabled the issue at the Nov. 21 meeting and set a deadline of Dec. 7 for the receipt of written comments on the matter.
No citizens offered testimony during a period for public comments prior to the vote taken at the Dec. 14 meeting. At the Nov. 21 meeting, only three citizens offered testimony and those included John Bockmier,
a Vancouver consultant who represents La Center’s four existing card rooms and Phil Harju, the vice chairman of the Cowlitz Tribe.
The two law firms representing Dragonslayer Inc. and Michels Development, LLC, the owners of the four existing card rooms in La Center, did offer more written comments prior to Irish’s Dec. 7 deadline.
In a letter from attorney Steve Morasch of the law firm Schwabe, Williamson and Wyatt, which has offices in Portland and Washington, DC, La Center council members were told of the card rooms owners’ position that because of the absence of a written finding demonstrating that the criteria for extending a sewer outside an Urban Growth Area the application for the required sewer permits can not be approved.
A 13-page letter from attorney Guy Martin of Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie also raised several objections to the agreement. Martin wrote that, among other things, the agreement violates the Growth Management Act, is inconsistent with the City’s 2006 General Sewer Plan, and that the City is not permitted to accept additional sewage from the proposed Cowlitz Casino under its current permit.
Sanitary Engineer J. Ned Dempsey also submitted a two-page letter raising issues with the City’s plans to provide sewer service to the Cowlitz Tribe’s land.
The highlights of the proposed sewer agreement include:
• The Cowlitz Tribe will buy into the value of La Center’s wastewater treatment facility at a rate of 36 percent of the amount the City has invested. La Center, which completed a Phase I upgrade to the facility in the last two years at a cost of about $11.4 million, has $18.3 million invested in the facility. That means the Cowlitz Tribe will pay the City about $6.587 million when the agreement is executed.
• The Cowlitz Tribe will pay for the Phase 1b upgrade to La Center’s wastewater plant, which is estimated at $1.95 million at today’s rates. That expansion will essentially double the plant’s current capacity.
• The Cowlitz Tribe will pay for the sewer expansion to the La Center I-5 junction, estimated at a cost of $5.7 million. The Tribe will only pay for the size line to accommodate its proposed usage. To increase the size of the line to supply service to future development in La Center’s recently-annexed area at the junction, the City will pay the difference for the larger line to be installed.
• Once the first phase of construction on the Cowlitz casino is complete, the Tribe will pay fees for service at a minimum rate of $40,000 per month for 772 ERUs (Equivalent Residential Units). The Tribe’s monthly usage is capped and the maximum usage would result in $74,000 in monthly fees. If the Cowlitz development requires more capacity than that at any point in the future, a new fee structure would have to be negotiated.
• The City of La Center is responsible for the design and construction of the sewer expansion. The City is also responsible for the extensive monitoring and calculating the Tribe’s usage and the City will be paid for that responsibility by the Cowlitz.
• The agreement is an exclusive agreement for 20 years, meaning the Tribe could go elsewhere for its sewer service but would still be required to honor its agreement with La Center. There are also two built-in 5-year extensions.
The U.S. Department of the Interior issued a decision on Dec. 23, 2010 approving the Cowlitz Tribe’s application to take 152 acres near the La Center I-5 junction into trust, paving way for the construction of the long-proposed casino. That decision has been appealed by La Center’s existing card rooms, the City of Vancouver, Clark County and others.
The court schedule for that appeal has not been announced, but La Center, Clark County and Cowlitz Tribal officials believe it will begin after the first of the year.
