It was almost four years ago when, during a phone conversation, La Center Public Works Director Jeff Sarvis provided me with the details of a sewer agreement between the city of La Center 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. Land preparation began recently at the 152-acre site even though the project is still being appealed in federal court.
I’ve never been opposed to the construction of the Cowlitz Tribe’s casino. I like casinos and the gaming, food and entertainment options they offer. However, and maybe this is a bit of a contradiction, I’ve always been afraid of how the construction of that casino was going to impact the area and the city of La Center in particular.
So, as Sarvis began reciting the elements of the sewer agreement between the tribe and the city, I was listening with a skeptical ear. But, that skepticism waned as he talked about how the agreement called for the Cowlitz to pay La Center $6.587 million for 36 percent ownership of the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The city would also receive $1.95 million for the Phase 1b upgrade to the plant as well as, and this is a key element of the agreement, the tribe would pay an estimated $5.7 million for the estimated cost to expand the sewer to the La Center I-5 junction. I honestly believed my eyebrows were raised when I heard about the $14 million La Center was to receive.
That expansion to the junction would have allowed the tribe to hook its casino up to the sewer line, but it would also allow the city to market its own property at the junction to developers. Mayor Jim Irish had shared his vision for La Center’s future with me several times. This expansion of the sewer to the junction would allow the city to bring new business to La Center and those businesses would allow the city to diversify its tax base, which for many years has been about two-thirds dependent on revenue from gambling taxes on the existing La Center cardrooms.
You see, and Irish would never admit this publicly, but one of the worst bets ever made in the city of La Center was the one Irish and others made on the purchase of the wastewater treatment plant. At the time of the sewer agreement with the tribe four years ago, the deal revealed that the city had invested about $18.3 million in the facility, which has more capacity than La Center will need at any point in the foreseeable future. The city still holds more than $10 million in debt on the plant and also subsidizes the exorbitant sewer rates paid by its residents each month with an annual contribution of about $500,000.
But, the city was going to be saved from that gigantic boondoggle by the revenue that would come from the sewer agreement with the Cowlitz Tribe. The only problem is, because the state’s Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) ruled that La Center could not legally provide sewer services (to the Cowlitz site) outside of its own urban growth boundary, and a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled against La Center in its appeal, the $14 million sewer agreement is dead, apparently for good.
Members of the La Center City Council revealed recently that the Cowlitz leaders had informed the city that they were moving ahead with the original option of a deep-well injection sewage system. I can’t blame the Cowlitz. An additional appeal of the Thurston County decision would take up to 24 months, according to La Center City Attorney Daniel Kearns. The tribe is moving full steam ahead on its casino and won’t wait for the city any longer.
So, where does that leave the city of La Center? The answer is, in a very unenviable position.
The clock is ticking on the Golden Goose that Irish and other city leaders turned their backs on years ago – the existing La Center cardrooms, which provide the city about $3 million in revenue each year. Unless the cardrooms and the others fighting the Cowlitz casino project in federal court win their appeal, construction of the casino will eventually be completed.
When the Cowlitz casino opens its doors, the La Center cardrooms will have a Herculean challenge to compete. That means the revenue generated from the gambling tax in the city will dwindle significantly, if not completely at some point. The city has no other known agreements with the Cowlitz Tribe that would generate revenue for La Center and has no ability or jurisdiction to tax the tribal casino.
So, how will the city replace that lost revenue without the planned diversification of its tax base that would come from development at the junction? Does the city spend the estimated $5.7 million to expand the sewer, adding even more to its significant investment in the plant? It does have about $16 million or so in reserves, but that’s another huge gamble considering the stark reality of decreasing revenue from the cardrooms.
Is there another developer that is so anxious to plant its stake at the La Center I-5 junction that it will fund the cost of the expansion? That doesn’t seem likely. So, I don’t envy the difficult decisions that are on the horizon for city and elected officials in La Center.
All this comes at a time when Irish is not-so-gracefully stepping away from public service. Greg Thornton and Al Luiz are facing off in the November 3 General Election in the race for mayor. That means one of the two will inherit the mess that Irish helped create by putting all the city’s eggs in the Cowlitz Tribe’s basket.
In the next month prior to the election, The Reflector will continue to seek insight from the candidates as to their vision for La Center’s future. I hope those in the city will pay close attention, La Center’s future will largely be in the hands of one those two.
Ken Vance
Editor
