City, sewer opponents square off for another round

http://www.dailycourier.ca/ June 20

Residents worried about sewer costs should circle June 21 on their calendars as the City of Vernon is holding an open house in conjunction with the Committee Regarding Okanagan Landing Sewer (CROLS). The meeting, set to take place at 6 p.m. at Paddlewheel Park Hall, promises to be a spirited affair as residents of Okanagan Landing Rd. will have a chance to express their feelings about the proposed costs of joining the city’s sewer line. “With the amount of money involved any of the people affected would be stupid not to attend,” said Alan Hill, an Okanagan Landing resident who has been involved with protesting the proposed costs. Residents are angry that they are being asked to pay a connection fee as well as to pay for the pumps needed to power the sewer line. The cost of purchasing and installing the pump can cost residents as much as $15,000 and the connection fee has been estimated at $3,500 per property, depending on lot size.

According to Hill, former mayor Wayne McGrath had promised in a letter that “Landing residents would be allowed to connect to the sewer at no cost.” “To say we’re irate would be to put it very mildly,” said Hill. While he said he has no knowledge of the letter in question, Coun. Pat. Cochrane said that it was never council’s intention to allow residents to join the sewer system for free. “At the time, the policy was that the city would provide the ‘trunk’ line but the cost of connecting to the line would be up to residents,” said Cochrane, adding that “it seems that Mr. McGrath encouraged people to believe that there would be no cost.” Hill has said that this deception on the city’s behalf may have played a large role in the Okanagan Landing amalgamation vote. “The whole point is that the landing would never have amalgamated with the city if they didn’t come along and offer us these tidbits,” said Hill. “Councillors said ‘we’ll give you this and we’ll give you that’ but in the end they took the money from amalgamation and we got nothing.” Cochrane said that regardless of the costs involved, getting residents off a septic system and hooked up to the mainline should be a priority for environmental reasons. “There is no need in this day and age for sewage to go into the lakes. People at Sugar Lake have said that they don’t want treated water in their lake and we should be just as firm with Okanagan Lake.”