Sewer goes to bid

Neatherlin believes Belfair is being ‘ignored’

Matt Baide | Apr 07, 20220

Mason County commissioners made a potential Belfair sewer extension possible Tuesday night by allowing the project to be advertised for bidding on the next phase.

Commissioners Kevin Shutty and Sharon Trask voted in favor of the project’s next phase going out to bid while commissioner Randy Neatherlin voted against.

Shutty, the commission chair, said he appreciated all the comments he received from the public about the project and that everyone is better off when people are participating in the process. He said he also recognizes that there are problems that need to be addressed with financing as the project moves forward.

“We do have other alternatives available and that includes the American Rescue Plan, that includes the other federal infrastructure dollars,” Shutty said. “Tonight isn’t the end of the story on the Belfair sewer, I think it’s the beginning. We have an opportunity here to refine the financing on this project but the real work begins now and that is when we get into reviewing the bids and then ultimately working with our public and private partners to continue to pursue economic development in Mason County so that we can continue to try and bring family wage jobs.”

Shutty said he’s had conversations with other people about projects within the community and said that tells him that there is demand for these kinds of projects.

“It’s taken us five years to get to this point and so the development community has to be looking at us and wondering, ‘Is Mason County a good partner?’ They walked away from one project, it’s taken five years to get through another one,” Shutty said. “What are we doing to be good partners with the private sector and I think we have a lot to learn. We have to continue to learn how to work in partnership. I think we have great staff at the Mason Economic Development Council that can help with that but one thing is for certain, there is demand in the UGA (Urban Growth Area), we have to make sure that we’re doing our part in order to deliver on those and I’m confident that this commission, whether they’re supportive of this project or not, and our staff will work hard to ensure that we deliver a good project for the public and we’re managing it appropriately throughout.”

Neatherlin said he thinks taking action is inappropriate and is a bad use of the county’s money. He said he believes it is a special privilege that is being given out to one person, referring to David Overton, the property owner of where the proposed extension would be built. Neatherlin said there has not been a cost-benefit analysis to see what kind of return will come from an investment in the project.

“It’s not expected, even in talking to Mark (Neary), and everybody else with any high confidence that we will for many years,” Neatherlin said. “This is going to be a burden for many years to come, not a benefit. With that being said, there’s also, we can have our beliefs on it but without an actual cost-benefit analysis or some type of thing to show us how many units it’s going to take to pay it back, how is that possible within that framework, again, we’re just shooting things at the dark and throwing money in something that I think is inappropriate.”

Neatherlin said he thinks this is going to set a precedent and said the county brings sewer to a property, but they don’t run it all the way through people’s property for their developments.

He said his district, which includes Belfair, has spoken to the commission and his district is being ignored.

“Over and over again, they said please do not take on more debt and development should pay for development and I think that by moving forward, we are ignoring the largest amount of public participation I have ever witnessed in my 10 years here,” Neatherlin said.

Trask said she’s a member of the state Public Works Board and people have said that this type of financing doesn’t happen anywhere but in Mason County, but that is not true.

“We are constantly giving out loans, some grants, but mostly loans because this is money that is paid back to the state with interest so that other counties, other cities, other jurisdictions can expand their sewers, expand their broadband. This is what government does,” Trask said. “We provide services to people and so it’s our obligation. It’s our responsibility as elected officials to help our constituents, to help those that need sewer.”

Trask said she’s had a lot of people contact her and say they do support the project and said it’s not the entire area of Belfair that doesn’t want this and she is trying to listen to everyone.

“I’m trying to do the right thing for Mason County and this is the right thing to do, in my opinion, to go out for bid,” Trask said. “We don’t have to take the bid. If it’s excessive, we don’t have to take the bid. We’re not talking about how to fund it at this hearing right now, we’re voting on whether or not we’re going out to bid. There are lots of funding options, many that we have not even spoken about. I’m sure the word will get out but there’s a lot of options.”