By Steve Hubrecht
Municipal taxes will be going up in Invermere to help pay for the extensive water and sewer upgrades undertaken last summer.
A parcel tax, which amounts to $50 per parcel, moved several steps closer to becoming official when it got three readings during last week’s Invermere council meeting, on Tuesday, Feb. 14. (Councillors marked the meeting coinciding with Valentine’s Day by decorating their name placards with cutout hearts).
The new tax has been in the cards for some time, but it did, however, prompt a nearly half hour of discussion. This was not so much due to a sudden surge of civic interest or to outrage about increasing taxes among the local populace, but rather because three of the five by-election candidates vying for the open seat on Invermere council were in the gallery. Seeking greater insight into the machinations of local government, they peppered the councillors and staff with questions about the new tax and the work it will pay for.
That work — which is phase two of water and sewer upgrades along 13th Avenue — began last year and is scheduled to be completed later this spring (once the ground thaws again). The upgrades were on a section of 13th Avenue between 10th Street and 15th Street and include some work done on 15th Street itself.
This second phase of upgrades followed hot on the heels of the first phase of sewer upgrades on 13th Avenue which took place during summer and fall 2021. Both projects (phase 1 and phase 2) were urgent endeavours — there was a distinct possibility that, if the work did not happen quickly, residents would find sewage flooding into their homes. Just how ancient and desperately in need of repair the water and sewer system is along 13th Avenue was highlighted when the district issued a boil water advisory last October, after a valve on a water main burst during phase two work. This was not the result of a mistake by contractors, but the fact that once the dirt lying over top of the water main was removed, the sudden lack of pressure led the valve to burst — it was so old that all that was holding it in place was the weight of the ground it was buried under.
Both phase one and phase two of 13th Avenue sewer upgrades resulted in complete street closures and consequent traffic rerouting. The phase one traffic rerouting actually led to significant traffic jams forming on 15th Avenue, particularly outside Eileen Madson Primary (EMP) school during drop off and pick up times. Traffic jams of any sort are a rarity in the Columbia Valley, and these ones quickly became a hot topic of discussion among local residents. Phase two last year also created some traffic bottlenecks, but nothing even close to those stemming from phase one.
The total cost of phase two work is $3.3 million. The district paid for it through a combination of its own reserves and borrowing. The borrowing totalled $1.5 million, and the new parcel tax will be used to pay back that debt.
“We’d reached the point where where (the sewer and water system) was operating under surcharge — that is pressure — rather than gravity, as it is supposed to,” Invermere chief administrative officer, Andrew Young, explained at the meeting, adding that as a result, sewage backup into houses was a very real threat.
“It’s getting attention right now, but $50 a year — that’s a bit more than $4 a month — is not a lot to pay in order to not having sewage backing up into homes,” said Invermere councillor, Gerry Taft. He added that district had done a great job on the financial side, using reserves, so that only $1.5 million needed to be borrowed. Taft also pointed out that Invermere had used an alternative approval process before borrowing the $1.5 million, and only 0.3 per cent of residents expressed opposition to the move.
Young outlined that although “a lot of attention has been laser-focused on 13th Avenue, some of the problems there are shared with 10th Avenue”. He hastened to add that “the situation on 10th Avenue is much less alarming that 13th was.”
Once the upgrades on 13th Avenue are complete, there will no longer be a connection between 13th and 10th Avenue, Young continued. “Tenth Avenue will then be within normal operating conditions rather than a surcharge. That will be a huge improvement, not only on 13th Avenue, but also on 10th Avenue.”
Acting mayor, Kayja Becker, noted that the cost of the parcel tax is minimal compared with the potential cost of fixing the damages that could occur if the upgrades were not done.
Becker was impressed with the interest in the topic among the gallery, noting that “we normally say sewer is not sexy, but here we are talking for 30 minutes.”
