OSOYOOS TIMES-July 8, 2009

By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times

Roughly 130 property owners living along the northwest shore of Osoyoos Lake could be back on the hook for part of the cost of the planned Northwest Sewer Project.
Georgia Laine Developments, the developers of the Willow Beach Resort slated for the head of the lake, had finalized an agreement earlier this year with the Town of Osoyoos to contribute more than $18 million towards the $23 million extension of the Town’s sewage system to the northwest shore.
That deal, however, hinged upon the sewage project servicing the planned 1,088-unit resort which, due to poor global economic conditions, likely won’t be built.
If the resort is not built, the sewage project can be scaled down in size to a cost of roughly $7 or $8 million, said Mark Pendergraft, director for Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen rural Area A.
With a $4.5-million Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund grant in place for the project, along with a pledge from the Okanagan Basin Water Board to cover 18 per cent of the costs of the sewer extension, there would still be a shortfall of more than $1 million.
That would break down to between $7,000 and $10,000, depending on the final costs of the project, to be picked up by property owners in the northwest shore area on top of fees for annual service and hooking up to the sewage system.
The Town and province are currently negotiating with the developers to keep them involved with the sewage project on a financial level and provide relief for the northwest shore property owners.
But Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater said if the 40 existing occupied units at the Willow Beach site, which include trailers and one house, are not hooked up to the sewage system extension, the developers will not contribute anything to the project.
“If Willow Beach does not participate in this process, the property owners will be paying significantly more for their individual hook-ups,” Slater said.
Mayor Stu Wells said the last time the Town had any discussions with the developers was June 15 and the Town has made no decision yet on whether it will connect the 40 existing units at Willow Beach to the planned sewer extension.
The decision to include the units within the project would have to be made by council, Wells added, and then only if the developers agree to help pay for the sewage extension.
“We’re not giving this stuff away,” he said. “Show me the money.”
Tim Ankenman, the resort’s chief architect and spokesman for the developers, said no firm decision has been made about what will actually be built at the Willow Beach site given the world’s financial situation.
He added that his client’s “first priority” is to make sure the sewage project goes through, but there has to be some incentive for the developers to stay involved and, at the moment, that’s having the existing 40 units at the site connected to the sewer extension.
Right now, the Town’s engineering consultant, Terry Underwood of TRUE Consulting, is looking into how much the sewage project would cost for just the 130-or-so homes on the northwest shore along with the 40 units at Willow Beach, Wells said.
If the northwest shore property owners do have to kick in more money than planned, he added, it will still cost them less than a new septic tank which costs between $25,000 and $30,000.
“It’s a bargain,” Wells said.
The sewage project has been in the works for decades as a way to discontinue the use of septic tanks which contribute to the pollution of the lake.
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