July 8 Town Council Study Session
--by Dixie A. Walter
    Eatonville needs more water but the prospects are looking dimmer. Would a water witch help, the town council wondered? Also discussed at the July 8 study session and regular meeting were growth planning, a class on the subject for town officials and the public, a $150,000 grant, maybe, for the ubiquitous skateboard park, free helmets for users of the park, the budget, bugs and the Comprehensive Plan. New police officer Steve Watton was introduced to the council also.
    During the hour long study session prior to the meeting, Public Works Director Jamieson Van Eaton explained to the town that, "We do have within our capital improvements plan a 275,000 gallon reservoir planned to go up on top of the Rath property." Explaining further Van Eaton said, "Actually the loan for $425,000 has been approved and is sitting on my desk. We've got another month or so before we need to address it."
    "We have yet to acquire property and we still have a need to get some of the developers to participate in the cost of the project," Van Eaton told the council. He added, "The bottom line is, if we're all interested in this loan, council can go ahead and approve it.  We won't pay one penny. We're not obligated until we can get the project."
    The capacity of the reservoir is presently 550,000 gallons with the need for, "adding at least 275,000 gallons within the next year or so to keep up with our schedule," stated Van Eaton.
    Council member Chelan Jarrett asked, "Can we be applying for new water rights now on our present water sources if we don't find water somewhere else?' Van Eaton answered, "We must first have the water before we can establish a right to it."
    Jarrett said, "Then maybe we should try and be careful about any more growth being allowed until we find water. Van Eaton admitted it's, "a safe statement to say we have limited resources in both water and sewage capacity. Those capacities are going to be reached in the future. In 2010 we'll have a problem with our water rights. I think it's a little further out than that with our waste water facility plant, but the day is coming."
    Council member Bob Shaub entered the discussion: "We can't just say we're going to stop and not do anything. Take the sewer. Let's back up in time to a year ago and say okay we're going stay static in our town. We're not going to have any growth. We'll keep the existing sewer plant the way it is, and put a moratorium on building because we don't want to fill it [sewer plant] up anymore. No community can exist without any kind of growth."
    Jarrett replied, "I'm not saying a moratorium. I'm just saying we have growth out there. We've got two hundred buildable sites plus the old stuff that hasn't been built on. I'm saying let's not approve another 100 lot development when we don't know where we are concerning water. I don't feel comfortable. I don't want to get up and turn my water on and have nothing come out."
    The public works director stated, "We need responsible and balanced growth and we're going to have to wrestle with that. We need to pay our wastewater note with approximately 20 homes a year [hooking up to the sewer] and we've got to be able to provide water."
    Van Eaton added, "Basically the growth management act on the water rights folks have a significant conflict of interest. Growth management requires that we plan 20 years into the future. The Department of Ecology, who is in charge of our surface water rights, wants us to relinquish what water rights we have, if we have more water rights than we have customers.
    "That's a little frightening if anything we are going to run out of water rights. We are slowly moving toward discovering whether or not we have an adequate amount of water not associated with our existing water rights.
    Changing the subject to the budget Shaub questioned if, "we are about ready to have some kind of information coming out so we can review the yearly budget."
   Town Clerk Karrie Lynn Loffelmacher told Shaub, "Yes." Saying, "We just got a phone call today from the State Auditor's Office. They are going to start an audit on the wastewater project in a week and a half."
    "Then it would be Sept. before we would really have anything. And Oct. 15 is when we start putting the budget together for next year," Schaub said. He noted, "So that means we really haven't met the state requirements that we do a midyear review. We haven't been able to do that and I don't want to wait until Sept."

"Pity the poor kids who grow up in a big city. They miss the little things that made growing up in a small town, ah, so wonderful."
~Tom Morrow