After successful negotiations, the councils of Rossland and Trail have reached an agreement regarding the long-standing dispute over cost apportionment for sewer services.
The new agreement will provide a fair funding formula for the participating partners: City of Trail, City of Rossland and Village of Warfield.
Over the next two years the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, as the administrator of the regional service, will be implementing a user-pay funding formula.
This will involve installing the necessary volume measuring equipment. In the meantime, municipal costs will be apportioned using the following formula:
• Trail – 62.56 per cent
• Rossland – 24.90 per cent
• Warfield – 12.54 per cent
“We’re pleased that the agreement will ensure a fair sharing of costs for everyone and an incentive for participants to control their water usage as water usage relates directly to flows,” said Mayor Greg Granstrom.
The City of Trail was “relieved” to finally put the longstanding sewer dispute behind, said Trail Mayor Dieter Bogs.
“Now we can move forward and focus our efforts on other important matters in the service and dealing with the Liquid Waste Management Plan,” he said.
The regional district will now be responsible for drafting the new Service Establishment Bylaw and then providing it to the three member municipalities to the service for their approval.