Why are you running for election to the Midway City Sanitary District Board of Directors?

By Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger

I am running for re-election to the Midway City Sanitary District because when I was elected two years ago I found conditions were not optimal. I have worked hard to resolve these conditions and want to ensure the District holds fast to the groundwork we have worked so hard to put in place.

The infrastructure was built for a city that grew, but most of the infrastructure was built to serve a much smaller population that we now have. Sewer pump stations have an average "life span" of 25 years. Ours had served well beyond their life spans. While no one expected the water tank in Westminster to burst, it did. With this information and looking at events around the world like the levee situation in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and Rita devastated that city; after an unexpected Tsunami devastated large portions of Asia; it seemed to me that elected officials should better prepare the infrastructure for the "unexpected".

I initiated a 20 year financial study and projection which indicated that the MCSD did not have sufficient reserves or cash flow to adequately address the hardest issues in a timely manner (before a disaster could strike). There are many other "unfunded state Mandates" that the district was trying to meet as well. Grants were applied for and in some cases the MCSD received good grants for these projects but there would not be a grant to cover the $10 million that was needed to meet state mandates and refurbish or replace those pump stations. The district took what are called "Certificates of Participation" (a loan) out to cover these expenses and get them done in a two-to-three year period. The design phase is underway now. You will soon see these projects under construction. If you will look at your MCSD Newsletter which will be mailed in November 2006, you will see where these projects will be happening.

This necessitated the increase of fees you see on your tax bills. But in order to get the loans to do this we had to assure the financing agency that we would have sufficient cash flow to pay the loan back and that meant raising the fees. This is NOT something a newly elected official EVER WANTS to do. I certainly didn't. But it was "bite the bullet time" and this work was desperately needed or we could pretty much count on our own "disaster".

The Midway City Sanitary District had not raised fees in about 18 years. And still, with these raises the district is STILL among the lowest fees in the County for these services.

I want your vote in November to make sure the district stays on course and the infrastructure is strong for all our futures.