Thank you to everyone who attended the Special meeting. The meeting video, presentation, and By-law ballot are attached. Community members who wish to vote via proxy must mail or hand-deliver their ballot by April 25th, 2024. Ballots should be mailed to P.O. Box 85 Oak Harbor, WA 98277
By-laws were also uploaded. They can be found here.
Meeting files
Location: Best Western Conference room, 33175 SR 20, Oak Harbor, WA
Time: Tuesday April 9th 2024 – 6:00 PM
Greetings and a belated Happy New Year from your Water Board. Over the past six months the board has made progress on a number of fronts, also faced some new challenges. A special meeting is needed to bring everyone up to date and obtain community input on some key questions. These topics are very important, please make every effort to attend.
Water Administration Updates – Our certified Water Administrator is King Water. Late last year their company was purchased by a Water Administration company based in Oregon. We are working through the personnel changes now. The new owners are implementing a revised fee structure and service agreement. Upon initial review, the changes are likely to increase our monthly fees. We will be summarizing these fee changes, as well as alternative Water Administrator options under consideration.
Small Water System Management Program – Washington State Department of Health administers the State standards for water systems like ours. For water systems established before 1977 -and- are not attempting to expand service connections, the planning process is less intensive, but still necessary. We searched the records from previous boards and we could not locate a pre-existing Water System plan on record. To that end, the Board has taken the task to implement it. The Small Water System Management Program is a WSDOH planning tool for community water systems to build technical, managerial, and financial capacity. Adoption of the Water System plan has requirements necessitating changes to our by-laws, which requires a community vote.
Multiple service connection issue – Last year the Board issued a Water Availability Verification form to an Association member for the construction of a Single-Family residence on their lot. The WAV was then used to acquire two building permits for Single-family dwellings on that member’s lot, which is against our by-laws and risks consuming more than the single service connection granted to all Association members. After we held an initial discussion with the member which did not reach consensus, the Board voted to escalate to our attorney & the Island County Health / Island County Planning Department. Given the potential litigation and well system risks we face, it’s important to brief the community on this matter and our options for resolution.
Elections – The current board was established via appointment due to resignations during the Covid timeframe. At the last community meeting we noted that elections would be held at the 2024 annual meeting in June. At this special meeting, we will compile a list of all Association members interested in running for a Board position. All Board positions are up for election, and all five board current members are seeking re-election. Per our By-laws the official election cannot take place until the Annual meeting, but this early meeting will enable a chance for candidates to introduce themselves to others and ask current board members about their responsibilities.
The Board set ambitious goals to improve water reliability, availability, and quality while keeping costs as low as possible. It improved communication channels to minimize surprise downtime as well as enable greater collaboration with members. Lastly, it is tackling the planning work necessary to ensure we maintain our high rating with regulatory agencies. This is a very important meeting for our Association.
Hank Nydam – President
Ty Balascio – Vice President
Wayne McAninch – Secretary/Treasurer
Tony Richter – Water System Manager
Brian Lefler – Director