[Skamania] 🚰 Stevenson's Sewer Rebellion - April '26 City Round-up

 In this episode of the Skamania Dispatch, we dive into the April 16th Stevenson City Council meeting, where residents staged a highly organized pushback against the city's mandatory sewer connection ordinance. We break down the difference between "proximity" and "condition-based" rules, and look at how neighboring cities in Oregon and Washington are softening the financial blow for homeowners.

In This Episode:

• Balancing pedestrian safety and stormwater runoff on Lasher Street.
• Securing the Rock Creek water intake before summer.
• The appointment of a new City Council member.
• Approaching deadlines for the permanent City Administrator search.

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com.
• Review the April 16 Meeting Packet & Agenda
• Watch the full City Council Video via the city website.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Skmania Dispatch audio briefing. I'm bringing you inside the April 16th Stevenson City Council meeting, where the dominant energy in the room was frustration and equal parts organization. The big story is a brewing rebellion over the city's sewer connection ordinance. Right now, if your property abuts a municipal sewer line, you're required to connect. But residents led by property owners like Brian McNamara and Bob Worthheimer are pushing back hard. They're lobbying for what's called a condition-based framework. That means you would only be forced to connect to the city sewer if your private septic system actually fails, rather than just living near a city pipe. The friction here is definitely financial. The city relies on system development charges, which we heard about in a prior episode, to fund long-term infrastructure capacity. These are usually the costs that are incurred by people who want to make a new connection to a sewer system to try and offset the cost to the total system, so not all ratepayers are charged. But for existing homeowners with perfectly good septic tanks, being forced to connect is a massive unbudgeted expense. We looked at how other regional cities are handling this exact growing pain. Down in Bend, Oregon, the city partnered with local nonprofit leaders to offer low interest and deferred payment loans for that connection cost. And up in Lacey, Washington, the city actively helps neighborhoods from local improvement districts to pool the capital costs together. Stevenson has some decisions to make and an approaching deadline. The current moratorium on those sewer penalties for not connecting automatically expires on August 31st. So turning now to another area of public works, the council held a public hearing on the Lasher Street project. The current plan is to build new sidewalks on only one side of the street, which is a strategic compromise between pedestrian safety and managing stormwater runoff. Meanwhile, the council approved a phase two contract with Grayling Engineering to rehabilitate the Rock Creek intake. They capped the design and engineering costs for this critical water intake at $257,745. It's definitely a steep price, but an essential investment to explore what is restricting the city's primary water flow before the summer construction window opens, and of course, as it starts to get drier and drier out here in the gorge. A quick look at a few other items from the desk. The council formally appointed Aaron Delana to City Council position number three. They also approved a $29,731 contract with Schamania EDC. With our links to the full meeting packet and raw council video, be sure to check out the text version of this newsletter. You've been listening to a production of open gorge.org, home of the Schemania Dispatch and the Click of Tattler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the gorge, head over to schemania dispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.comslash opengorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.