Keep SVWSID separate...
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     The Spanish Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District has over $1 million of revenue from water and sewer fees and Grand Water and Sewer Service Agency wants control. The improvement district has the obligation to provide culinary water and sewer service to Spanish Valley from approximately the south border of Moab city to the San Juan County line. The improvement district has a board elected by the rate payers, and the board was formed for the protection of the rate payers in the district. The other boards are appointed by the county or the governor of Utah.

    The Grand County Water Conservancy District was formed primarily to provide irrigation water from Ken's Lake to the golf course and other property owners in Grand County. 

    GWSSA was formed to coordinate the daily operation of the conservancy district and the improvement district.

    Both GWSSA and the conservancy district have little or no income and have looked to the $1 million in revenue from the improvement district to support their operations.

    The current agreement between GWSSA and the other districts allows the improvement district to withdraw from the GWSSA umbrella if they are dissatisfied. GWSSA wants to control the $1 million of revenue generated by the improvement district by changing their agreement to not allowing the improvement district to withdraw from GWSSA's control for any reason.

    Changing the contract is not in the best interests of the people in Grand County who pay for water and sewer service. The improvement district's elected board is responsible to the citizens of Grand County and live in the district. The other GWSSA boards can live outside the district's boundaries and do not have to have ties with the rate payers. The agenda of GWSSA has not always been beneficial to the rate payers in Grand County. Several years ago, GWSSA wanted to enlarge the district's boundaries to make Grand County water available to thousands of acres of new state School and Institutional Trust Lands property and part of San Juan County.

    In summary, changing the contract between GWSSA and the improvement district will place the $1 million of revenue generated by the improvement district under the control of the appointed GWSSA boards. Call the elected board members of the improvement district ‒ Lance Christie, Gary Wilson, Mike Holyoak, John Hartley, and Tom Stengel ‒ and tell them that the improvement district needs to keep their independence from GWSSA and not change the current contract.

‒William Love



Moab
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