Officials with Public Water District No. 6, which provides service to about 3,200 customers in House Springs and Byrnes Mill, are looking at consolidating into the Jefferson County Public Sewer District, but one water district board member said he’s not happy about it.
The two entities have signed an intergovernmental agreement to develop a plan to merge the water district into the sewer district.
Water District 6 has a five-member board of directors elected by the public.
The five members of the sewer district’s governing board are appointed by the Jefferson County executive and approved by the County Council. The sewer district currently provides water service to three subdivisions: Mirasol, in the Jefferson County portion of Eureka; Raintree Plantation, northwest of Hillsboro; and Summer Set Lakes, south of De Soto.
The sewer district board voted unanimously at its October meeting to enter into the agreement, said Doug Bjornstad, manager of the sewer district.
Kevin Ritz, manager of the water district, said that board voted 4-1 in an October executive session and then in a November regular meeting to approve the agreement.
Water board member Gary Goede cast the sole dissenting vote.
“I don’t believe any agreement is needed that would require us to give up local control,” Goede said. “People on our board are elected and we represent the people. They’re trying to turn our district over to people who are hand-picked by the county executive in Hillsboro.”
Bjornstad said the idea for the merger came up after his district in 2018 examined the feasibility of building a water treatment facility on the Meramec River in the Eureka area.
“After that, we continued to stay in touch (with the water district), and the discussion continued on how we could consolidate to improve services to the customers,” he said.
Bjornstad said the Jefferson County Sewer District provides sewer service to about 1,600 homes and businesses in the water district’s boundaries.
“Instead of two different bills, they would receive and pay one bill,” he said. “Instead of, when someone wants to dig in their yard to put in a mailbox, they have to have two agencies come out and mark their lines, only one would come out. They (residents) would have only one phone number to call for service.”
Bjornstad said he couldn’t promise that District No. 6 customers’ water rates would be reduced under a consolidation.
“No, I wouldn’t say that would happen immediately,” Bjornstad said. “But it’s entirely possible that given the economies of scale that would come from a larger district, they could go down at one point and certainly wouldn’t rise as much in the future.”
Kevin Ritz, who has been manager of Water District No. 6 since October, said he believes consolidating into the sewer district would help improve the water system down the road.
“We have an aging infrastructure, and their ability to issue bonds might help us down the line,” he said.
Goede said the water district has about $3 million in reserves, and he’s concerned the sewer district will use that money for projects elsewhere.
“Maybe the sewer district will be great people and use our money the way they should, but I’m not buying into that,” Goede said.
However, Ritz said he doesn’t agree.
“If this (merger) happened, they’re not going to allow the House Springs system to run down,” Ritz said. “Most of our infrastructure was put in in the 1960s. I can tell you that we’re seven years into a 10-year improvement plan and we haven’t done anything yet. And everything’s getting older.”
The two districts can’t consolidate now, though, Bjornstad said, because state law doesn’t allow that.
However, state Rep. Dan Shaul (R-Imperial) has filed legislation that would allow the merger.
Bjornstad said the county sewer district has hired a lobbyist who specializes in public sewer and water issues to promote the bill in Jefferson City for $2,000 a month – another point Goede said he has issues with.
“Jefferson County Public Sewer hired this lobbyist, but we’re (Water District 6) sharing half of the cost,” he said. “I didn’t vote for that, either.”
Goede said Shaul’s bill also includes other provisions dealing with public sewer districts that he doesn’t believe the water district’s taxpayers should be helping to pay for.
He said if Shaul’s legislation does not pass and the consolidation is not allowed, it would be a public relations disaster for the water district.
“When I was elected (to the board in April 2019), we were talking about whether we should ask for a bond issue for improvements,” Goede said. “If this falls through, how are we going to sell a bond issue to our people, knowing we were just trying to put their water district out of business?”
Ritz said the agreement with the sewer district would obligate the sewer district to employ the water district’s six employees without a decrease in pay.
He said because the sewer district now has only administrative staff and no field workers, if it takes over the water district operations, it would need the additional expertise.
“Even if (Shaul’s bill) passes, a consolidation probably won’t happen immediately,” Ritz said. “It could be months or years, depending on all the issues that will need to be sorted out. But I can tell you that the majority of our board would not be on board with this if they didn’t feel that it was for the benefit of our customers, both now and in the future.”