Get out your checkbook, Ron Sims, because Snohomish County is ready to start discussions on what King County must pay for locating the Brightwater sewage treatment plant in south Snohomish County.
For starters, King County must spend $17 million to build three new parks near the Highway 9 plant site, the Snohomish County Council announced with a 5-0 vote Wednesday.
That vote officially launched negotiations between the two counties on the price tag.
Council members said building three new parks by the time the $1.48 billion sewage treatment plant opens in 2010 is a must. But they added that King County must pay far more than that for foisting its new sewage treatment plant on the county.
“We’re trying to represent the citizens of our county the best way we can,” Council vice chairman Gary Nelson said, adding that King County can’t “buy off the County Council.”
With Wednesday’s vote, the council sends an $800 million menu of options that County Executive Aaron Reardon will now use to negotiate how much King County will pay.
King County has said it would pay $88 million to offset the effects of the Brightwater plant, an amount based on 10 percent of the overall project cost. Most of the $88 million will go to Snohomish County, but some of it will offset impacts in King County.
Nelson said King County should pay more than $88 million and that Snohomish County should get most of the money.
Reardon is ready to start discussions with King County, said Reardon’s spokesman, Mark Funk.
The council’s vote is “a good beginning,” Funk said, adding that bringing most of the $88 million to Snohomish County would be a good thing.
For its part, King County is excited that negotiations can finally get under way, said Christie True, Brightwater project director.
“We’re just very pleased that the Snohomish County Council has taken this step to identify its priorities,” she said.
The menu of options includes building new parks, improving roads and creating new wetlands.
The three new parks that the council said must be built will be called Maltby Community Park, Tambark Creek Park and Sunquist Park Facility.
Not on the list is a proposal for an environmental education center at the Brightwater site, a proposal that’s popular among area teachers but that the council opposes because there is no money to pay for it. That center could cost $6 million to $8 million, money that would count toward the $88 million total.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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