By Jennifer Langston
Herald Writer
MONROE — The home that Mike Mesneak and his wife are building outside Monroe is halfway finished, already framed, plumbed and waiting for drywall.
They bought the half-acre lot in the Milwaukee Hills Estates after the city sent a letter to county planners a year ago agreeing to provide water to the property.
Mesneak and his family, who moved to Monroe a year and a half ago, had already invested about $200,000 in the land and the home.
So Mesneak nearly had a heart attack when the city engineer called last week saying the city council had decided not to supply water to any new customers outside Monroe’s urban growth boundary.
Unless he could drill a well, that meant his property would be uninhabitable and virtually worthless.
"I thought he was kidding," Mesneak said. "I told him that they had already committed to providing water to the house … and I didn’t see legally how they could get away with that."
That decision was reversed by Monroe Mayor Donnetta Walser a day later, who consulted with attorneys and decided that applicants who had already been promised city water service should be able to get it.
She reinstated water service and granted applications for 14 people who had been denied. "People have counted on this and committed money to it," Walser said. "You can’t just come in and say you can’t have water."
But the city is trying to get its arms around a water shortage that some leaders worry could leave current customers high and dry during a fire or the hot summer months when everybody’s watering lawns.
The city plans to revisit its policies for providing water service, and possibly the boundaries of its delivery area, in the coming months.
"The city of Monroe has grown so fast that one of our concerns is water storage and being able to deliver water," Walser said. "There’s a question right now of how much we have available."
The problem isn’t getting enough water from the city of Everett, from which Monroe buys water. The problem is having enough storage space in the city’s reservoirs, which currently hold about 4.8 million gallons.
City Engineer Brad Feilberg said the city is about 100,000 gallons short of storage room recommended by state guidelines in case service is disrupted or a major fire breaks out.
City councilman Marc Mechling, who interprets the guidelines differently, thinks the city may be closer to a 2-million gallon deficit.
During summer months when water consumption is high, residents in some areas have already complained to the council about turning on their taps and having nothing come out.
Last summer one of the city’s reservoirs was about 80 percent empty. Until it rained, the reservoir was being drained faster than it could be filled up.
While the city does need more storage, Feilberg said the deficits shouldn’t panic anyone.
"The reason you have the extra storage is for the worst case scenario and a comfort factor," he said. "It was intruding into our comfort factor…but it wasn’t an emergency situation."
The city is planning to build a new $3.1 million reservoir in the North Hill area, which would hold another 1.15 million gallons. In a best-case scenario, that won’t be usable until fall of next year.
"It’s kind of footrace for whether we’re going to get the north hill tower online before (new developments) come in, and really the last thing we need is for a bunch of other people hooking up while we’re not sure we can serve the residents," Mechling said.
That’s why the city council originally wanted to withdraw or deny the water certificates granted to people outside the urban growth boundary.
The urban growth boundary was drawn to encourage new development near existing cities and discourage development farther away to preserve farms and open space.
The council wanted to try to delay new connections in outlying areas until the city was sure it could meet the needs of current customers, Mechling said.
"The city is in a real bind in my opinion," he said. "We have an obligation to serve everybody water who asks for it, but we also have liability if the fire trucks show up and water runs out before the fire is dead."
But Tim and Michelle Rice already got assurances from the city a year ago that it had enough water to service the property north of Monroe near Chain Lake Road they were looking at buying.
Now that they’re ready to break ground, they applied for a city water meter 10 days ago. They were stunned when they were told they couldn’t get one.
"If they weren’t going to give me water, they might as well buy the lot from me," Tim Rice said. "It kind of throws you back."
It was those complaints that led Mayor Walser to get legal advice and overturn the decision. The city council realized it needed to overhaul its policies in a comprehensive way before deciding who should and shouldn’t get water, Mechling said.
That could include shrinking the boundaries of the city’s water delivery area to match the urban growth boundary, officials said, or delaying new hookups until the new storage reservoir gets built.
Until that happens, Monroe will use its current policies and provide water to any applicant who meets existing requirements.
Mesneak said he was quite relieved when the city told him 24 hours later that his half-built house would have flowing taps after all.
"I spent a sleepless night for sure," he said. "I think this could have all been avoided if they had just thought it through a little bit."
You can call Herald Writer Jennifer Langston at 425-339-3452 or send e-mail to langston@heraldnet.com.
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