Lake Forest Park to embark on sewer alterations

Lake Forest Park’s sewer system is up for discussion.

Two related issues are simultaneously on the charts – how to fund sewer system replacements and possibly extending sewers to unserved areas of the city.

According to the city’s Web site, in 2003 the city expanded its sewer service by 2,325 new customers, including two pump stations and 39 miles of new sewer pipe. The city now provides sewer service to about 4,155 city customers with sewer mains that were constructed during the 1960s. The life of pipes is about 40 years.

In anticipation of future funding needs to replace the pipes and possible expansion of the sewer system, the City Council will soon be embarking on a discussion of these issues, with the goal of determining how to best operate the city’s sewer utility.

To help map out the issues, consultants with Financial Consulting Solutions Group, Inc., were hired by the city to conduct a sewer rate study. The consultants prepared two presentations for the Council, the first discussing rates and the second addressing the rates as a method of financing projects to bring sewers to the remaining unserved areas of the city, said city engineer Neil Jensen.

“The Council hasn’t decided anything yet, the administration is giving them a bunch of information,” Jensen said. “They will take the information and engage in a dialogue that will result in decisions being made.”

A sewer study had not been undertaken in many years, Jensen said, and city staff wanted to take a closer look at the utility and the cost of maintaining the system to see if the rates were appropriate. Jensen also said the Council is interested in possibly constructing sanitary sewer projects in areas of the city that do not have sewer services. About 230 properties are not part of the city system, Jensen said. Many of those properties are undeveloped.

Several property owners are interested in the city extending the sewer main to serve their homes, Jensen said, and the city is working to determine how that can be accomplished.

Over the course of the next few months, Jensen said the Council will consider current rates and possible new ones as presented, and will debate unserved areas and policies they may have to approve or create to bring sewers to those areas.