Paying the price of building the future

Last night La Conner’s town council met an hour early to discuss the town’s 2022 budget, which they will pass in December. They started with the big-ticket items: the sewer system and wastewater treatment plant and the parks, facilities, streets, water and drainage infrastructure that public works manages. None of this is glamorous, as much as President Biden and Congress have talked about it this year. It is expensive at every level, and more expensive than local and state governments can handle on their own.

Last year La Conner budgeted almost $3.5 million to spend on public works maintenance, about two-thirds of the town’s roughly $5 million budget. As Mayor Ramon Hayes said at the time, in 2021 no major projects were planned after years of executing capital oriented public works projects, including the sewer main on La Conner-Whitney Road, the Caledonia Street pump station and shoreline restoration at Conner Waterfront Park.

That maintenance lull comes to an end in 2022. Tuesday council started discussions on the major long-term investment needed to upgrade or even replace the town’s water treatment plant, now approaching 50 years old. A new water main is needed for a section of Channel Drive. It will cost $100,000 to engineer the project before $1.6 million is spent to replace pipe and resurface the road.

For these and other infrastructure, maintenance, replacements and improvements, there is no debate on going ahead. The projects are all necessary. There is no debate on funding: Council will direct staff to research sources of funds. The schedule for developing projects will be dependent on availability of funds. While the Washington state Legislature has been generous in expanding funding, every community in the state is seemingly like La Conner with critical, necessary projects and seeking sources to cover their requests. The needs are greater than the state government can provide.

La Conner’s federal representatives are all in on the president’s “build back better” infrastructure spending proposals. Reaching out to U.S. Representative Rick Larsen and Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray will get responses of “we know and we are trying.” Moving forward is once again a matter of interpretations of reality and people’s differing beliefs determining not if a project is necessary but if it agrees with their political values.

La Conner may not be able to build much, or will have to repair and replace a little at a time or make decisions on the extent it can borrow if the forces of stasis – the status quo – prevail over U.S. Senators betting on an improved future by making big investments in it.

Locally, some money will be spent. The council has more good, essential long term projects than it has funds it controls.

Council has spent increasing amounts of money on law enforcement, another significant town line item. The contract with the county sheriff’s office is up for renewal. It was $331,000 last year. Will that increase is one question, with yes the almost certain anwer. Another is how else can that money be spent?

Early this summer Town Administrator Scott Thomas summed up options ranging from staffing the code enforcement position to hiring a marshal to contracting with the Swinomish police department. This is a significant decision as well as cost. Town residents with insights as well as opinions will be doing their duty as citizens by sharing their perspectives with council. Council members will be doing their duty by seeking input from residents as well as putting their pencils to ledgers and researching public safety policies and practices in other small Washington communities.

Council members have an arduous budget process ahead of them before finalizing the budget at the end of November. Citizens cannot fund or build a new wastewater treatment plant but they can certainly think about and share their thoughts with council for, no, not defunding the police, but possible ways to shape public safety in La Conner.