City Council members agreed unanimously Monday evening to issue two series of utility system revenue bonds to provide funds to pay for a long list of absolute, have-to-do sewer, stormwater and water projects.
The total principal on the bonds is $21,295,000.
The bonds will pay a portion of the cost of improvements, fund the utility reserve requirement, pay the cost of issuance and sale of the bonds and provide for their delivery to Seattle Northwest Securities Corp. of Seattle.
One necessity the public will get from the proceeds is water and sewer pumps as big as a good-sized room, each costing several million dollars.
“Those are hugely expensive,” Mayor Pete Lewis acknowledged. “On the other side, it’s what keeps us all from being afloat in one thing or another.”
Lewis added that the pumps ensure when Auburn residents turn on their taps, they can be certain of water quality that’s not found in most of the countries of the world.
City leaders said they chose to pay for the improvements with revenue bonds to avoid having to pass enormous up-front costs at one shot onto ratepayers in their sewer or water bills.
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Storm
• Total project: $4.1 million
• White River pump station: $2.6 million
• West Valley Highway: $800K
• SCADA (telemetry system): $686,000
Sewer
• $4.9 million
• Ellingson pump station (by Cool’s Café): $2.6 million
• Pump station decommission: $390K
• 2009/2010 planned repair and replacement yet unfunded, funded by this bonding: $762K
• SCADA: $1.l million
Water system
• Water charges, Cascade: $3 million
• SCADA: $1.2 million
• Academy booster pump: $500K
• Lakeland booster pump: $2.8 million
• Lakeland reservoir: $2.5 million
• Asbestos cement main pipe replacement: $1 million
