By Jack Carrerow, Staff Writer
In this day of rising prices, the Gardiner Sanitary District went the other way, adopting a budget that is about $6,000 lower than last year’s total of $214,000.
In explaining the lower amount for the coming year, office manager Larry Kramer said it was a matter of overestimating some costs.
“We budgeted certain items that turned out not to cost us as much,” Kramer said.
The $6,000 savings is just what the district needed at this time, board member Dixie Hash said.
“We were in the hole and this past year allowed us to catch up a bit,” Hash said. “Our big expense is paying Reedsport for the wastewater service, so we were getting pretty far behind with what revenue we have.”
The district also was given until October on its Mutual Order Agreement with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to figure out who will treat Gardiner’s wastewater in the future.
The district has been looking into using the treatment facility that is housed in the shut-down International Paper Co. mill site, but that option exists only if — whenever it’s purchased — the new owners allow the district to utilize the pumping station that still exists on the site.
The other option is for the district to reach agreement with the city of Reedsport to continue using its wastewater plant.
It has been a tough negotiation that has been going on for about six months. Board member Jackie Degman is hopeful it can be resolved before too long.
“We’ve sent them another proposal, so we’ll see what happens this time,” Degman said. “It would be nice to have this settled, so we can get on with business.”
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