CHAFFEE VOTERS WILL FACE BOND ISSUE IN NOVEMBER

CHAFFEE -- Voters in Chaffee will be asked to approve an estimated $500,000 bond issue in November to finance improvements for the city's waste water treatment plant and a sewer line and lift station.

The sewer line and lift station are planned for North Frisco Street.

Chaffee City Council members approved the bond issue election Monday night at their regular council meeting. In other action, the council adopted a 94-cent city tax rate for the 1991-1992 fiscal year, an increase of four cents over fiscal year 1990-1991.

The city council now will draft an ordinance for the bond issue, with official approval planned for its next meeting, said Ward 2 Councilman Ed Gauthier.

Approval of the bond issue came after Ward 4 Councilman Tom Cunningham recommended that the city put in the sewer line and lift station on North Frisco Street in addition to the improvements to the city's waste water treatment plant.

"This is something that is not there," Cunningham said of the sewer line. "The sewage lagoon problem is a project that we really were forced to do something we don't want to do. The sewer line on Frisco we feel is something the people deserve."

Cunningham said residents in the area now must use septic tanks.

He said city council members and members of the city's water and finance committees met last week and had recommended the improvements. Cunningham serves as chairman of both committees.

The project can be paid off over 20 years, he said. Cunningham also said the city could get a federal grant that would fund up to 15 percent of the project. This is the last year the city could get the grant, he said.

The bond issue would finance improvements needed to bring the city's waste water treatment plant into compliance with state guidelines.

Suspended solids levels in the plant's discharge exceed the state guidelines, and city officials last summer decided to deal with the problem by deepening one of the plant's four cells.

Some of the city officials stressed their support of the improvements Monday when they approved the bond issue.

"I don't think we have a choice," said Gauthier. Ward 1 Councilman Jerry Wolsey added: "There's no choice at all. It has to be done."

Chaffee Mayor Ron Moyers said the city's back had been "against the wall" for several years. The mayor said that although he doesn't expect a tax increase, the bond issue might be "a hard sell.

"In proceeding with this bond issue, we're going to have to work hard and publicize the fact we do not propose any increase, but that we do have the leverage to do so if it becomes necessary," he said.

According to Gauthier, $50,000 in city funds are earmarked for sewer and related improvements. He said the funds for the improvements had accrued from a voter-approved bond issue.

Wolsey said council members have agreed to go door-to-door in their wards to explain why the bond issue is needed.

The tax rate approved Monday includes 72 cents for the city's general fund and 11 cents for each of the city's park and library funds. Revenues budgeted from those funds, respectively, are $80,000 and $11,000, for a total of $102,000.

The city's assessed valuation for the current fiscal year is $11,377,258, compared to $11,453,351 in the 1990-1991 fiscal year.