What you need to know if the Eastern Idaho Regional Waste Water Association becomes a district

AMMON, Idaho (KIFI) - Those living in Ammon, Shelley and parts of Bingham and Bonneville counties will have an important decision to make Tuesday. That will be whether or not Eastern Idaho Regional Waste Water Association (EIRWWA) should be converted into a Sewer District instead of a joint powers authority.

As it is currently structured, the Joint Powers Authority has four board members. Each of the four are appointed by the city councils and different county commissions the water treatment plant serves. Currently, Ammon is the largest user of EIRWWA with 70% of its use being for Ammon. 24% is from Shelley, the other 6% is from the county.

Ammon Mayor Sean Coletti says if a district is formed, "It will provide better representation for city users, for city residents and businesses who use the system than we currently have."

Mayor Coletti adds better representation will make things fairer for all the users involved.

"It's more fair for us based on our population and our size than the current makeup is. And also those representatives will be elected and not appointed anymore elected by the public."

Those elected representatives will make up a new board. The new Board will include, 5 people most likely representing 5 different zones. Mayor Coletti tells us how the board will look.

"There are five, and Ammon has three of those representatives, and Shelley would have two."

He says the five zones will be able to include the different members of the county users as well.

Mayor Coletti also says if the vote passes the transition to a district, it will offer better funding options to the users of the plant.

"The district will have the ability to apply any future bonds equally across all the users. County and city combined...The other thing is that sewer districts have greater access to financing for, future expansions of the plant than the current arrangement." Those options include "to grants and loans." That are available to Sewage Districts.

For any other concerns regarding the transition to a district Mayor Coletti said, "One point that's very important for the public to know is that they're there. The vote is only to create to form the district. It's a legal entity where right now there's not a legal entity and it's not to raise taxes or raise fees or anything is simply to do a conversion to a sewer district. It's a structural change."

For more information on this ballot point you can find it on an EIRWWA webpage here.