All costs and expenses incidental to the installation, connection or disconnection of a side sewer shall be borne by the owner. The owner shall indemnify and hold harmless the town for any loss or damage that directly or indirectly be occasioned by the installation of the side sewer, by installers other than town utility personnel.
(Ord. 413 § 4.01, 1993)
There shall be a nonrefundable fee for each side sewer permit application. The application fee shall be twenty-five dollars ($25.00), payable at the time of application; except that there shall be no application fee for a permit to disconnect a side sewer.
(Ord. 413 § 4.02, 1993)
The charge for the physical installation of any part of a side sewer within any public area by town utility personnel as provided for in this chapter, shall be the actual cost of the labor, machine time, and materials, plus ten (10) percent to cover overhead and billing. This charge shall be due upon completion of the work and paid prior to use of the side sewer.
(Ord. 413 § 4.03, 1993)
A. 
A sewer system development fee as determined in this section must be paid in the following manner:
1. 
Payment of five percent of the total fee prior to the issuance of the side sewer service permit, with the balance received prior to the final approval or use of the town side sewer service; or
2. 
Payment in accordance with a contract with the town, approved by the town council. Such contract shall include appropriate interest, administrative fee (nonrefundable) and a requirement that upon sale or transfer of any interest other than a leasehold interest in the property for which the permit has been granted, the entire remaining balance due for payment of the permit shall become immediately due and payable without further notice by the town.
B. 
The sewer system development fee shall not apply to Town Hall, town maintenance, town water system, town park and town wastewater system facilities.
C. 
Sewer system development fees for low-income or permanently affordable housing units may be waived per RCW 35.92.380, upon a recommendation by town staff and decision by the town council, pursuant to the following conditions:
1. 
"Low-income housing"
means housing with a monthly housing expense that is no greater than eighty (80) percent of the area median family income for Okanogan County, as defined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD") and adjusted for family size.
2. 
"Affordable housing"
means housing with monthly costs, including utilities other than telephone, that do not exceed thirty (30) percent of a household's monthly income.
3. 
"Permanently affordable housing"
means housing that is subject to a community land trust ground lease or covenant recorded with the Okanogan County auditor ensuring that the covered housing unit will remain affordable for ninety-nine (99) years.
4. 
The grant of any waiver may be conditioned upon the receipt by the town of grants or donations in an amount sufficient to reimburse the sewer utility for the amount of the waiver, or the identification of sufficient town funds dedicated to affordable housing purposes to cover the amount of the waiver.
5. 
The grant of any waiver to a mixed-income project shall be conditioned upon a minimum of twenty-five (25) percent of the total units being dedicated to serving low-income households. The waiver may be proportional to the percentage of housing meeting the definition of "low-income" or "permanently affordable."
6. 
The grant of any such waiver shall also be conditioned upon a requirement that the property owner supply documentation acceptable to the town that the housing unit(s) are eligible for the waiver as low-income or permanently affordable housing. Acceptable documentation must be binding on the owner(s), and their assigns, heirs, and successors, and must:
a. 
Establish price restrictions and household income limits for the low-income or permanently affordable housing;
b. 
Provide that the low-income or permanently affordable housing must remain utilized as such for the life of the project and cannot during the life of the project be converted to another use; and
c. 
Address reporting and monitoring requirements and any other topics related to the provision of low-income or permanently affordable housing units deemed necessary by the town.
7. 
A bond or an assignment of savings account/certificate of deposit, equal to the amount of the waived connection charges shall be required to ensure that the low-income or permanently affordable housing is constructed and successfully implemented.
8. 
The town may, at its sole discretion, establish a monitoring fee for the low-income units to cover the costs to the city to review and process documents to maintain compliance with low-income restrictions of the covenant.
D. 
The sewer system development fee for new town side sewer service shall be computed using the following formula:
[Current ENR CCI/Base ENR CCI] x [Total ERU Cost]
Where,
Base ENR CCI
= Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index for Seattle on Sept., 1989.
= 4932
Current ENR CCI
= Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index for Seattle for the month that the complete service application is filed.
Total ERU Cost
= The total number of ERUs for the new service using the ERU schedule, Article 5, of this chapter, applied to the following cost schedule:
First ERU
$1,000.00
Second through fourth ERU
900.00
Fifth through ninth ERU
810.00
Tenth through fourteenth ERU
729.00
Fifteenth through nineteenth ERU
656.00
Twentieth or more ERUs
590.00
E. 
The sewer system development fee for any expansion of, change in use of, or addition to, a building or structure that raises the ERU rating of an existing service connection, shall result in the obligation to pay an incremental sewer system development fee, computed by assessing the ERU cost only to the difference between the old and the new ERU rating established for that service.
F. 
The sewer system development fee for public sewer service outside the town limits shall be two times the fee determined for public sewer service within the town limits.
G. 
For the purposes of this chapter an existing service connection shall be defined as a connection to the public sewer system that has paid a hook-up fee specific to that connection, and paid a minimum of single-family user fees specific to that connection from the time of payment of the hook-up fee, or meets the criteria established under Section 13.12.280 of this article. Any active connection that was connected prior to the establishment of any hook-up or connection fees by the town and that has been paying a minimum of single-family user fees as a separate and individual service connection from any other service connection, shall also be considered an existing service connection under this chapter.
H. 
The payment of the cost of the installation of a connection from the main line to the property shall not constitute the establishment of an existing service connection.
I. 
All sewer system development fees collected shall be paid into a special interest-bearing capital dedicated reserve account of the town or into a special sinking fund account for debt service payments as determined by the town council.
J. 
Monies collected from the sewer system development fee shall be used solely to finance increases in the public sewer system capacity including but not limited to the following:
1. 
Enlargement and upgrading of the public sewer system or equipment or elements thereof;
2. 
That portion of town water system conservation measures that directly contribute to reduced per capita demands on the public sewer system;
3. 
Debt service payments for any loans, bonds, notes or other evidence of indebtedness legally incurred by the town for the purposes of increasing the capacity of the public sewer system.
K. 
The monies collected from the sewer system development fees may not be used to finance routine maintenance and repair activities or other expenses solely related to operation of the system.
L. 
In the event that any owner does not actually connect to the town sewer system within six months of the granting of the permit referred to above, he/she may apply for a rebate of his/her sewer system development fee, in writing, for up to eighteen (18) months from the first permit date of issue. In such event, ninety (90) percent of the sewer system development fee shall be rebated to said owner. The ten (10) percent of such fee retained by the town shall be deemed necessary to cover the town's administrative costs and capital expansion plans made in reliance of anticipated systems development needs. All service charges and connection fees paid by the owner in such circumstances shall be entirely retained by the town.
(Ord. 780 § 1 (Exh. A), 2024; Ord. 413 § 4.04, 1993)
A. 
A service line shall be presumed to be abandoned by the owner when service charges have been unpaid for a period of one year. Except as provided in subsection F of this section, upon abandonment pursuant to this section, town service can be resumed only upon payment of a new sewer system development fee.
B. 
If a hook-up fee has been paid to the town for a property, prior to the passage of the ordinance codified in this chapter, and such property has not been paying monthly sewer user charges, the property owner shall pay the monthly sewer user charges from the month of passage of the ordinance codified in this chapter forward at the rate determined for a single- family residence, or the service shall be deemed abandoned. The town shall give public notice of this requirement in the same manner and for the same time period as that required for passage of a town ordinance. The public sewer service cannot be restored unless a new sewer system development fee is paid.
C. 
If a structure served by a town system is torn down or destroyed, the owner can either voluntarily abandon the service line or prevent abandonment by paying the service charges to the town in an amount equal the charges prior to the building's destruction.
D. 
Any property owner may voluntarily abandon their service line by written notice of their intention to do so to the town. Such service line shall be deemed abandoned upon receipt of said notice, and physical abatement of the line as may be required in the town's sewer use ordinance.
E. 
If a service line is abandoned pursuant to this article, service charges to the property or building shall cease to accrue upon the effective date of the abandonment. However, abandonment pursuant to this article shall not relieve the owner of their obligation to pay the sewer utility balance due prior to the date of abandonment.
F. 
In cases where the sewer service line has been abandoned for failure to pay service charges for a period of one year as set forth in subsection A of this section, a new bona fide purchaser for value of the property subject to the abandonment shall have the option to restore service to the property if the following conditions are met:
1. 
The new purchaser must exercise such option within one year of the date of abandonment of the town sewer service to the property;
2. 
The new purchaser must be a bona fide purchaser for value, which for the purposes of this subsection, shall mean a person, firm, corporation, company or entity that has purchased or been assigned the property for an amount that is equivalent to at least fifty (50) percent of the fair market value of the property, or at least fifty (50) percent of the current assessed value of the property as determined by the Okanogan County assessor, whichever is less. The new purchaser shall be required to produce the documentation substantiating the requirements of this subsection, and "new purchaser" shall not mean any assignee, transferee, heir or devisee, or entity, unless they meet the definition of a bona fide purchaser for value;
3. 
The sewer utility balance due prior to the date of abandonment, as well as any unpaid system development fees or other fees from the previous owner prior to abandonment must be paid in full;
4. 
All service charges based on the prior use of the property that would have accrued from the time of abandonment to the time the option to restore service is exercised, must be paid in full; and
5. 
The equivalent residential units ("ERU") of wastewater as required for any proposed use pursuant to Winthrop Municipal Code, Chapter 13.16, must be available for discharge, as determined at the sole discretion of the town.
If the above conditions are met, a new purchaser may choose to reduce their level of ERU use to be applied subsequent to the date the option is exercised by the new purchaser.
(Ord. 642 § 1 (part), 2012; Ord. 413 § 4.05, 1993)
An inspection fee shall be charged by the town as necessary to recover the town's expenses in connection with the inspection work, including any consultants, testing, or other costs incurred by the town. This fee shall be a minimum of twenty-five dollars ($25.00). The balance of any inspection fee generated over and above the minimum, must be paid prior to the final approval or any use of the side sewer service.
(Ord. 413 § 4.06, 1993)
A. 
An investigation fee shall be charged whenever any work for which a permit is required by this chapter has been commenced without first obtaining such permit; a special investigation shall be made before a permit may be issued for such work.
B. 
The investigation fee, in addition to the permit fee, shall be collected whether or not a permit is then or subsequently issued. The investigation fee shall be equal to the sum of the permit application fee and the inspection fee required under this chapter. The minimum investigation fee shall be the sum of the permit application fee and the minimum inspection fee. The payment of such investigation fee shall not exempt any person from compliance with all other provisions of this chapter nor from any penalty prescribed by law.
(Ord. 413 § 4.07, 1993)
A. 
Sewer user charges shall be due starting six months from the date of issue of the first side sewer permit to the owner, the first month the side sewer receives any flow, or the month in which an occupancy permit is issued, whichever occurs first, and shall be payable for the whole month at a rate determined by the town rate ordinance or contract rate if applicable.
B. 
Sewer user charges shall continue regardless of whether the physical connection is made, until the service is abandoned, or a rebate of the sewer system development fee is requested in writing in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(Ord. 413 § 4.08, 1993)