County puts pause on dissolving water district

At a public hearing on Tuesday, the Crook County Commissioners agreed to place a hold on the process of dissolving the Aladdin Water District due to the community’s desire to see things put back on track. However, Commissioner Jeanne Whalen requested that the hearing be continued until next month to hear “the other side of the story.”

Since a notice was sent to members of the district in February about last week’s hearing, the commissioners heard that significant progress has been made to rectify the organizational problems. A new board has been appointed and board members have begun investigating the paperwork, including the documents that have not been filed with the state.

Randy Strader, new board member, gave a presentation on the work he has done since joining the board, including background research on the district’s formation. Trent Tope, new vice president and landowner on whose property the well sits, said he could see how much controversy there has been over the district for years, “but that was not us.”

Tope commented that there should have been a lot more regulating by the regulators before things got to this point and stressed that it is not true that the community does not care about its district.

“We’re going to give this a try, we’re going to go forward and we’re going to do our best to fix the problems…and keep the water flowing,” he said.

A previous member of the board spoke about their tenure, telling the commission that there were difficulties caused by a lack of knowledge of how to run a district or what deadlines existed for filing paperwork. This was made even harder by previous actions, she said, such as that the board in the early 2000s quit preparing minutes and even made a motion that they did not need to have a monthly meeting.

Issues still need to be fixed, said County Attorney Joe Baron, such as that the boundary line for the district needs to be filed with the Department of Revenue and the list of district members is no longer up to date. The resident of a ranch 60 miles from Aladdin meanwhile attended the hearing to say that it was a complete surprise to receive a letter about it as she had no idea she was included in the district.

County Clerk Linda Fritz said that her department would be willing to help get the district on track and has attempted to do so in the past but “our attempts have not worked.” Tope suggested that perhaps those attempts were not assertive enough.

Baron recommended allowing the new board to continue its work, which will ensure the Aladdin community can still have access to water. He told the commission that he feels the new board has done what was requested and shown its willingness.

Commissioner Kelly Dennis stated that he had no intention of voting to dissolve the board due to the clear interest in making it work. Whalen, however, asked to continue the hearing as she felt, “You have not heard the other side yet.”

Whalen brought up certain legal issues from her own research, such as whether all district members have historically been asked to pay for their water and whether the appropriate tap fees are being charged. There was some dispute as to whether the district has a loan from the state to pay back.

On this basis, the hearing was continued and will resume during the April meeting of the county commission.