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Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

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Pasco to vote on changes to Kurtzman Park district

By Dalina Castellanos, Herald staff writer

The Pasco City Council discussed changes to the Kurtzman Park neighborhood local improvement district this week at the city council workshop.

City staff suggested lowering assessment costs, shrinking the renovation areas and dividing the project into three phases.

The LID project will include street paving and lighting and the addition of curbs, gutters and sidewalks in the neighborhood.

But not all residents on Sycamore Avenue were in favor of the project.

"(Those residents) were not prepared to embrace (the project)," said Gary Crutchfield, Pasco city manager.

The revised boundaries would eliminate the properties on Sycamore Avenue from the LID, reducing the project area and assessment costs.

Property owners will receive letters explaining the new assessment values and information this week.

The council will consider voting on the ordinance for forming the LID at the Nov. 8 council meeting. Residents have 30 days to protest the council's decision. Sixty percent of property owners must agree to the project.

The council also discussed ground water contamination underneath the old Pasco landfill. The contaminated area is shrinking, but more work needs to be done at the site, a representative for the landfill told the council this week.

The landfill, 11/2 miles northeast of Pasco, received municipal waste from 1958-93 and industrial waste from 1972-74. The industrial waste included tons of bulk waste and more than 40,000 drums of solvents such as paint, dry cleaner fluid, herbicides and pesticides.

The ground water has not been used for consumption, and the landfill group paid to extend the water line to a handful of homes that were relying on wells, said Crutchfield.

New monitoring wells will be installed to keep tabs on the cleanup process, said Barbara Smith, a representative for the Pasco landfill group.

The landfill's contents have settled, requiring a new soil cap to repel rainwater, she said.

The group is responsible for all costs under the state's Model Toxics Control Act, she said. "In this case, the polluter pays."



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