The day after the election, the IVGID Board of Trustees will be presented with a staggering increase in estimated costs for the Effluent Pipeline and three related projects.   The new estimate is $78,700,000.

Originally, the estimate was $23,000,000.

The Pipeline Project alone has increased $21,700,000 over the estimate provided in March, a mere 8 months ago. 

How will this be financed?  Who knows. Sewer rates to customers will have to increase dramatically. Besides the cost increase, interest rates have shot up.

In 2013, rates were raised with the promise that $2 million a year would be reserved for the pipeline. Rates were raised but reserves were not set aside. Millions were spent on a cold storage building and other projects. The Utility fund has cash in its checking account, but audited financial statements for fiscal year 2022 have not been released.

The pipeline has been delayed. Construction was to begin in 2015 and the storage pond (which became a tank) and was decommissioned in 2014.  IVGID financial waste has been incredible at over $5,500,000 searching for different means of installation, seeking farfetched partnership financing and abandoning ill conceived plans which could not be implemented.  Pipeline repairs during the period have been almost $2,000,000. As anyone would guess, the pipeline will now be installed in exactly the same location as was recommended by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 2012.  This is what we get when people lacking experience chase rainbows. Did you pick the right people to vote for IVGID Trustee? Only one person running for Trustee, Ray Tulloch, has extensive utility management/finance experience.

The author, Mike Abel, is a 15-year resident and voter, and a 22-year property owner of Incline Village.