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The Sanders County Sewer District at Paradise held another Zoom meeting Friday evening, and though a portion of the four and a half hours were public comments addressing the faults of the board president, according to Sunny Chase, who heads the board, it managed to get some agenda items passed.

Chase and board member Rick McCollum are on the verge of being recalled after a petition was recently filed by Paradise resident Cody Lampman. Signatures have been collected and are in the process of being verified. The county had 30 days to complete the verification process, said Nichol Scribner, the county Clerk & Recorder and Treasurer. She said Bobbi Christensen, the elections deputy, will have the job done no later than March 18. Once that is done, said Scribner, Chase and McCollum will have the opportunity to submit a written rebuttal. Chase said there were no discussions about the petition at the Friday evening meeting.

The board went through the first reading of its rules and regulations, which would go into effect when the sewer system is in place. The 19-page document that the board received has already gone through a process of being put together by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, USDA Rural Development, and the county sanitarian. The board spent about an hour making changes to the draft before approving the first reading. The document covers a variety of items, such as connections at the time of the initial hookup, late hookup, costs to the homeowner, materials, the legal restrictions of property being serviced, and the nature of wastewater, to name a few.

The second reading will take place at the next meeting on April 9 at 6 p.m., although it’s undetermined if the meeting will be in person, Zoom or in person, but with the option of some type of teleconference at the same time. Board member Terry Caldwell prefers a public meeting at a place where people can attend in person to make the meetings more accessible to the public.

Caldwell made a motion that was unanimously approved at the meeting to ensure meeting minutes are recorded and available to the public and to set a regular date and time for future meetings so more of the public could plan to attend. He said this would also help make the board actions more transparent. “We need to make things more transparent, correct and legal,” said Caldwell, who feels they are making progress in that direction. Though last year there were not enough written objections to the project, Caldwell believes the majority of the residents are against it.

LeeAnn Overman, one of about 15 people at the Zoom meeting, told the board that two-thirds of the town does not want the centralized sewer system, something Caldwell discovered when he recently conducted his own survey from residents. Overman said she has been muted by Chase at Zoom meetings in the past, but when getting to the floor at Friday’s meeting, she immediately recited the Constitution’s First Amendment concerning the freedom of speech and was allowed to talk. “We don’t recognize them for speaking for the town anymore. They have their own agenda — four of them do,” said Overman. “When you’re on a board, you’re supposed to represent the people of the town and that’s not what they’re doing,” she said. Overman believes Chase has her own agenda and wants the sewer system in place specifically for Bridger Bischoff’s proposed subdivision, something else she said the majority of the community doesn’t want, she said.

The meeting agenda included a discussion of grinder pumps, which would be installed at residents’ homes. Fourteen homes, those with bathrooms in their basements, will need grinder lifter pumps, said Chase. She said the discussion centered around the type of pumps and whether the district or homeowners would own the grinder lifter pumps. The pumps run between $7,000 and $9,000 and are more expensive than a solid waste pump, which Caldwell said would also work. Caldwell, the only board member with construction experience, also believes he could find more inexpensive grinder pumps. The biggest problem was ownership issues and people like Overman do not think homeowners should be responsible. Chase said that the initial installation would be covered in the construction costs at no cost to the resident, but since the homeowner would own the device, they would be responsible for replacement of the core once it wears out, which she said is about $3,000. Chase said the life expectancy is around 12 years or longer. The board tabled the pump topic for another meeting.

Overman said the board is out of control and the group of residents opposed to the project will continue to work to stop it. “We’re still fighting, we're not done and we’re going to keep going until we get it stopped,” said Overman. Caldwell said the strife between the board and those in opposition to the project is not about winning or losing, but doing what’s right for the community. “As a political entity, we have to listen to the people, whether we like what they say or not. As a public servant, we owe it to the people to listen and to represent the majority of the people the way they desire,” said Caldwell.

Paradise resident Katy French, who is also opposed to the project, sent a letter to the Sanders County commissioners on Sunday asking them to review all the sewer board’s Treasure Statement Endowment Program contracts and the Community Development Block Grant contract funding request records. She wrote that more than $374,000 of the grant funds have been expended through last summer and that Chase admitted at last week’s meeting that she signed fund requests for TSEP and CDBG without review, approval or consideration of the board. “This action is illegal and puts the continuing use of these funds in jeopardy,” wrote French, who added that it’s imperative that the county verify the validity of funding requests signed by Chase and whether or not the board action was done before or after the authorization.

“The Paradise community continues to identify concerns in which Chair Chase and fellow Board members have violated their Oath of Office and Montana Code Annotated, as well as their district bylaws. This can not continue,” she wrote, adding that the commissioners must act and request the resignation of Chase, along with board members Rick McCollum, Adam Rice, and Gary Kelly. Her request did not include Caldwell, who joined the board late last year. “These Board Members have placed the Paradise community in legal and financial jeopardy, and now it appears that are putting Sanders County in jeopardy as well,” she wrote to the commissioners, sending a copy to Naomi Leisz, the county attorney.