On June 11, 2019 Sallal Water Association held a special membership meeting in the Snoqualmie Casino Ballroom to discuss and vote on a proposed bylaw amendment that would move big decisions like water contracts, purchases, etc into the hands of the members and away from the Board that is currently charged with making those decisions.
According to a Sallal member, about 100 members attended the meeting and approximately another 400 cast votes via mail. In total, 506 members casts votes, making it one of the biggest voter turnouts for Sallal.
The final results were 204 (40%) members in favor of approving the amendment and 302 (60%) rejecting it.
Via email Sallal Board Member Daylin Baker said, “The board greatly appreciated that so many people took the time to vote on this issue. It was an excellent turn-out.”
She said she thought the meeting went quite well and was orderly, adding, “It appeared to be a fairly evenly split crowd and folks from both sides of the issue spoke/asked questions.”
As far as next steps, Baker said Sallal will continue to negotiate a water contract with the City of North Bend in order to serve new growth within its service area. She said Sallal sent city officials their latest contract draft revisions this week.
Baker said it is high unlikely, though, that a contract will be signed before a county review board makes its decision as to whether the developer of a 212 unit apartment complex – Shelter Holdings – will be allowed to use the City of North Bend as its water purveyor for the project located on the Dahlgren property (old Mule pasture).
This spring Shelter appealed for the purveyor change due to Sallal not having enough water certificates remaining to serve the entire project. If the review board allows the purveyor change, this will be city’s first water customer inside Sallal’s service area. That decision is expected this summer, possibly by late June.
Sallal Water Association serves about 1700 customers in unincorporated King County and within the city limits of North Bend.
