Dear Citizens of Waits- burg:

The city needs your help. The Public Works Director has informed me that we would greatly benefit from an upgrade to our current press used for processing of waste at the wastewater treatment plant. The city currently has a gravity-fed press and would like to up- grade to a belt press in order to improve the ease of use and function of the city's wastewater treatment plant. This type of press would also save us money on the power and materials we buy to process the waste, as it is much more efficient than our current press.

As you can guess, this upgrade is expensive, with estimates coming in at better than $200,000 to do this upgrade. Rather than burden our utility payers with a rate increase to cover the cost of a loan to do complete this upgrade, the city has decided to apply for grant funds from the State of Washington through the Community Development Block Grant program. This grant program is designed to assist small cities and towns in the carrying out of significant community projects that principally benefit low-moderate-income persons, and this project would qualify.

Currently the city is not considered a low-to-mod- erate income community and therefore is not eligible to apply for these grant funds at this time. In order to apply for these funds, the city is required to com- plete an income survey of all users who would benefit from the upgrade, which in this case would be the entire city.

So, about the time you read this column, you should have received an envelope from the City of Waitsburg with a cover letter and in- come survey, in addition to a postage-paid envelope for you to use to send the survey back to city hall.

It is important that you fill out and return the sur- vey, as our ability to apply for these grant funds hinges on your responses. It is my opinion that our community is eligible for these funds, but has yet to have their median income adjusted down by the state and/or federal gov- ernment. There are specific guidelines as to the number of responses needed back to provide a valid survey out- come and the city is asking that everyone who receives a survey fill it out and return to city hall at their earliest convenience, but no later than Friday, Nov.16.

If you should have any questions about this project or the survey in general, please feel free to stop in or contact city hall by phone at 337-6371, by email at rjhinch@gotvc.net, or by mail at P.O. Box 35, Waits- burg, WA 99361.

Randy Hinchliffe

City Administrator

City of Waitsburg