Group opposes taxing district to fix Silver Lake

By CARA LORELLO

Staff Reporter

Efforts to form a lake management district (LMD) to combat native and Eurasian milfoil infesting parts of north and south Silver Lake have gotten underway since the state Department of Fish and Wildlife informed homeowners three years ago the lake would essentially die in a decade’s time if the problem wasn’t fixed.

So far, citizens and the department have used a grant to fund a study assessing details on the lake’s aquatic vegetation problem, and learned about options on how to fix it and how they’ll need to fund it.

But there’s a growing number of residents, mainly those residing in the north portion of the lake along Freeman Drive, who are opposed to how the group in favor of forming a LMD proposes to pay for fixing the milfoil problem. The residents claim the LMD group haven’t been forthright with the information they’ve gotten from the state and lake specialist they’re working with to allow the residents to make an informed decision about who should be taxed.

Property owners Forrest and Cheryl Haynes and LMD committee member Sonja Marlton are three who’ve been vocal on these points to committee organizational chair for the LMD, James Patterson, and lake specialist Dave Lamb who did the lake study last summer on the milfoil. The Haynes say their suggestions that the committee seek an alternative to the liquid 24D herbicide treatment of the lake’s milfoil have either been shot down, or not even considered so far.

“There’s been an opposition from the very beginning,” Cheryl Haynes said to the organizational committee’s proposal to formation of an LMD, and their push to use herbicides.

The Haynes’ position is one their north lake neighbors, who use lake water for potable purposes since their homes have no wells, share. The Haynes said they use a UV light filtration system to make their water drinkable. Residents were told at two public meetings the LMD committee held earlier this year that 24D is the strongest, most cost-effective way to kill the milfoil at Lamb’s suggestion.

“Our UV light system kills the bacteria, but not things like 24D. It’s like pouring gasoline into the water,” Forrest Haynes said, adding that the public was misinformed from the beginning by Department of Fish and Wildlife that the lake would die in 10 years.

“There’s been [native] growth up there since the lake was first around,” he said, explaining how milfoil is spread when boat propellers uproot the growth, and it re-roots itself in a different place.

State funding will only help eradicate Eurasian milfoil growth, which is concentrated in small amounts at the north end of Silver Lake. The committee hopes to form an LMD to get the money to fix the much larger native milfoil problem to the south. The Haynes said that proposal is only favored by those who reside in the area of the lake where growth is prevalent.

The amount an LMD taxes its homeowners is based on a home’s level of frontage. Primary, or lakefront, properties generally pay more, Marlton explained. Most north homeowners’ lots are this type, an are smaller and older than the new, more expensive properties to the south.

Essentially, Cheryl Haynes explained, the north residents will be taxed to remove milfoil that’s not on their end, with a chemical that may harm their water supply.

“None of us are opposed to taking care of the problem, it’s the solution we can’t seem to agree on,” Cheryl Haynes added.

In an October interview with the Cheney Free Press, Patterson said the committee hoped to get enough support to form the LMD, and decide on a chemical treatment people would support.

“We do have equal representation from eveyrone around the lake. It’s helped us to do research to substantiate each position,” Patterson said.

Marlton, a 34-year lake resident, disagrees that there’s been equal representation of the pro side and opposition side. She is on the LMD committee though she shares the same sentiments as the Haynes, who formed their own committee opposition group last fall, Friends of Silver Lake, who oppose the formation of any taxing entity for the purpose of managing the lake.

Marlton said she proposed to the committee that the lake’s established homeowners association use its account funds to pay for milfoil removal instead of forming another taxing district. Marlton was told her solution “wasn’t feasible,” because help and donations would be voluntary only.

The opposition group doesn’t harbor any animosity toward the committee members who are also their neighbors, Marlton said, but so far they’ve not acknowledged their concerns over the solutions they’re proposing.

The committee must next get approval from Spokane County Commissioners on their proposal to form an LMD, then get approval through a public vote. The Friends of Silver Lake, Cheryl Haynes said, plan to discuss their side with the commissioners before then.

Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]