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HI-DESERT WATER APPROVES ASSESSMENT REPORT

Calling its meeting last night one of the most important meetings the Hi-Desert Water District has ever had, the Board of Directors approved the engineer’s assessment district report during a marathon 4-hour meeting, in which directors discussed the report for more than an hour. Assuming the voters pass an assessment district vote, the report set the assessment amounts for Yucca Valley residents and businesses for their portion of the proposed sewer project, which will range from nearly $4,900 to just over $18,000, depending on which type of property it is and which phase it is in. ($4,879 for properties in Phase 2 and 3; $8,290 for Phase 1 deferred; $14,010 Phase 1 undeveloped land; $10,407 Phase 1 mobile home residence; $13,832 for Phase 1 multi-family residence; and $18,160 for Phase 1 single-family residence.) The assessment rates for each address will be posted on the water district’s website by 8 p.m. Monday. These amounts will be placed on each property owner’s tax bill. The water district’s application for a low-interest loan from the state for the project is expected to be heard March 17. Spread out over 30 years, and depending on the interest rate charged, the monthly payments will range from $13.55 to $58.64. In other business, Managing editor Tami Roleff says that directors vacillated between giving Director of Operations Mark Ban a bonus, a $25,000 no-interest loan, and a $25,000 loan with an interest rate of .27 percent…

General Manager Ed Muzik requested the board of directors authorize a one-time, no-interest $25,000 loan to Mark Ban as an incentive to stay with the water district, and to help with unexpected family expenses. Director Dan Munsey thought a bonus would be a better idea than a loan. “I support a bonus for Mark Ban, equal to what he would have received, had he would have gone to Joshua Basin [Water District.] Director Sarann Graham agreed. “I’m more comfortable with the bonus versus the loan.” Muzik told the Board that Joshua Basin Water District’s signing bonus to Ban was actually more than $25,000, as Ban would have received $25,000 after taxes had been taken out. Muzik said the water district receives .26 interest on its funds, so if the directors voted to charge an interest rate, he recommended .27 percent. President Bob Stadum urged the directors to charge a .27 percent interest rate, for a total interest charge of $136 on the $25,000 loan. “I’d like to see the interest charged. It makes it cleaner in my mind. It’s a totally nominal amount as you pointed out.” And yet that was not the motion Munsey made. “I don’t like this. I just don’t like the way this looks. I think its absolutely necessary to retain a key employee, so I will make the recommendation as written….” Graham: “I’ll second it.” The motion passed unanimously, 5-0.

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