An issue between the City of Williams Lake and residents in South Lakeside was resolved at Tuesday nights city council meeting.
In 1999, a bylaw was put in place that saw South Lakeside residents make 20 payments over 20 years for city water and sewer services when the City brought the area into the city limits. The payments were $471.92 per year from 2000 to 2019, or a one time fee.
However, the City had collected an additional water and sewer parcel tax for 2020 for the residents because there was still over $26,000 owing to the project.
Mayor of Williams Lake, Walt Cobb, said that over the 20 years of payments, a mistake was made on the City’s end.
“What we gather from the information we’ve received is the money is actually there, but with the changes to bylaws and numbers, there is a certain amount of money that didn’t get appropriated to the right place.”
Cobb said that the City would end up paying the owned money, as it’s unfair for the residents.
“We can’t charge the residents more than what they agreed to pay in the first place,” he noted. “We have to find a way of coming up with the $26,000. We have a surplus in the water and sewer account. We can’t put that burden on the residents who have already paid there full amount.”
Cobb added that the council is unsure of how or when the mistake was made but clocked it up to the human error, and is glad they were able to resolve the issue.