City Of Superior Denies Fairgrounds’ Request To Forgive $10,000 In Interest On Delinquent Sewer Bill

The plan by Head of the Lakes Fairgrounds management and Douglas County to have a sizeable amount of interest charges waived by the City of Superior failed.  And while a number of reasons were cited, it seems that the primary cause for the "no" vote from the city was the fact that no one from the management company or the county showed up to present or defend their case.

This new development follows on the heels of an earlier denial of having the entire bill cleared away.

The Head of the Lakes Management Group originally sought to have the debt from a delinquent sewer bill from 2017 waived.  When that action fell short, the group then sought to have the "more than $10,000 in interest" charges levied against them forgiven.

Members of the management group went to far as to have Douglas County back them in their battle. According to an article in the Superior Telegram [paywall], "Douglas County's Land and Development Committee directed County Clerk Susan Sandvick to write a letter on their behalf seeking forgiveness for the interest accrued".

The Superior City Finance Committee addressed the item at their meeting on September 8.  The official action by the committee was to "postpone a decision indefinitely" which essentially killed the motion.  The action followed the suggested course by the city's top administrative official:

"Mayor Jim Paine said that unless the committee wanted to kick the decision to the city council, he recommended taking no action at all or postponing a decision indefinitely.  'A motion to postpone indefinitely would send the same message,' Paine said. 'You're clearly killing it.  You're clearly holding it permanently in committee.  You do technically have the option to bring it back whenever you want, but you're sending the same message'."

It seems that perhaps the biggest factor towards the denial was the lack of representation by the Head of the Lakes Fairgrounds Management group or Douglas County at the meeting.  No one was present to "discuss the issue".  Superior City Councilor Jack Sweeney offered "no one from the county seem[s] interested in having the matter debated". Superior City Councilor Tyler Elm added "I'm disappointed that no one's here to talk through this point".

The vote to postpone the issue was unanimous.