By Kevin Hanson-The Courier-Herald

The city of Enumclaw continues its march toward providing pure drinking water to a band of rural residents with an April 14 public hearing.

The session, which was expected to be approved Monday night by members of the Enumclaw City Council, will address the potential formation of a Local Improvement District for residents of the Y Bar S Ranch area. The hearing will be part of the council's regularly-scheduled meeting that begins at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 1339 Griffin Ave.

Residents of Y Bar S have complained about the quality of their water for years and have previously asked the city to either take ownership of the system or, at least, extend its mains to provide water to the neighborhood north of town. Y Bar S is just west of state Route 169 on the north side of 400th Street Southeast. Twice in the past year, Y Bar S residents have been advised to boil their drinking water for fear of E.coli contamination; the warnings were issued by the state's Department of Ecology.

Members of the Enumclaw City Council have generally been supportive of making water available to Y Bar S, but have been cautious about taking on a system that is in need of immediate upgrades.

To ease their fears, staff has suggested formation of an LID that would generate about $950,000, all paid by those on the receiving end of the water.

That amount, the city has said, is needed to bring the water system into current compliance; the money would be used for items like improving a pump station and repairing water mains. The city has secured the money through a low-interest loan from the state and would repay the loan through LID collections.

According to the latest city figures, the LID would cost each of the 112 property owners $8,482.

Kevin Hanson can be reached at khanson@courierherald.com.