EPHRATA — The Ephrata City Council swore in three members, two of them new, at its regular meeting Wednesday.

Incumbent Valli Millard and newly-elected Beau Lamens and Mike Warren stood together and took the oath of office, administered by Mayor Bruce Reim.

This leaves one council seat, Position 6, unoccupied, Reim explained.

“We had a member (Ashley Grout) run for City Council Position No. 6 and, due to some conflict of interest and some issues along that line, she has decided not to (participate) in the council,” Reim said. “We are now taking applications and letters of interest from qualified city members to fulfill that position.”

Reim added that he hoped to have that filled by the next council meeting, Jan. 17.

Interested Ephrata residents can submit a letter of interest at Ephrata City Hall, 121 Alder St. SW, or by email to Reim, breim@ephrata.org, and City Administrator Ray Towry, rtowry@ephrata.org.

In other business at the regular meeting Wednesday, upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant have run into a hiccup, Towry told the council.

“The first half of this project was about $3 million-ish, which would have left us with another about $3.5 million to put into the second half,” Towry said. “We assumed it's going to cost about four, four and a half million, maybe. Those bids came back (and) they were not $4 million. They were $10 million. We started planning for this operation pre-COVID. Inflation, obviously, has done some crazy things, supply chain issues through the pandemic. And this is just another of the problems (we’ve run into).”

In order to meet the new bid, Towry explained, it would be necessary to raise rates by 6% in 2025 and 5% in 2026 and 2027, in addition to the approximately 3% raise the city imposes each year to compensate for the increase in the Consumer Price Index. 

“So at this point in time, we’re going to sit down with the engineering firm and figure out if there are some things we can do, what additional funding is available potentially,” Towry said.

“Grey and Osborne (the engineering firm) has had conversations with the state regarding additional funding, and they have given a verbal confirmation that they will be willing to loan us the additional funds that we need,” said City Clerk Leslie Trachsler.

“In the meantime, credit to the guys out there at the treatment plant,” Reim said. “They do keep that thing running.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.