SANDPOINT — Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm announced Tuesday that he is aiming to restructure the city’s protocol for providing water service to areas outside city limits.

“My goal is to decouple the city of Sandpoint’s service in areas without zoning jurisdiction. I hope to do that by creating basically wholesale users of other entities,” Grimm said. “This is going to be — other than our wastewater plant — my No. 2 priority this year.” 

Currently, Sandpoint provides water distribution outside of its boundary to the cities of Ponderay and Kootenai as well as unincorporated areas of Bonner County. Grimm shared the update during a Jan. 14 Bonner County business meeting and said that fire flow deficiencies currently exist in Sandpoint’s system. 

“I'm fearful that other entities are approving occupancy of structures in their jurisdictions that may or may not have sufficient fire flows, and if there were a firestorm, our emergency responders may not have the capacity to pull water that they need,” Grimm said. “Water outside of the city limits is going to be very severely evaluated.” 

Grimm emphasized his commitment to ensuring Sandpoint residents' needs are met before city resources are allocated to other entities.  

“My personal belief is that, especially in light of the disaster we've seen in the last week, the mayor and the fire chiefs are going to be called to task if we're ever in a situation like this,” he said. “I want to be darn sure that I've done everything under my responsibility to make sure that the health and safety of those living in my jurisdiction are provided for.” 

Grimm told attendees changes to water service are dependent on approval by the Sandpoint City Council, and that a reconfiguration will take time to explore. 

“This is going to be a very intensive and lengthy discussion over the next few months,” Grimm said. “I don't know what the council's decision will be and where this will go.” 

“At the end of the day, it comes down to, ‘Where do we live?’ I think land use comes into this; the capacity to provide urban-like services as we grow is critical for us to think about,” he added.