AMERICAN FALLS - Last week people in American Falls voted against two bonds to upgrade and repair the city's water and sewer systems, but the issue isn't finished. It's likely that another vote on the bonds will be scheduled next year.

Many of the city's water lines and treatment plant are working at their capacity, and city leaders hope that by getting out more information the vote will pass next time. Pete Cortez, Water Superintendent said, "We just didn't get the outcome we were hoping for."

It'll cost about $30-million to completely upgrade the American Falls water and sewer systems.

Voters rejected a plan to use two different bonds to pay for the repairs, and now the city has to find another way to get everything up-to-date. Cortez said, "We can work maybe with our capital improvement, or in future maybe try to pass another bond to address some of those other items."

Public meetings were held before the bond election, but one reason it may have failed is that many people were still uninformed about why the money is needed. Katrina Stucki, American Falls resident said, "We got fliers in the mail."

Which didn't answer questions like whether the bonds would raise their water rates. Stucki said, "I didn't know if the bond was going to add to the raise we already saw so we'd be double hit on our water bill." Cortez said, "I feel the rates are going to continue to go up just because of inflation."

Costs could also go up when the old equipment being used breaks down and has to be replaced. Cortez said, "We've got some treatment processes that are starting to fail. Our SBC's, as a matter of fact, went down this morning."

And unless things change soon, the city won't easily continue to grow.

The treatment facility processes about 500,000 gallons of sewage a day and is only set-up to handle 600,000 gallons. Cortez said, "We still can grow. We're not to that state yet, but we're trying to avoid that."

No date for a new vote has been scheduled, but the city would like to hold it as soon as possible so that crews can start getting things fixed.