TONASKET – The City of Tonasket and Mayor Patrick Plumb were informed Thursday that they would be receiving an award from the Infrastructure Assistance Coordinating Council for work done on the Bonaparte Creek Sewer Extension project.

Two awards – one for the Mayor and one for the City, will be combined into one and presented next week.

“This recently completed project decommissioned 50 substandard and failing septic systems that were responsible for contaminating the local swimming hole, Bonaparte Creek,” wrote Jamie Varela of Varela & Associates, who nominated the City of Tonasket for the project’s community impact. “50 homes were connected to the City’s wastewater system, providing the basic infrastructure the residential area needed necessary to preserve local source of drinking water and natural resources and to attract and retain people to live, work, raise families, and retire in the area.”

Jeff Moran, Varela’s project manager, nominated Plumb for his leadership on the project.

“Mayor Plumbs’ leadership in actively seeking and obtaining the funds necessary to extend the City sewer system to serve this area was instrumental in both the success of the project and the improvement in the creek water quality,” Moran wrote in his nomination. “His leadership and willingness to never accept NO is not better exemplified than in the following example: After construction bids were received and it became apparent the funding would be short by over $100,000; Mayor Plumb, who was in Seattle at the time with his family, immediately drove to Olympia with his entire family, which included a newborn child at the time, and met face to face with ECY agency representatives and was able to fill this final key funding gap and complete this long sought after project.”

The awards will be presented at the IACC’s fifth annual awards ceremony on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Wenatchee Conference Center.