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Meetings, Elections, and Bids, Oh My!

May 02, 2026

Hello Burton Water Co-op Community,

Read on for greetings and news from the new Co-op Board and the Community Engagement Group! We are excited to be sharing updates on some important events as we transition from promoting and supporting membership in the Co-op to finding new energy for building community and re-inspiring our cooperative values.

There Is News!

Annual Meeting and Election Results

Thank you to everyone who voted and/or attended the Burton Water Cooperative Annual Meeting, which was held in-person at Camp Burton (with online attendance possible) on March 22, 2026. We had a solid turnout for the event, which was energizing.

  • If you missed the meeting (or simply want to revisit the excitement), you can find a full recording here, browse the slides here, or review the minutes from the meeting here. 

  • As for the election, the Board has confirmed a total of 112 unique votes that were submitted within the voting period, with the following results:

    • The proposed amendment to the bylaws was passed unanimously.

    • Both Cailen O’Brien and Kevin Elswick were elected and confirmed to the board with overwhelming support. 

  • Welcome and thank you to Kevin and Cailen! Kevin will fill a vacated board position with one year remaining on its term, with Cailen to start a new 3-year term. 

  • We will be posting an updated version of the Bylaws to the website soon.

Our Grand Infrastructure Update Gains Momentum: USDA-Funded Project Gets Approval and the Bidding Process Begins

Following receipt of our King County Construction Permit on March 9, we received final approval from USDA on March 26. This allowed us to advertise our plans and specifications package to solicit contractor bids. Our engineer at Northwest Water Systems has coordinated those advertisements, which ran in the Beachcomber, the Daily Journal of Commerce, and the Builders Exchange of Washington. We are therefore targeting both on-island and off-island contractors to cast a broad net. A pre-bid meeting for interested contractors was held Friday, April 17th, with good attendance. We have established a bid deadline of Monday, May 4th, by which date we hope to have several bids to choose from. We are getting closer to realizing the start of construction, which is currently anticipated to begin this summer or fall. 

The Community Engagement Group Wants You!

In our Burton Water Co-op world, there will be occasions for fun and occasions for work, and we know there is ample capacity for both in our community.

In preparation, we are launching an effort to learn more about the skills and talents among our neighbors.  This is not an ask for commitments of any kind, but an opportunity to learn more about one another and share resources when the moment or project calls.

If you are interested, please take a few minutes to complete the survey below, and let us know a little more about who you are! Our goal is to gather a list of community members who would like to be in the loop as Co-op projects and needs develop. We aim to gather names and information throughout the summer and hope to pull together a gathering of some sort in August to get to know each other and brainstorm how best to support our Co-op in the years to come. 

And, if you have community engagement ideas, please send them on! We are always excited to hear about new ideas and approaches.

Looking Ahead

Keep an eye out for the next quarterly newsletter in July.  Pease complete our survey above if you are interested in being in touch with the Community Engagement Group, and look forward to an August gathering with neighbors, food, and music.

 Nick’s Corner: News from the Operator!

Spring is here, and with it comes (depending on the year) drier weather. In much of our service area the soil contains a lot of clay, and clay rich soils can expand and contract in volume by up to 10% - this leads to movement in buried water lines and sometimes leaks. But fear not, the BWC has a leak adjustment policy! The full details are in Section 14 of our Rules and Regulations (on page 5 here). The summary is: once every three years you can apply for a credit on your account for excess usage caused by a leak in your plumbing, provided it is fixed promptly. We will do our best to notify you if we think you may have a leak, based on meter readings, but it is up to you to monitor your usage and apply for a leak adjustment credit if you have identified and resolved a problem. In an emergency, we can shut off your water at the meter, but note that there is a $40 charge for that service. For an emergency, call (206) 775-5667; otherwise you can email [email protected] or call the office at (206)463-0005 for non-emergency issues.

 As always, reach out to us at [email protected] with any comments or questions. 

 -Your friendly Burton Water Cooperative Board - Norm, Ben, Steve, Cailen, and Kevin - and your passionate Community Engagement Lead Kim!