The pump’s still somewhere on the horizon, and a lot of the natives are still restless.

Commissioners of Diking District 1 near Bayview expect to take delivery of their controversial new drainage device soon, perhaps next week.

“It’s probably on a truck coming from the east coast,” Ray Gabelein, one of the diking commissioners, said this week.

Steve Verbarendse, president of SRV Construction of Oak Harbor, which has the contract to install the $439,000 pump, said Thursday he’s also not sure when the pump will arrive.

“These pumps take a long time to get,” he said. “We’re at the mercy of the factory.” He said the pump was ordered several months ago.

Meanwhile, residents upset with the diking officials plan to petition for another hearing before the newly constituted board of Island County Commissioners.

“We’re going to ask them to consider it again after the first of the year,” Elizabeth Derrig, an attorney representing the residents, said this week.

Last month, about 50 residents were so upset when they learned of the pump project, they signed a petition and packed a hearing before the county commissioners, demanding that the activities of the district be suspended, and its three commissioners removed.

County commissioners voted 2-1 not to get involved, rejecting Commissioner John Dean’s suggestion to conduct community meetings to clear the air.

Since then, Helen Price Johnson has replaced Phil Bakke on the board, and Angie Homola will replace Mac McDowell in January.

The district, which spans 743 acres surrounding Deer Lagoon on Useless Bay, includes the neighborhoods of Sunlight Beach, Olympic View and Sun Vista and the Useless Bay Golf and Country Club.

Residents in the 460 acres of the designated “benefit area” are being assessed to pay for the pump over five years.

The pump, capable of draining 6,000 gallons of water per minute, is to be installed next to the existing 1,400-per-minute pump, Gabelein said.

Some angry residents say the new pump isn’t necessary and was contracted for without proper notification to the people who are going to have to pay for it.

They also are concerned about the environmental effects in the area and the motives of diking commissioners in approving the project.

And they’re worried about maintenance chemicals from the nearby golf course that are being pumped into the lagoon and Useless Bay. The golf course owns the smaller existing pump.

The residents want commissioners to hold off on the new pump until the state Department of Ecology completes a water-quality study of the area.

“It seems reasonable to wait for the outcome of the [Ecology] testing before proceeding with this drainage project,” Derrig said.

“The water that comes into that basin is the same water that is going out the existing tubes,” said Steve Arnold, another diking commissioner. “We’re not changing water quality by putting the pump in.”

“We’re just trying to get rid of the excess water that’s been building up,” he said.

Gabelein said the shutoff valve on the new pump will be set five inches higher than the existing pump’s, putting to rest accusations from residents that commissioners are going to use the new pump to drain the wetlands for development of their own property.

Gabelein said the fact that his family just converted 54 acres of bottomland in the area into a conservation easement should further allay fears about development.

“I hope the Ecology study is done soon,” Gabelein added. “I know the county has tested the water, and never found anything.”

“There were a lot of inflammatory statements made right at the beginning, a couple of people got everybody fired up,” Arnold said. “I think the county commissioners understood what we’re doing as diking commissioners, and they made the appropriate decision.”

Diking commissioners say they have done nothing wrong, only what was needed to keep up with the drainage demands of an increased population in the area.

The commissioners are Arnold, a 14-year member of the panel; Gabelein, a member of a longtime South End family and owner of a Langley bulldozing company; and Bob Kohlwes of Sunlight Beach, a member of another longtime landowning family in the area.

Opponents of the pump project, however, said they will keep birddogging the diking commissioners.

“We are continuing to review all the information being obtained from county public records,” Derrig said. “There is a long history,”

“We will not threaten legal action,” she said. “We are carefully considering all the evidence to determine the most effective means of resolving the diking commissioners’ continued lack of compliance with basic constitutional principles.”

In approving the project, diking commissioners said the new pump is needed to protect Sunlight Beach properties from flooding.

“If we aren’t prepared, and have a catastrophe down there, they would be screaming a lot louder at us for not planning ahead,” Arnold said.

Some residents say the job of the district, established in 1914, is to maintain the dike spanning Deer Lagoon between Sunlight Beach and the golf course. They say that for decades adequate drainage has been accomplished by the gravity flow system under Sunlight Beach Road to the outflow in Useless Bay.

Diking commissioners say the runoff from inside the district and the thousands of acres surrounding it has increased dramatically through the years, thanks to more building and the arrival of more full-time residents to the area, many of them living in much larger houses.

All the houses along Sunlight Beach have on-site septic systems, Gabelein added.

He said that at today’s rate of runoff, an average three-foot tide would prevent drainage from the gravity flow system.

“With an extreme tide of six feet, you’ll have a saltwater lake on one side of the dike, and a freshwater lake on the other,” he said.

Residents say the assessments for the pump are inequitable, and that the heaviest assessments would go to property owners on the waterfront.

“It’s basically the flat area that would flood,” Gabelein responded.

He said revenue to run the district comes from a “benefit assessment” as needed, meaning those who would benefit from a project pay for it. The district’s projected budget for next year, not counting the pump, is $15,000, he said.

“Over the years, diking commissioners have chosen to let people keep their money until it was needed for a project,” he said. “I think most of the old-timers down there understand it.

“Those who don’t understand it may be new to the area and see the assessment pop up on their property taxes,” said Gabelein, 52, who has lived in the area all his life.

He said the assessments historically have been small, and that the last one was in 2001.

He said the assessment for the new pump is about half the one in 2001, although he acknowledged that many property values have risen since then.

Some property owners also implied that the diking commissioners have been secretive about their actions, failing to post public notices, or posting them in obscure locations where they are missed by residents.

And they also say commissioners are lax in providing information about meeting times and actions taken, and about the timing of terms of office, making it difficult for residents in the district to put forward opposition candidates.

Commissioners say they have followed the law regarding public notification, including the posting of signs and the publishing in newspapers of all pertinent legal notices, including notification of elections.

Gabelein said commissioners will attempt to improve communication with residents, including setting up an e-mail list.

He said part of the problem in the past has been that the commissioners had no computer.

Gabelein said the next monthly meeting of the commissioners will be Jan. 2.