WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, this week contacted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) expressing concerns he’s heard from Montanans about how they are assessing administrative costs associated with the sale of cabin sites on Fort Peck Lake in Montana.

“The bureaucratic mess around this process is thicker and stickier than Fort Peck’s famous gumbo,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Western Caucus.  “Whether it’s spending far more than the Corps’ own original estimate, or using a slight of hand to double charge folks for the same administrative process, we need to work together to clean this mess up and get this problem sorted out once and for all.  This process should’ve been resolved years ago.”

In 2000, Congress passed legislation allowing Fort Peck cabin lessees to purchase their cabin lots.  The lots are currently managed by ACOE, and the revenues generated by the sales were supposed to fund improvements in the Charles M. Russell (CMR) National Wildlife Refuge.  Unfortunately, a decade of delays later, the costs associated with these sales have soared well past what was estimated, and they’re now being passed on to cabin lessees.

More troubling is that ACOE may actually be double dipping when it includes the cost of administrative actions in the sale price of cabins, and then charges the owners a second time for administrative fees that were already included in the appraised purchase cost.

“We all feel like these Administrative fees just aren’t reasonable,” said Mike Cassidy, President of Fort Peck Lake Association, “It costs too much and it’s just unfair to the cabin owners to have to pay 30% of the cost of their lot in government fees.  We appreciate Congressman Rehberg’s efforts through this whole process - big time.”

Letter:

Dear Lieutenant General Van Antwerp:

In response to complaints received from constituents, I’m writing in regards to the Army Corps of Engineers’ (ACOE) assessed administrative costs associated with the sale of cabin sites on Fort Peck Lake, Montana.

After passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000, Congress provided $500,000 for ACOE to carry out cabin transfers on Fort Peck Lake.  This figure was recommended by the Corps, and since then, subsequent funding exceeding this amount has been appropriated.  Ten years later, it has come to my attention that ACOE has decided to assess duplicative administrative fees totaling more than $3.8 million, which will be passed on to cabin lessees attempting to purchase their cabin sites from the Corps.

I’m concerned that cabin lessees will pay twice for costs associated with preparing cabin sites for conveyance.  If appraisals take into account all surveys, sanitation reviews, easements and government regulatory issues before they are actually completed, the actual cost of such improvements should be deducted from the sale price at the time of transfer.  Unfortunately, this isn’t happening, and cabin owners are paying the price. 

The original underlying legislation, the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge Enhancement Act, states that the Secretary shall pay all administrative costs incurred and may require the party to whom the property is conveyed to reimburse a reasonable portion.  Currently, these calculations are anything but reasonable.  As such, I urge your review of ACOE’s methods for calculating transfer fees. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and please don’t hesitate to contact my office if I can be of any assistance.

Sincerely,