Waste Water

VICTOR — The Victor City Council voted July 1 to drop both its lawsuit against the City of Driggs and its petition to court-finance a wastewater plant of its own. Dropping the lawsuit clears the condition Driggs had set before it would reopen talks on a single plant for both cities. Both dismissals are without prejudice, so Victor keeps the right to refile.

Mayor Will Frohlich, who had backed the litigation, resigned effective July 1; Council President Stacy Hulsing is serving as acting mayor. The council took both actions at a 9 a.m. special meeting, its first since the resignation, and approved each one 3-0, with Councilor Emily Sustick absent.

DRIGGS — The Driggs City Council voted 4-0 on June 16 to design the rebuilt Driggs wastewater plant large enough to keep treating the City of Victor. City staff presented it as the only option left, and the council called it one it had "no choice" but to take. On the record the city built that night, it was also the cheaper plant, the one Driggs can bill Victor for, and the one that protects the state money already lined up. It was the obvious call, as much as a forced one.

DRIGGS — The next two weeks build toward June 24, when the state is set to lock in the financing for the Driggs wastewater plant and Driggs-Reed Memorial Airport holds a public conversation about a runway closure tangled up with a burst pipe. Before then, the county commission takes up its FY27 budget in a special meeting, and the Teton Rock Gym's deadline to leave the Driggs Recreation Center arrives. The stretch opens Tuesday, June 16, when the city council takes up the 60% design for the plant the same day it meets with the Environmental Protection Agency.

DRIGGS — Two letters now in the public record give the clearest look so far at what each city wants. Driggs gave Victor until Oct. 1, 2030, to disconnect. Victor wants joint powers instead.

DRIGGS — The Driggs consent decree set a hard federal deadline to rebuild the city's wastewater treatment plant by Dec. 15, 2028. The city now treats February 2030 as the deadline and is still working to secure the federal sign-off that would make the later date official.

The Driggs wastewater plant heads to a 6 PM public hearing next Tuesday, the day the city also meets with the Environmental Protection Agency. It is the council's first hard call on the 60% design since the federal consent decree clock started running. Before that, the Teton County BOCC holds a two-day FY27 budget review on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Driggs Planning & Zoning Commission hears a proposal for a 69-room Cobblestone Hotel, and a Wyoming-Idaho workshop on Grand Targhee convenes at the courthouse.

DRIGGS — Driggs Council President Allison Michalski told Victor's representatives on June 2 that the city cannot enter a wastewater partnership through a joint powers agreement (JPA) because Driggs alone holds the federal permit and the consent decree behind it. Earlier in the same meeting, the city's public works director and its attorney had told the council the opposite: that state and federal regulators are open to moving that permit to a jointly owned entity. The council voted unanimously to table the decision to June 16.

DRIGGS — The Driggs City Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday to vote on whether to rebuild the city's wastewater plant for one city or two. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) rescinded approval of the Driggs-only design eleven days ago.

DRIGGS — Memorial Day opens a two-week window anchored by the Centennial Estates Settlement and an agenda dense enough to fill two consecutive Teton County commissioners' meetings, Tuesday and Wednesday.

DRIGGS — Primary day on Tuesday, May 19, is the busiest single day in the two-week ahead. Idaho's statewide primary, the Teton County Road & Bridge Levy, and the Driggs City Council hearing on the Alexandria Condos rezone all land on the same Tuesday. The Tetonia state-land auction follows Friday, May 22. Memorial Day on Monday, May 25, then rearranges the county's regular 4th-Monday meeting cycle.

An independent CPA examination jointly commissioned by Driggs and Victor concluded that Driggs overcharged Victor for years on the cities' shared wastewater loan, used a cost-allocation method the inter-city agreement does not authorize, and could not reconcile two of three quarterly bills the auditor tested. The report, signed by Cooper Norman in Idaho Falls on February 9, 2024, became part of the public record on March 27, 2025, when the Victor City Council voted to end the 26-year partnership and build its own treatment plant.

DRIGGS — Driggs is borrowing $25 million to rebuild its wastewater treatment plant without a bond election. The Driggs City Council adopted Resolution 421-24 on Sept. 3, 2024, authorizing outside counsel to file for judicial confirmation in district court. A confirmed judgment is the city's legal authority to take on the debt.

DRIGGS — The week ahead in Teton Valley loads five development applications onto the joint Driggs and Teton County Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) docket for May 12, the centerpiece of a two-week stretch that also runs a full Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting on May 11, the county's Land Development Code (LDC) public hearing on May 18, and the Idaho primary on May 19. The county had not posted cover pages for the May 11 BOCC and May 12 P&Z hearings to the eScribe portal as of Sunday night, but staff reports and supporting documents for every item are on file.

VICTOR. The Victor City Council rescinded the Evans wastewater land deal at a special meeting, repealed the January annexation, and adopted an ordinance to exclude the parcel from the city limits. The City Attorney's April 29 staff report says the city and the seller "have agreed in principle to terminate" the contract; the rescission agreement includes de-annexation as a term. The council voted unanimously.

VICTOR. The Victor wastewater fight reached its next milestone Wednesday when City Council voted 3-1 to amend the fiscal 2026 appropriations ordinance by $2,625,366 and to disburse $1,984,035.25 to close the Evans purchase, a 40-acre parcel at Highway 33 and 7000 South, the site of the city's planned independent Class A treatment facility. Councilors Sue Muncaster, Emily Sustick, and Stacy Hulsing voted in favor. Councilor Amy Ross dissented. Mayor Will Frohlich was absent.

The Victor City Council voted 3-1 Tuesday night to approve a $2 million Evans land purchase for the city's planned wastewater treatment facility and, in a separate vote, ratified the city's pending lawsuit against the City of Driggs on the same margin.

VICTOR — The wastewater numbers in the Victor-Driggs fight start at $35 million, the figure that has dominated the debate since Mayor Will Frohlich announced plans to build an independent treatment plant. Critics call it reckless. The recall petition cites it. Councilmember Amy Ross, the lone dissenting vote on the judicial confirmation, warned in January that she doesn't think "anyone understands the full financial implications of $35 million in debt."

For more than 25 years, the cities of Victor and Driggs have shared the Driggs wastewater treatment system. That partnership is now the subject of a major lawsuit, a mayoral recall effort, and more than $65 million in proposed infrastructure spending between the two cities. This is how it happened, what the lawsuit says, and what comes next.

Update: The Victor Wastewater Hearing was Pushed to September as of April 7, 2026.

Meetings are long. Voices are louder. People are organizing, questioning, challenging, and showing up in new ways in Victor. That’s not a failure of democracy—it’s a sign of people caring deeply about this place and the decisions shaping its future. Right now, though, we are far better at breaking things down than building anything back up.

VICTOR — A group of Victor residents is attempting to remove Mayor Will Frohlich from office, filing a recall petition with the Teton County Clerk on March 10.