By Cheryl Schweizer
Chronicle correspondent

     BRIDGEPORT - Residents of four Bridgeport Bar domestic water districts that are in the process of consolidating will be asked to participate in an income survey beginning late this month.
     The survey will help determine if the new district is eligible for grants and low-interest loans that would help pay for upgrades. The project's estimated cost is about $2 million.
     The new Greater Bar Water District is still in the boundary review process, the last step in forming the new district.
     More than 60 percent of the property owners in the Rocky Butte Water Association and the Rich Acres and Bar Development water systems signed petitions for annexation into the Downing Townsite Water District. Since then, directors in the four water districts have been working out the transfers of assets and liabilities and have started the search for funding to pay for the upgrades.
     "We qualify for the highest level of grants" with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Butte Director Steve Anderson said.
     The income study will determine whether the new district would qualify for additional grants, Anderson said.
     Surveys will go to residents, regardless of whether they own the property, Anderson said. Residents will be asked to complete the survey even if they donât receive domestic water from any of the existing water systems.
     Residents will be identified by property number, not by name, Anderson said. The survey will ask about gross income and number of people in the household.
     Responses will go directly to the Rural Community Assistance Corp., and the local directors won't see the individual responses, Anderson said. In the right circumstances, the district could get enough grant money to pay for most of the project, he said.
     "That's the whole idea," he said.
     Respondents are asked to return the surveys by Feb. 17.
     The annexation process should be done by late February or early March. The new board will be expanded to five commissioners, with elections for those seats scheduled for May.
     Commissioners would start looking for money to pay for the required environmental studies, the water system plan and securing the water rights, a process that's projected to take about a year.
     Design and engineering work on the upgraded system should start in early 2011, with construction beginning in spring 2012 and completion by the end of that year.