Development of the Sweetwater area with its culinary water system and limited sewer system began in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Sometime in the early 1980’s the Sweetwater Developer went bankrupt and the water/sewer company was taken over and operated by the First Security Bank to provide service for the cabins then in existence. In mid-1988 the three Homeowners’ Associations (HOA’s) in this area (Golf Course, Hillside, and Trailer Park) purchased the water/sewer company from the First Security Bank and began operating the systems as the Bear Lake Water Company to make certain that the water company would remain viable and able to provide water to the property owners in those three associations. The sewer portion of the company was then sold to the Bear Lake Special Service District who subsequently relocated the sewer lagoons to the Round Valley area, leaving the Bear Lake Water Company responsible only for the culinary water system.
As part of that purchase, BLWC was organized as a private, non-profit corporation with the three HOA’s as joint owners. The water company Board of Directors is made up of the president and one additional member from each of the three HOAs, plus one additional at large member appointed by the BLWC board.
BLWC is a non-profit corporation managed by a governing board of seven directors appointed as follows:
- Each of the three original Homeowners’ Associations that make up the Water Company service area appoints the president of their Board of Directors and one other member of their Board to serve as directors on the Bear Lake Water Company Board of Directors.
- The six directors appointed by the Associations appoint one additional at-large director to also serve on the Water Company Board of Directors. The at-large director may be a member of one of the original Associations, a general Class A association, or any person holding Class B or Class C shares. The at-large director so appointed is to watch over the interests of the General Class A, Class B, and Class C shareholders regardless of whether or not he or she is a member of any of those Classes.
The following are the current Bear Lake Water Company Board Members as of November 2024: