The City of Poulsbo is finding itself between the proverbial rock and a hard place as it proceeds with plans to create a sewer pump station on Bond Road — and squeezing out will be anything but easy.

On one side, the station is facing not one but two appeals as well as an extremely tight timeline that could upset the entire plan. On the other, the city has essentially set precedent by promising a private developer that if the station isn’t built or is otherwise modified, it would absorb up to $250,000 in associated costs.

That’s $250,000 of taxpayer money, yet no city taxpayers — or for that matter, other developers — expressed outrage or concern about this. That’s also a chunk of change for a city that’s been holding its budgetary line for several years.

If the city can stave off the appellants in a timely manner and order the equipment necessary for the station, it might be OK. The white knights on the appeal front rode in last week in the form of hearing examiners. Coincidental timing, right?

Yes but long overdue as well, considering the hearing examiner idea was presented by Planning Director Barry Berezowsky at the council retreat in February 2005. It was put on the back burner — thanks to sexier issues, i.e. a new municipal campus — until the city ran headlong into a brick wall put up by the appellants.

In the meantime, and in addition to the quarter million dollar hammer poised over the city’s head, not meeting the timeline will not only further the perpetual state of jeopardy the city has placed Liberty Bay in but will also snare construction and potential revenues coming from the city’s northwest Urban Growth Area.

If the appellants win their case April 28, that hammer could fall, bringing the location of the pump station and new development into question. If the city council members have a viable backup plan, we suggest they review it.