COEUR D'ALENE -- The Dalton Gardens city council is expected to vote Thursday night on a new sewer line plan that would extend sewer lines from Dalton Avenue to Prairie Avenue along Government Way. Local businesses, who would have to foot the bill for the work, aren’t happy with the plan though.

Supporters of the sewer plan say it'll benefit future growth; opponents say now is not the time to ask struggling businesses to shell out tens of thousands of dollars.

Nearly two decades after Kelly Carlson and her husband built a commercial property on Government Way they've decided to sell it. More people and businesses have popped up in the area over the years but one thing hasn't changed.

“We bought the property because they said at that time that soon in the near future Government Way would be improved and sewer would be in and that's 24 years ago,” Carlson said.

A federally funded project to tackle the narrow, two-lane arterial could mean a new sewer line for Dalton Gardens. The city wants to piggyback on plans to expand a half-mile section of Government Way to four lanes with improvements including new sidewalks and bike lanes.

While the road is torn up, the plan would be to put in a new sewer line in an area where many businesses are using septic tanks. The estimated price tag for the sewer project is $2.4 Million.

“Dalton Gardens has always been a very good area for sewage drainage and it never really has been a septic problem in the district," Northwest Fence Company owner Kelly Nelson said.

Nelson isn't convinced that this is the right time to install a sewer line. He's one of the business owners being asked to help foot the bill through a local improvement district fund. Nelson says he’d have to shell out $148,000 for three acres.

“I think it would be great to do the improvements to the roadway if the costs and timing were better. Our economic condition is tough and the timing is tough,” Nelson said.

With a For Sale sign up and no tenant in sight, Carlson still feels its time to make the switch.

“People are running scared, they're all struggling and we've been no different with this. But at the same time, I'm kinda looking at the future and its time to be on sewer. It's time not to be on septic,” Carlson said.

The Government Way expansion project is scheduled to start next in the spring of 2011.