11/10/11 WPCA Meeting Recap

Robert Elliot did not show up for last night’s WPCA meeting. I surmise, like the rest of us, he feels rather helpless and is tired of banging his head against the wall. But, that’s just my opinion.

The meeting started late as the board was in an “executive session”, meaning they were discussing the lawsuits. Once the meeting started, chairman Jack Murrary moved around on the agenda to maintenance items like approval of minutes and public comments (there were none at this point). We then all sat there for several minutes waiting for Peter Hughes to give his report.

Hughes eventually arrived, and began reading off a status report on various items. Flow at the pump station was at 29,000 gallons per day, down from last month. Power outages during the Alfred storm required pumping of the grinder pumps on Lake Ridge, Cheney, and Denler. Hughes said at the WPCA will seek reimbursement from FEMA, as they did for Irene. The cost of pumping the grinder pumps during Irene was $3,000.

Bixoide treatment was cut down to twice a week, from daily, last month. A resident called and complained that the odor had reappeared so they’ll be going back to a daily treatment.

My thoughts — I’m unclear why Peter Hughes is telling the WPCA what they’re going to do. There were no motions to change any of this. Nothing from the board on motions to seek FEMA reimbursement, nor to change the bioxide treatment. How does Peter Hughes have the authority to just go off and do these things?

Hughes related that the Village Green Plaza will be connecting next week. The defunct Marlborough Tavern and the Marlborough Bakery buildings are in the process of connecting now. The bakery will need to install a grease trap, but the WPCA will not be ordering them to do so now (there’s Peter telling them what to do, again). Instead, they will let the Chatham Health District go in and tell the bakery whether they are compliant or not, and then it will be up to the WPCA to enforce the grease trap requirement. Per Hughes, Connecticut State law as of July 1st, requires that a business like the bakery have a grease trap installed.

The topic of discussion then changed to forcing connections for residents who have not connected, and not appealed their connection order. Very telling here was the fact that the board agreed to table this topic until they could discuss this issue with the new Board of Selectmen. That gives us all a clue as to who (Black) may have been the driving force behind these guys being so rigid over the last four years.

Also tabled, in lieu of discussions with the new board and for reports from another town on their regulations, was the discussion of changing the WPCA’s regulatory definition of  “user”. The WPCA wants to change the definition to include a person who has been ordered to connect, but has not, and has not appealed. That means, they want to charge usage to someone who isn’t actually using the sewer.

At this point, my mind began an internal dialogue to the effect of, “Are these guys serious? How many more lawsuits do they want? Don’t they know everyone can appeal the usage charge every time it’s set or revised? Why would they want to do this?” My mind then responded, “For money. They have a budget deficit of $53,000. They want to try and suck money out of people who can’t afford to connect, for usage. That will make them connect, too.” “No surprise there, ” was the internal response.

Public comments were then taken. I asked the board how and why they felt that redefining their regulatory definition of a “user” to include people who are not connected to the sewer was fair, and accurate? To be honest, I’m not clear on their reply, if there was one. I believe the response was something to the effect of that they want to change the regulations to define a user as someone ordered to connect, not appealed that order, and hasn’t connected. Yeah, I know that already, but how is that right or fair? Well, I already know the answer. It isn’t fair. They’re broke and need money. See the previous paragraph.

First Selectman elect, Catherine Gaudinski, then spoke about the previous evening’s Board of Finance meeting, at which Robert Elliot came before the board, upon direction from Peter Hughes, and discussed the dire straits in which he finds himself due to the sewer.

Murray responded that Elliot did not relay the full story. According to Murray, Hughes told Elliot that the WPCA had no money to assist him, and that the BOF was the place to bring his concerns. I found this explanation plausible and likely true. It does not, however, address the fact that Elliot is in his current state of affairs solely due to the decisions of Jack Murray, Bill Black, Peter Hughes, and the rest of the WPCA. Facts are facts, folks. The guy is at the end of his rope, solely because of the funding decisions made by the WPCA. It’s just like Murray to skip that part of the problem, and pawn the whole thing off on some other board. Actually, it’s more like Black to do that, but Murray is pretty good at it, too.

Resident Stacey Francoline then spoke, quite forcefully, about the inequity of not forcing people along Joe Asklar’s extension to connect, while forcing the rest of us to do so. She wanted clarification on why these people would not receive a “benefit” assessment bill. She wanted to know why they weren’t being forced to connect. She stated that the fact that the rest of us have been hit with a $12,000 bill, have been ordered to connect, and have to pay for usage shows a disparity in treatment.

WPCA member Bill Lardi responded that since there was not outlay by the WPCA and the necessary equipment for those properties to connect was not in place, they could not order connection, nor assess a benefit. Honestly, this does make perfect sense to me. However, I do feel that it’s unfair to the rest of us.

Sec. 7-264 of the Connecticut General Statutes give the WPCA full power to borrow money from the town in the form of a “Temporary Note”, to finance construction costs of the sewer. Repayment of that note comes directly from usage charges. I’m not sure why the WPCA doesn’t know this. They could install grinder pumps and the necessary piping to connect these properties, then include those costs in the usage fees for those properties.

Francoline, continued stating that the WPCA has a $53,000 deficit and they have a perfectly good source of revenue available from the properties on the Asklar extension. Discussion then became more heated, and I had difficulty following it. Suffice it to say, the WPCA made no indication that they plan on doing anything with the Asklar properties, and Stacey felt this was a disparity in treatment of the “Phase 1″ residents.

Personally, I think everyone should be left alone unless they want to connect. I think the WPCA should approach the properties on the Asklar extension and ask them if they want to connect. If they do, they could borrow money from the town for whatever equipment is necessary, then pay it back from usage charges. No “benefit” assessment would even be necessary. But, I’m certain Murray doesn’t know any of this. I wonder if he’s ever read the statutes at all, other than what I’ve conveyed in my letters and blog (Jack is a subscriber to this blog, by the way.  Hi, Jack!)

With that, the meeting ended. At this point, I see a glimmer of hope for change. Two important issues were tabled in lieu of the new BOS. I think this new BOS will not be as heavy handed as Black’s, and we may start seeing some compromise, finally, from the WPCA.