CT Examiner Editor Gregory Stroud’s Op-Ed, “The Problem of Other People’s Money in Old Lyme,” got it wrong.
The Board of Selectmen have been aggressively moving and working with DEEP and the private beach associations (PBAs) on the sewer project. But when serious doubt regarding costs surfaced, the Board of Selectmen acted quickly and responsibly and retained an outside accountant to review those numbers. That accountant found errors in the numbers presented by the WPCA Chair. Remember also that there are four entities involved. The bids for the Old Lyme Shores internal project were not even opened until this past Wednesday (October 10th) and are still in review. The bids for Miami Beach that were opened August 12th were so excessively high, that Miami Beach has yet to decide if they are going to wait for a miracle or go out AGAIN to authorize a MUCH higher bond. The Board of Selectmen are not dragging their feet Mr. Stroud. The project is complex.
It is the PBAs that have been unwilling, up until this past week, to accept the terms that the town’s legal counsel has requested regarding the cost sharing agreement (CSA). The CSA is once more now being reviewed by the PBA legal councils. The complexity of this project requires it. So, it is not the three selectmen dragging their feet on a project that was initiated by a prior administration and dumped on their laps. No sir, Mr. Stroud, you got it wrong.
Fuss and O’Neill estimates that this project will now run North of $72 million without even including maintenance and contractual obligations. At that price, DEEPs affordability definition (2% of the town’s gross medium income) has already been significantly exceeded. You should also recall the CT Statute 7-249 states “no assessment shall be made against any property in excess of the special benefit to accrue to such property.” Please don’t blame our Selectmen when the majority of property owners in Sound View execute their right to utilize Statute 249 and sue. Blame the WPCA and prior administrations for adopting the one method of payback that makes this project legally unaffordable as advertised.
You just can’t get water out of a stone.
$72 million. That’s a lot of green when there are green solutions that are more affordable and less disruptive that could be employed to address what DEEP is now calling ‘the potential to pollute at some time in the future’.
Daniel Tricarico
Old Lyme, CT
Tricarico is a member of the Sound View Sewer Coalition, LLC
Stroud responds: After reporting on the sewer issue regularly for seven years, I can attest that the dysfunction on this issue did not begin with the current administration. I can also attest that the costs of the project for individual users are knocking up against thresholds of affordability. But the 2% calculation you cite is not a matter of law, and does not include the likely offsetting contribution that will be required of town taxpayers — the point of my editorial. How much that contribution will be — and how much of that $72 million will be covered by state and federal aid — is the gamble. Don’t take my word for it, take a look the Aug. 15 letter to Shoemaker by the Deputy Commissioner of DEEP:
“Please also note that if an action/milestone noted below doesn’t occur or is delayed, it will significantly impact the town’s ability to pursue the internal and shared projects, including execution of a CWF [Clean Water Fund] agreement as well as the opportunity to receive additional funding in the form of principal forgiveness.”
I’m not saying it won’t work, but how else to describe the town’s decision to flout that warning, than to call a bluff?
Heavy is the head that wears the crown.