Phase I sewer assessment approved

Date: 12/14/2011

Dec. 14, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

AGAWAM — The City Council approved the sewer assessment for the first phase of the Feeding Hills Sewer Extension Project at its Dec. 5 meeting.

The project, known as Phase I, includes 6,900 feet of sewer along Route 57 and South Westfield Street that connects to the existing sewer system at Shoemaker Lane, extending to a point just north of the former Western Massachusetts Regional Police Academy building on South Westfield Street.

According to information on a project web page maintained by Ad Hoc Sewer Committee Chairman Robert Rossi, residents in that area will now be assessed $2,641 for the construction project. Those wishing to hook up to the new sewer line will be assessed an additional $3,211 for the town’s portion of the connection, making the total cost to the homeowner approximately $5,211, excluding any fees necessary to have a private contractor connect the home to the street pipe.

“The bottom line is, whatever the number is [for the homeowner], it can be paid over a period of 20 years,” Rossi said, adding that residents can arrange to set up a payment plan with the town for the assessment.

Rossi said though he was glad the council passed the sewer assessment, he wished the vote had come sooner, both for residents who need and want to connect to the service and to help fund the next phases of the project.

“When I took over the chair of the subcommittee, my idea was to pay as you go in small bites, each phase would be paying their own way,” Rossi said.

According to Rossi’s webpage, Phase II of the project calls for approximately 21,000 feet of new sewer piping with two waste water pumping stations, one on Pine street and one located on Barry Street. The sewer will cover an area including South Westfield Street, from the former police academy building to Barry Street; Pine Street; Spruce Circle Oakmont Place and the Bradford Drive development (Bradford Drive, Meyers Drive and Tannery Road). Design for the street portion of the project is now 80 percent complete, with design on the two pumping stations approximately 25 percent complete.

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The City Council also voted in favor of a transfer of $492,993 from the Agawam Wastewater Department Fund Available Funds to the department’s operations account to cover a fiscal year 2011 (FY11) deficit, and to approve the department’s proposed the sewer use rates for 2012.

Rossi said the transfer was necessary to prevent a department shortfall from becoming part of the town budget.

The town established the Wastewater Department as a self-supporting Enterprise Fund in January 2008.

The new sewer rate, approved by a vote of 10 in favor, one absent, was set at $3.04 per hundred cubic feet, a increase of 64 cents over the FY11 rate of $2.40

Rossi said 24 cents of that increase will cover the cost of the new sewer customers coming online due to the completion of Phase I of the Feeding Hills Sewer Extension Project. The additional 40 cents, he said was “because of the shortfalls that took place n the sewer department.”

Debbie Gardner can be reached by email at debbieg@thereminder.com