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Photo Mary Ann Bragg
Pepe’s Wharf Inc. president Astrid Berg complained last week at a Water & Sewer board meeting about being forced to hook up to the town sewer system. |
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Photo Mary Ann Bragg
Two dozen property owners, with seniors Peggy Pritchett and Frank Schaefer in the forefront, gathered last week at a Water & Sewer Board meeting. |
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Seniors, others mount defense
Sewer board relents on connection deadline, fees — for now
By Mary Ann Bragg & Kaimi Rose Lum
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — The phrase ‘house poor’ comes to mind.
At last week’s Water & Sewer Board meeting, three older citizens who own property along Commercial Street said their limited budgets would be tapped out if forced to connect to the sewer in the next few years.
Frank Schaefer of the White Horse Inn said he spent his IRA money, about $60,000, to install an above-ground septic system in 1994. “And I’m asked now to spend $82,000 on this,” Schaefer said, referring to letters received this summer from the town saying he needed to connect to the town sewer system by 2008.
Schaefer said he expected his septic tank to last for 30 years, with good care. “It works better than the town’s system,” Schaefer said.
So too with Peggy Pritchett, who owns a residential and commercial property in the East End. Pritchett said she’d spent $12,000 for an onsite Title 5 septic system in the mid-1990s, just before talk of a town-wide sewer system began, and she has recently taken out an equity loan on her property for painting and other upgrades. “I can’t afford more,” Pritchett said.
Pritchett produced a letter from the town from 2003 that assured her that she would only have to connect to the sewer when her onsite system failed.
Likewise senior Barbara Rushmore threatened to sue the town if forced to connect her property to the sewer. “Who decided I was a red dot?” Rushmore asked, referring to her property’s status as a “red dot delay” in town wastewater parlance.
A “red dot delay” is a lot that has insufficient room for a fully compliant onsite septic system, but has an existing system that has not yet failed. The town began pressuring those property owners, such as Schaeffer, Pritchett and Rushmore, to connect to the sewer this summer to help ease a financial crisis in the town wastewater fund, and to allow the town to complete the first phase of the system with the state’s blessing.
“I will not do it,” Rushmore said. “I cannot do it. I was never in favor of this boondoggle.”
Two restaurant owners said paying, unexpectedly, for a sewer connection was beyond their means. “You’re going to chase us out of town,” Lorraine Najar said of Lorraine’s Restaurant, which is located on Commercial Street in the West End. “My septic system is in really good, running condition. I’m very conscientious about water use. We’re trying to become more year-round as a town. I just need some help. Don’t make me leave.”
Based on comments like that, the Water & Sewer Board chose not to make a bylaw change last week that would have forced a sewer connection on the red dot delays by July 15, 2008. The board also did not approve a bylaw change that would have allowed graduated fees for new sewer connections.
“I would like to apologize for that letter,” Water & Sewer Board chair Jonathan Sinaiko said after the citizens spoke. Sinaiko’s signature was on both letters, in June and July, giving the red dot delays until 2008 to connect. Sinaiko added that he would rather see some of the financial burden of the sewer be placed on property taxpayers as a whole, rather than just on the backs of those in the room.
“I’m very sympathetic with the people here today,” board member Anne Lord added. “I was looking [in my records] for the clause that said five years, and it’s not there.”
Out of the 51 properties identified as red dot delays, four are already paying for their sewer connection and eight have expressed interest in connecting since letters were delivered to property owners this summer.
In total the first phase of the sewer system is designed to handle about 450 connections, primarily along Commercial Street.
The Water & Sewer Board is scheduled to meet again this week and further discussion about the red dot delays is expected. No further ideas will be explored from the town manager’s office for the next few weeks, Director of Public Works David Guertin said on Tuesday. (Town Manager Keith Bergman is on vacation for two weeks.)
On Monday Board of Selectmen chair Cheryl Andrews said that while the town wastewater fund is operating at a deficit currently, she wanted to emphasize that there are other reasons to encourage red dot delays to hook-up. “Look at Commercial Street,” Andrews said. “It’s a mess. We’re not going to pave the streets until we’re finished.”
The selectmen want to raise about $200,000 for the current fiscal year from new red dot delay sewer connections.
The town wastewater enterprise fund has an annual operating budget of $2.2 million, and in fiscal year 2005 the fund balance ended in the hole by $40,000.
mabragg@provincetownbanner.com
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Town backs Cabral Pier parking & mooring
In the News
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Aug 25th, 2005