Date: Fri 18-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

sewer-Main-Street-Cascella

Full Text:

Residents Petition For Sewers Under Main Street

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Main Street residents unhappy with the water Pollution Control Authority's

(WPCA) plans to install sewer lines behind homes on the east side of Main

Street are circulating a petition seeking to get the sewer installed beneath

the center of the street.

Sherry Bermingham of 42 Main Street said August 17 said the petition is being

circulated among residents along the street from Schoolhouse Hill Road to

Glover Avenue. An initial petition drive seeking to get sewers installed along

Main Street's curbline has been suspended she said.

"The response has been good" to the petition to get the sewer installed

beaneath the center of the street, Mrs Bermingham said. But more circulation

work remains to be done, she said. The specific results of the poll weren't

available. Some people to whom the petition has been presented want some time

to think about the matter and some people haven't been able to be contacted,

she said.

Mrs Bermingham said said the petition circulators hope to complete their work

by next week.

She said she favors installing the sewer either beanth the center of the

street or along the road's curbline.

The west side of Main Street will be served by a separate sewer.

Approximately 30 properties are affected by the backyard sewering plan.

Last month, the WPCA told the concerned residents that if the residents could

gain the support of 90 percent of the affected property owners to install the

sewer along the curbline on the east side of the street, the WPCA would the

consider installing the line along the curb. WPCA members have resisted

installing the line beneath the center of the street, saying the state

Department of Transportation (DOT) opposes doing so because it would pose a

variety of traffic, maintenance, safety and environmental problems.

WPCA chairmam Peter Alagna said August 16 installing a sewer beneath the

street would add an unaccepatble $500,000 to the sewering project's $30.4

million cost.

The Borough Board of Burgesses is scheduled to meet August 23 to address the

sewer location issue.

It was the burgesses who pressed the WPCA last year not to install the sewer

along the curbline on the east side of the street in order to protect the

stately trees along the street from construction damage. The burgesses

accepted a compromise with the WPCA and agreed to have the sewer installed

behind the houses.

The WPCA plans to meet on the sewer placement issue August 31.

First Selectman Robert Cascella said August 16 "Not one person on Main Street

has contacted me about this controversy over where to put the sewer main."

"We never have gotten a direct `no' from the DOT on putting the sewer line in

the street," he said. "The DOT said it didn't like the idea, they said they'd

prefer it wouldn't happen, but they never said 'no'," he said.

Mr Cascella said the WPCA wrote to the DOT twice about running the sewer line

in the roadbed and the first time got back "a very vague answer." "The second

time the DOT responded saying "We'd like to hear more."

"The WPCA then decided on its own to put it in the backyards," Mr Cascella

said. "I don't know where the issue will will end. I don't have any control

over the WPCA," he said.

Mr Cascella said the DOT wanted the town to explore other alternatives but the

WPCA has "talked about using back yards, front yards, killing trees, ruining

property, cutting property in half, everything except hanging the sewer main

from the trees."

"I need citizens to come forward and talk to me. They can't continue to come

forward after the fact and complain," the first selectman said.

"I'm having a meeting with Fuss and O'Neill this week and I'd certainly be

willing to talk about using the paved portion of the road next to the curb" to

install a sewer main, he said. Fuss and O"neill, Inc, is the town's consulting

engineering firm on the sewering project.

"I'd certainly be willing to use the paved portion of the street. We don't

know that the DOT would refuse as long as it wouldn't destroy the integrity of

the main portion of the street," Mr Cascella said.