The Clean and Waste Water Study Group held its first meeting on March 15 to establish the framework for their study of the future of the town’s water and waste water systems which together form the New Hartford Water Company and is under the direction of the WPCA. This group will hold its second meeting this afternoon, Thursday, April 12.
Following is the video of the study group’s first meeting.
Click on the image above to watch the video of the Clean and Waste Water Study Group's first meeting on the NewHartfordPlus YouTube channel
Summary Of The Study Group’s First Meeting, March 15
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Following is a brief summary of the Clean and Waste Water Study Group’s first meeting. Please be sure to watch the video of the meeting (linked to via the image above) for a full account of the meeting.
The study group was formed following a request by the Building Oversight Committee (BOC) to the town’s selectmen to set up a task force to evaluating the future of the town’ water and sewer system; see video of the BOC presentation at the Board of Selectmen Special Meeting on February 13.
The members of the study group that had assembled in the Sessions Conference Room were the 7 that had been proposed by the BOC during their February presentation, i.e.:
- 2 WPCA members: Bob Kryzs and Steve Hanright;
- 2 BOC members: Roy Litchfield and Denton Butler;
- 2 past First Selectpersons: Kate Rieger and Bill Baxter; and
- the current First Selectman, Dan Jerram, to act as Chairman.
Also attending the 2 p.m. meeting was David Rosengren, another member of the WPCA.
Bill Baxter asked what the reason was for calling the study group/task force together and he was told that financial considerations – the small number of users, the costs associated with the new wastewater treatment plant, etc. were the reasons.
Denton Butler had outlined three possible scenarios in his handout:
- maintaining the status quo
- town ownership and assumption of the operational management
- possible sale/lease of assets to a third party.
Bob Krzys also had brought in a handout with his thoughts on the subject. He agreed that there were issues and he emphasized that the most important aspect was to look at the data and once they knew what they were dealing with then they could move forward. He said that in order to expand the user base for the wastewater treatment plant they would have to expand the wastewater collection system and he identified two potential sources of funding to do that: (1) the left-over USDA funding that might be available and (2) the town is on the DEEP priority list for the fiscal year 2012-2013 that would make available $1.2 million in a combination of grants and loans for the expansion of the sewer system to Cottage Street. Whether they were going to access that money and how the repayment was going to be structured was something to be considered, he said.
After further discussion the group divided itself into pairs that would work together on gathering specific data to bring back and share with the rest of the group at their next meeting on April 12.
