- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
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This was good news for Sciarabba and Noel Desch, who have been soliciting donations from large companies and organizations, including Tompkins County. Cargill is the first to pledge, which will help reduce the cost to individual land owners. The total estimated charge for a typical single family house hooked up to the sewer is $854 annually. But that is a 'worst case scenario' figure. Sciarabba and Desch hope to raise enough in donations to reduce that figure to $548.
New construction will also help reduce the amount, as will a share paid by the Village of Lansing. The Town and Village have yet to agree upon the percentage of the cost the Village will pay. Mayor Donald Hartill sent a draft Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) to the Town about a month ago, but the Town hasn't officially responded. The committee asked Town Supervisor Steve Farkas to get together with Hartill to negotiate the amount, as well as questions of ownership of the part of the trunk line that will run through the Village.
But Town Engineer David Herrick reported that because of a new scoring system Lansing may not score high enough to qualify for a lower rate loan from the Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC). He met with EFC President and Vice President to learn what can be done to raise the project's score. "They're in a situation where cuts in their funding require them to implement a funding line," Herrick reported. "At the moment our project does not have the necessary number of points to be eligible to apply for the subsidized interest program."
But Herrick said that hard facts about failing septic systems in Lansing could raise the score. Last month John Anderson, of the Tompkins County Health Department promised to provide figures on how many septic systems have failed within the proposed sewer district, and how many were replaced with "compromised" systems. He also pledged to conduct dye tests on systems in at-risk areas like Ladoga Park Road. The committee expects the results to provide hard data that will support the need for a sewer in Lansing, not only to raise the project's likelihood of getting better funding, but also to demonstrate to residents why it is needed.
Also discussed was a fly-over with an infrared camera that would show where septic systems are leaking effluent into rain ditches and Lake Cayuga. Councilwoman Connie Wilcox noted that the fly-over was supposed to be a joint venture with the Town of Ulysses, but after two years Ulysses has apparently not come up with the funds for the flight. Sciarabba asked what the cost is, and was told Ulysses' half was about $1,500. He suggested that Lansing pay the whole amount, because the committee needs the information now.
Meanwhile the committee discussed answers to questions brought up in public information sessions, and sought to address concerns. Initially they had set a policy that anyone within the initial service area would be forced to hook up to the system within five years of the collection system being completed. But residents balked, saying that a property owner with a new septic system would be penalized. The committee adopted an alternate plan that says that home owners with a septic system 5 years or older will have five years to hook up, but those with newer systems will have longer, up to a maximum of ten years. For example, if a system is two years old, its owner would get eight years to hook up. If a septic were installed the day before the sewer came on line, the owner would have ten years.
Engineer Jim Blum sought to address some residents' concern that there is no concrete plan to hook up areas within the sewer district but outside the initial service area. He developed statistics on six areas of Lansing and what it would cost to include them. The area encompassed by Asbury Drive, Horvath Drive, and Meadow Drive are already included. The estimated cost of bringing sewer to those roads is $1.4 million, which comes to a total of $13,000 per Equivalent Dwelling Unity (EDU), spread over the length of a 20 year loa. By contrast the Autumn Ridge area would cost an estimated $790,000, or $18,100 per EDU.
At first the committee said that additional areas would only be hooked up after the initial service area was completed and on line. But Sciarabba said that if the residents were willing to spend the money they should be included in the initial build. Some of the neighborhoods in Blum's chart were in the same price range as Autumn Ridge. Others were as high as $26,000 per EDU.
The next public information meeting is Wednesday October 25 at 6:00pm. Committee members planned to have more answers and hard data for the public by then. But the commitment by Cargill was the first firm indication that the cost will be brought down. And that was good news for residents, as well as for the Sewer Committee.
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