- By Dan Veaner
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The questionnaire simply asked whether residents support the sewer proposal, are neutral toward it, or opposed to it, and provided a space for comments. Shattuck said that of 1,400 sent, 364 responses had been mailed back with about two to one against the project. He said that despite a November 22 deadline specified on the form, that responses will be welcome up until the December 9th open house, scheduled at the Town Hall from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. "These responses are still appreciated, he said. "I think that these are good responses."
Shattuck said that it will take longer that originally expected to answer concerns the public has raised, and that as more information comes in it is likely the Town will send more questionnaires. He noted that the main objection is to the cost. Both he and Town Supervisor Steve Farkas noted that of the people who they spoke to who objected to the project, most said they would welcome the sewer if it didn't cost anything.
| The next public information meeting about the sewer project is an open house scheduled for December 9th from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Lansing Town Hall. You will be able to talk one-on-one to town officials, sewer committee members and engineers to learn more and ask questions about the project. |
For months Andy Sciarabba and Noel Desch have been pursuing additional funding to reduce that number, which currently stands at an estimated $854 per year for a home that is hooked up to the sewer. They had stated a goal of getting the cost down to an annual $548 by soliciting loans and donations from the County and private donors. "We're not a culture that look ten or fifteen years down the road," Sciarabba said. "Everything's immediate gratification. And I appreciate that, so we have to deal with it on that basis. We can say this is the best economics, but that's not going to convince the folks that are living on two paychecks wondering where that $500 is coming from."
"At the same time we can say the $500 times 20 years is only $10,000, and replacing your system over that time is potentially much more," Shattuck said. Councilwoman Connie Wilcox said that people might support the project if the Town can get the cost down to $500. "I'd like to know that," Sciarabba said, noting that it would be worth finding out exactly what price landowners would accept.
Meanwhile the committee is trying to get data that shows how failing and compromised septic systems are affecting the environment. The County Health Department is gathering data and conducting some tests in areas that are most at risk, like Ladoga Park, a residential street on the lake just south of Myers Park. "As of yet nothing has shown up in the lake," said engineer David Herrick, noting that testing there is complete.
But Shattuck noted that dye testing is 'man-intensive,' requiring someone to be there at the time a leak occurs, which can be affected by weather and lake conditions. "If you have a house that has an issue one week out fo the year during the Spring, that doesn't mean it's passing. But if you're testing in any of the other 51 weeks you're not seeing it."
Sciarabba noted that one highway department employee had told him that he has seen effluent draining into town ditches, and asked whether other anecdotal evidence like that had been reported. Richard Farr added that leaking systems are hard to prove, but present nonetheless. "Even where we live in the bean Hill area, when it rains heavy you can smell it. It's clearly there. If you dig a shovel in the ground and let it pool the top of it is oily. That's been going on for years and years and years."
Town Planner Darby Kiley presented a cost estimate of $37,000 for an infrared fly-over study. "It takes thermal imagery around the lakeshore to look for failing systems," she explained. Lansing and the Town of Ulysses have long been talking about sharing the cost of gathering this information, and Kiley says that after a County grant, Lansing's portion would be $12,000. Shattuck asked to get more information about how valuable the results would be in documenting what the Town needs before spending taxpayer dollars.
The committee also considered an issue brought to them by Tony Nekut, who advocates a small Town-owned sewage treatment plant instead of the regional solution using the Cayuga Heights plant that the Town is pursuing. Herrick and engineer Jim Blum have been working with Nekut at the Town's expense to determine whether that solution would be more beneficial. "I'm showing a local plant as more expensive than a regional solution," Blum reported. "Tony thinks that you can build a really small local plant, but that doesn't take a lot of the future into account."
Blum said that a town plant per Equivalent Dwelling Unit would be $57 more expensive than the current project. "It's difficult to compare apples to apples, because if you look at a very small town plant you're not including the capital costs associated with that," he said. "But by the same token you're not providing the benefit to people outside the initial service area."
But Farkas instructed the engineers to stop working on the town solution. "Mr. Nekut called me today, and I explained to him that unless Albany was to say yes we can have a standalone plant, the Town will not pay for any more engineers' time to discuss it. If it was in the picture, I would say, 'Go for it.' But there's no end to the tunnel here." Committee members asked that Blum and Herrick be allowed to prepare a comparison chart that they had planned to present at the December 9th open house, and Farkas OKed that. He said that if Albany changes its mind he is willing to explore the standalone option further, but as long as the State says it is off the table he could not justify spending more taxpayer dollars on it.
The plan has clearly changed from presenting information to the public to gathering more information and input. Earlier in the day Shattuck had said that he is opening the committee to new members to get more points of view from affected neighborhoods, and that he thought as many as 30 people would attend the meeting. But Claus Nyberg was the only one who showed up. Nyberg took an early interest in the project and has attended other meetings as a spectator.
While only a month ago officials were estimating that it would come to a vote in December, they now say that they don't expect a vote before mid-summer of 2007. They plan to use the time to get as much public input and data as possible, and use that to adjust the project to adjust the sewer project to one residents will support.
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