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The Lansing Sewer Committee hoped to have an approved sewer district by some time in December, but if a district is approved it now looks like it won't happen until February or March.  The district formation is subject to a permissive referendum, which means that there is only a vote if 5% of qualified voters within the proposed district submit a petition to the Town.  If there is no petition the district is created without a vote.

A surprise announcement by Lansing Resident Claes Nyberg at Wednesday's Town Board meeting made a sewer vote almost a certainty.  Although Nyberg does not live within the proposed sewer district he told the Board he intends to circulate a petition to force a vote if he is legally permitted to do so.

"I feel it would be very unfortunate if the people (in the sewer district) don't get a chance to vote," Nyberg said.

Committee members had hoped the Town Board would approve a provisional public interest order Wednesday, the first step in officially forming a sewer district.  But delays in preparing the final Map Plan Report put off the vote until the next Town Board meeting.  Questions about who can be charged portions of Operations and Maintenance fees were among issues that have held up the final draft.  Engineer David Herrick says that the the maps and the plan are complete, and he expects to have the final draft of the report in Town Attorney Guy Krogh's hands by next Wednesday.

Originally town officials intended to hold a sewer vote, but decided to go the permissive referendum route to avoid unnecessary expense to the Town if district residents do not choose to put forward a petition.  Both methods give property owners within the district  the right to vote, but a permissive referendum requires that they, rather than the Town, initiate it.

Once the Map Plan Report has been vetted by Krogh the Board will vote on a public interest order, which begins the process of forming a sewer district that minimally is expected to take about 80 days to complete.  That would mean a sewer district could be official by December if district residents do not choose to put it to a vote.  Sewer Committee member Andy Sciarabba says that if residents do choose to vote it will add an additional two months to the process.

The additional time became a virtual certainty Wednesday when Nyberg announced his intention to circulate a petition.  If 5% of all qualified voters within the proposed sewer district sign, it will trigger a vote on whether or not to form the district.  As the district is defined, only about 10 signatures would be required.  While anecdotally there has been a lot of support for the project by residents who would benefit from a sewer, there has been resistance by others, including Nyberg, who live outside the district.

Nyberg asked Krogh whether he could legally circulate a petition even though he does not own property within the district.  Krogh said that he thinks it is permissible.

"Under the election law qualification to certify a petition is not the same as qualification to sign it," he said.  "So I am pretty sure you can as long as you are an elector of the Town."

He promised to check state law and get an answer to Nyberg.  Krogh said that Nyberg must wait until a public notice of permissive referendum is published, after which he has 30 days to submit a qualified petition.  The vote must be held not less than ten nor more than sixty days after the filing of the petition.

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