Archive: News

The Lansing Sewer Committee presented the $10.8 million sewer project to the Planning Board Monday.  In addition to informing the Planning Board about the project, the presentation was a kind of dress rehearsal for the public information meeting scheduled for April 23 at 7pm in the Lansing Middle School Auditorium.  Wednesday the committee gathered for a detailed post-mortem to tighten up the presentation and cover issues that were brought up by from Planning Board members.

The presentation is split between a handful of speakers who will cover the general scope of the project, costs, benefits, and the justification for the project.  Lansing Supervisor Kathy Miller says the event is for Lansing residents to get the facts on the project, and to get a chance to ask questions about what it will mean to them.  Attendees will be asked to write questions on cards.  Miller says questions will be held until after the formal presentation, then answered.  Sewer Committee members will be joined by Town Board members, and the Town Engineer and Attorney.

Planning Board members brought up several points at the Monday meeting.  The Sewer Committee discussed the best answers to these issues, as well as five pages of notes submitted by Bookkeeper/Personnel Officer Sharon Bowman and Town Councilwoman Ruth Hopkins.  Committee members talked about the clearest way to present the information, and made changes to it and the PowerPoint that is the core document that will be used at the April 23rd meeting and distributed to the public.

The Map Plan Report (MPR) is being printed at the Town Hall this week.  A 20 page version of the document is being mailed to 2,700 property owners in the proposed town-wide sewer district.  The MPR is the official document that is used in the State Comptroller's review of the project as well as the environmental review.  It outlines the project in detail, including two appendixes that list every property in the district and show the costs of sewer to each property.  Those two appendixes will not be included in the mailed version, but are available in a complete version now posted on the Town Web site.

The committee also looked at a new breakdown of debt service payments over a 30 year period.  Those in the initial service area (and subsequent service areas) will pay 60% of the debt service, which is estimated to be $264.53 per Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) in the first year.  That, however, is a worst case scenario for two reasons: first, new information about which properties are exempt or not exempt from sewer payments that became available after the estimates were made will lower that number.  Secondly, two projects planned for the town center land across the street from the Town hall and ballfields will bring that number down to $233.03 even without the new information.

The April 23 meeting is a public information meeting.  Miller says that is different from an official public hearing at which members of the community make their concerns known to the Board, but do not receive a response.  The public hearing is part of the legal process of forming a sewer district, while the information session is part of an outreach plan to bring the facts about the project to the public.  Residents are also being encouraged to hold neighborhood meetings at which smaller groups can meet with Sewer Committee members and town officials to learn how sewer will impact their neighborhoods.

Miller says that district property owners will vote on whether or not to form a sewer district, probably in September.

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