- By Barry Pollack
- Opinions
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I was at the Lansing Town Council meeting on August 16, 2006 at which time the engineers proposed a sewer system that will hook up 600 properties in the southern portion of Lansing out of a total of 1700 properties in southern Lansing. All 1700 property owners will pay for the sewer system. The cost to the average Lansing home owners who are hooked to the system (600 out of 1700 properties) will be $854 per year. Those in the southern area who will not be hooked up to the system (1100 properties) will pay $148 per year. This probably does not include the substantial cost of hooking your property to the sewer line although that was not clearly spelled out.
If the main reason for the proposed Lansing sewer system is to prevent pollution from property owner’s septic systems in the more densely populated southern portion of Lansing then why are only 600 of 1700 property owners going to have access to this system? Are the other nearly two thirds of property owners septic systems not a part of the problem?In the words of the engineers presenting the Sewer project to the Lansing Town Council on August 16 at the council meeting it is not economically feasible to attach the other 1100 properties to the system at this time. Will it ever be economically feasible?
Are we all going to be paying large amounts of money for a system that at best will only take care of slightly more then one third of the problem? And what if the project does not stay within budget. Imagine what the added yearly cost will mean to your property value if you have to sell your home, especially if the cost goes above the budgeted amount and you are among the 1100 people paying for the sewer trunk line and, at the same time, still paying for the care and upkeep of your septic system.
I hope everyone will come to the information meeting scheduled for Wednesday, September 6 at Town Hall at 7 PM to hear the explanation for a project that appears to meet only one third of its goal with no clear plan for achieving the other two thirds. Hopefully, by the time of the meeting the town council will have persuaded the project engineers to give a definitive statement as to when and if the other two thirds of the property owners who will be paying for the sewer system can be expected to actually be connected. If the answer is possibly never then this project will not achieve the goal of having a significant effect on pollution and the townspeople might want to consider if this is the wisest use of resources.
Barry Pollack
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