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05/10/2017 08:00 AMAccording to the Old Saybrook Water Pollution Control Authority website oswpca.org, “In an August 2009 referendum, Old Saybrook voted by a 3-1 margin to implement a Decentralized Wastewater Management District [and associated funding].”
Old Saybrook WPCA agrees that Wastewater Management District (WWMD) financing is according to the Referendum of Aug. 11, 2009, in which the town pays for design and construction.
Question 2 of that referendum asks, “Shall the Town of Old Saybrook appropriate $42,171,200 for the design and construction of Decentralized Wastewater Management Systems within the Decentralized Wastewater Management District and issue the town’s bonds, notes or other obligations in an amount not to exceed $42,171,200 to finance said appropriation, and provide ongoing funding of administrative costs for the systems?”
Old Saybrook’s budget goes to referendum on Wednesday, May 10, without “Bonded Indebtedness” for the septic upgrade program. The town can’t hide $42,171,200 in a $3,466,998 “Bonded Indebtedness” total.
Having threatened us [to upgrade our septic system] via the Connecticut River Area Health District on Dec. 12, 2016, the town is afraid to go to court to seek a definitive ruling on the program.
The town defrauded WWMD owners with an Exhibit A (seeking access and committing owners to pay) that fails to include a town-pays option. The town can’t take WWMD owners’ property without paying for it, simply because it needs the property on which to build its consent-decreed solution. The town could put its septic upgrades in the street and offer hookups to WWMD owners, or the town could put in sewers.
No bonded money means no septic upgrade program.
Joel Anderson
Old Saybrook