Don’t Barter Away Sewer Capacity

To The Editor:

The Town of Newtown is currently going through an agonizing debate over all of the projected capital costs which appear to be overwhelming them. A significant aspect of this process is the cost of acquiring the Fairfield Hills facility from the State of Connecticut.

If this by itself was the only issue Newtown has to worry about, then the fiscal decisions would be easy. The concerns that the Sandy Hook residents have arise as a result of the proposed use of a substantial portion of Fairfield Hills as an office complex. If this occurs, we are informed that the current excess sewerage treatment capacity of the Newtown sewer treatment plant would be exclusively dedicated to that facility.

In other words, the densely populated areas of Sandy Hook, which were promised sewers over 30 years ago, would lose the availability of this sewer treatment capacity. This is not acceptable to the residents of the Sandy Hook section of Newtown.

The residents of this area have paid their taxes, which have contributed to the building of the sewer treatment plant. They have been patiently waiting for Newtown to budget the sewers now that the treatment capacity is available.

If the Fairfield Hills facility or any part of it becomes an office complex, NPOA insists that the Town of Newtown require the developer to build their own sewerage treatment plant or alternative septic system as part of their agreement.

NPOA does not intend to sit back and allow our sewer treatment capacity to be bartered off as an incentive for an out-of-town opportunistic developer while residents of our town who desperately need sewers to protect the asset value of their homes are left with the “upzoning” issue as a reward. Our first objective will be to achieve the installation of sewers in needed areas.

Where is the tax collateral that the residents of the waterfront communities have earned through the years of sewer promises? It is time that the Newtown Board of Selectmen go on record to make a commitment to install sewers. Let the Fairfield Hills facility be treated as any other “new” development project.

As far as sewer needs are concerned, we were here first…

Barry J. Piesner

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Newtown Property Owners Association

38 Underhill Road, Sandy Hook                                   March 7, 2000