Town Meeting Approves Hawleyville Sewer Line

By Andrew Gorosko

Voters at a February 9 town meeting approved spending $1.7 million to build a municipal sanitary sewer line along Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville for the economic development of that largely undeveloped area.

In a show of hands at Newtown Middle School auditorium, the vote tally was 98 in favor and none opposed to the plan to install a 2,800-foot-long sewer line extending eastward from the Bethel town line to the site of The Homesteads at Newtown, a 298-unit elderly housing complex now under construction on a 60-acre site at 166 Mt Pleasant Road.

The sewering work represents the first construction phase of a project that eventually would install sewers further eastward on Mt Pleasant Road, and then northward on Hawleyville Road to the Exit 9 area of Interstate-84.

Before the vote, First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal told residents the sewer project provides the town with its first opportunity to recoup a past capital investment in sewer capacity.

In the early 1990s, residents agreed to pay approximately $2 million in connection with the eventual sewering of Hawleyville, including $1 million for sewage treatment capacity in Danbury, and $1 million for sewer pipes in Bethel.

When it is completely built, The Homesteads is expected to contribute almost $900,000 annually in property taxes to the town, representing a form of local economic development, Mr Rosenthal said. The Homesteads also has paid some engineering costs for the sewering project, he said.

“So this [sewer system] is truly an economic development project… This is an opportunity for the town… to begin generating some tax revenue,” the first selectman said.  

Homesteads officials expect the initial phase of the housing complex to open next fall. Completion of The Homesteads is projected for mid-2003. The project is the largest single private housing complex ever built locally.

In response to a question from resident William Meyer of 46 Mt Pleasant Road, Mr Rosenthal explained that any price increases for sewage treatment levied against Newtown by Danbury would be passed along to sewer system users. The town has an agreement with Danbury to treat up to 150,000 gallons of Hawleyville wastewater daily.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said construction bids for the sewer project are due February 16. The Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) and its consulting engineering firm, Fuss and O’Neill, Inc, of Manchester, will review the bids, after which the WPCA will make a hiring recommendation to the Purchasing Authority. If planning proceeds smoothly, sewer construction could be underway in April, Mr Hurley said.

Mr Hurley said the town hopes to receive favorable bids for the work, noting there currently is little sewer construction underway in the region.

 Town officials expect that plans for some other economic development project in the future will prompt the town to construct the second phase of the Hawleyville sewer system.