Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) members have set the sewer benefit assessments for the Hawleyville sanitary sewer system expansion, a municipal infrastructure project intended to stimulate economic development in the area near the Exit 9 interchange of Interstate 84.Town Meeting

Following a March 31 public hearing, WSA members approved the 22 assessments which indicate the individual capital costs that the owners of each of those properties would pay to the town across time to cover the sewer system expansion project costs. Besides capital costs, sewer users also pay usage fees for wastewater disposal.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, answered questions from property owners attending the public hearing that preceded the WSA session.

Mr Hurley explained the town's methodology in setting the various sewer benefit assessments. Those assessments are generally based on the increase in value that properties would experience based on their access to sewers.

Ernest Morgan, owner of Midway Home Estates, a mobile home park at 160 Mt Pleasant Road, said that he wants to be at the trailer park when workers construct the sewage collector system for the dwellings there. The overall sewer assessment for the mobile home park is $155,261.

The 22 assessments set by the WSA total $4,085,353. Those assessments reflect the cost of building the sewer expansion project, plus related costs.

The highest sewer assessment is $1.944 million for a Covered Bridge Road site, where a development firm plans to build a 180-unit rental apartment complex.

The second highest assessment is for 102 acres of undeveloped land at 10 Hawleyville Road at $1,014,726. The third highest assessment is for 34 acres at 90 Mt Pleasant Road at $475,146.

A typical single-family house sewer benefit assessment is $14,400.

Voters at a town meeting scheduled for 7 pm on Monday, April 18, at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street, will be asked to approve a $3.8 million bonding amount for the Hawleyville sewer expansion project.

In February 2014, voters at a town meeting approved a $2.8 million bonding amount for the work. The lower amount did not reflect the actual cost of the project, Mr Hurley said, adding that the additional $1 million would be covered by sewer system revenues.

On April 26, the town will hold a preconstruction meeting with the firm selected to build the sewer expansion, he said. At that session, the logistics of the project will be discussed.

Centerplan Construction Company of Middletown is the contractor, based on a recommendation from Fuss & O'Neill, Inc, the town's consulting engineer.

The town received 11 bid submissions for the sewering project. The low bid for the overall project came from Centerplan at $2,858,260. The high bid for the work was from A. Julian Railroad Construction Company of Bridgeport at $4,636,450.

The project includes three major components: the basic sewer extension project, the construction of a sewage collector system at Midway Home Estates, and the extension of a sewer line to 90 Mt Pleasant Road. The sewering project is expected to take 90 days to complete, after it begins.

Because the project is intended to stimulate economic development, property owners with holdings adjacent to the planned sewer lines may connect to sewer system or not connect, based on their preference.

The expanded sewer system would extend from its current terminus at 164 Mt Pleasant Road eastward to the intersection of Mt Pleasant Road and Hawleyville Road. From that intersection, the sewer system would extend northward alongside Hawleyville Road, and would also extend eastward alongside Mt Pleasant Road to 90 Mt Pleasant Road, where there is a 34-acre parcel that is expected to be developed.

Many of the sewer lines in the expanded system will be low-pressure sewer lines, which require trenches only four to five feet deep. Areas with gravity-powered sewers would require deeper trenching.

The Hawleyville sewer system, which started operation in 2001, discharges wastewater to a regional sewage treatment plant in Danbury.