Trailer Park Sewer Project May Qualify For Federal Funding

By Andrew Gorosko

About 90 percent of the households at a local trailer park have responded to a town poll on their annual incomes, encouraging local officials to believe the trailer park will qualify for a federal grant to cover the costs of extending sanitary sewers to the facility to correct serious chronic septic system problems.  

Community development director Elizabeth Stocker said this week she has received poll responses from more than 50 of the 56 households at the Meadowbrook Terrace Mobile Home Park at 55 Sugar Street.

The response to the poll is a major improvement over a previous similar poll to which only 33 households responded, Ms Stocker said. Trailer park residents are now apparently aware of the importance of responding to such questionnaires in seeking grant funds to correct the waste disposal problems, she said.

In a letter mailed to Meadowbrook residents, Ms Stocker stated, “If the town is successful and receives the grant money, the cost to hook up your home would be minimal and the problems with your septic [system] in your neighborhood would be solved… We hope you will participate in this most important [poll] to qualify the proposal for funds.”

The poll asks Meadowbrook residents how many people live in their mobile home, including family members and unrelated individuals. Also, it asks for general information concerning annual household income. In Newtown, the low and moderate annual income threshold for a “family of one” is $35,150, ranging in increments up to $66,250 for a “family of eight.”

Ms Stocker said she plans to analyze the current poll’s results to learn whether the trailer park would qualify for an approximately $315,000 sewer grant. That analysis is expected soon.

To qualify for such a grant, the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) requires that at least 51 percent of all households in the complex meet low- and moderate-income eligibility requirements.

 Ms Stocker said the town does not provide the DECD with income information on specific households, but only provides generalized income information documenting whether the overall complex meets applicable income requirements.

Ms Stocker said she is seeking a complete response to the poll from all 56 households at Meadowbrook. A total response to the poll would underscore the town’s desire for grant funding, she said.

The community development director said she expects the trailer park will qualify for grant funds, noting that more than two-thirds of the households that had responded to the initial poll met applicable income requirements. However, far fewer households responded to the initial poll than is required by the DECD.

Ms Stocker estimates that about 100 people live in Meadowbrook. Many units have single occupants. One unit has five residents.

Although Meadowbrook may not meet the state’s technical definition of “affordable housing,” the complex, in practical terms, provides affordable housing for local residents, Ms Stocker said.

In December, following the inadequate response to the initial Meadowbrook household income poll, the town decided to redouble its efforts to get more Meadowbrook residents to respond to a second poll. 

Such income and residency information is needed to determine whether the residents meet federal requirements for a US Department of Housing and Urban Development Small Cities Community Development Block Grant.

In the spring of 2000, the town had applied to the DECD for a $317,020 federal grant to cover costs to extend and connect public sanitary sewers to the trailer park. But the state refused to accept the grant application due to the low response rate to the initial poll.

“It’s a basic [sewering] project and it preserves affordable housing. It’s a good project and it’s very fundable,” Ms Stocker has said, pointing out the public health aspects of the septic system failure at the trailer park.

In early December, attorney Robert Hall, representing the owners of the trailer park, had approached the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) seeking town financial help to have sanitary sewers extended to the trailer park. Mr Hall asked the WPCA to cover the costs for extending a sewer line to the facility and installing sewage pumping equipment for it. The trailer park’s owners are Penelope Barrett and William Henckel.

Mr Hall explained that he had asked local banks to finance the project, but they are unwilling to do so because the trailer park owners do not qualify to borrow the amount of money needed for the construction work. Also, efforts to sell the trailer park have been unsuccessful.

Mr Hall then suggested that the town construct a sewer line extending to the trailer park and then place a lien on the trailer park for the full cost of the construction work.

The malfunctioning septic system for the trailer park must be pumped several times weekly to handle overflow conditions. Such sewage pumping is done to avoid public health hazards posed by the presence of exposed sewage.

In 1999, the trailer park’s owners hired Fuss and O’Neill, Inc., the town’s consulting engineer, to design a sewer line to connect the trailer park to the sewer system. The trailer park is more than 2,000 feet west of the sewer system. A low-pressure sewer would be extended from the sewer system at the intersection of Sugar Street and West Street to the trailer park. Grinder pumps would power the sewer line. Properties lying alongside that sewer line between the trailer park and the existing sewer system would not be allowed to connect to the sewer system.

The DEP has been working with the town in seeking to solve the trailer park’s sewage disposal problems. The DEP has maintained that the long-term solution for Meadowbrook’s septic system woes is connecting its trailers to the municipal sewer system.

According to DEP documents, the septic failure problems at Meadowbrook date back to 1984. DEP issued orders to Meadowbrook in 1984 and in 1990 to correct pollution problems. But, despite steps taken to solve the problems, more septic failures occurred in 1996, 1997, and 1998.