Sewer Project Underway On Crestwood Drive

By Steve Bigham

Workers began installing sewers up Crestwood Drive in Sandy Hook last week after the town condemned the road through its right of eminent domain. The sewer line will be connected to Sandy Hook School; the schools septic system failed this past February.

The town was forced to seek condemnation of a 20-foot right-of-way on the road from Danbury Superior Court after it was unable to reach an easement agreement with owners of the private road. Police have been called to the street on at least one occasion since the digging began, mainly to stop verbal confrontations and to enforce a request to remove cars from the roadway. Residents were reportedly unwilling to agree to an easement because of past disagreements with the town. They also feared the town might use the road as a second accessway into Sandy Hook School, which can be seen from the homes along Crestwood.

“There’s a little guilt all around. If there is any damage, the town will repair it,” Public Works Director Fred Hurley said. “There will certainly be restoration of whatever was there.”

The town is not actually taking and keeping the entire road, just the area around the sewer lines, according to Mr Hurley. The project will be completed by the end of next week.

Newtown’s Water Pollution Control Authority condemned the road for sewer lines, while the town condemned it for water lines.

The town is expected to pave the road to protect the sewer lines.

Over the past nine months, the Sandy Hook School septic tank has been pumped every other day at a large cost to the town. The problem is not expected to go away until the school is hooked up to the town’s sewer system. An outside construction firm is running the 1,000 foot sewer line (along with a water line) up Crestwood Drive, connecting Sandy Hook School to the main line on Washington Avenue. The cost of the project is estimated at $100,000, which will be paid for through local capital improvement grants from the state.

The town’s initial sewer plans had included connecting Sandy Hook School to the sewer system, but cost constraints scaled back the size of the town sewer system, meaning the school was excluded from sewer service.

The school’s 6,000-gallon septic system is about 10 years old and beyond repair, according to Dominic Posca, the school system’s building and grounds supervisor. It is believed to have failed due to ground conditions around the school. The area is noted for its high water table and poor drainage.

With the impending hook-up of Sandy Hook School, four of six public schools in Newtown will be connected to the sewer system.

In 1997, the town began operating a $32.5 million municipal sewer system in the Sandy Hook center, the Borough, and in the area of Taunton Lake north. It is designed to rectify widespread, longstanding ground water pollution problems caused by failing septic systems.