Bill seen critical to containing sewer costs

John Howell
Posted 3/24/15

Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur, who last year doggedly pursued council approval of funding to extend sewers, is appealing to 22,000 Warwick homeowners and businesses to support enabling legislation …

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Bill seen critical to containing sewer costs

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Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur, who last year doggedly pursued council approval of funding to extend sewers, is appealing to 22,000 Warwick homeowners and businesses to support enabling legislation that could ease costs going forward.

The enabling legislation was approved yesterday morning by the City Council Sewer Review Commission, and will now go to the council for its consideration April 6.

The 22,000 users are those already connected to Warwick sewers who face the cost of running the system, making upgrades and repairs and paying off authority debt. In the past five years, system users have seen their bills climb 23 percent. According to the most current study, those costs will continue to escalate under the existing system.

But Ladouceur says the 22,000 users shouldn’t have to shoulder the entire burden.

He considers sewers a community asset that, apart from helping preserve the environment and safeguard health, help drive economic development, enabling the growth of businesses and housing. As all taxpayers share in the cost of many services they may not use – such as schools, police and fire – Ladouceur points out if the 2,500 property owners who could tie into the sewers were connected, the ongoing costs of the system would be spread over a larger base.

Enabling legislation, which the sewer review commission Ladouceur headed drafted last year, would give the sewer authority with city council approval the power to broaden the base of customers as well as tools to ease the cost of sewers to the 1,500 who will gain access to the system under the six sewer expansion projects on the drawing boards.

“We need to look at this differently,” Ladouceur said in a recent interview. “Twenty-two thousand customers are going to be dramatically affected unless we do something.”

The enabling legislation the commission proposes is not radically different from a package approved by the council and forwarded to the General Assembly last year. That measure failed to pass, and Ladouceur accepts the blame for failing to sufficiently explain it. Also, the bill arrived at the State House as legislators were moving toward the end of the session.

Ladouceur is hopeful of a different outcome this time. Assuming council approval in April, the legislation would be on track to reach the desks of state legislators with ample time to vet the proposal.

Janine Burke, executive director of the Warwick Sewer Authority (WSA), deems the bill critical to $33 million in sewer extensions, bringing service to neighborhoods depending on cesspools and failing septic systems. Ladouceur is of the same opinion.

“There are 300 people on cesspools in Bayside 1, 2 and 3,” Ladouceur said of the Riverview, Highland Beach and Longmeadow neighborhoods. “They’re going to need to go to septic systems or sewers. Those people are in a lot of trouble over there.”

Yet he says with the investment to extend sewers, there needs to be a corresponding commitment to connect to the system once it’s operational.

“Why drop $33 million of pipe and only have 5 percent connect?” he asked.

Unlike last year, when Ladouceur focused on council approval, and then passage of enabling legislation from the General Assembly at the 11th hour, he is working to inform legislators early in the process. He has met with state Sen. Michael McCaffrey, who has questioned mandatory hookup provisions, and concurs with McCaffrey’s bill that only requires a property connect to the system with the transfer in ownership.

Major provisions of the enabling legislation:

l Give the WSA the power to revise the current method of assessment that is tied to a linear foot charge based on the frontage on the sewer line and land size. While a method hasn’t been developed, it may include the number of bedrooms and baths on a property, as well as a base unit fee. A change would be drafted by the WSA and spelled out in the rules and regulations.

l Adjust the current interest charge on assessment payments, which now range from 6.3 to 9 percent to 1.25 percent above the WSA cost to borrow the funds for new projects. Based on current borrowing costs, this could lower interest costs to 3.5 percent. Also, the WSA could offer a 30-year payment schedule [the maximum now is 20 years] so that people could reduce monthly payments. Ladouceur points out that at any point, people would have the ability to pay off their assessment without penalty.

l The WSA would be required to rewrite its regulations within one year. The current regulations were implemented in 2001.

l Any connect capable fee that would be assessed of those 2,500 who have the ability to tie into the system, but chosen not to, would require the mayor’s and council’s approval. Ladouceur says he won’t support anything near the $400 fee that was previously proposed. “It has to be something fair and equitable,” he said.

Ladouceur would also like to see a hardship provision to assist those homeowners who don’t have the resources to connect to the system, but depend on cesspool or failing septic systems.

Overall, he feels the work of the commission that has held scores of meetings, has served to identify the issues and elevate the discussion. He points to the immediate benefit of quarterly WSA reports to the city council; passage of the $33 million to extend sewers in six projects; and approval of the bonding to do the ongoing work to heighten the levee at the waste water treatment plant and improve water treatment to meet Department of Environmental Management requirements for the removal of phosphorous.

Comments

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  • davebarry109

    This is a start. HERE IS A QUESTION TO ALL ON THE COMMISSION AND COUNCIL: In the past, you all cited the cost of oil (the main product in sewer pipe/plastic) as the driving cost. Well, oil is not at 43.00 per barrel. So let's get going on these sewer projects before the cost of oil goes way up again. The cost per foot shoul d no longer be 82.00 to 100.00 per foot since oil is so low. (WANNA BET THE BIDS ARE STILL OVER 82.00 per FOOT?)

    Tuesday, March 24, 2015 Report this

  • davebarry109

    I meant oil is NOW at 43.00 per bbl.

    Tuesday, March 24, 2015 Report this

  • patientman

    WTI is at $48 today. Headed to $70 by 2016

    Tuesday, March 24, 2015 Report this

  • Thecaptain

    The most important question that all parties are afraid to answer due to political fallout is - What will be the total cost to the property owner for the assessment and installation? Why wont Ed and Janine answer the question? Simple, they just don't know!

    Tuesday, March 24, 2015 Report this

  • davebarry109

    $33,000,000 divided by 1500is $22,000.00 per home for the upcoming sewer projects. $22,000 per home if equally divided. Who has $22,000.00?

    Wednesday, March 25, 2015 Report this