NORTH WEBSTER – Lakeland Regional Sewer District board members discussed options to sidestep or confront reluctant property owners during their October meeting. Board members first weighed the option of going around homeowners along the main sewer line who refuse to grant easements. Diana Toth, a project engineer with DLZ Corp., said she wouldn’t recommend redesigning plans unless they could winnow down to about 25 the approximately 100 property owners who continue to refuse or fail to respond and with whom the board has exhausted all other options. She said she could have an idea of cost at the next meeting. Board Chair Jim Haney said he expects increased costs to mostly be due to additional footage of pipe and the price to tweak the plans. Increased costs will affect other district customers down the line, board members heard, and may increase what later adopters of the system will have to pay. Whether a property can be bypassed or not may have to be decided on a case-by-case basis once line installation begins. Haney said some property owners may decide they want a sewer line when they realize they could be bypassed. “Once we start, I think a lot of people are going to sign,” observed board member Bob Marcuccilli. “I appreciate your optimism, Bob,” member Bob Sanders remarked. Haney later said he will send letters setting a date for any potential property bypasses, at the suggestion of Sechrist Lake resident Paul Henning, who attended the meeting. “The bulk of those people feel they have a stick in this fight,” Henning said. “Before you swing around them or redesign the plans, you should make it clear to them what they stand to lose and the additional cost it will mean. This is the time to send letters spelling that out to them.” Haney also told the board that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has rejected the sewer district’s choice of Barnes grinder pumps, which the board heard could save about $450,000 when they approved the recommendation in July. He said they will try to justify to the USDA why they did not choose the option that will be least expensive to purchase but rather the one they believe will be least expensive to maintain.
