October 7, 2003

 

PI lot-by-lot survey could cost $150,000

By JILL ANDERSON

Staff Writer


PLUM ISLAND -- City officials are wondering what the cost of a lot-by-lot analysis of Plum Island properties would actually be, if voters approved the survey at the Nov. 4 election.

A ballot question on Nov. 4 will ask voters whether the city should perform a survey of each parcel of property on Plum Island similar to a study done in the Provincetown. The survey would determine which properties on the island comply with the Title 5 laws that regulate the space between septic systems and water wells. The survey would also indicate which properties do not comply, but could become compliant as well as which properties cannot become compliant. The Provincetown study reportedly cost $40,000.

Newburyport Sewer Superintendent Brendan O'Regan said at a Plum Island Work Group meeting last night that the cost of the survey could be more like $150,000. O'Regan said in 1997 the lowest bid on a Title 5 compliance survey of the island was $300 per lot. There are approximately 500 properties in the Newburyport portion of the island.

"If the results are the same, who is going to pay?" said Newburyport Water Works Director Donald Finocchio. "The bottom line is it will cost hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money to do this."

The proposed ballot question reads, "Shall the city of Newburyport conduct a lot-by-lot analysis like that performed by the Barnstable County Department of Health in Provincetown, Massachusetts to determine which properties are already or could become compliant with Title 5 in the Newburyport portion of the proposed Plum Island Service Area?"

Newburyport resident Jeffrey Robertson of Low Street collected 1,200 signatures on a petition in favor of the question appearing on the ballot. Although Robertson does not live on Plum Island, he has said the water and sewer project estimated at $22.9 million will affect his wallet if the city does not plan properly.

Newburyport's water and sewer services would be extended to the island at an estimated cost of $22.9 million.

The project is intended to remedy non-compliance with state septic system regulations known as Title 5 by extending Newburyport's water and sewer service to the island. Newburyport and Newbury entered into an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection two years ago to bring water and sewer service to the island. The project would be financed by betterment charges on the island's approximately 1,200 properties, costing each household about $20,000.

The Plum Island Work Group has denounced the ballot question, which if passed would actually fall under the city's Board of Health to administer.

Work Group member Margaret Bernier said Provincetown already has water. "This is a half-baked study."

Plum Island resident Jack Van Loan questioned the need of the survey in the first place.

Van Loan said only 32 percent of lots on the island are over 5,700 square feet which means 50 percent of the lots are too small to qualify for Title 5 compliance.

"Why do we have to do a study? We can do a study, but why if you have the figures there?" Van Loan said.


 
 
(This article replicated online with permission of the Newburyport Daily News, an Eagle Tribune Newspaper.)
 
 
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